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| Colombian accordion ace Anibal Velásquez has his descarga experiments from Tremenda Salsa recirculated by Vampi Soul. |
Here's the scoop...
The album, En Tremenda Salsa is a perfect example of Aníbal Velásquez's wanderlust and restless creative spirit. A pioneer of the adventuresome mixing of rhythms, genres, and styles that was happening at the time in Barranquilla and the rest of coastal Colombia, in retrospect one can say that Velásquez was quite daring in combining the music and instrumentation of his native country with other Caribbean forms. In 1968, when he made this album, very few Colombians were attempting to record an accordion-led session of descarga, guaracha, boogaloo, guajira, guaguancó, and mambo, and for that Velásquez should be recognized as a forerunner of various other records by Lisandro Meza y su Combo, Los Corraleros de Majagual, Los Caporales del Magdalena, and Chico Cervantes y su Conjunto Internacional.
The album kicks off with an intense and mesmerizing descarga featuring the guaguancó bass line, hot Cuban style piano and a heavy timbales solo, reminding one of the Tico-Alegre or Fania All-Stars jam session records. And yet, the accordion and caja are there throughout the tune, giving it plenty of "sabor colombiano" and distancing it from the New York or Havana sound. It bears repeating that for this album Velásquez and Fuentes added a crucial ingredient in salsa, the piano.
Overall, the feeling on the album is of the loose, improvised jam session implied in the genre term descarga. Although En Tremenda Salsa is just one of many such records that Velásquez cut with his Cuban and Puerto Rican influences writ large on his sleeve, it is perhaps his most consistent and well-recorded, certainly only one of a few of his featuring prominent piano played in a salsa style, and this is why it is a highly sought after record by collectors in the know. Remastered from the original tapes, with original artwork intact. Includes two bonus tracks. 180 gram vinyl. Get a copy from Forced Exposure mailorder right here. Have a listen to the album below followed by Anibal Velásquez in action.
