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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magnificent,
By Robert M. Verceles (San Jose,Ca.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Calle Salud (Audio CD)
I owe it all to my beautiful wife for introducing the film and music to me.She took me to see the documentary at a small theater and I have been hooked ever since. We now own the movie on DVD and the CD,as well as CD's by other members of the BVSC.This album is a great listen time and time again. Compay's rich baritone voice really make's this album. We had the pleasure of seeing Compay live at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga.Ca. Compay surprised the audience by bringing out Ry Cooder for the second half of the show. One of the best concerts I have ever been to.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aged Wine Still The Best,
By Meathook Williams "stepfather of the blues" (Warwick, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Calle Salud (Audio CD)
When Compay Segundo was born, Roosevelt was in the White House... Teddy, not Franklin. At 92, he's certainly the oldest member of the musical phenomenon Buena Vista Social Club, and the first alumnus to put out a second album since the club came to it's recent popularity. Having fiddled around a bit too long with the an attempted review of his last album, I was taken by suprise with this release following so closely at it's heels. I'm not about to let this happen again. "Calle Salud" is even better than the last, with a bit more diversity and polish. This is the music of 1920s and 1930's Cuba, exactly as it sounded then, but with the pristine sound quality that only modern technology can deliver. Here in the States, the twenties may have been roaring, but in Cuba, music was far more profound and unfeigned, with a tremendously sophisticated eloquence that was simply lacking it's northern counterpart (except, perhaps, with rural blues, which was, in any event, less urbane). And no Cuban music fit this description more than the son and rumba stylings heard here. With only a paucity of instrumentation, it is the antithesis of the Cuban big band sound popularized only a bit later by such artists as Benny More and later still, by Desi Arnaz and all the others. This vital music is as lovely and refined as has ever been produced, and has scarcely changed since those times. Compay has stiff competition within the Buena Vista Social Club which also claims such voices as Ibrahim Ferrer and Eliades Ochoa (both reviewed a few months ago right here), but it's his voice that is my personal favorite. It's deep, resonant qualities are as rich as chocolate cheesecake, with those subtle nuances that can only be achieved by time itself. The laid-back arrangements of these traditional songs provide a rich palette of colors from which Compay paints his masterpieces. The songs speak of everyday life in Cuba, songs of love, work and contemplation. The harmonies are simple but precise and sound effortless. Likewise, all of the ensemble playing strives for the substantive and not the flashy. This is the sound of pure emotion. It's so fortunate, therefore, that Compay is still with us and able to benefit from modern recording techniques and equipment. This disc makes it sound as if he's right in your living room, singing only to you. The other obvious blessing is that, finally, he's getting the recognition he so deserves and the monetary rewards which accompanys it. And there's more oil in the pipeline, with several upcoming projects on the burner as we speak. These might be the gloaming years of his career, but nightfall hasn't arrived quite yet. The man is still touring! He recently played the area with a band that includes several sons. He's trying for a sixth child as we speak, and claims he has no use whatsoever for viagra. Stranger things have certainly taken place, and, even after 87 years (his claim) of smoking cigars, I'm inclined to believe he'll suceed at it. A faultless, stunning recording by the dominant lion of traditional Cuban music, "Calle Salud" is hopefully not Segundo's swan song. He's an international treasure, and shows no signs of giving up the ghost any time soon. Viva!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great album of classic Latin songs, but...,
By
This review is from: Calle Salud (Audio CD)
This is without a doubt a great album made up of classic Latin songs (not just from Cuba, since you also find tunes like Gardel's "El Dia que me Quieras"). However, I have a problem with it: I don't enjoy the fact that it's been put out as a Compay Segundo album, when in most of the songs, due to his age, it's not even his voice that stands out (or is listed as Lead Vocals at all, for the matter, Hugo Garzon appears as such in most of the tracks).As a son of a Cuban-born music-loving woman, I was raised listening on and off to some of these tunes, so I love them, but I hate the feeling of exploitation that this album exhudes. Unlike other Buena Vista-related releases, such as Ibrahim Ferrer's or Ruben Gonzalez, where they still perform beyond any doubt, Cuban musical legend Compay Segundo should have been receiving tributes by the time this album came out, not made pose for an album where he could barely be noticed. Now, like Celia Cruz, he's no longer with us, so this is almost like a post-mortem rant... My two cents.
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