The Magnificent Colombian Panther
Gustavo Garcia is the name of a magnificent artist and musician. This is maybe the only album that bears his name, though he was also a leader for an album called Banda Los Felinos. Gustavo Garcia has been involved in all aspects of Colombian music and other music. He was trombonist for Fruko y Sus Tesos. He is still a living legend today and is a working musician in his 50s!
A special thanks goes out to Dj Duste (www.salsamixes.com) who has the album on the original Polydor pressing for introducing me to this special album so I could seek out and buy my own copy.
But what an album this is! Completely filled with awesome songs arranged by Gustavo Garcia himself (6 tracks), Francisco Fortiche (1 track) and Conrado Marrugo (3 tracks).
Musicians on this album are:
- Gustavo Garcia (Trombone)
- Saulo Sanchez (Vocals)
- Wilson Viveros
- Jorge Guarin
- Augusto Villanueva
- Alberto Barros
- Gilberto Hernandez
- Adolfo Castro
- Francisco Fortiche
- Nestor Garcia
I unfortunately don’t know who plays what of the other instruments. So feel free to chime in if you know!
All ten tracks on this album from 1979 on Polydor records (also pressed in Venezuela on Discos Cokada) are great salsa tracks! So I’ll just provide excerpts to the really totally flabbergastingly outstanding ones:
- Que Importa What a way to start the party. Lovely guaguanco intro sung absolutely beautifully. Gimme more o’ dat stuff!
- Homenaje Sincero “…del aaaaaalmaaa..!” is enough to make the hairs stand up on my neck. Love the sound of those keys and ‘bones, that’s how I like it cooked! Also it is very interesting how Gustavo arranged this song with samba breaks.
- Luz del Cielo If the previous track made hairs stand up on my neck, this one makes them fall off! Luz del Cielo is the same song as Nelson Feliciano did on his album for Coco records, and while that version is great, I think this one has even more sabor. Much of that is Saulo Sanchez incredible voice and ’sentimiento’ that he brings. Also the arrangement going into a mozambique right after the guaguanco intro is just lovely!
- Juicio Final Another showcase for Saulo and a lovely swingin’ tune that is also great to dance to.
- Siete Potencias The only track on the album that drops into a fiery timbale solo. Which goes to show that you don’t need to finish off every great tune with a timbale solo. There is so much more to what makes salsa such flavorsome music than simply fiery energy. That said, I really love this track as well and it has all the flavor and also a sweet timbale solo!
- Al Golpe de Un Tambo A track I drop often even though it is not so much an “in-your-face” track as the others, but it is a sweet swingin’ tune with lovely vocals and beautiful piano solo.
OK, so that was six of the ten tracks, but this album is really that good…
A Comerrrr!
- Guachi
2 comments August 26th, 2008