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Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea

Grupo Los Santos

Label: Deep Tone Records
Released: 2008
Duration: 00:54:37
Views: 1,084

Tracks

Rumba in the Bronx; A Danca Dos Santos; Happified; Clave 66; Absurdities and Atrocities; Manna; Guajira Santa; Boogie Down Broder; Toreja Kulo; Pedrito La Vaca

Personnel

Album Description

On Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea (What We Are What Will Be) Grupo Los Santos focuses on Afro-Cuban music, with a couple of detours into Brazilian and Flamenco styles. Afro-Cuban music got its start in this country in 1947 when Dizzy Gillespie hired Cuban conguero Chano Pozo for his band and recorded a series of tunes featuring Pozo, among them the fiery “Manteca.” Mambo soon swept the country, and the rest, as they say, is history. However, this New York City quartet (Pete Smith, six and nine-string guitar; David Ambrosio, acoustic bass; William Bausch, drums, Paul Carlon, tenor sax) puts a different spin on the music: instead of using Cuban percussion, they’ve adapted their instruments to each music’s tradition. The 10 tunes, written either by Bausch, Carlon or Smith, feature a lot of intricate unison and highly rhythmic interplay. “Rumbatap" pioneer Max Pollack joins the group on the opener, “Rumba in the Bronx,” and his clickety-clacking meshes well with the group’s sound. After a moody intro, Bausch’s Flamenco-fied “Absurdities and Atrocities” gets a stunning treatment at the hands of guitarist Smith, whose solos are the highlights of this engaging CD." - Miles Jordan