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Juan Flores drops knowledge on a the Great Joe Bataan & RIOT! From Fania - a blast of Nuyorican flavored afrofilipino soul and boogaloo!

From the Fania Site - JUST CLICK ON THE PIC TO LISTEN TO THE RECORD ON THE FANIA SITE - And dig Juan Flores writing on the man himself, Joe Bataan.

Joe Bataan’s Riot! was the biggest-selling Latin music album when it came out in 1968 - that eventful year of urban riots, political protest and cultural awakening across America. The album’s music was the sound of the times: boisterous Latin soul with its fusion of cha cha cha’s and R&B backbeats along with heartful soul crooning, big-city trombone sounds, hand-clapping and shouting crowds of folk having a great time and raising hell. Anger and ecstasy come together here - the anger over social injustice and the Vietnam War and the ecstatic joy of youth, love and that “good, good feeling.”

The title and lead song on the album, It’s a Good Feeling (Riot), was inspired by a Smokey Robinson number, which Bataan and band members made into a show-tune blending 6/8 Latin conga with rock and roll to create an unforgettable riot/party effect. The record went gold in no time, and it was the one-and-only Bataan leading the youngest band in Latin music - the Latin Swingers - to the peak of popularity.

Bataan is unique. He is, by his own words, a titere or tough guy from the streets of El Barrio, raised in New York City’s legendary Spanish Harlem, or East Harlem, or simply El Barrio, the oldest and biggest Puerto Rican neighborhood, where it all happens on the street. Bataan grew up in those “mean streets,” as in Puerto Rican writer Piri Thomas’ explosive coming-of-age novel Down These Mean Streets, which was released at the same time as Riot! and has much of the same flavor. Bataan was a gang leader who wound up doing a lot of prison time, which is where he taught himself to be a musician and bandleader. He broke into the music field with Gypsy Woman, a Latinized version of Curtis Mayfield’s huge 1961 hit with The Impressions, which became a huge hit and was forever dear to Black and Puerto Rican audiences alike. It was the boogaloo era (1966-1968) but Bataan never liked that term, preferring to use the more embracing and less gimmicky term “Latin soul.” If anyone deserves the title, Bataan is Mr. Latin Soul. He even takes credit for coining the term “salsoul,” the mix of salsa and soul so expressive of the symbiosis between Latinos and African Americans when it comes to culture and daily life.

Though he has released dozens of albums by now, and appeared in concert all over the world, the 1968 Riot! album is without a doubt Bataan’s biggest claim to fame. Bataan will tell you that it was a show-stopper wherever it played, and the album goes down as one of the biggest sellers in the history of Fania Records. The 7 ½-minute lead-in piece is that typical pastiche of many styles and feels, beginning with police sirens and people raising hell for atmosphere, and moving back and forth and constantly blending Latin and Black musical flavors in a thoroughly compatible way. For Your Love, with its trombone-harmonica interplay, is a doo-wop ballad with a Latin touch. The pervasive influence of Eddie Palmieri and his La Perfecta sound is strongly evident in the next two cuts, Muñeca and Pa’ Monte, modeled on the well-known Palmieri tunes of the same titles and even featuring La Perfecta’s Barry Rogers on his inimitable trombone. But Bataan comes into his own as a composer, singer and bandleader on side B of this album, especially in his signature tunes What Good Is a Castle and Ordinary Guy. It is these sad, slow-tempo Latin soul ballads about everyday life among poor people and those living in working-class neighborhoods that struck a chord among his prime audiences. More than anywhere in Latin music Bataan’s most characteristic hits transport us right into the life struggles and dreams of ordinary, hard-working folk in the ghetto. These songs look reality - however cruel and desolate - right in the face, and burst those illusions that only get in people’s way (“What good is a castle?”).

The most amazing thing, which Latin music fans should know, is that Bataan, the “ordinary guy” who speaks straight from the Nuyorican streets, is Afro-Filipino: his father was from the Philippines and his mother was African American. He is proud of his ethnic background, and even titled an album Bataan afrofilipino (Salsoul, 1975), but never hesitates to emphasize that his own life experience makes him, culturally, a Nuyorican.

So get ready to meet that “Afrofilipino average sort of guy,” Mr. Latin Soul - Joe Bataan and the Latin Swingers - who even today is kickin’ it in the New Millenium!

Members of the Latín Swingers:

Joe “Mr Soul” Bataan - Leader – English Vocals – Piano
Eddie Nater - Timbales
Louie Devis - Bass
Riche Cortez - Coro
Joe “Chickie” Fuentes – 1st Trombone
Ruben Hernandez – 2nd Trombone
Lorrenxo Galen - Conga
Louie Gonzalez - Spanish Vocals

Special thanks to:

Ralph Iguartua - Coro
Milton Albino - Bongo
Tito Gonzalez - Piano
Pete – Advisor

Leon Gast – Original Cover Design
Izzy Sanabria – Art Director

Johnny Pacheco – Recording Director
Jerry Masucci - Producer

Written by Juan Flores

REAL LATIN MUSIC: Robbie Busch wrote these great liner notes for the amazing Tito Ramos record Where My Head Is At - CLICK THE PIC FOR THE FANIA LINK!

Big T hopped off the Six train at 103rd Street. He grinned as the young chica on the corner waved. He was the Latino superdude who could jive with all the sisters while lending a helping hand to all the brothers. Boricua power pulsed through him. The conga that floated through El Barrio was a constant heartbeat. It always beaconed him home.
It was 1972. A year that seemed to expand the mind with a deep breath of new possibilities for our man Tito “Big T” Ramos. He was coming off a highly productive period in his musical life, but as he says, “We were kind of crazy, messing around with LSD and partying day and night.” Big T saw himself reflected in a world that was consuming its own tail. A year earlier, Marvin Gaye had asked, What’s Going On? Now, there was something swelling in Harlem—Spanish or otherwise. Eddie Kendricks had a date with the rain while super fly Curtis Mayfield delivered the bad news about Freddie, prompting Marvel Comics to give birth to the ghetto superhero Luke Cage.
From war to Watergate, society was crumbling around Big T. He knew it was time for change, but his head was still fuzzy after burning too long in the heat of the TnT explosion. As Big T’s alter ego, Tito Ramos, while not mild mannered, was a gentle soul who had been tossed around by the music industry for the better part of a decade. His sidekick through most of his adventures had been Tony Rojas, the other half of the salsa and boogaloo outfit TnT Band. But Big T knew his last outing was to be a solo mission.
Soon he would sing, “Heaven is not for everyone.” But standing alone for the first time as an artist opened him up to new revelations. “If you listen to the songs [on the album] Where My Head Is At, the lyrics are kind of strange,” Tito recalls. “You could tell from within the songs that I was moving in a direction that had a spiritual connotation to it. I think that’s what motivated me to do that album.”

Tito still had one year left on his recording contract. He says, “Jerry Masucci had bought the contract [from Cotique Records] and knew that I was supposed to do an album. I said, ‘Well, I want to do an all-English album.’” Masucci didn’t seem to care and teamed him up with producer Larry Harlow, whose forward-thinking arrangements had birthed some of the funkiest Latin music to come out of New York.
Tito Ramos had been a staple on the Latin scene since the late ’60s when he joined the band of his Commerce High School friend, Johnny Colón. Producer George Goldner came to hear them at a rehearsal and asked if they could work something up over the vamp from an old Cuban standard. Tito leaped at the opportunity to write the lyrics for the new song. At the next rehearsal, Johnny started doing the vamp, and Tito launched into the vocals: “LSD has a hold on me.” It was a little too far out there for the clean-cut bandleader. Johnny said, “I don’t know about that chorus.” But Tito convinced him, responding, “No, listen, it has a double meaning: L stands for Love, S stands for Strong, and D is for Dynamic.” Johnny was sold, and “Boogaloo Blues” was born. Production partners George Goldner and Stanley Lewis knew they had a hit on their hands and whisked the band into the studio to record it right away.
They were a bunch of young guys who were doing it for the love of the music. They didn’t really understand the business, and when it came time to sign papers, Tito was given credit for one of his songs, “Judy Part II,” but when he asked about the other songs he’d written, he was told it didn’t really matter. “I didn’t know, man. I was ignorant and went along with it,” Tito says. “The next thing you know, ‘Boogaloo Blues’ was a big smash!”
Tito got fed up with not getting the credit he felt he deserved. “If you listen to the Boogaloo Blues album and Boogaloo ’67, all the songs that I did vocals on, I did lyrics on.” He told George Goldner he was leaving the band, and Goldner immediately offered him a contract to do a solo record. But before this could happen, Tito’s old friend from the neighborhood, Joe Bataan, asked him to fill in as singer when Joe Pagan passed away suddenly. Tito went on to do the album Subway Joe with Bataan, singing the Spanish vocals, but again not receiving writing credit.
Tito had gotten his best friend Tony Rojas a job singing backup for the Johnny Colón Orchestra. The two charismatic singers were in the front of the public’s perception of the band, and they were christened the “TnT Boys” by the fans. After Tito left the band, Tony soon found himself without a job. So Big T decided to use his contract with George Goldner to form the TnT Band, cutting Tony in as an equal partner. The boys would go on to record some of the most beloved Latin soul and salsa songs of all time, like “The Meditation” and “Sabré Olvidar.”
An excess of partying and drugs was putting a strain on the TnT Boys. Tito needed a break from it all to see what direction he wanted to go in. “I must have spent six months in my house every day just writing the songs and living them. [This record] was really a part of me.” He knew that love would save the day, but this time the love was different. Deeper. He was caught in a spiritual awakening. It was both empowering and confusing. His mind strained to put disparate thoughts together as he let the process take a hold of him.
Spiritually, Tito was on a love kick, while musically, he drew on everything from his early days singing on street corners in Spanish Harlem to contemporary “modern soul” and freaked-out acid funk. “Motown was big at the time, so there was a lot of influence,” he remembers. “There was a lot of doo-wop mixed with Motown. See, I always say that the type of music that I do is Latin-soul-jazz. It’s a fusion, because we used a lot of jazz riffs with the horns and then we [put in] the R&B with the Latin rhythm.”
He recalls working with Larry Harlow in the studio: “Oh man! We came in and did it in one or two sessions at the most. There was no time! If you screwed something up... most of the time it was like, ‘Hey, that’s fine! Let it go.’” But between Tito’s inner journey and Harlow’s studio expertise, the process won out, resulting in an album that sounded like the lost soundtrack to a Latinosploitation film that existed only in the mind’s eye of its hero—Big T.
The drugs and haze that had been constant companions had opened him up to a new world. But now Big T saw the bigger picture. He was about to hip you to a little something and tell you where his head was at. As he looked out over El Barrio with pride, he preached that most basic and beautiful idea, “Love is something that we all need.”

Liner notes by Robbie Busch

Tito Ramos Where My Head Is At (Cotique 1069)
Originally released in 1972
Produced by Larry Harlow Arranged by Larry Harlow and Marty Sheller Recorded and mixed at Good Vibrations Sound Studios, NYC Engineered by Alan Manger
Remastered by Wax Poetics Mastering Original design and illustration by Ray Mulett
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The King of 'em All.

There ever woulda been a gen ñ without a lot of Tito Rodriguez playing in our tiny apt on NE 29th. This is a gorgeous animation on one of the greats. This is gorgeous, gorgeous animation work on one of the all time greats! If this don't get you goin' - you're dead!

The first analog rumba recording out of Miami in over 20 years - Ready?

Spamusica Records latest release is from Rumberos de la 8 an all-star group of percussionists and singers hailing from Cuba and Puerto Rico, and born on the streets of Miami. This debut recording features Boris Monterecy, Sonyalsi Feldman, Tomas Diaz, Mercedes Abal, Lazaro Alfonso, Joxi Caballero, Diosvany Boulet, Yoel del Sol, Eduardo Rodriguez, Jose Elias, J.J. Freire, & Ray Romero Jr. Rumberos de la 8 perform each week with Spam Allstars at their residency in Little Havana, FL at Hoy Como Ayer.

The CD was recorded and mixed by Le Spam at City Of Progress Studio in N. Miami, FL between August 2008 - July 2009.

The artwork is by Charlie Rosario who created distinctive covers for Charlie Palmieri, Tito Puente and other artists on Fania, Coco and other 60’s and 70’s Latin labels.

Rumberos de la 8 feature:

Tomas Diaz (timbales, vocals) and Sonyalsi Feldman (vocals) both hail from Matanzas Cuba, home to some of the strongest afro Cuban drumming traditions and share familial ties to los Muneqitos de Matanzas. Tomas is a current member of Spam Allstars.

Lazaro Alfonso (congas, bata, vocals), La Habana, Cuba. Brother of Jorge “el nino” Alfonso and has played with Irakere, Pacho Alonso and many other Cuban groups.

Yoel del Sol (timbales, congas), La Habana, Cuba. In 1993, he graduated from "The National School of Music" in Havana, Cuba and took lessons from some of the best percussion teachers in the world such as Changuito, Reynaldo Fernandez, Jose Eladio Amat, Roberto Vizcaino, Roberto Consepcion, Isel Rasua and Fernando Pina, just to name a few. Yoel won First Place in PERCUBA, the biggest and most important percussion festival in Havana, Cuba in 1995.

Little Ray Romero jr (congas, chekere), Puerto Rico, son of Little Ray Romero who played percussion with Miguelito Valdez, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto and many others on countless classic recordings.

JJ Freire (congas, chekere), Puerto Rico, Drummer for latin rock group Los Bacilos.

Boris Monterecy (vocals), La Habana, Cuba has played with Grupo Clave y Guaguanco and currently performs with Timbalaye in Miami.


more info:

FACEBOOK - http://www.facebook.com/rumberosdela8
SPAMUSICA – http://www.spamusica.com
MYSPACE - http://www.myspace.com/rumberosdela8

Lavoe, Colon, Toro - New Year's Eve - Puerto Rico 1979 - Traigo La Salsa!

And this.

Pacheco 50th anniversary at MSG.

Pa Que Suene

Cheo is tha man. Everyone knows. Dig this line up, they played in NYC last week - Johnny Pacheco conducting - duets with Ismael Miranda, Jimmy Sabater, and Marco Antonio Muñiz. Bobby Valentín on bass , Roberto Roena on drums and Papo Lucca at the piano. NYC hosted a glorious tribute to the man. The NY Times had the story last week by the great Jon Parles and this great pic by Julieta Cervantes. Wish we coulda been there.

Celia The Queen Premiere at Tribeca Film Fest - NYC

Celia played on sat night and Sunday afternoon where it screened at the Tisch School where they film inside the Actor's studio. Here's some pics from the premiere from Getty Images. Below, The films producers Antonio Gijon & Gabriel C. Mena with Co-Director Joe Cardona - Mr. & Mrs Johnny Pacheco - Pacheco (The Coolest Man of All Time) and Celia Co-Director Joe Cardona share a laugh - American Idol star Christina Christian and Co-Director Mario de Varona, (Christian plays the young Celia in a Vignette).






Below: Jose Vazquez who was the director of photography on Celia and has shot most of KIE's films, (also the man responsible for me running shirtless in slo-mo in Bro) looking pretty dapper - - Narciso Rodriguez (who designed many of Celia's dresses) does the media line at Tribeca - Celia the Queen's directors Cardona & De Varona.





You can view the small pics of afterparty at Indochine and other thumbnails at Wireimages. Both Getty and Wired offer services for downloading these pics for print or web use for media professionals or the average peep.

Our Latin Thing - It's in English!

Check it out all diverse peeps who've come upon this place. Lo tuyo, lo mio, lo de otro. Produced by the Fania Records guys - this one documented an era and a sweet sound.

Symphony Syd starts it off it great style. (Syd rules. Although Syd, if you're listening out there great one, Pacheco is Dominican, not Puerto Rican) Our Latin Thing is the doc the Fania folk put out. Get it if you find it.