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CD Review
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Amazon.com, CD Review >>
Salsa and Latin music enthusiasts have often wondered what caused the music's extraordinary renaissance in the late 1960s and '70s to peter out. After a period of remarkable cross-fertilization and experimentation, when old hands like Tito Puente and Mongo Santamaria played with funk beats, Eddie Palmieri plugged in an electric Fender Rhodes keyboard and bands like Santana and El Chicano injected rock with Latin swing (and vice versa), the musical climate shifted towards synthesizers, pop ballads and the sugary "salsa romantico" that dominates Latin radio today in the form of everyone from Marc Anthony to Ricky Martin. Bio Ritmo, a nine-piece self-described "classic" salsa band from Virginia, makes clear on their mostly smoking self-titled fourth release just what it is we've been missing all these years. Lead singer and songwriter Rei Alvarez brings his Puerto Rican roots to bear on material that more than anything echoes the thrilling sound of Palmieri's groundbreaking 1960s and '70s bands La Perfecta and Harlem River Drive. On "Atrevete" pianist Marlysse Simmons brings some serious salsa chops to bear on her funky Fender Rhodes solo while the band drops impressively into Brazilian samba, and "Fabula" shows off some high-energy playing from timbalero Giustino Riccio while the group goes from hard-driving salsa to an intense Afro-Cuban 6/8 groove. About the only blemish on this otherwise immaculate canvas is bassist Jon Sullivan's insistence on overusing envelope filter bass effects--whooshing science fiction sounds that come across as gratuitous, since the group's open-mindedness and willingness to experiment is obvious enough from the music. --Ezra Gale 02/01/04 >> go there
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