Eddie Montalvo: “Señor Tambó” Review
This is Salsa well made, tightly performed, and with top-notch sound.
- Music & Performance
- Sound
- Overall Production
Hard Salsa with elegance. Hard-core Salseros will enjoy it!
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Eddie Montalvo‘s 3rd solo album, “Señor Tambó“, has a title that he’s earned through his long career, and is worthy of his 2nd Grammy nomination.
“Señor Tambó” is a hard Salsa album, with the swing of the 70’s-80’s that caters to the Salsa dancer. The excellent musicians and singers in this recording make it a must-listen for the “salseros de la mata”.
About “Señor Tambó“
“Señor Tambó” follows on the foot steps of Eddie’s previous recording as bandleader, “Desde Nueva York a Puerto Rico” (2012). That album earned him a 2013 Grammy nomination with a concept of bringing a to the studio some of the best talent in New York and in Puerto Rico.
With that same concept for “Señor Tambó“, Eddie Montalvo brings Pedro Perez on bass, Pedro Bermudez on piano, Ray Colon on bongo, Sergio “Chino” Ramos on timbal, the amazing trio of Jan Duclerc, David “Piro” Rodriguez, and Julito Alvarado on trumpets, Eliut Cintron, Jorge Diaz, and Fania All Stars alumni Reynaldo Jorge on trombones, Sammy Velez on the baritone sax, and Jeremy Montalvo on maracas.
The chorus is first class, with specialists Hector “Pichie” Perez, Henry Santiago, and Darvel Garcia.
Like in the previous album, “Señor Tambó” uses invited singers for each song. These include Luisito Carrion, Hector “Pichie” Perez (ex-La Poncena), Marcial Isturiz, Victor Garcia (pa’s que bailes comoquiera), Hector “Tempo” Alomar (ex-Conjunto Libre, Apollo Sound), Kayvan Vega, Angel Rios, Anthony Almonte (main singer in Little Johnny’s new album), Joseph Gonzalez, and Gaitanes (brothers Ricardo and Alberto Gaitan).
With this lineup, let’s talk about the results!
Hard, Thick, and Spiced Salsa
This album is all about good “golden-age” Salsa from top to bottom. The fact that the lineup includes a baritone sax, trombones and heavy trumpets means the recipe is for a thick and spiced stew.
The song titles also give it away. “El Guapo“, “El Negro Encarnacion“, “Cemento y Arena“, “El Chango de Maria“, and of course, “Señor Tambó“, leaves no doubt this isn’t a romantic album.
Eddie Montalvo has played with the best, and the elegance can’t be missing just because the swing is hard.
The opening song “Tributo a Ruben Blades” is a well-deserved homage to his friend, Salsa icon, and partner with Willie Colon, Fania All Stars, and Seis del Solar. Interestingly, the song is performed by the Gaitanes (which is a Panamanian duo of brothers), and one of them happens to either imitate or his voice strongly resembles that of the Salsa icon.
He also include “De Los Mejores” another homage to his conga colleagues (both past and present).
But with all the goodness, and I realize I’m just scratching the surface here, my favorite is the title song, “Señor Tambó“. Sung with gusto by the great Luisito Carrion, the song swings and Luisito pushes it to the max.
Great Salsa Album
I don’t know how you’ll get through this album without getting up to dance, even if by yourself. This is Salsa well made, tightly performed, and with top-notch sound.
You’ll enjoy listening to “Señor Tambó“.
While this is a good album, the one issue I have with it is that too many of the arrangements sound the same. And that is because there are only two arrangers on the entire album. Pedro Bermudez, while being an excellent arranger, doesn’t provide enough diversity for the too many charts at his charge. Eddie needed to enlist at least five different arrangers and give the music a more varied tempo. Individually, each song is great. Collectively, this album just kind of runs on. I think the best song is the last one, Haz Tu Parte. All in all it’s a gotta have anyway.
Great insights Juan! Thanks for sharing them! I have to agree with you in that it could have benefited from more diversity in the arrangements.