I want to share a great album that hardly any of you have heard (Latin music inside)

Hi. Thank you in advance for reading.

The purpose of this thread is just sharing a tiny bit of information that, most likely, very few of the members of this forum know. It's about an album that is widely regarded as (perhaps) the best in its genre among the lots of productions of this style of music that have been born in my country.

Salsa, as you may know, is a Latin music style that has been popularized mainly by Puerto Rican musicians living in New York City. Fania All Stars is perhaps the biggest reunion of Salsa talents in one single musical group ever created.

But of course, many other countries, Colombia among them, have been influenced by this kind of music and have created their own manifestations of the style. Maybe names like Grupo Niche are not unknown at all for some of you.

But the album I'm sharing here is, for me and many others, the most important Salsa production ever released in my country, coming from the city of Medellín in 1975. It's also the highest point in this band's career. Julio Ernesto Estrada, better known as Fruko, is a multi-instrumentalist and producer who is the leader of Fruko Y Sus Tesos, one of the most important salsa bands from Colombia. His main instrument is the bass guitar/electric upright bass, but he also recorded percussion, background vocals and currently plays piano in live performances.

Fruko Y Sus Tesos was also the band that kickstarted the hugely successful career of one of its lead vocalists, Álvaro José Arroyo, better known as "Joe" Arroyo, a legend by himself, specially after his death two years ago.

"Fruko El Grande" ("Fruko The Big") is the name of the album I'm talking about. It has one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) salsa hits made in Colombia. The second cut from side B, called "El Preso" ("The Prisoner") is a song that not one single Colombian can say hasn't heard at least once in his/her life. Not sung by Joe Arroyo but Wilson Manyoma "Saoko", the other lead singer in the band.

There have been many salsa albums produced in Colombia and lots of them are way more polished than this one, but the energetic performances combined with the fact that the album has very few fillers plus "El Preso" as one of the most important salsa songs ever produced in Colombia, make this album a very important production that deserves to be known and enjoyed in the whole world. Not that I'm going to accomplish that with this thread, but at least it's a contribution and for sure an education for many of you. Hope you enjoy it. Here are the front and back covers...



...and you can click here to hear the album in its entirety. Again, hope you enjoy it. Thank you for your time!

 

Love it!...Any more suggestions? Love Cuban and Latin music.

 

I have many suggestions for hidden gems of Salsa music: Vol. 4 by Orquesta de Nacho Sanabria, Orquesta Mundo S/T, Belleza Espiritual by Orquesta Zodiac, etc. But I would recommend one that is not that impossible to find, either on CD or LP (both reissues, circa 2012 or so). It is BEETHOVEEN's V, by Mark Dimond (1975).

Mark Dimond was an African American piano player, that in my opinion plays "guajeos" (i.e. piano riffs) differently than most of the other Latin piano players. For me, that is the highlight of this record. Listening to his "guajeos". The best songs are "Sabroson" and "Los Rumberos", only surpassed by the last number, "Porque Adore", composed by (IMO) the best Salsa composer ever, Tite Curet Alonso, and highlighting the trombone playing of Barry Rodgers.

Front cover shown here:



Hope you may enjoy it.

To the OP: thanks for highlighting Fruko's LP. I will try to find a copy, although I suspect it may be a nearly impossible task to accomplish....!

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FRUKO-El-Gr...6186846?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item33982978de

(BTW, I can assure it's an original pressing because of the labels)

 

Along the same lines as Fruko y sus Tesos is this absolutely killer compilation of classic cumbia and salsa from the Colombian label Discos Fuentes. Fruko makes a couple of appearances on this compilation as well as several other artists that rightfully should get a whole lot more acclaim. Being partially of Colombian descent, this is awesome party music I remember often hearing at family gatherings as a kid. Highest recommendation and great for any party (I'll likely be putting this in the mix during my own holiday gatherings this year.)

 

Damn, that Fruko album is hot! Doesn't look like it's available on CD...

Guess I'll grab the compilation instead.

Thanks for the tip!

 

As far as I know, Discos Fuentes never released any of the original Fruko albums in CD format. If you are looking for Fruko music on CD, these compilations will give you the best:

http://www.discogs.com/Fruko-Y-Sus-Tesos-Grandes-Exitos-De-Salsa-Vol-1/release/5676450

http://www.discogs.com/Fruko-Sus-Tesos-Grandes-Exitos-De-Salsa-Vol-2/release/5676465

(I hate that they included "Baranquillero Arrebatao" in the second volume. Fruko covered this song, but it's definitely NOT a Fruko song / hit)

 

I guess I'll take what I can get. Thank you again for introducing this artist. I have a fair amount of music from Latin America and South America in my collection, but nothing from Colombia specifically as far as I know. But I did order the collection that Maurice recommended, and I'll likely order these two as well.

 

Any opinions on this list? It purports to be the "20 best Colombian records ever made."

http://www.thevinylfactory.com/viny...ults-the-20-best-colombian-records-ever-made/

 

Not having included "El Grande" in that list instantly disqualifies it for me. "El Grande" is THE BEST salsa record ever made in Colombia. Period. Other great salsa releases (although more refined and leaning toward the romantic side) are these:

http://www.discogs.com/Grupo-Niche-Cielo-De-Tambores/release/5071556

http://www.discogs.com/Grupo-Niche-Tapando-El-Hueco/release/3960308

I don't think this is an overall great album, but it has the original version of what's been considered the anthem for Cali (Colombia's salsa capital city) - "Cali Pachanguero":

http://www.discogs.com/Grupo-Niche-No-Hay-Quinto-Malo/release/5056439

And continuing with Grupo Niche, this is to me the album that gives the perfect balance between rawness and slickness in their whole discography. They had bigger hits, but this is easily my favorite Niche album:

http://www.discogs.com/Grupo-Niche-Me-Huele-A-Matrimonio/release/3977143 (hear the first two tracks here)

Another terrific colombian salsa album is this one:

http://www.discogs.com/Grupo-Clase-Época-Época/release/5217281 (hear one track here)

Here's a track from "El Violento" (album #2 in the list you posted):



Album #7 in the list features "Piper" Pimienta Díaz (R.I.P.) who, aside from being a great singer, was a TERRIFIC dancer. See him in action here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUTmDZX2aZg

And here's a live version of the album's title track ("Dale Al Bombo"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_q7mld3TmQ

I'll think of some non-salsa albums and post them later.

 

BTW, this is the back cover of my copy of Grupo Niche's "Cielo De Tambores", signed by one of the lead singers and the lead trumpet player:

 

I've just left my comment on the list's site.

 

Thanks for posting this and for your introduction to salsa. I am aware of salsa as a musical genre but I do not have any salsa music in my collection. This is a great introduction. If I come across this album I will buy it.

 

Whoa!!! This thread was dead for about a year and now is raging again! Good news!!

PS: Thanks, AGAIN, to the OP, for the eBay tip. I will add it to my saved searches.