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CD Review
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Sing Out!, CD Review >>
Warning: unadulterated raving ahead. After decades of reviewing music, it becomes very difficult to find recordings that sound as fresh and exciting as the records one had before listening became a profession. So I can't recall the last time I found myself listening to a disc over and over, and still looking forward to hearing it again tomorrow. But Bachata Roja has been playing in my car for two months now, as other discs pile up unheard.
Dominican bachata, the slower, more romantic companion to meringue, is a staple of Latin dance clubs throughout the northeaster U.S., but few modern dancers are familiar with the music's roots. This anthology sets out to educate us, presenting a superb survey of the greatest artists and some of the most popular and influential songs from the style's early years. Bachata emerged out of Dominican versions of the beleros that became staples of Latin Music in the first half of the 20th century, thanks first to the Cuban Trio Matamoros and then to Mexican groups like the Trio Los Panchos--indeed, the album notes explain that in the early 1970s, ten years after the first track on this disc, the word "bachata" was still not widely used. The Dominican singer set themselves apart gradually, first by having a somewhat rougher sound than the smooth Cuban and Mexican groups and then by adding street slang and double-entendre lyrics, as well as themes that, while still romantic in their way, were very much of the tavern and the brothel. For example, Marino Perez's gorgeous "O la pago yo o la paga ella" ("Either I pay it or she pays it"), is the song of a cabaretero who wakes up craving two more bottles of booze, and is happy to have his girlfriend foot the bill for them. If one didn't understand the Spanish lyric, though, this theme would be almost unimaginable, so sweetly does Perez deliver it over the dancing lead guitar and loping rhythms.
Today, bachata always features electric guitar, and despite its title, this anthology follows the evolution of the style up to 1990 and Juan Batista's "Asesina," with its influential electric lead. The emphasis, though, is on the 1970s, with variety provided by an occasional guitar merengue--another style that has rarely been heard in recent years, since that style was taken over by accordions and horn sections-- and unique local rhythms like the mangulina. To general listeners, all this music will have the classic Caribbean lilt of the Buena Vista Social Club--no bad thing-- while to Latin music fans it is set apart by the distinctive Dominican accent. In either case, it is my favorite latin music anthology of the decade.
--EW 04/01/08
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