SAOCO! Vol 2

VARIOUS
¡SAOCO! Vol 2
Artist: VARIOUS
Title: ¡SAOCO! Vol 2
Bomba, plena and the roots of salsa in Puerto Rico 1955-1967
Release date: June 10, 2013
Label: Vampisoul
File under: Roots of salsa
Format: 2LP
Ref:VAMPI 152
Barcode: 8435008862794
Format: CD
Ref:VAMPI CD 152
Barcode: 8435008862787
SALES & PROMO
ulla@munster-records.com
HIGHLIGHTS
Second volume of our survey of the fascinating music
variety of Puerto Rico during the 50s and 60s, which
would lead the way to the subsequent salsa scene
worldwide.
As well as bomba and plena, the main genres featured
on volume one, the orchestras here display their
masterful craft at playing guaracha, rumba, mambo,
merengue and traditional rural music.
Extensive liner notes by compiler Yannis Ruel illustrated
with original artwork and memorabilia.
www.vampisoul.com
DESCRIPTION
Our first volume of ¡Saoco! included recordings from Cortijo y su Combo, Mon Rivera
and some of their other contemporaries exclusively dedicated to the rhythms of plena
and bomba. Although these Puerto Rican traditions, in particular the second, later
became part of the salsa stew, there's another reason to consider these artists among
the pioneers of the transnational and polymorphic movement known as salsa. The
reason is that the repertoire of these groups was never restricted to these Puerto
Rican rhythms, nor to any national borders. Maybe the first peculiarity of Puerto Rican
music prior to the period that interests us here is that it was recorded predominantly
outside of the island, above all in New York, where musicians traveled constantly or just
emigrated altogether. Furthermore, since son had emerged from Cuba in 1910, Cuban
rhythms had exercised hegemony over tropical music recordings. This was particularly
the case in New York and Puerto Rico, which had always been considered Cuba's little
sister.You would have expected orchestras like those of Cortijo or Mon Rivera would
alternate a variety of rhythms to please their dance audience whose tastes then favored
the sounds of mambo and guaracha. Although both genres are considered Cuban, the
presence of guaracha is so old in Puerto Rico - arriving with tours of Cuban comic
theatre troupes in the Caribbean basin in the 19th Century - that we can legitimately
consider that it acquired its modern form through an exchange between its Cuban
source and its different expressions in the West Indies, including the Puerto Rican
variety. In addition to these rhythms that formed the backbone of salsa, it was also
common that these orchestras would play a merengue, a calypso, and even, although
far more rarely, a Brazilian samba, a Colombian cumbia or porro, a Venezuelan joropo,
or a Panamanian murga.
It's difficult to know to what extent this diversity corresponded to commercial motives.
These styles were possibly imposed by the record labels in their quest to promote a
regional Latino market. However, it seems that the groups mentioned didn't wait until
they gained their first hits to develop versatile repertoires. The same professionalization
of orchestra music in Puerto Rico already required a command of different genres
beginning with jazz and Cuban music. Furthermore, if Cuban rhythms exercised their
hegemony upon tropical music from the beginnings of the 20th Century, their
domination only became more pronounced after the Castro revolution. As a
consequence of the blockade, groups from New York and Puerto Rico occupied this
space and took up the repertoire of the Havana orchestras. Already by the mid-1960s,
plena was out of style and they were only dancing rumba, guaracha, descarga, charanga,
pachanga... and rock'n'roll, just as much on the island as in New York.
The selection of this second ¡Saoco! expands its repertoire to emphasize the variety
of rhythms and styles that characterized many of the groups included in the first
volume. It reveals a Puerto Rican production influenced by the sounds of Cuba and
New York, but which also preserved its own character and in which the island genres
of bomba, plena, and música campesina enjoyed their golden age.
TRACKLIST
1. Saoco - CORTIJO Y SU COMBO con Ismael Rivera
2. Kijis Konar - MON RIVERA Y SU ORQUESTA
3. El paquetero - ODILIO GONZÁLEZ "El Jibarito de Lares"
4. El negro bembón - CORTIJO Y SU COMBO con Ismael Rivera
5. Se acabó el bembé - MARIO ORTIZ & HIS ALL STAR BAND con Paquito Álvarez
6. Candela - RAMITO
7. Qué chévere - KITO VÉLEZ Y SUS ESTRELLAS canta Guajiro González
8. Guaracha y cha cha cha - MONCHO LEÑA Y LOS ASES DEL RITMO con Mon Rivera
9. Moliendo café - CORTIJO Y SU COMBO con Ismael Rivera
10. Apágalo - CHIVIRICO
11. Martínez Nadal - MONCHO LEÑA Y LOS ASES DEL RITMO con Mon Rivera
12. María Teresa - CORTIJO Y SU COMBO con Ismael Rivera
13. Pacharo - ISMAEL SANTIAGO Y SUS PLENEROS canta Ángel Luis Torruellas
14. La vieja voladora - CHUÍTO EL DE BAYAMÓN
15. Oriza - CORTIJO Y SU COMBO con Ismael Rivera
16. Rule con dama - KITO VÉLEZ Y SUS ESTRELLAS canta Guajiro González
17. Dolores - JOE COTTO Y SU ORQUESTA con Mon Rivera
18. Tras tres tragos - MARIO ORTIZ & HIS ALL STAR BAND con Paquito Álvarez
19. Dame un traguito - CHUÍTO EL DE BAYAMÓN
20. Muchachita lozana - ODILIO GONZÁLEZ "El Jibarito de Lares"
21. La negra Merced - CORTIJO under the name of CANARIO Y SU GRUPO con Raful
22. Madame Calalú - CORTIJO Y SU COMBO con Ismael Rivera
23. Paquete no más - MONCHO LEÑA Y LOS ASES DEL RITMO con Mon Rivera
24. Arrabalera - TOÑÍN ROMERO con CLAUDIO FERRER Y SUS JÍBAROS
25. Qué culpa tengo yo - CHIVIRICO
26. Me voy pa' Maracangaya - CORTIJO Y SU COMBO con Ismael Rivera
27. A papá cuando venga - MON RIVERA Y SU ORQUESTA
28. Lo que tú no sabes - RAMITO