Puente, Tito -& His Orchestra-
Mambo Gozon: The Rca Years 1949-1960 (2lp)
"This collection gathers a set of classic Tito Puente tracks from his decade long stint with the RCA Victor label with a very specific set of criteria: to assemble the best tracks that exemplify the blueprint for what would become known as salsa. Though it may seem obvious or perhaps even a fool's errand to dedicate a compilation to this theme, since everything Tito recorded was full of "salsa y sabor" (sauce and flavor), it's actually perhaps the first of its kind in that every recording here is specifically chosen for today's salsa dancers, in whichever style they choose to dance, with an emphasis on the guaguancó rhythm and mambo arrangement. Tito's RCA sessions produced the most high quality, incredible sounding recordings of the epoch, and they more than hold their own by today's sonic standards. For this reason, Grosso! has collected two dozen of Tito's finest golden era nuggets for the dance floor, with a concerted emphasis on midtempo numbers with clear percussion patterns that easily fit the modern salsa aesthetic. Many of these tracks, such as 'Cuando Te Vea,' 'Complicación,' 'Agua Limpia Todo,' 'Con Sandunga' and 'Guaguancó Margarito' are directly connected to traditional Afro-Cuban rumba or Santería rituals through their original composers, rhythm structure, lyrical content and melodies. Indeed, they could all be performed -and some were- as strictly percussion and vocal rumbas, but the real difference is what Tito Puente did with the instrumentation, arrangements, vocals and pacing, turning them into the big band extravaganzas that caused "mambo mania," routinely working his audiences into a frenzy on the dance floor." ~Pablo "Bongohead" Yglesias, December 2024. Limited to 300 copies.