Lights! Action! Prado!

AMG Review of Lights! Action! Prado!

Tony Wilds
All Music Guide

RCA and United Artists are the only U.S. major labels for which Prado officially recorded. The UA material is interesting, and some tracks from Lights! Action! Prado! were anthologized on countless UA movie soundtracks, soundtrack re-interpretations, and other compilations. It is, of course, a treat to hear Prado's Latinate versions of "Goldfinger" and "The James Bond Theme." Although produced by soundtrack genius Leroy Holmes, Lights! otherwise never reaches the highs of his own material. In places the percussion echoes airily, emptily, and the rhythm is regressively syncopated ("for-dancing"). But there is at least the beginning of the mod sound that would bear fruit in Concierto para Bongo three years later.