Nu Yorica!

SOUL JAZZ, 1996

You say: “[One of] the three best records I own (Bossa Nova and Tropicália being the other two).” @buffalasanga, via Twitter

Expanded and remastered for its 20th anniversary in 2015, an exemplary cultural and social history with a swinging soundtrack traces the evolution of Latin music in ’70s New York, where the children of (amongst others) Puerto Rican, Cuban and African Americans rubbed shoulders and crashed genre boundaries. Charlie Palmieri sets a formidable pace for the party with Las Negritas De Carnival (1974). Its fabulous salsa swing sounds positively conservative next to Palmieri’s acclaimed younger brother Eddie, whose wild, expansive piano intro to Un Dia Bonita alone justifies the ‘experiments’ in the subtitle; by the time the orchestra crash in (at around 8 mins) you’ll be shaking… then swaying.