By Daniel Chang. The Orange County Register. June 23, 2000
"The Legend of Cuban Percussion" Six Degrees Records
One great thing about the Latin music explosion is that all these "lost" or "forgotten" artists keep cropping up,like distant relatives at the doorstep of a lottery winner.
Overeager publicists don't hesitate to throw around weighty superlatives to describe their artists.
Everyone, it seems, is or was a "legend" or a "father or mother" of some musical style or another.
Most of these claims are easily dismissed with one spin of the artist's CD. But every once in a while the genuine article comes along, musicians you never heard of but wish you had. Artists like conga player Carlos "Patato" Valdes.
The title of Patato's latest album makes no bones about his status in the Latin music community: "the legend of Cuban percussion" it announces. Apparently, Patato has been living in New York City since 1954 and twice was nominated for a Grammy in the Latin jazz category.
His latest album - a compilation of highlights from the two Grammy-nominated albums, "Ritmo y Candella I and II" ("Rhythm and Fire") - made me wonder how I could have missed such a talent. The rhythms roll, the horns swing, the percussion crackles with syncopation.
The opening track, "San Francisco Tiene Su Propio Son" ("San Francisco Has Its Own Son"), is as authentic a Cuban son - that heady mix of African singing and drumming fused with European melodies and instruments - as anything the Buena Vista Social Club has released.
On "Yo Tengo Ritmo" ("I've Got Rhythm"), it's obvious that Patato and Jose Luis "Changuito" Quintana (of Cuba's popular dance band, Los Van Van) have rhythm to spare as the song builds from a quiet horn session to a polyphony of congas, cowbell and drums.
This album captures Patato's versatility with a bit of everything: Latin jazz, rumba, danzon with classical inflections and a sense that the musicians are having as much fun as the people listening and dancing along.
Grade: B+
You might enjoy if you like: Tito Puente, Buena Vista Social Club, Afro-Cuban music. |