Favorite Cotique + Speed titles?
mannybolone
Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
Wanted to holler at some of the Latin soul heads up here and ask about some of their favorite titles on Cotique and Speed?I've been chasing after Fania titles but realize I should expand my horizons. Oddly, I've probably done better with Speed than Cotique, though a lot of that is just luck in terms of titles I've found on the cheap(ish). Some of my faves:Speed:Dianne & Carole with the Latin Whatchamacallits: Feeling the PainFrankie Nieves: The Terrible Frankie Nieves(Still need that Chuito and the Latin Blues Band titles though!)Cotique:the first two Johnny Colon LPsLebron Brothers Go PsychedelicTNT Boys: Sex SymbolsI have several Joey Pastrana LPs but I've never been totally blown away by these. Just got one of the Johnny Rivera and Tequila Brass LPs but haven't sat with it yet. What else do people put on their recommended list?Thanks.
Comments
track "Sweet Soul Music" is pretty killer.
Latin Blues Band has some great cuts, too -
the pot anthem "Lay an OZ on Me Baby" and the
vocal cut to the "Happy Soul"/"Moon Strut"
backing track, "I'll Be a Happy Man" - the
sex pun track "I Call My Baby Pussycat" is a little
too corny for me, but is OK.
Chuito is the best LP on the label, IMO, and has
the most solid overall selection, although I am
a big fan of the girl group sounds of Diane & Carole
and would like to find a copy pretty badly.
Yeah, I like that title too...need to revisit it. I usually only ever play one song off it.
The Lat-Teens!!!
Although weren't you telling me that you weren't that blown away by this band, when I started a Lat-Teens thread some time back?
The one I have is Joey In P.R., and I thought that one was kinda
[color:red]***"Sid's Walk," which big-upped NYC DJ Symphony Sid Torin[/color]
"Don't Be Shy" perhaps?
Salsa version of the Arthur Conley hit??
Conversely, I think that LP is excellent.
Symphony Sid wrote the liner notes for the Latin Blues Band LP on Speed.
I always thought it was cool that Symphony Sid, uber hip DJ of the
swing and bop eras, was one of the driving forces behind the NYC latin
soul sound of the 60's ... he must have been a pretty interesting character,
and seemed to be well-loved by all the great NYC latin artists.
I need to go back to it. I might have been confusing this with another title actually.
No, that was what I expected, but it was something
completely different. I'll try to dig it out and record
sometime tonight.
Yeah, I was expecting the same thing but was pleasantly surprised that it was something else entirely. The Zapata album is nice; the B-side has all the Latin soul goodies if I recall.
Two things I've noticed about a lot of late-sixties Latin LP's...this isn't true for all of them, but I've found that several:
(1) have a tribute to Symphony Sid
(2) in the liner notes: "the lead vocals on this song were done by ________, who has since been drafted"
I think Fania released a Symphony Sid tribute album (when he retired?).
Sid also wrote the notes for that "Big Ol' Bag O' Boogaloo" series on 12" that (I'm presuming) bootlegs a bunch of stuff on Speed.
"Nuevo Swing" never fails to please. Guitar picking the montuno part always gets me.
"Cry Back"! come on! that track is nice!
I also have lots of love for TICO. Mid to late 60's they had so much heat.
Don't remember offhand if that song is on either of the two Lat-Teens albums I got, but that band featured some of the strongest rhythm guitar east of Steve Cropper.
"Cry Back"! come on! that track is nice!
I haven't played that album in a while, but I do seem to remember that that was one of the few songs on it that I like apart from the Symphony Sid theme.
No hijack meant, but anybody know much about LaFlor Records? I have an album on this label by Wiso Pagan called Wiso Boogaloo...
Basically if there are VIBES - I'm feelin it!
Also that CRY BACK tune by Joey Pastrana is COOOOL...
Who did the remix of it....was it like mo horizons or something??
from memory, not a lot, but I'll check them tonight....
yeah, nothing really stood out to me, they could have just as well been from the same session
matter of fact, when i started a Lat-Teens thread some time back, i wondered if there was any difference in these two vs. the third
boogaloo is nothing to apologize for
The first New Swing Sextet LP is fire.
And don't sleep on Joey Pastrana Let's Ball and Joey; or Johnny Colon Move Over.
I don't remember Sid being mentioned though that's not beyond the realm of possibilities. Folks like King Nando and Bataan always said it was collusion b/t folks like Fania, promoters and radio DJs but I don't know if Sid was part of that cabal or not.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110202800451&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=001
This record is a comp with tracks from all sorts of different labels, Fonseca, Fania, Cotique, Tico, etc. Whats weird about the record is that it doesn't follow the last catalouge number of Speed, I think its 0111, which makes me think there a few unreleased Speed albums somewhere out there.
To answer Picwick about LaFlor, its a very small label, out fo the Bronx I think. I didn't like the Wiso Pagan album, the "Peter Gunn" cover is the best thing on it. Wiso has a record on the Hopes label which is all merengue, and he has another one on Mary Lou but i haven't head it.
I agree with SOI that Chuito is the best record on Speed, followed by Frankie Nieves. Milton Zapata and Orquesta Olivieri are good. I didn't think too much of Latin Blues band record, sounds like a cheap copy of Bennito Sextet. Moonpeople is pretty lackluster too. I finally heard Dianne and Carol, its good but I wouldn't break bank on it.
In regards to Cotique recommendations, really I like a lot of things on the label. A lot of people recommend the Chollo Rivera record, but to me he is an immitation of Ralfi Pagan, who does the falsetto style better imo. Somebody recommended "Psychadelic Goes Latin" and "Brooklyn Bums" from the Lebrons and I would add "Brother" to that list, a really solid album. I also like the Ray Jay and the Eastsiders record, the first three New Swing Sextet joints (and that's saying a lot because I hate the vibes), the first two TNT Band records. I like all of the Joey Pastrana records up to "El Verdadero" but he plays much less latin soul on each subsequent album. The second Johnny Colon record is his best imo, very tough to find clean too. A lot of great records on the album, stuff to skip over: La Nueva Explosion, Ray Roman (Roy Roy Trumpet Boy is a good track but the rest of the album is a snooze), Chivirco Davila, Santos and Menique, really a lot of the later Cotique label kind of fell off.
I guess I'll need to unpack the wallet to cop that Chuito. I got relatively lucky with most of the other Speed titles; never had the really come out of pocket big for any of them except maybe for the Dianne and Carol. I agree, the latter isn't amazing but it's cool to find a female Latin soul album.
What's Colon's "Move Over" like?
I assumed that maybe it's some "special products"-type joint with its' own series?
Just the mere fact that Sid's name is up front and they licensed all these tunes from other labels makes me think it could be some kind of vanity pressing for the radio station.
Which album was this?
Its good, but not as great as his first two albums. I think he changed singers at this pooint, the TNT Band did his vocals on the first two. I think I remember it being more straight ahead latin than latin soul.
If you want to find out more about him, here is an intersting Village Voice article.
And also a link to his website.
Every year I hope they can get Johnny to play at some city sponsored summer concert, I would love to hear his orchestra!