Ray Barretto - Irresistible
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CD Details
Artist: Ray BarrettoEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2007-02-27
Music Label: Fania
Soundtracks:
- Llamame
- Aguadilla
- Amo La Noche
- Cancion Para El Nino
- Otra Noche Mas
- Irresistible
- Eras
- Night In Tunisia
Music reviews of Irresistible
Music Review: R.B: "Oh my god; the worse I have done in my career; I've tried it, but everyone knows it's not Ray Barretto..."
Rating: 2 Stars
This 1989 Ray Barretto release is a CLEAR attempt in trying to produce a commercial style of Salsa record in the typical fashion trend of the 1980's era with the ONLY possible intention being: hoping to sell it well in a decade where the proper style of traditional Salsa music sound was beginning to fade away since the early 80's.
While I don't know how successful this record may have been, what I DO know is that it showcases TO THE FRONT the typical gooey and rootless romantic style of commercial Salsa sound that goes against the roots of what this music is all about, and which was also one of the factors of salsa's destruction! And what do we get!?
An artist of the calibre and history of Ray Barretto producing and in a way, encouraging SUCH a style of music!
The 1st song Llámame already starts with a very off-putting romantic beginning which is VERY long to wait for what it is. The 2nd part of the tune DOES get musically better to the point of being enjoyable enough, even though you have such a chorus (in Spanish) saying: "I beg you to call me, `little darling' " done in a slightly feminine way...
(It's basically a decent commercial tune that "gets away" ...)
Now, Aguadílla is by far THE best tune from the album!
It has a proper Salsa sound that can be defined as New York style with a slight Puerto-Rican Island flavour. Aesthetically, it goes in the right sense and in the good direction of what Salsa should sound like and swings more than ANY tune on this record.
It also serves as a good proof of this band's musical potential and quality as a unit which unfortunately, cannot be showcased to the max in an album like this one.
If only all the songs were like this, I may have given it 4 stars.
I even think that as a whole, the quality of the band performance here is better than on the the Fania All-Stars Bamboleo Cd (which I previously reviewed) because I believe they still manage to keep some sort of swing, liveliness and tightness despite the style of music they had to record here...
Now we go "back to earth" with Amo La Noche, saying (in Spanish): "I love the night because in the night I can love you!..."
Not only the chorus is OBVIOUSLY cheesy, but SO silly, that I feel I have to contest it!
Can we not love in the morning, afternoon, night, and even in the dawn!?......
Concerning the music, I have even less to say.
It's just an ordinary romantic Salsa tune with a fairly passive and monotonous rhythm, like ALL the songs from this album except for Aguadílla and song 8.
Canción Para El Niño (song for the child) to me sounds more like a semi-erotically LONG cheesy beginning with synthesiser arrangements, rather than a tune for a child, frankly!...
ANOTHER bad thing about this album is that Synthesisers do not sound Latin AT ALL, but this was another BAD fashion era thing to manage to make the music even more sweet and syrupy, but since this album is all about showcasing the bad elements of the Latin music of that era, this is what we get for the money!...
EVENTUALLY after 2:13 mins of "zedding through", we FINALLY get a 2nd montuno part in a smooth Cha-cha-chá rhythm with actually very decent flugelhorn-trumpet solos and smooth jazz Flute solos. You also get a SOLID Ray Barretto Conga-drum solo as a good bonus...
Song 5. opens up an even poorer Side B with Otra Noche Más. The tune doesn't get away for me this time, and again, a VERY long 1st part, a bland and homogenous musicality, and a passive, un-intense and monotonous rhythm define this tune. Probably the album's worse song as well!
Don't even bother thinking that the title-track Irresistíble is going to be special! It's just another romantic Salsa tune as well as Eras (you was) which is also pretty annoying with a Piano solo by Dominican Ricky González who he is not favoured by the musicality of this tune to express himself to his very best.
I also think that the 1st part of Eras may have been singed by Tito Rodríguez with the Tito Puente Orchestra, IF my memory's right...
Anyway, to finish in a more positive note, we get the Dizzie Gillespie Jazz classic A Night in Tunisia. It's finally a tune where Ricky González CAN show off his talents all the way through on `normal' Piano and on the keyboard-synthesisers, and boy, he delivers!...
I've never doubted of his talents, anyway, and I believe he is one of the latest top-notch Pianists around.
You also get the classic arrangements with a short Bass solo intervention around the middle of the tune too...
A fine song and (in my opinion) the 2nd best tune from the album.
What a disappointment that Barretto had to come up with an album like this one just after his `Celia Cruz & Ray Barretto Ritmo En El Corazon' Cd which is SOLID and well worth having. (Now available remastered).
Type in youtube Biografia de Ray Barreto. Parte 5 de 6 to find out what he had to say about this album 1.30 mins into the video (which is what I put on the title).
In case you're wondering, I wrote this review as a warning for you lot's money and as a protest against a style of Salsa music that MUST get dismissed!...
(For a change, I do agree with the rating from the AMG Allmusic guide!...)
DO NOT EVEN THINK OF BUYING THIS CD if you don't like the "commercial" "syrupy-sweet salsa romántica style of records of the late 1980s-early'90s" !!!...
Total Play-time: 41 Mins.
Remastered 2007; sound quality: Don't know who remastered it, but seems ABSOLUTELY fine from the sound-clips I've heard in many websites.
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