pickwick33 said:This album here:
was my gateway drug to Latin music, in the late eighties. It's an anthology called
We Got Latin Soul, and was issued on Caliente, a subsidiary of Charly.
I wasn't really checking for this kind of music up to then, although I liked the occasional R&B/latin/jazz cut that I'd heard on dusties shows, like Mongo Santamaria's "Watermelon Man" and Joe Cuba's "Bang Bang."
But I didn't pursue it farther until somebody told me about this anthology, which contained "Bang Bang," plus a bunch of other Latin tracks with a soulful feel, from the vaults of the Tico and Fania labels.
Since that day in October 1988, I've been on the bandwagon (although Lord knows this stuff wasn't easy to find in Chicago for years).
Compilations were central to getting wind of stuff back in the late 80s in London when record stores and radio were a joke. Nothing pre 1979 was in print or broadcast unless it was by Paul Mccartney and Wings and had already seen a previous UK issue. I was picking up clues to all this mysterious US "rare groove" via obscure compilation LPs and pirate radio featuring music that had never even seen the light of day in the UK. I remember one comp, I think it was called "Focus on Fusion Vol I", that introduced me to Patrice Rushen Haw Rght Now, Johnny Hammond Les Conquistadores Chocolates and Rustry Bryant Friday Night Funk. It was like music from another planet .....
