We specialize in hard to find items
All Categories
*Price and Stocks may change without prior notice
*Packaging of actual item may differ from photo shown
- Electrical items MAY be 110 volts.
- 7 Day Return Policy
- All products are genuine and original
About Obra Maestra
Product description Song Title Artist Time Price 1. La Ultima Copa Tito Puente 5:09 2. Muddy's Club In Weinheim Tito Puente 3:24 3. Mariachi Medley: Cielito Lindo / La Negra Tito Puente 5:03 4. Marchando Bien Tito Puente 4:14 5. Picadillo Jam Tito Puente 5:18 6. El Puente Mundial Tito Puente 5:51 7. El Beso Tito Puente 6:26 $0.99 8. El Bochinche Tito Puente 4:19 9. Bolero Medley: Ensename Tu / Piensalo Bien Tito Puente 6:45 10. Paris Mambo Tito Puente 4:12 11. Yambu Pa Inglaterra Tito Puente 3:56 $0.99 12. Itutu Ache Amazon.com The original title of Tito Puente's final album was Por Fin--"Finally"--a reference to the fact that Puente and fellow Latin-jazz titan Eddie Palmieri never had recorded together, despite Puente's work with pianist Palmieri's brother early in their careers. Obra Maestra--"Masterpiece"--however, is an equally apt description for this set of a dozen mostly uptempo performances recorded shortly before Puente's death in May of 2000. While engaging in the infectious dance rhythms and perfectly calibrated, often blaring, ensemble horn statements you'd expect, the group also revels in the many shades of subtlety inherent in the arrangements. Two medleys of mariachis and boleros are especially fine-tuned, and it's gratifying also to hear the rest of the players make room for Palmieri's immaculately off-kilter solo on "Marchando Bien." Puente himself is as sizzling as ever, although he seems content to throw in his lot with the rhythm section, basking once more in the glorious sound. --Rickey Wright Review The concept alone could cause Latin music fans to max out-Tito Puente (El Rey del Timbal) and Eddie Palmieri (The Sun of Latin Music)-collaborating for the first and only time along with some of the hottest vocalists in the business. Puente's complex, polished dance-hall sound with its nod to classics mixed with Palmieri's passionate, brass-heavy street syncopation make for a potent swing that's guaranteed to send dancers to heaven. Purists may complain that Palmieri with his denser vibrations sometimes steals the show, but whatever the case, the sum total of this CD is magical. Oscar D'Lesn lends his glamorous tenor to a mambofied medley of "Cielito Lindo" and "La Negra" and to the sassy, sophisticated "Paris Mambo." An especially felicitous melding is the Puente classic "Picadillo," reincarnated here as a down-tempo jam with the horns going to town in solos and Palmieri prowling up and down the keyboard in a dialogue with Tito's frisky timbales. There are two spectacular cha-cha-chas: "El Puente Mundial," sung by Frankie Morales and Jerry Medina while the horns croon to each other and El Rey struts his stuff; and the hypnotic "El Bochinche," with Jerry Medina, Michael Stuart, and Hermann Olivera talking/singing like boys in the 'hood. Big band Latin will never get any better than this. Classy Obra Maestra was Puente's last recording, and it's a fitting memorial to the man who changed the face of Latin music forever. -Patricia Chao --
