The Latinaires – Camel Walk
The Latinaires – Guajira
The Latinaires – Creation
Had a lot going on over here, which is why I’ve been so delinquent with the anniversary mix (promise it’ll be up next week). But in the meantime, time marches on and so here’s a truly top shelf Latin record for your listening pleasure. Being on the west coast since the last century has meant that it’s really rare that I run into choice Latin albums when I’m out and about. Most of the Latin sounds I love, especially the late 60s Boogaloo and Latin Soul were based out of NYC and most of those records are more easily found out there. For whatever reason though 2013 has been good to me. After never running into a single gold label Fania record, I ran into two in the span of a couple of months, Ray Barretto’s Acid over at Gimme Gimme Records in Highland Park and this gem at the PCC Swap Meet. Gold label Fania records are a bit rare, sometimes they can run between $100-$200 a piece, I was lucky to get them both for less than that. I’d originally even thought about about flipping them since they are so rare, but all it took was one drop of the needle to know this record wasn’t going anywhere.
The Latinaires were a group out of the Bronx (that I’d originally confused with Little Joe & the Latinaires, who are a totally different group from Tejas), with a real distinctive sound. Unlike a host of other Latin bands of the time and later on, their horn section consisted of nothing but reeds, no trumpets and no trombones, soon to be staples of the Salsa sound. On “Camel Walk” there’s also the addition of some almost psychedelic organ playing that doesn’t sound like anything else from this period. With all of the talent on display here (and I’m sure also on their second record release a couple years later on Cotique) it’s a shame this group didn’t record much mroe than they did. But that’s a shame shared by many out of this period of time. We should just be thankful that they made music at a period of time where labels like Fania were interested in being the voice of a community documenting what we now recognize as a monumental change. I’m just thankful I ran into this one and that I can share it with you.
Cheers,
Michael