Arsenio lives via Orchestra Harlow!
johann von kessel | naranjito, Puerto Rico | 06/21/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Arsenio Rodriguez was an amazing songwriter of Son Montuno songs, perhaps the greatest ever, but it took someone outside of the Latin-Caribbean realm with an infatuation for Afro-Caribbean Rhythms, especially cuban santeria accentuating the old conjunto sound in the Son Montuno to make it sound ethereal. This "Salsa" recording was the first ever to have 4 # 1 songs in any music genre in Puerto Rico even though in the Island you always hear played all kinds of music. The Island is very Cosmopolitan when it comes to music. I asked the greatest salsa songwriter of all time, Don Tite Curet Alonso and he concurred with me in regard to Harlow's interpretation of Arsenio's songs. Arsenio could have never played his own songs that awesome, and he acknowledging this very fact called Harlow the wonderful Jew as an extension of him, the wonderful Blindman! The Son Charanga did a remarkable "version" of the "El Paso de Encarnacion" as did Johnny Pacheco, and several others who fail to capture the essence and flavor of that magic song. The same with "La Cartera", I have not yet heard anyone even try to rehearsal with that amazing song. I don't really think anyone can! It is just that Junior Gonzalez at that time frame had a high pitch voice that could have made someone like my wife a music teacher with a Master Degree in Vocal Orchestration and Arrangement to be annoyed, but with Junior she felt that for Salsa music, Son Montuno, and Charanga, and especially those Arsenio's songs his timbre and range was just glorious! What a shame that Harlow never exploded that to the limit! "No Hay Amigo" is so requested in Z-93(the authority in salsa music in Puerto Rico) that you eventually can predict the time when someone will request it! And if you can order it in any possible version, from Fania, Sony, Charly, and whoever just don't hesitate and get it! Believe me, this is probably the greatest manifestation of Afro- Cuban music ever recorded, it is not just 5 stars, it is beyond the Stratosphere!"
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1
