Gilberto Santa Rosa’s “Gilberto Santa Rosa” CD Review
The latest recording by Gilberto Santa Rosa has plenty of music and variety Latin music rhythms, has some very nice tunes, and yet it’s not his best work.
However, a characteristic that makes Gilberto such a great artist is that he’s always innovating. Santa Rosa will not bore you with the same thing, over and over again.
It’s rare for an artist with over 30 years of experience to self-title an album. That is usually done by newcomers who want to tell the music world, “here I am”! This album touches on so many different aspects of Gilberto Santa Rosa’s musical preferences, that perhaps he self-titled the album to tell the world of all the things he enjoys doing musically.
For this his 24th recording as a solo artist, Gilberto Santa Rosa uses an all-female chorus in 5 of the album’s 13 songs. It’s worth mentioning that since 2010 this Latin music and Salsa star holds the record for most #1 albums in the “Billboard Tropical Album” chart, and with this album he might extend his lead.
The album “Gilberto Santa Rosa” was released in November 2012 under the Sony Music label.
What I Liked about “Gilberto Santa Rosa”
Ok, let me clarify; what I meant to say was what I like about the album titled “Gilberto Santa Rosa”. This album has a lot of music (13 songs) with a good variety of Latin music styles. This makes for a interesting experience.
A few songs showcase “Salsa Romantica” at its best. Some with the newer Gilberto Santa Rosa style (“Estas Ahi”, “Guerra Fria”) and others with the old Gilberto Santa Rosa band style (“A Medio Corazon”, “Si Te Vas Te Vas”, and “Si Yo Fuera Tu”). These last three songs remind me of the sound of the 1991 album “Perspectiva”. That is one of my favorite Gilberto Santa Rosa albums!
“Gilberto Santa Rosa” has a couple of Salsa Dura re-makes. These are “Como Hay Gente en la Calle” of Cuban signer Albita, and “Dejala Bailar”. This latter one was recorded by Venezuelan singer Soledad Bravo with Willie Colon. Normally I like Gilberto’s selection of songs to re-make because he takes them up another level over the originals. On both these songs, I have to side with the original versions by the artists I mentioned. These versions are good, but I like Albita’s and Soldedad’s versions better!
More Good Stuff in “Gilberto Santa Rosa”
I was pleasantly surprised with the bolero “El Ultimo Bolero”, written by Ana Maria Perea. This is a beautiful song, with a beautiful arrangement. It is the 1st bolero (of the many that Gilberto has recorded) that I truly like. Gilberto sings it with the right emotion, the right tone, and everything comes together really beautifully. I never thought that I would ever say that I truly liked a Gilberto Santa Rosa bolero. But the day has come!
My favorite songs in the album are “Si Yo Fuera Tu”, of Jorge Luis Piloto, “Guerra Fria” of young Cuban talent Juan Jose Hernandez, “Estas Ahi” which has all-female coro and an aggressive swing at the end, which Gilberto attacks in the Salsa “soneos” with mastery, and “La Cremita”, Latin fusion song with Venezuelan Grupo Guaco.
I also liked the use of all-female chorus in 5 of the 13 songs of the album. The all-female chorus work very well in the album and reflect the work Gilberto Santa Rosa has been doing in his recent live performances titled “Ellas, Las Damas del Caballero”. In “Ellas”, Gilberto is backed by the all-female Colombian band Orquesta D’Caché.
The quality of the musical performance and of the sound is superb, as in all Gilberto Santa Rosa albums. All in all, there are several good things in all the vast musical selection contained in this album.
Suggestions to Gilberto About “Gilberto Santa Rosa”
As always I like to take an objective look at the albums I review. So here it goes…there are 2 things that I want to point out:
1. There is a wide song selection, so naturally there a few I didn’t care much for…
“Quien Te Va A Querer” is a song that didn’t connect with me. It seems like a good song, but I couldn’t like it.
“Derroche” – the bohemia classic is arranged effectively for “Salsa” (if you can call it that) but I still found it out of place here.
The bomba “Cuando a Ti Te De la Gana” – has a nice progressive bomba arrangement, but like in “Quien Te Va a Querar”, I still find it hard to connect with the song.
2. My other point is not something I didn’t like, but rather something that I would have liked to see. I would’ve loved to have seen the whole album with all-female coros.
The female “coristas” did a good job throughout the album, in both, songs that I liked and some that I didn’t like, but I like the concept. Gilberto has been using it lately, so I feel this album should have reflected the commitment to that concept. But this is just a matter of personal preference since all the coros in the album are well done.
My Recommendation of “Gilberto Santa Rosa”
Overall I consider the album “Gilberto Santa Rosa” to be a good Salsa or Latin music album. I really liked 7 or 8 of the 13 songs. If you’re doing the math you might be thinking that about 8 songs out of 13 songs is not a very good batting average for an Latin music album.
In an album with 8 or 9 or even 10 songs this is a great album. For instance, Marlow Rosado’s Salsa music album “Retro”, the recent Grammy winner in the Best Tropical Latin Album category, contained 10 songs. If you throw away 3 songs from the “Gilberto Santa Rosa” album, I think most of you would say this is a very solid album.
However, with 13 songs and a high degree of experimentation and variety in the album, those 3 songs you like the least may bring your album opinion down. So the variety in the musical selections means that the 7 or 8 songs you might like may not match exactly with my 8 favorites, or with the 8 favorites of a friend of yours.
I give Gilberto Santa Rosa high marks for the amount and variety of Latin music in the album. As I said previously, all the music in the album has excellent execution and sound quality.
So although I don’t consider this album to be Gilberto’s best work, I still like enough music in “Gilberto Santa Rosa” to rate this recording as a good album!