Ray Barretto - Que Viva La Musica / 180 gram vinyl LP

A landmark title in the influential bandleader and conguero’s prolific catalog, Que Viva La Música features such favorites as “Cocinando,” “La Pelota,” and the title track – all performed by Barretto’s legendary original band (including Adalberto Santiago and Orestes Vilato). The LP is pressed on 180-gram vinyl and housed in a classic tip-on jacket, replicating Izzy Sanabria’s stunning cover art.

Considered by many Afro-Cuban music scholars to be a highlight of Barretto’s prolific career – as well as a touchstone of ‘70s salsa music, Que Viva La Música found the bandleader reaching a new apex. In liner notes for an earlier CD edition of the album, music journalist Ernesto Lechner wrote that the artist’s “transition from the early charanga and Latin soul excursions of the ‘60s to the hard-edged salsa sound of the ‘70s had been successfully completed. Barretto had raised the temperature of his music as high as it could possibly get. The beats, the swing, and the intensity of his musical manifesto was simply reckless. His band, too, had achieved a complete communion of musical souls….”
 
Among the album’s highlights is the joyful anthem “Que Viva la Música,” which opens with a dramatic swell of percussion and horns – letting listeners know that they are in for something special. Another treat is Barretto’s enduring salsa hit, “La Pelota,” which slowly builds in intensity and ignites into a fiery number. The band puts their own stamp on Arsenio Rodríguez’s classic “Bruca Maniguá,” while singer Adalberto Santiago shines particularly bright on the soulful ballad, “Triunfó El Amor.” The standout track, however, is “Cocinando” – a hypnotic, ten-minute-long psychedelic jam. Not long after it was recorded, the iconic composition was chosen to open Leon Gast’s 1972 documentary, Our Latin Thing, which showcases New York City’s exploding salsa scene.