TITO PUENTE Vinyl & CDs

Review: Coming just after this seminal recording celebrated its 50th anniversary, Craft Recordings presents a carefully handled reissue of Tito Puente's Para Los Rumberos. Puente remains one of the all time greats of Afro-Cuban percussion, and he recorded this definitive set in New York in 1972, whipping through mambo, guaracha and cha-cha-cha with his trademark explosive drumming front and centre and backed up by some sharp-shooting players. Cut all-analogue from the original tapes and pressed in audiophile quality, this is a much-deserved revisit to one of the most iconic recordings in Puente's accomplished career.

Review: Rather significant as old-school house releases go, the chain of influences behind Masters At Work’s ’The Masters At Work (Keep It Comin’ Now)’ is an elusive one. In 1991, Louie Vega and Marc Antony remixed new jack swing titan Keith Sweat’s own ‘Keep It Comin’, a timeless B3 side to round out Sweat’s original Elektra Records release. The track was a snowballer indeed, as it evolved into a standalone B-side in its own right, complementing the garage house classic release ‘Ride On The Rhythm’ on Atlantic Records. Now promoted once again to an A-side, we hear three new and exclusive mixes of thee original dub as well as two variations: Latinesque backing fills and programmable melodics twaddle away in the background of One Take Tito’s mix, while Kenlou and Eddie Mood bring twin yogic, myofibril relaxations to an already contracted sound.