Lamento Borincano--Early Puerto Rican Music: 1916-1939
Lamento Borincanois a wonderful collection of early recordings of Puerto Rican music that cover an astonishingly wide range of styles, from sophisticateddanzas, which have a strong European influence, to the earthier sound of theseis jibaroandplena, which were created by farm workers and laborers, to thebolero,son, andguaracha, which were imports from Cuba. All these tracks were recorded in New York between 1916 and 1939, and because most of the musicians were recent immigrants making music for their homesick countrymen, the music still retains a strong island feel. This two-CD set includes a meticulously annotated 56-page booklet that contains biographies of the musicians, lyrics in Spanish and English, and a description of the musical styles. The engineers at Arhoolie have done an excellent job of cleaning up these old records, and even though the recordings were made in the first part of the last century, they are still very easy to listen to and exhibit almost none of the scratchiness that can mar reissues of 78s.Lamento Borincanois a strong reminder that Cuba is not the only Caribbean island that has produced exciting music played by world-class musicians.--Michael Simmons