Customer Reviews

El Cantante

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

WOW BRAVO MARC!!! THIS IS YOUR BEST ALBUM!!! WOW HECTOR WOULD BE PROUD OF THIS CD!!!

I'm tired of bad-sport Hector Lavoe fans who cannot accept that anyone can even come close to challenging him.

Hector Lavoe was a master sonero, and he conveyed a sense of humor in his singing that was very unique. Marc Anthony can't touch him in these departments. However, Hector sometimes had an unpleasant nasal quality to his voice, and not much power.

Marc Anthony has a beautiful singing voice. He sings with power and intensity, but can also handle the vocal acrobatics.

The musicians on this CD are excellent, and the arrangements are hot!!! The more you listen to this CD, the more fun it is!

This should be just a starter for Hector Lavoe appreciation. Hector had a prolific career with LOTS of great material.

When I heard this album, I expected for Marc Anthony to adapt to Hector Lavoe's style to interpret the songs, not just imitate his voice (UJUM!, Van Lester)!!! and anyone else that can a buck only as a Hector Lavoe imitator or Hector Lavoe "covers" orquestras. And I think Marc Anthony accomplished that without using completely his vocal range. Remember, Hector Lavoe was not known for that, but more the way he spills his emotions and interacts with his public with his phrases on stage. The songs chosen are some of the obvious popular tunes, some that are not really the most popular tunes from his catalog. I guess that might depend where you lived in that era, PR, NYC, South America, the favorites vary slightly by market or area. I have not seen the movie yet, but I imagine the reason these songs were chosen for this sountrack is because it fit the best with the "movie's standpoint" of Hector Lavoe's live. You can't compare salsa quality from the Fania era, that is something that is locked and treasured, but I think for 2007 this album is done musically very good. It's a well done album with a great musical quality in today's standards, (stop comparing with the Fania era, that was the sacred time golden age of salsa and is never coming back). I recommend highly this album. The main reason I gave this album four stars is the last song, by Jennifer Lopez, it is very out of place from the other songs

Mark Anthony is probably the best salsero we have now in 07. Hector was one of the best we had in the 70's. Hector Lavoe did his thing, he did it his way, the way it was hot back then. Now we have Mark Anthony repeating the exact same music the exact same way. I like this album because Hector Lavoe was a great salsa singer.He is one of my personal favorites. Mark Anthony on the other hand is also a great salsa singer but with alot more vocal range. It's a good album not a great album. I think Mark Anthony should have been more creative and made it his own, using that awesome range of his.He should've went all out. He was working with some really great songs, I just think he should've gave it 100% of Mark Anthony, not just trying to make it sound like 100% of Hector Lavoe. I do understand that he is in the movie acting as Hector Lavoe, and he is obviously trying to be 100% of this character. I'm kinda split between he shoulda woulda coulda. But overall it's good. I personally prefer listening to the original stuff from Lavoe himself.

One song in particular "AQUANILE" is really hot, hot, hot. If you don't want to get up and dance to this, you must be dead.

Let me start by saying that I am one of those hardcore Hector Lavoe fanatics that gets up to dance every time any one of Lavoe's songs starts playing - be it in a restaurant, a nightclub, "la calle", you name it...

Hector Lavoe had an undeniable talent captivating the audiences with not only his voice, but his personal style back in the 70's and early 80's... Let's face it, there will never be music like Lavoe's (which is also true for all the other big "Salsa Gorda" Soneros - e.g. Tito Rodriguez, Ismael Rivera, Tito Puente, just to mention a few) - Even though I believe Mark Anthony did a great job acting in Hector's capacity (I realized this after seeing the film), Hector's music is still unparalleled today and always will be (which should not be unexpected). Objectively speaking, these songs make more sense in the movie than they do when put together as a standalone compact-disc. For my everyday listening and dancing leisure, I would much rather enjoy the unadulterated Lavoe's originals (which I do not think is particularly unexpected).

What I really expected from Mark Anthony was for him to incorporate some of his own flavor into this production. Mark Anthony is gifted in his own ways, and he should have allowed for this album to stand-out by being a little bit more like himself. Should he have done this, we would have ended up with one of the best salsa CD's ever - After all, this was a great opportunity for Mark to interpret, and not just imitate, during the remaking of some of yesterday's most-treasured salsa classics while concurrently allowing himself to reach today's "newer" salsa crowds... And as far as us consumers go - Why buy a less-than-perfect replica, when you can listen to the crème de la crème - which has stood the test of time?

Overall, this CD lacks originality and since Mark's intentions were to mirror Lavoe verbatim, I should write my evaluation with that in mind... And no, there is no Mark Lavoe.

Marc has a sensational voice but what people have to understand is that he was doing his part in a movie and he had to be Hector Lavoe for the audience to believe the part. He did an awesome job he hit the nail on the head. Marc does his songs his way on his albums this is a soundtrack people of course he has a bigger range and thats what sells his albums this is a movie about Hector Lavoe so he needed to be Hector Lavoe case closed. Two different styles two great singers.

I love this cd. I love every song. Hector Lavoe was very big with all the songs that lavoe Sang.It would have been nice to hear Marc Anthony sing Periodico de Ayer or Juanito Alimana.But its still a very good cd Buy It, its hot!!!

The sound is excellent the orquesta oustanding but Mark, voice, is not the Best that i had heard.

I wonder why Hector's best song was not included on the soundtrack?
The song "Periodico de Ayer" (Yesterdays Newspaper") is to this date one of the best Salsa recordings.