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CD Review
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Sing Out!, CD Review >>
To play music without expectations, for the love of the sound describes this album. While a foreign concept to an industry constantly seeking new ways to stay afloat, others-- many others, around the planet-- perform for the inner reward that songs offer. That had to be the case with Puerto Plata. Born in the Dominican Republic in 1923, the man then known as Jose Cobles grew up in a tough neighborhood, having lost his mother and grandmother by age sixteen. He survived political tyranny and an economic status that was less than glorious. Yet his music persisted, and eighty-four years after his birth, he releases his first international album, as well as embarking on his premiere U.S. tour. The tides of his passion rest and breathe within these eleven songs, encompassing the styles of Cuban son, as well as bolero, merengue and ranchera. His guitar work is outstanding; the fingerpicking and unforgettable hook on "Jala Levam" a reworking of a song from a Cuban duo named Los Compadres, explores the underhandedness of neighborhood gossip. In the merengue "Dolorita" Plata makes a verbal offering of plucking his eyes for his love, while the congas roll underneath another lightning performance on six-string. This relationship, between his guitar and maracas and bongos, define the majority of the recording. Percussion is dominant even in the slower "Santiago," another cover restyled in the fashion of bolero. Plata is paying homage to his adopted hometown, and there is a slight grimace in his voice. It is not of pain, though; it is a weathered expression, sung by one who has spent many seasons watching the lives of people and nations unfold, change and adapt, all while documenting his observations with a few lines of poetry, and a song.
--DB 01/01/08 >> go there
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