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The Music of Ritmo Oriental - Compilation Consternation

Compilation Consternation

We've now covered 3 must-have "Write Egrem" tracks in a row, with four more coming up fast, so it's time to pause and catch up on the grim realities of actually finding these precious recordings.

cuban music, musica cubanacuban music, musica cubanaIdeally, we would have a box set of every track ever recorded by La Ritmo, remastered, arranged in chronological order, and lovingly documented. As it is, we have La historia de la Ritmo Vol. 1 & 2, Ritmo Oriental is Calling You, and Guarachando. It's hard to find too much fault with the approach of the issuers of these 4 CDs -- they left off the boleros, kept the dance tracks, and with a handful of exceptions, they avoided duplicating each others' efforts. Cuban Gold 1, Cuban Gold 2, and Cuban Gold 4 add, between them, 4 of the best tracks la Ritmo ever recorded, and fortunately, they also have some rare tracks by other important groups.

But even if we leave off the pre-Humberto charanga period, the post-Daniel Díaz & Tony Calá stuff from the 90s, the boleros, and a few random tracks not up to the level of genius of the ones we've been hearing, there's still enough for one more album, and, with the caveat that I may not have discovered the existence of every masterpiece yet, these are the songs that should be on it:

Sabroseao con La Ritmo
Qué se sepa bien, mi amor
Quién dice (la gorda)
Enseñame tu baila Lola
Tema de saludos amigos
Por hacerme caso
Pero soy así
Qué es lo que hay
Si te vas no voy a llorar
La Quinta (coming soon)
Yo no me equivoco
(coming soon)
Oriente cuna florida (I've never heard it)
La juventud en el campo
(I've never heard it)

And so, once again we implore the reader to: write EGREM. If you've already done this, please do it again.

Tuesday, 22 March 2011, 07:31 PM