Search - Edmundo Ros :: Hair Goes Latin / Caribbean Ros (Dig)

1960s & 1970s pop music at the highest level!

P. J. Wallace | East Yorkshire, UK | 09/09/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's interesting that Decca themselves decided to re-release the two albums on this CD as they have rather neglected their archives in recent years.



Not all Edmundo Ros devotees could have been excited by the prospect of the leading Latin maestro recording an album of the music from the rather avant garde musical "Hair" back in 1969. The fact is that most of the melodies turn out to be excellent choices for the Ros treatment and this is an exciting and dynamic album in marvellous phase4stereo. The superior arrangements were by Roland Shaw and the Edmundo Ros Orchestra are as superb as ever. A top rate orchestra like Edmundo's could turn the most mundane material into something worth listening to. Take "Manchester, England" which is not the strongest melody in the selection. There are some lovely trombone, guitar and trumpet solos which lift the number out of the ordinary. My favourite tracks are "Good Morning Starshine", "I Got Life", "Where Do I Go?", "Aquarius", "Donna" and "Let The Sunshine In", with vocal by Edmundo himself.



"Hair Goes Latin" is paired with another "contemporary" Edmundo Ros album "Caribbean Ros" from 1974. "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree" , "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" and "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" recall the pop music of the early 1970s and one wonders how Edmundo felt having to introduce such material into his repertoire. The arrangements reflect the times, as does the instrumentation to some extent. He was clearly comfortable with the opening number "Do You Like The Samba". This rather strangely opens with the old music hall song "Two Lovely Black Eyes" before Edmundo gets into his stride as vocalist with vocal backing and the orchestra performing wonderfully. Happily Edmundo is featured singing on several tracks, notably "This Train" and "Grab The Bull By The Horns". All in all "Caribbean Ros" is an entertaining album and, although it's not the kind of material I would normally listen to, Edmundo makes it so.



This will appeal to anyone into the sounds of the 1960s and 1970s as well as Edmundo's fan base.

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