Willie Bobo - Spanish Grease & Uno Dos Tres 1-2-3

I am an obsessive music freak (why else would I want to have a music blog?). As such, I like to be in control of what I am listening to. Before a record even gets into my player, I have to know what is the style, why I should be checking it out, who recommends it and what he says etc.etc. Today's disc is special as one that I bought simply on hearing it. It was playing in a music store, and I liked it enough to go to the counter and ask for the name; and some time later I bought it, still not knowing who the hell is Willie Bobo and what's his shtick. So, what can I say? - this is not a "must-hear-if-you-cool", it's not an "influental historical recording", it's just good music, pure and simple.
However, I will still give some background for those of you who might be obsessive music freaks like me. Willie Bobo is a salsa percussionist and bandleader, who played with Mongo Santamaria, Cal Tjader, Tito Puente, Santana and many others; this disc is a Verve reissue combining two of his own mid-60s albums. The music is a latin/jazz/pop fusion, mellow and groovy. There are some covers of the contemporary pop tunes (It's Not Unusual, Michelle, Goin' Out Of My Head), some jazz tunes (Horace Silver's Blind Man, Blind Man), and some originals (most notably, Fried Neck Bones, later covered by Santana), but all of it sounds like seamless whole.
I should add that his music, although not as popular as it should have been in its day, is now being enthusiastically molested by the remix crowd on all sorts of Verve Remixed albums and the like.


Willie Bobo - Spanish Grease & Uno Dos Tres 1-2-3
192 kbps, 95 mb
REUP: 4shared
1. Spanish Grease
2. Hurt So Bad
3. It's Not Unusual
4. Our Day Will Come
5. Haitian Lady
6. Blues In The Closet
7. Nessa
8. Elation
9. It's Not Unusual (Instrumental)
10. Shot Gun / Blind Man, Blind Man
11. Boogaloo In Room 802
12. Come A Little Bit Closer
13. Goin' Out Of My Head
14. I Remember Clifford
15. Rescue Me
16. Michelle
17. No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)
18. Fried Neck Bones And Some Homefries
19. Ol' Man River
20. One, Two, Three (Uno, Dos, Tres)
21. Night Song
22. The Breeze And I

Another fine album featuring Willie Bobo is here.