An extremely fun Latin American Christmas LP, with titles in Spanish and featuring six numbers by the Cuban-American Tonight Show pianist Jose Melis, though his are the least exciting tracks in this mix, which seems to be predominantly Puerto Rican. But don't ask me--I'm no expert in this area.
"Alta fidelidad," of course, means high fidelity, and the sound is certainly detailed and robust--condition issues were minor, though I had to do a certain amount of manual noise removal, even following a pass or two through Vinyl Studio's amazing declicker. The label, Tropical, is un producto de Seeco Records, Inc., and there were a good number of titles released on this sublabel. If I'm lucky, I'll encounter some more.
Hard to pick a favorite track, though Los Parranderos is definitely a candidate, with its splendid instrumental backing and cool, complex vocals. A "parranderos" is a reveler or a merrymaker, which we can sort of tell from the house-rocking tone of the number--Oye! Los Angelitos Cantan (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing) is pretty anticlimactic as the follow-up track. Melis was a fine pianist, of course, but his tracks sound totally conventional in this collection. Melis is credited as Jose Melis y su conj., and I'm assuming that means "and his group."
Enjoy the Festival de Navidad in alta fidelidad, and bear with the rather out of place Melis numbers--or just skip them altogether. They'd have made a nice album all by themselves, but here they tend to slightly spoil the festive mood, at least to my ears.
Fine musicianship throughout, and fine fidelidad. To the festival--and I'll leave the titles to the mp3 tags and the back cover photo.
DOWNLOAD: Festival de Navidad (Tropical TRLP 5057)
Lee
6 comments:
Much appreciated, thanks!!
Oooh, this looks good! I've shared a full Jose Melis Christmas record before, and some of these tracks seem to be from that one, though I don't think they're all from there. And like you said, they aren't even the best tracks, just the big name for the non-Hispanic buyers. And the cover is great!
Thanks Lee! Great stuff!!!
-Steve in PA
Hi Lee- The six songs from Puerto Rico are excellent- I was especially happy to hear Yomo Toro, the famed cuatro-player from Puerto Rico appearing in the mix. I agree, the Jose Melis songs seem somewhat out of lace, but would have been great on a separate album. Thanks for the output of wonderful finds! -Steve in PA
Glad everyone enjoyed, and thanks, Steve, for the background on Yomo Toro.
Alta Fidelidad should henceforth be your stripper name. And how much do I LOVE that cover art? Gracias!
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