Customer Reviews

La Clave Del Sabor

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's really amazing to see how much steam salsa lost from the 70's to the 80's. This album is the epitome of this downfall, not only commercially, but musically also. This is not to say "Clave del Sabor" is bad, although it's not exactly good either. "Galera Tres", "Rebeca", and the tribute to Ismael Rivera are the only songs here worth listening to since the rest are just plain bland in my opinion. The album really lacks the hard hitting spark of its predecessors like "En Fa Menor" or most of his earlier work. You can't really say there's a memorable song on this album.

This 1981 Ismael Miranda release is a slightly more commercial style of salsa album as its emphasis is more on the singer and on the lyrics, rather than on the more musical or instrumental side of things.
This means that this recording is a bit more homogenous as it doesn't quite have as much Cuban roots, Puerto-Rican roots from New York or Puerto-Rican roots from the Island like the 1970's recordings used to showcase much more obviously. All these "flavours" ARE indeed captured here, but in VERY small quantities, unlike in the good old salsa days...

The other point I want to inform you buyers is that if you're precisely expecting a fiery and rhythmically intense style of 1970's salsa sound, you'll not get it here as this is NOTHING like Asi Se Compone Un Son / Asi Se Compone Un Son [which I reviewed and I HIGHLY recommend] or the 1974 follow-up `En Fa Menor' which is ANOTHER MUST-HAVE!

Having said that, the music here is STILL listenable and good enough, BUT NEVER (in MY opinion) the 4 ½ Stars / 5 that José A. Estévez Jr. from the All Music Guide gave it!!
In other words, this is quite a good album without any BIG standouts (ALTHOUGH I particularly enjoyed No Te Voy A Dejar Ir and Rubén Blades's Aunque Me Duela.)

(The reason why I'm reviewing this album is because I purchased it through amazon.co.uk and it ended up not being quite what I expected...)

Anyway, the 1st tune Rebeca (in my opinion) sets the tone pretty negatively with a rather bland musicality, the violin strings (which were the fashion of the era at Fania from 1978 roughly) following up in the background giving a sort of `melo-dramatic' feel to the music, and a lyric saying: `please do not forget me, Rebeca'.
The whole tune is a good example of homogeneity. It's also a rather slow tune at getting started because of its structure due to the importance of the lyrical content...

Curet Alonso's Galera Tres (which I don't know what it is) is A MUCH BETTER tune which talks about some sort of place where they hold and torture people (is it a Police station, a Secret Agents room, or a prison, I don't know) but the tune without being too fast-paced, is good enough with a SOLID musicality and a fine Nelson González Tres-guitar solo.

Para Ismael Rivera, also written by Curet Alonso, is a tribute to the famous late singer Ismael Rivera who was the one who opened the doors to Miranda in his beginnings recommending him as a singer for Larry Harlow's Orchestra.
Anyway, the tune is enjoyable as well and a bit faster paced, meaning more danceable too.

No Te Voy A Dejar Ir is a tune that I like much more because you can easily identify a style: Cha-Cha-Chá, which is a Cuban rhythm, obviously. With a slightly faster pace than your standard Cha-Chá, it gives you a Charanga feel in the rhythm which makes the tune `swingier' in the second phases of the song which include good smooth choruses and very decent arrangements. NICE tune!

Amígo Déjala is a tragically melancholical tune about the narrator finding out after 2 weeks that his "girlfriend" was married to his good friend, with the chorus suggesting him to leave her as she isn't worth it.
The tune features very nice arrangements by Cuban Salsa bandleader/pianist Javier Vázquez that sound so much like him: musical, tasteful, nostalgical and very soulful.

Espíritu En Flor is a Puerto-Rican Bomba tune which includes a sort of `refreshing' musicality (if it can be put that way) and a musically melodic feel.

Rubén Blades's Aunque Me Duela is a song that I find to have an extra catchiness with a little more "zing" and depth musically speaking (despite this being this album's 6th song related to love/romance...)
[One of my favourite tunes from this album, anyway.]

Although I know I'm not good at saying in this review that this is a good enough album, I think it's one to think about, but not one to go rush and buy.

I must also state that this is a GREAT performance by Ismael Miranda on vocals all the way through, as ever! That guy just seems to get better and better as the year's go by!...

Total Play-time: 46:36 mins (also with 2 ballads included: 3 & 8).

Remastered 2006 by: Sound Booth. 8/10. Excellent high volume quality with enough sharpness and bass. NOT an issue...

Have the LP but wanted to add this "classic" album to my iTunes library. Brings back memories...if you enjoy Ismael Miranda, this should be part of your collection.

I have been one Ismael's fans since I was very young and now I'm pushing 41 now. I have most of his albums and this one is one of my favorites! This album is a must for Ismael Miranda fans. It takes you back to those Fania All Stars days. Ismael has a great band on this album with some great solos like Nelson Gonzalez on Galera Tres. It's like a reunion for Ismael and Nelson for they hadn't work together for a long while. It's hard to find such legends like these two on the same album. Don't let this one slip through your fingers! Ismael also put out some great albums with Larry Harlow and I have most of those too. Thank you for reading my review.

Este disco de Ismael Miranda es uno de los mas poderosos en la Salsa de los tempranos anos 80. Todas las canciones en este disco son increibles. Prestenle espacial atencion a "Galera Tres". Si este disco fuera malo, que no lo es, esta cancion seria suficiente para salvarlo. Mete mano, escuchalo. Goza! Vaya!