Customer Reviews

Dance Mania (Legacy Edition)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Tito Puente
"Dance Mania" (Legacy Edition)
(Sony Legacy, 2009)
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A deluxe 2-CD reissue of the best-known album from the legendary nuyoriquen bandleader Tito Puente... Originally released in 1958, "Dance Mania" was a sizzling set that helped solidify the popularity of the mambo craze, and made Tito Puente a household name. Fifty-plus years later and it still sounds great, as does the 1960 follow-up, "Dance Mania, v.2," which is included here as well. Both original albums were short by today's standards -- about forty minutes long -- and Sony Legacy (bless their little hearts) takes the opportunity to stuff an extra twenty-one tracks on, including outtakes and alternates, as well as a bunch of other tunes from the same era. It's classic mambo and Latin Jazz -- dense musical ideas set to addictive rhythms, with Puente's jaw-dropping percussion throughout. All killer, no filler!

At the top of his Palladium days, the first record featuring singer Santos Colon, the sound of his big band... this superb collection is Puente's dancing music greatest album! Many tracks were prepared for this record and the selected ones reveal the genius of the masters, or how they select their material. Recorded circa 1957-58 Dance Mania quickly became a classical. It has endured the passage of time and it continues to be a best seller, in various re-issues. The only other Puente record at this level is Night Beat, on jazz, and perhaps some in the Ensemble Latin Jazz series.

This is true big band sound salsa, before the name salsa became popular. Originally released in 1958, You can go back and feel how great this music was back then and still feel the how great it still is today. This tells you this is a treasure chest of great music. Just enjoy and dance as if he is playing at the good old days at the Palladium Dance night,in NYC. The recordings allow you to hear clearly every instrument that was played and precise harmony of the full orchestra. Be carefull playing this while driving in the car, you will be force to pull over and dance a few cuts.

One of Tito's tightest and most soulful albums, with sharp-sounding horn charts and funky rhythms galore. Recording with the full technical expertise of the RCA studios behind him, Puente's late '50s albums had much richer, better defined sound than competitors on smaller, independent labels, and the brass tones that distort into distorted shrillness on other albums are smooth and clear here. Great material, and a ton of tight session players who were the cream of the crop in the latin dance scene. Highly recommended!

Originally recorded in 1957, this is Tito Puente's signature album which marked the debut of a very young Santos Colon as his lead singer -- an association that continued for many years. You'll listen to this classis album many times over. Absolutely great dance music: mambos, cha-chas and big band jazz. This album's a must-have for any Tito Puente fan.

A must for anyone looking for a good sample of some classic mambos, jazz suites, and one bolero from Tito.

It is unnanimous, up to this point everyone here has given this disc five stars! Tito Puente was a pioneer who started the first wave of Latin music to capture attention worldwide. One of his signature songs, "Oye Come Va" was made popular by Santana Oye Como Va. I was lucky enough to have seen him perform live in a little Hermosa Beach auditorium many years before his death; he was amazing even at his than advanced age. He could wail on the timbales and work his band into a frenzy. The performance here is taken from the early fifties when he was in his prime and the result is an awe-inspiring blend of soulful vocals, horns, rhythms and percussion that results in pure dance music or as the title indicates, dance mania. This disc captures the dance crazes taht were prevelant than like the cha-cha-cha, mambo and salsa. The latin jazz influences and salsa vibe are spread throughout this winner. Everything but one song, "Estoy Siempre Junto a Ti," which is a bolero, or ballad is a cooker; this is the only song where the tempo is slowed down. A very good tune is "Hong Kong Mambo"(love the title)that features some great vibe(vibraphones)work that finishes with crashing high hat and Asian sounding vibe rhythms. If you are a DJ these are some great riffs to work into your creations. There are many good Tito Puente discs including but not limited to The Mambo King: His 100th Album, Out of This World, King of Kings: The Very Best of Tito Puente which are all highly recommended. Flat out, this one is the goods.

I'm not a mambo or or latin music aficionado, but if you just want a fun, upbeat, latin album by this music legend then I recommend this one! I love it!

This is one of the top 10 albums, of any genre, recorded in the last
fifty years. Firstly,it was recorded when there was a big breakthrough
in recording stereo techniques.The sound quality is as good as anything
done today. The band personnel included Doc Sevrenson on trumpet and
Ray Barreto on congas, to name a few. The arrangements sizzle caliente
and are super tight.

This a strict dance album with a mix of slow(bolero),medium(son montuno)
and fast(guaguanco)and mambo tunes(before the term salsa) that is well
balanced to keep everyone on the dance floor. Included are a couple of
Tito's all time favorites : El Cayuco and Hong Kong Mambo- which is seminar
on how to play the marimba.

....then you probably don't have a pulse. Every song is eminently danceable, and the band never sounded tighter. What's amazing is that is not a compilation CD, it was an album released in 1958, a true CLASSIC.