Sue Miller discovers someone who's been causing quite a stir in his adopted home of the Netherlands. His latest album, 'Oido al Tambora' a "mid-tempo vocal and trombone-led Salsa" is one for the dancers.
'Oido al Tambor' (Listen to the Drum) is an album of trombone and vocal-led Salsa with original compositions mainly by Venezuelan percussionist Marco Toro with some fresh trombone arrangements (particularly by Francisco Peña). The rhythm section is really tight with crisp piano montunos overlaid by vocals and trombone riffs and mambos.
The mid-tempo feel of most of the tracks makes this particularly suited to Salsa dancers with its non-stop grooves broken up by really neat percussion breaks.
The stand-out tracks for me were 'Nico Tina' with its exciting trombone and 'Di Tu'. The latter juxtaposes a minor key 'Eddie Palmieri' style section with a Reggaeton interlude, cheeky percussion breaks and 'escalera' build up to a really good Charanga-style trombone mambo before the fading out to end on a fat bass tone. Composed by Gregorio Laberinto and arranged by Marco it is one of the most daring arrangements on the album.
Marco plays all the percussion instruments and there are some fantastic percussion breaks on all the tracks. Timbales fans,in particular will be pleased with the fourth one in, 'Aquí llegó Toro' with its short and perfectly formed timbales solo. Changing the pace slightly, 'Barrio Latino' features vocalist Angel Flores who sounds a little like the young Ibrahim Ferrer and later in the album we are treated to a son-style number 'Civilización' led by the acoustic guitar and requinto of Mexican guitarist Humberto Albores, sung romantically by the smoother-voiced Colombian Nando Vanin and if we needed a bonus, there's a sumptuous double bass solo on it too.
Marco also manages to slip in a Latin cover version of 'Satisfaction' which doesn't have any of the angst associated with the Stones version. The trouble is they are satisfied! The album moves on with the Venezuelan feel of 'Mi Casa' before breaking into a more Latin jazz style on 'Brasuca'.
Overall this is a straight-ahead, well played Salsa album with a conjunto feel that will no doubt please the dancers!
