AMG Review of Carnaval (Latino!/Pachanga with Barretto)

Stewart Mason
All Music Guide

One of the many budget-priced Fantasy mid-'70s repackages to get a '90s CD issue (rather than simply releasing the original LPs with their original titles and artwork), Ray Barretto's Carnaval combines two 1962 sessions, Pachanga With Barretto (his Milestone label debut as a leader) and Latino!. Both sets feature Barretto's first band, Charanga Moderna, with trumpeter El Negro Vivar and tenor saxophonist Jose Chombo Silva added to the front line for the latter LP. The first album (confusingly the latter on the CD reissue, comprising tracks nine-18) is very much a Latin jazz album of its time, with all ten tracks designed for dancing the briefly popular pachanga, a dance that was simply too manic and difficult to catch on widely. The pachanga-friendly tempos on these ten brief cuts (most under three minutes) make the album sound rushed and nervous to ears unfamiliar with the dance fad. The far-better Latino!, recorded in nearly the same session, is a good old-fashioned jam session, with more leisurely tempos and extended playing times that give all the soloists -- especially Vivar, Silva, and flutist Jose Canoura -- plenty of room to stretch out. These two albums are very different, but hearing both of them in proximity reveals much about the state of the New York City Latin jazz scene in the early '60s.