Review: The music of David Axelrod is a rite of passage for many record collectors. The great composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalists crafted several seminal albums that all take you deep into gorgeous worlds of jazz, funk and library music with narratives you'd expect in film scores and emotion in high supply. Heavy Axe might be one of his best and so this welcome reissue is a timely reminder of that. Its sweeping strings, grand horns and orchestral arrangements ebb and flow with great drama and absorbing artistry so stick it on loud and give yourself over to its rare pleasures.
Review: A deep dive into the Fania vaults has uncovered Cafe, a Latin funk and soul classic that was recorded half a century ago. To mark the 50th anniversary of this great album, which was produced by the legendary conguero Ray Barretto and originally released on Vaya Records, it gets this nice heavyweight reissue on Craft. The standout track 'Si Dame Tu Amor' delivers infectious funk grooves reminiscent of Barretto's own work, while 'Identify Yourself' is another one to light up any party. All the tunes have been cut from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio so sounds superb.
Review: Craft Recordings get back on their curatorially expert business with this serious new reissue from Fania All Stars, the long out-of-print Latin-Soul-Rock. This eight-track gem from the 70s salsa ultragroup (literally; FAS consisted of over 25 members at the height of its fame), released via their own label in 1974, documents the moment at which over 40,000 salsa punters visited New York's Yankee Stadium to catch a glimpse of their talents, alongside a myriad of other Latin greats. Fania All Stars threw a curveball, however, by not only playing pure salsa but blending it with styles like funk and soul, thus sticking out from the crowd and adding a spicier punch. We welcome this record, out via Craft Latino, with alacrity, as it celebrates the 50th anniversary of this 'wow' moment, which deserves to be documented even if solely for its powers of FAS' fusional imagination.
Review: There have been many concurrent sounds of 60s and 70s New York, but the Latin soul subsidiary of said multipli-city saw and heard its heyday in the sweet-spot of 1964-78, where the Latin American favourite label Fania Records reigned supreme in its niche. Bannering the likes of Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe, Ruben Blades, Johnny Pacheco and Celia Cruz, Fania was born of a desire to promote salsa music and adjacent styles in New York, after Dominican musician and label boss Johnny Pacheco underwent financial woes and sought respite in memories of a quaint Cuban luncheonette of the same name. The heady mix of sonic pimento collides several of the best salsa bands in a New York otherwise dominated by soul and funk, amounting to a charred, lively stew.
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