sabato 24 aprile 2010

Latin & Boogaloo Pearls: Potere Chicano


CHICANO POWER
Latin Rock In The Usa 1968-76 (Soul Jazz, 1998- 2CD) 



Dalla pagina della Soul Jazz Records: ''Chicano Power is a CD that chronicles the story of Latin Rock in the USA - Bands such as Malo, Azteca, El Chicano and Tierra. Alongside these groups a civil rights movement (Chicano Power Movement) was growing up at the same time. The CD shows these two areas of music and politics and their connections. Many of the people involved in Latin Rock groups were Chicanos. That is to say Mexican-Americans (Mexicans who have come to America and become therefore both Mexican and American). The mixed heritage of Chicanos led to an open-minded approach to culture and music in particular. So, for instance, an East LA club in the late sixties might be playing a mixture of R'n'B, Rock'n'Roll and Mexican Mariachis. Consequently, many of the Chicano bands that formed in the early seventies had many different elements in their music and although these bands came under the banner of Latin Rock the music is a mixture of Funk, Salsa, Rock, Soul and Latin Jazz. The music came out of four main cities in the US: East Los Angeles and San Francisco on the West Coast and to a much lesser extent in New York and Miami on the East Coast. In East LA groups such as Tierra and El Chicano came out of an earlier flourishing East LA music scene that became known as the Eastside Sound in the mid-sixties. By the 70's these new groups came with a new sense of political awareness and a new style that would come to be called Latin Rock. In San Francisco, Santana led the way shortly followed by groups such as Malo, Azteca and Sapo. And in New York a small group of Salsa musicians such as Harvey Averne pursued the new sound of Latin Rock. The 2xCD comes with a fourty page booklet containing notes and original photographs from this period''.




BARRIO NUEVO
Latin Funk, Latin Rock, Latin Disco, Latin Soul (Soul Jazz, 1999)
 

Dalla pagina della Soul Jazz Records: El Barrio is the Spanish word for neighbourhood. In the USA, El Barrio is the neighbourhood where Latinos live. That is to say Puerto Rican, Mexican, Dominican, Columbian, Cuban Americans etc. In New York, the mainly Puerto Rican immigrants became Nuyoricans. In East L.A. the Mexican immigrants became Chicanos and the people are La Raza. Barrio Nuevo contains the music where Latino and African-American cultures meet. Where Latin meets Jazz, Funk, Soul and Disco. Artists like War, Patti LaBelle and Mandrill who all became successful in the 1970s alongside other more obscure groups like the Kongas, Pride, Milton Zapata and the band Chackachas who produced two cult hits "Jungle Fever" and "Stories". Barrio Nuevo also talks about how Salsoul, a small Latin label in New York City embraced Disco music leading it to become one of the largest Disco labels in the world (whilst still making Latin records!). Salsoul was also a pioneer in manufacturing the first ever 12" singles, making DJs happy everywhere. "A truly sublime collection of Latino funk" ARENA "Funk CD of the Week. An all-star collection of Latin ranking as the summer's hottest party album" GUARDIAN "Compilation of the Month. 100% Dynamite, 200% Dynamite and Nu Yorica were awesome compilations but Soul Jazz's new offering is a complete Killer" SEVEN "A brilliant collection of uplifting Latin/Funk/Disco/Soul Killers" DJ "Latin Funk flavours from the old-skool. Another party rocking winner from Soul Jazz. MIXMAG''.


1 commento:

  1. Huge thanks for sharing the Soul Jazz 'Chicano Power' album, it is one of those albums I have been hoping to come across one day...today is that day!

    I was actually looking for the Flash And The Dynamics 1971 album 'New York Sound' which is just a wonderful example of this loose genre..somehow I ended up here!

    If you or anyone else has not heard the Flash & The Dynamics album here is a link to a decent rip of it:

    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IBO2YCBF

    It surprises me that more people are not aware of this kind of music given the fact that these tracks are the real roots of disco (It can be argued that The Chackachas 'Jungle Fever' track was the first disco record). Though the later disco records on Salsoul are legendary, it is the roots of disco that I find the most interesting.

    Given the fact that most of the tracks on here are around 30 years old they sound incredibly fresh and groovy!

    Huge thanks for sharing this, you are a star!

    RispondiElimina