Customer Reviews

Pacanto

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This is not just the best Latin-American disc of the year but is the best of any genre. The fusion of Latin rhythms and African instruments and African rhythms and Latin instruments will blow you away! There is great depth here. I have lent this disc to several friends and all have come back to me amazed at the quality as all went in with low expectations. "La cumbia esta herida" is outstanding, "La Ripla" is a rattling instrumental dominated by the great mix of the tambores and gaitas. "Acompanala" is a soft and beautiful number and the switch 4 minutes into the beguiling "Chambacu" is SURE to blow you away. Buy this disc and I assure you, you will not be disappointed.

Colombian veteran female artist Toto La Momposina is like a musical ambassador of her roots music. The integration of Cuban son and rhythms, coupled with the African influences and solidified by her native Colombian coastal music results in a stunning Latin tempo disc that is like carnival music. This is a fun album with music that is uplifting and danceable; you better have your cumbia-salsa shoes on for this one. The use of horns gives the disc moments of Latin jazz intonations but her voice throughout carries the disc into the playful pachanga(party) mode. The songs are consistently around the five minute mark so there is plenty of room for musical improvisation and frisky interludes. The use of guitar helps establish the marriage between old and new world music. "Mile " (El hombre borracho) is a frolicksome song that employs the techniques mentioned with good results. Excellent songs include the buoyant "La Cumbia Esta Herida" that is heavy percussive with thumping horns throughout,"Oye Manita" that is heavily influenced and driven by Caribbean rhythms,"Asi Lo Grita Toto" is spiced with indigenous flutes and call and response vocals that recall ancient cultures before the Europeans and "Acompanala" that is a sweet song with African sensibilities. This is a good disc for your world music collection. If you like the music of Celia Cruz(she sounds a little like her) or Colombian music than you will probably like this disc. Get this CD for a musical journey that meets where the old world and new world merge.

This is an absolutely fantastic CD. I bought this album after purchasing "Carmelina" by Toto La Momposina. I don't know if I can relate it that much to cumbia, however, or at least the cumbia that people have come to define with the Klezmer-like brass, the gypsy-jazz sweeps of the clarinet and the booming bass drums. (If that is what you're looking for, I recommend "The Rough Guide to Cumbia"). But "Pacanto" is still a wonderful album that explores the roots of cumbia and its coastal origins, providing the listener with a rich collection of native Colombian rhythms and those of its own. Amazon.com did a good job here of selecting samples that really give you a taste of the CD's content.