Customer Reviews

Best of Mambo King

5 star:		(6)
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And you will to. This music conveys the happy feeling of Latin music produced for the American ear from 1946 to 1949. I picked up the album from Amazon after listening to selected cuts offered by the Yahoo Music radio service -- "El Cumbanchero" and "Cuban Pete". The cuts are almost all strong and all are well recorded, especially when you compare the sound quality to those on some other big band recordings that have been reissued.
"Babalu" which became Desi Arnez signature piece on the I Love Lucy TV show is probably one of the least appealing, and that may be why it was used comedically in the TV show through the years. The highlight cuts include -- "Peanut Vender", "Holiday in Havana", "You Can in Yucatan" and "Brazil". While brass, strings, drums and guitars tend to dominate much of today's music, this album gives the spotlight to a variety of percussion instruments, flute, clarinet and bass clarinet. It is refreshing to hear them in solo.
The liner notes by Will Friedwald are extensive and give you a glimpse into this period of Desi's life between his movie career and the defining work he and Lucille Ball did on television in the 50's.
I could not recommend this album more and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I really enjoyed this CD a lot. It is a nice blend of familiar
tunes as well as ones I've never heard in his beautiful native
language. If you are a huge Desi Arnaz fan like I am, definitely
consider adding this to your collection. What a beautiful talented artist he was and will continue to be through his music.

While the disk could be remastered for some of the "picky/more modernesque" folks, this is really a gem of a recording...it sounds like those great recordings did, when original, and frankly, it is a treat to hear a "true" recording in these days of overdone cleanliness.

If you like music with a Cuban flavor, go for this one...period!

In the 50's, every Monday night, Middle America tuned in to see our favorite crazy redhead and this dark, handsome Cuban singing in Spanish, way before Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias in the 90's and 00's. There is nothing new with America's love with Cuban music -- this Cd is a great compilation of Desi's best. There is his "Cuban Pete" (who "doesn't teach you in a hurray like Arthur Murray.."). "Cumbanchero" embraces the great spirit of carnival time in Santiago de Cuba (home of "the Conga"). If you're interested in classic Cuban music, listen to Desi.

My review is for the MP3 download version of the album, as the CD is out of print and the download was significantly cheaper than paying shipping for a used one. I'm always leery about getting MP3s for older music, as the sound quality can be iffy enough even before conversion. However, this MP3 album sounds just fine to me; it is what it is--glorious mono reproduced as well as could be hoped, and not artificially enhanced. It has the feel of an old radio program wafting to you from another time and place.

As far as the music itself, I always looked forward to the musical numbers on I Love Lucy, but too often you only heard part of a song or it was only used as background to a comedy bit. It's nice to hear those familiar pieces in their entirety. The instrumental pieces are enjoyable, too, and the way they are placed between vocals makes for a nice flow. I especially like this version of Brazil. It's worth downloading the entire album and listening to it as a whole. I guarantee you won't be able to sit still! Thanks, Desi, for all the joy you brought into the world...

This crazy mf has an insane flow! The beats are some of the illest of the year, maybe the decade! His rap verses are incredible, fn flawless. Even the hooks are hot. If you like music you MUST get this album. In fact, yes I DEMAND that you get this album: do it! do it! I, as dictator of Everything have decided. yes, yes, desi is certainly one of the greatest people in the history of the world- compared to him, most people are sucky and futile. Don't you agree??
So in conclusion, please pick up this album: once you've heard it you will understand how your entire life was worthless with out it.