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Originally released in 2006 on Honest Jon's, but not previously distributed in North America -- now fully available on CD here for the first time. A scorching compilation which features the brilliant, hybrid array of styles which burned up Latino dancefloors during the '60s in New York. The '60s were years of explosive transition for Latin music in New York: in tune with the times of strident political protest and cultural affirmation, new rhythms like the pachanga, boogaloo, típico and salsa signalled significant changes in musical sensibility among a new generation. By the early 1960s, the heyday of the great mambo era was passing, and by the end of the decade, the catch-all phrase salsa had been implanted on the rich variety of styles and rhythms that made up the repertoire. In between, throughout the 1960s, a thousand flowers bloomed in the Latin music field, with the bands conversant in the traditional Afro-Cuban styles of son and guaguancó and cha cha chá, Latin jazz and bolero, while also trying their hand at a range of newly-emerging styles, beginning with the pachanga in the opening years through to boogaloo and shingaling, until the roots sounds of típico as the decade ended. This array of styles came together in those heady years, and the eclectic tastes of those dynamic times are all here, from "Tanga," the first recorded example of Cubop and the classic "Descarga Cachao," to the jaunting guaguancó of Ray Barretto and Bobby Pauneto. But while some of the selections represent the preceding musical generation, and others anticipate the salsa sound of the key Fania years of the early 1970s, the focus here is on the boogaloo and Latin soul sound which was the most characteristic soundtrack of the period. Listen to the two Willie Rosario cuts, "Cool Jerk," and the pieces by Joe Loco and Willie Bobo, and you'll hear the trademarks of the style: the raucous hand-clapping, the party exhortations, the back-beat drumming, the African-American street English -- the result was a crazy, motley style named after the African-American dance craze of the moment, the boogaloo. Boogaloo and related styles of Latin soul were the first real crossover sounds that broke the language and style barriers, and the first to make it onto the Billboard charts as top sellers nation-wide. However, it was a genre not destined to last long, soon eclipsed by the more commercially-durable salsa boom of the early 1970s. But notwithstanding the brief life-span of boogaloo, to this day many of its top hits are loved by dancers everywhere. Other artists include: Manny Corchado, Macito, Tito Rodriguez, Kako, La Playa Sextet, Chuito Velez, Joe Loco, The La Playa Orchestra, Rene Grand And His Combo New York, and Dianne And Carole.
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