Customer Reviews

Que Pasa: The Best of the Fania All Stars

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For a brief time in the late 1970s, salsa music seemed poised to crack into the American mainstream, with slick Latin rhythms suffused throughout the jazz fusion world, and hints of Cuban son rhythms creeping into the Miami disco scene. The Fania All-Stars, as the name would imply, was a celebrity-packed jamfest, with a rhythmic core drawn from the ranks of the Fania label's roster, including Johnny Pachecho, Bobby Valentin, Papo Lucca, Roberto Roena, Johnny Rodriguez and others, along the elite of the booming North American salsa scene, artists such as Celia Cruz, Mongo Santamaria and Ruben Blades. This CD collects material from four albums the ensemble recorded for Columbia Records (in itself, a significant crossover milestone): 1976's "Delicate And Jumpy," 1977's "Rhythm Machine," "Spanish Fever," from 1978 and "Cross Over," from 1979. It's a solid, swinging set, ranging from reworkings of seminal Latin pop hits such as "El Manisiero (Yhe Peanut Vendor)" to more modern, aggressive dance tunes. This collection also offers plenty of strong performances and a good impression of the breadth of pop styles the All-Stars were willing to take on -- a dash of disco and '70s-style soul/R&B, some rock, and plenty of commercial and fusion jazz. Non-Latin guest stars include folks such as rocker Steve Winwood, soft-jazz saxman David Sanborn, soul singer Gwen Guthrie, and the inevitable Brecker Brother or two. All in all, a nice sampling of this well-named, well-regarded crossover crew. Recommended!

I bought this for my husband for Valentine's Day. He was born and raised in NYC during the times of Fania All Stars and all those other famous Spanish singers. I sneaked it into the DVD player while he was in the separate room with his baby daughter. He brought his daughter out to the living room where the music was playing and he seemed absorbed in faraway thought. His daughter started dancing to the music while her father looked at her funny and then he looked at me. His facial expression changed and he was on cloud nine! It was priceless! It is a beautiful classic to show your love.

This CD contains most of the salsa tunes released in the Columbia label albums (Delicate and Jumpy 1976, Rhythm Machine 1977, Spanish Fever 1978, and Cross Over 1979) and it leaves out most of the "crossover" songs.
The mastering of these songs is great. I wish that Emusica would do as good a mastering job with the re-release of the Fania catalog.
I really like this CD for the music and for the quality of the audio although it would have been great if they had included "Te pareces a Judas" and "En orbita" and leave out the "crossover" tunes to make it a full Salsa CD which is what FAS do best.
I recommend this CD if you like Salsa Dura and the Fanial All Stars.

Not Salsa-ee enough, too much 70's funk, but not good funk. Stick with Hector Lavoe's greatest hits or the El Cantante soundtrack.

I got into the Fania All Stars through the excellent SoulJazz NuYorica compilations, with the hard salsa sound and incredible musicianship which is amazingly polished but still has an edge of soul/roughness and improvisation. This is not a "best of" from that sound - a couple of real scorchers here like Coro Miyare and Juan Pachanga. But the rest is not that sound, it's really smooth, really pretty cheesy to my ears and I'm not sure why it's classified as a best of - it's limited to the cross-over albums they made in the late 70s.

Great music, just what I needed for teaching. It is very traditional salsa music. Old school stuff, a little "Old Brazil", but hey, it makes it all the worthwhile to listen too. and as far as teaching, which was the main reason for buying this cd, it has a range of tempos. Great stuff.

This CD is absolutely a must have if your into latin music. Fania All-Stars rock the house. The sounds created by the diverse artists on this CD just makes you want to dance all day and night..Awesome, awesome, awesome!!!!

Though not quite all the best from Fania All Stars's Columbia/CBS Records titles, it is indeed one for the books. There are some key titles missing from this collection (Desafio from 1976's Delicate & Jumpy; En Orbita from 1977's Rhythm Machine; Te Pareces A Judas from 1978's Spanish Fever), yet, those that have been included do justice to Fania's overall musical adventure. We must remember that back in the 70's, Disco Music dominated the airwaves as well as the night clubs, so The Fania All Stars, as adventurous and ambitious as they were, felt they needed to prove to themselves they could too be a force in that arena. You will hear their vision on each and everyone of the 13 tracks of this collection. Their attempt is a success in many levels; however, the few times when they failed, you could hear their collapse miles away. But worry not, they knew how to get back up and start all over again. The whole package defines an era. An era very much too dear to me, and no doubt, to many other listeners and lovers of the genre and its performers (The Fania All Stars in this case). An era where Latinos were up and coming in many aspects and spectrums of everyday life. Titles like Ella Fue (She Was The One) and Que Pasa ventures with the not yet known Latin Jazz mixed in with the sounds of the times like Disco and Rock. Songs like Juan Pachanga and Sin Tu Carino by Panamanian idol Ruben Blades were simply a prelude of things and ideas to come by him as a composer, singer, sonero, and producer. Jams like Coro Miyare and Los Bravos will give you goose-bumps. The melodic Isadora by Celia Cruz (written by Puerto Rican master composer Catalino Curet Alonso)tells a story as it's likely to be told nowadays. Give it a try; you will live or live again the 70's without wearing a white suit or platform shoes.

Les recomiendo este disco a todos aquelllos buenos conocedores de los exitos de la Fania, es un disco recopilatorio con grandes hits en una excelente calidad de sonido, "Coro Miyare", "Fania All Stars' Cha Cha Cha" y los Clásicos de Ruben Blades "Juan Pachaga" y "Sin tu Cariño" hacen de este trabajo un disco de oro a un muy buen precio.... Saludos desde Venezuela.

Luis Mendoza.