From the
first few notes, it sounds like the real thing. Piano and bass riff hard.
Percussion enters. ¡Oiga Papa! Listen up! The trombones come in thick and
strong. Fantasia, the first song on Quarter Street’s self-titled LP is
authentic ‘salsa dura’ from the old school. Hard salsa. It’s not shiny, it’s
not clean and poppy or unduly jazzy. It’s tough, it’s gritty and ballsy, and in
terms of musicianship, writing and production, it straight up cooks.
Sergio
Botero’s voice is pure street Salsero, a worthy inheritor of the tradition defined
by Hector Lavoe and Rubén Blades. Conguero Luis Poblete, and brothers Cesar
and Cristian Saavedra on baby bass and timbales round out the core group of
Quarter Street. Like many Latinoamerican migrants to Australia, their parents
fled the various coups and revolutions of the 70s and 80s, raising their
children to the sounds of the Spanish language superstars of the era. Cuban
brass virtuoso Lazaro Numa, recently arrived in Melbourne, adds a taste of
Havana to the underlying mix of classic Puerto Rico / New York styles. The boys
grew up salsa and now they’ve brought together an impressive unit of
Melbourne’s finest Latin and Jazz musicians together to light up turntables and
dancefloors worldwide.
There’s been
a lot of rough and real analog funk, soul and Afro vinyl material released in
the last couple of decades, from the Dap-Kings and Antibalas in New York to the
Poets of Rhythm in Germany. So far, few have flown the flag for the revival of
hard-out analog era Latin music. Quarter Street are doing it. Salsa dura was
born on the mean streets of New York in the 1970s, now it’s back. Quarter
street take their cues from the giants: Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barreto and Willie
Colon and the seminal record labels Fania and Tico records and charge straight
ahead at the 21st century. The time is right.
Quarter
Street’s self-titled LP will be available worldwide on HopeStreet Recordings
distributed through FatBeats, Kudos, and Rocket on Friday 14th August 2015.
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