Juan Pablo Torres: Super Son [MR BONGO]

Why you'll love it

This remastered reissue is part of Mr Bongo's Cuban Classics series. Super Son is one of Torres's best-loved albums, from the years he led Algo Nuevo, one of the leading songo groups of the 1970s.

This edition

• Cuban Classics series
• Remastered

About the album

Juan Pablo Torres learned music from his father, a trumpet and trombone player in Puerto Padre, and started out on euphonium in the municipal band. By the 1970s he was producing at EGREM, Cuba's national label, directing the all-star Estrellas de Areito and, from 1976, leading his own group, Algo Nuevo. Earlier, with Los Caneyes, he had even invented a new rhythm, the chikichaka.

Super Son came out on Areito in 1977, and it shows Torres at full stretch as player, arranger, producer and bandleader. Hypnotic, psychedelic rumbas sit beside Afro-Latin funk grooves and some delightfully offbeat orchestrated pieces, with a big band horn section punching through the mix and Torres's trombone out front. The title track and openers like Y Que Bien and Rico Melao set the tone; Mr Bongo calls it up there with the funkiest Cuban records around.

Torres went on to play in Irakere alongside Chucho Valdés, and in later years he was called one of the best trombone players in Latin jazz, directing Cuban Masters to Latin Grammy nominations in 2002 and 2003. Fair warning; the horns on this one tend to rearrange the furniture.

Also at Kops: more Juan Pablo Torres on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Mr Bongo / Areito, a reissue of the 1977 album.