Track Listing

1. Una Pena en la Navidad - Yomo Toro
2. Todo Tiene Su Final - Willie Col�n, H�ctor Lavoe,
3. Tir�ndote Flores II - Eddie Palmieri
4. Consuelo - Plena Libre
5. Muy Joven Para Mi - Jimmy Bosch
6. Que Humanidad - Manny Oquendo
7. D�jate Querer - Jos� "El Canario" Alberto
8. Que Bien Te Ves - Willie Col�n, H�ctor Lavoe,
9. Espresso Por Favor - Tito Puente & His Latin Jazz All-Stars
10. Mujer Boricua - Nava
11. V�monos Pa'L Carnaval - Truco & Zaperoko,
12. Don Pedro - Los Pleneros de La 21
13. Cico Mangual - Paracumbe,

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131106 in Music
• Released on: 2003-06-09
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
Puerto Rico has become home to some of the most dynamic rhythms in the world. The Rough Guide To Salsa De Puerto Rico traces the genre's development both in Puerto Rico and the Nuyorican communities of the United States. This collection showcases its most innovative musicians, featuring the music of some of the biggest salsa legends, and also follows how the island's folkloric styles (such as bomba and plena) were instrumental in the development of salsa.

Artists include: Willie Colon, Jose Alberto (El Canario), Sonora Poncena, Orchestra Harlow & Ismael Miranda, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Los Pleneros De La 21, Manny Oquendo's Libre, Plena Libre, Trupo Y Zaperoko, Jimmy Bosch, Nava, Yomo Toro, Paracumbe and Hector Lavoe & Willie Colon

Amazon.com
There's something inherently wrong about an anthology of Puerto Rican salsa that fails to include the genre's most notable exponents—namely, El Gran Combo and La Sonora Ponceña. Fortunately, this otherwise worthy entry in the excellent Rough Guide series makes up for that near-fatal omission by including a number of legendary Puerto Rican expatriates. The expected tracks by Eddie Palmieri (a recent number from the pianist's revamped La Perfecta reunion) and Tito Puente (the joyful Latin jazz nugget "Espresso Por Favor") are complemented with tunes by lesser-known but equally important artists, from timbalero Manny Oquendo and Libre (the orgiastic dance jam "Qué Humanidad") to the very best salsa singer of all times, the late Héctor Lavoé, joined here by partner in crime Willie Colón on the smoldering "Qué Bien Te Ves" and the fatalistic "Todo Tiene Su Final." Reaching out beyond the confines of salsa, the compilation devotes a handful of songs to the bomba and the plena, Puerto Rico's infectious--and achingly beautiful-- folkloric genres. --Ernesto Lechner

Customer Reviews

Awful Compilation
This is more of a soft guide to salsa de New York! How on earth can you have Yomo Toro and Plena Libre representing Puerto Rican salsa? And aren't Tito Puente, Jimmy Bosch and Eddie Palmieri New Yorker's? Let's not forget that Jose "El Canario" Alberto is DOMINICAN! You cannot make any rough guide to salsa de Puerto Rico compilation without the maestro's themselves! Namely "La Sonora Poncena", "Cheo Feliciano", "Ismael Rivera", "Pete (el conde) Rodriguez", "Andy Montanez", "Hector Lavoe", "Ray Barretto", "Ismael Miranda", "Willie Rosario", and "El Gran Combo". All of which are MISSING from this weak compilation (with the exception of Hector Lavoe)!

Great Compilation
Another reviewer seems to miss the whole point of the Rough Guide collections. As the subtitles says, "pure latino: classic salsa to roots plena." The Rough Guide series in known for stretching their listeners' common notions of what a particular country sounds like musically. For example, the Rough Guide to Japan isn't just koto and shakuhachi; it includes Japanese music generally unknown in the West. In this case, I suspect that the "New Yorkers" represented here consider themselves Puerto Rican, especially when it comes to their art form. I was quite happy to see Nava represented. I love his music, but it's quite difficult to find more than one of his CDs in the U.S. The selection by Cico Mangual is a terrific representation of the African roots in Puerto Rican music. No collection will make everyone happy, but there are plenty of other collections out there that will satisfy salsa "purists."