Customer Reviews

Havana 3 a.m.

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

 

 

This CD transports you to the guilt-free excitement of pre-Castro Cuba. Perez Prado has an extremely distinctive style, unlike any other. I think his music is more likeable than that of Tito Puente, simply because Prado seems to take himself less seriously. You may find yourself laughing out loud while listening (and dancing uncontrollably) to this CD, for the music's joy is infectious. The only downside is that the recording quality is sometimes tinny, certainly not an improvement over the original masters from the 1950's. WARNING: persons with prosthetic hips should consult their physician prior to purchasing this recording!

This CD, I believe, is every bit as creative as, say,
the Beatle's Sergeant Pepper album. Every track is fantastic,
and to my personal delight: there are no vocals to distract
from the highly creative music, save of course Prado's trademark
grunts, which you gotta love. Nobody grunts to the music better
than Perez Prado. Also, the CD is very well produced, the sound
is crystal clear. Even the great Tito Puente, I think, never produced a CD so creative and consistently amazing as this.

this music is truly infectuous, the more you hear it, the more you like it. This is without a doubt Perez Prado's best album, and Maynard Ferguson's trumpet literally screams out of the speakers.

Misnamed: If the title and the cover make you think you're in for some mellow sexy late night Havana groove, guess again! This is more Hollywood bowl. Perez Prado at his most Kenton-esque, which means that things can get pretty strange, in the manner of Kenton's notion of the "modern" style. You even have Maynard Ferguson doing his master-of-the-stratosphere thing. The arrangements of standards like El Manicero and Bahia ("Baia") are so Kentonian as to be far removed from the typical Latin idiom. None of this constitutes criticism. This is the most fun PP album I've come upon.
(PS Did Prado teach James Brown to punctuate his songs with Big Grunts? That's a serious question. I've always wondered if he was digging Perez...)

I agree with the above reviewer that this album is wonderful, but what was so "guilt-free" about pre-Castro Cuba? Please remember, Cuba was run by a vicious dictator propped up by our government, and by the Mafia. Some guilt-free. Granted, Castro is no enlightened leader, but he's a cut above Battista. Fortunately, Perez Prado had no stake in his country's politics. He was a great artist, plain and simple, and it is actually unfortunate that Cuba's politics hurt his career in the U.S. after 1960.