Tito Puente/Celia Cruz: Alma Con Alma [CRAFT]

Why you'll love it

Kevin Gray cut this 180g pressing all analog from the original tapes at Cohearent Audio. It pairs the King of Latin Jazz with the Queen of Salsa on a set of Afro-Cuban songs, a turn from their dance-floor records together.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• All-analog cut from the original tapes
• Remastered
• Tip-on jacket

About the album

When the King of Latin Jazz and the Queen of Salsa get together, you'd expect a party. Alma Con Alma, "soul with soul," goes somewhere deeper. After a run of dance-floor albums together in the 1960s, Tito Puente and Celia Cruz turned to the Afro-Cuban roots that ran under both their careers.

Puente produced, arranged and conducted, and the rhythms do much of the talking: guaguancó, bolero, guajira and cha-cha all turn up. "Elegua" and "Chango" draw on the sacred music of Cuba, "Guiro 6/8" rolls on a hypnotic cross-rhythm, and "Salsa de Tomate" and "Cuyi" give Cruz room to swing. "Murmullo Del Mar" and "Alguien Vendra" slow things to a gorgeous bolero pace.

Cruz sold over 30 million records in her career and Puente made more albums than most of us have had hot dinners. This is the pair at their most soulful, and it still sounds like the room is about to start moving, quietly, from the hips.

Also at Kops: more Celia Cruz on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Tico / Craft Recordings (cat# CR00233), a reissue of the 1970 album.