Ray Barretto: Barretto Power [CRAFT/FANIA]

Why you'll love it

This 50th anniversary edition from Craft Latino comes on 180g vinyl in a hard tip-on jacket. It catches Barretto's band at full steam, between boogaloo and the salsa sound he helped invent.

This edition

• 50th anniversary edition
• 180g vinyl
• Tip-on jacket
• Poly-lined inner sleeve
• Stereo mix

About the album

Ray Barretto is credited as the first US-born percussionist to bring the conga drum into jazz, and by 1970 he was turning that fire into something new. The Brooklyn-born son of Puerto Rican parents had scored a hit with "El Watusi" in 1962, ridden the boogaloo wave, and was now one of the leading names in what would soon be called salsa.

Barretto Power, produced by Fania's Jerry Masucci, has the band in peak form, with Adalberto Santiago out front. "Oye La Noticia" and "Perla del Sur" swing hard, "Right On" brings a dose of funk, "Quítate La Máscara" and "Y Dicen" lean into son montuno, and "Sé Que Volverás" slows things down. The closing "Power" is a long descarga, Barretto's specialty, where the band stretches out and his congas take charge. Masucci's Fania was the home of the salsa boom, and Barretto was one of its anchors.

Barretto went on to be a long-time pillar of the Fania All-Stars and kept touring with his New World Spirit jazz ensemble into the 2000s. Fifty years on, the title still does exactly what it says on the tin.

Also at Kops: more Ray Barretto on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Fania / Craft Latino (cat# CR00330), a reissue of the 1970 album.