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CD Review
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Latin Style, CD Review >>
This is a new season for this veteran salsa group from Richmond, Virginia. Born in 1991 as an experimental drumming crew, consisting of visual and music artists from the Richmond scene, Bio Ritmo came to be known as “your neighborhood salsa band,” as founder Jorge Negron once dubbed it. Bio Ritmo’s new self-titled CD marks a return to form for the horn-powered group. With lead vocalist, songwriter and percussionist Rei Alvarez charting the way, the nine-member band embarks on a festive, full-circle excursion back to its Puerto Rican roots. After many years of learning and evolving within the “salsa school” of the East Coast, Bio Ritmo has returned to its initial purpose of creating salsa in the classic, but timeless ‘70s style that so drives the mostly new blood in the group. With a fresh hold on a definite aesthetic direction, Bio Ritmo’s new album is their most inspired recording to date. Dynamic in its energy and confidence, the sound still evokes the simplicity and freedom of classic nuyorican salsa. While samba and Afro-Cuban influences surface along the way, triggering brief shifts in tone and meter, most of the music on the album was inspired by the salsa music that came out of New York City’s Puerto Rican community in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Alvarez, who was born in Puerto Rico and boasts a strong, soulful voice, plays a key role here, whether evoking his rhythmic roots with the bomba-flavored “El Cambio” or introducing changes in mood which range from the inspirational tone of “El Monte” to the soul-baring bolero “El Rayito.” Flavored with bomba, samba, charanga, and even the bolero, the record treats the listener as well as the dancer with its infectious rhythms. 05/01/04
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