Search - Orquesta Harlow :: Orchestra Harlow El Judio Maravilloso Vocals: Junior Gonzalez

Quality Side A, Di-Sas-Trous Side B + 1 technical error on 1

S. | 07/15/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This 1975 Orchestra Harlow album is a nice Cuban-oriented style of recording with a sort of Arsenio Rodríguez/Félix Chappottín influence, without loosing it's native Puerto Rican/New York style of salsa, of course.



It is an inconsistent album containing 4 good and long songs on Side A + El Negríto Ñenguere (the 1st from Side B) which is also one of the BIG highlights of this album...

If you do not like El Negríto Ñenguere, then there would not be ONE song FROM SIDE B that you would be likely to enjoy, as it contains 2 CHEESY tunes which are C'est La Vie Mon Cher, and El Lugar; one melancholical, slow and long bolero: Agonía (4:30 mins!!!), and a (7:12 minutes long) disco/funk/jazz tune with a few touches of keyboard/moog synthesizer by Larry Harlow + Conga solos titled: Latin Roots which I don't honestly know how I manage to listen to everytime I play this Cd!...



The 1st song El Dolorcíto De Mi China (from Arsenio Rodríguez) is a quite nice and fairly slow song, where you have to relax and "patient out" on the armchair for things to get really started, and once the nice piano solo from Larry Harlow finishes, things start to get better, and the tempo and the intensity start to increase too.

The big, rich, fat and thick chorus here consists of nor more, nor less than Eladio Peguero "Yayo El Indio", Marcelino Guerra, Adalberto Santiago, and a young Rubén Blades!

It is also well worth commenting that Harlow's "El Manisero inspired" solo of piano that he takes, shows his diversity as a pianist being able to express himself SO WELL AS AN AMERICAN U.S in a song AS CUBAN as El Dolorcito De Mi China, just like he can express himself so well, as we OBVIOUSLY KNOW, in jazzier, heavier and more rhythmical styles of music like New York salsa, or Latin jazz.



The 2nd song El Miri Mirón (which has the chorus saying: Ah! Camina'sí) is another of the best songs from this album with a Charanga rhythm and violins in the background (although in this case, there is no flute playing as the singing from Junior Gonzalez replaces the flute throughout the whole song).

This song also contains an almost classical-music style of violin solo from Lewis Khan (who is also a Trombone player).

The song features GREAT arrangements with a big level of musical intensity rising up as the song goes on and gets even better!



3.We get back to an Arsenio/Chappottín style of song with Buenavista En Guaguancó (probably written by Arsenio as well) with the big/fat chorus imposing itself again, nice music to listen to, good arrangements and a long Alberto Valdés-ish Conga-drum style of solo which should've at least overshadowed Alberto's very poor style of conga playing!...



4.Saca Tu Mujer (written by Tito Puente) is a fairly fast paced cha-cha-chá, with the violins again on the background, good Cuban/New York arrangements, a typical Félix "Pupi" Legarreta Cuban-violin style of solo, and a quality swinging song to listen to as well!



5.El Negríto Ñenguere could be considered as a N.Y style of Son-Montuno, which includes a Changuí part in the middle where Junior starts talking to El Negríto who is already "in the sky", and then, is when the song REALLY starts to get VERY good! The intensity, the rhythm and the tempo rise to quite an exciting extent with a TYPICAL N.Y/Fania style of arrangements with the Trombones and Trumpets taking over, and then a fine Trombone solo, Junior taking over with the vocals, and then the song finishes a bit promptly! (Believe me, this is THE best part of the album!)





This LONG-PLAY album which lasts about 50 Minutes, and also has a lot of good things about it, should properly be considered as the 5 good songs take you to 30 minutes of good music, making it worth your money.



Remastered by Jon Fausty. Sound Quality: 8/10 (No problem, good, clean, and loud enough) without forgetting the technical error he did on this Cd, repeating the 1st part of El Dolorcíto De Mi China twice, meaning that instead of lasting 8:00 Mins (as if the song wasn't long enough) it lasts 10:13 as you will notice after 2:13 mins an interruption of about 3 seconds, before the song restarts again!

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