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¡Asi Es…Con Salsa! by Los Caporales de Magdalena I've always thought Colombian Salsa was on the whole punchier, and satisfyingly rawer, than that originating in Puerto Rico, the US or Cuba. Or maybe, like Willie Colon's early work, more spit than polish. Los Caporales de Magdalena (the Field Managers of Magdalena), by their very name suggests an evening of aguadente over rhum vijero.The 14 piece Caporales floats a band on a raft within a surging orchestral sea. The full ensemble - five percussionists, piano, two accordions, three trombones, clarinet, sax and electric bass seldom plays all at once. Instead, over a foundation of either piano or percussion, or both, little burst of two-bars, four-bars, eight, ripple and flow from sax, or bones or accordion. The accordion, by the way, is key to the preposterous declaration that ¡Asi Es…Con Salsa! is "The Greatest Record Ever Made." The player, Alfredo Gutiérrez, is one of Colombia's best, and the Colombians are the best (no hyperbole or preposterousness allowed) accordion players in the world. Mostly associated with cumbia and vallenato, Gutiérrez is known for exaggerated and fanciful non-stop playing - opening, carrying and closing a tune. On ¡Asi Es… he barely accents each song, seldom taking a lead until the third cut on side one. Airy and spare, his few bars on "Salsa Mona" are followed by a viscous timbala solo over the repetitive piano, then the piano ascends, then a stretched-cellophane trombone sound, then full band, vocals and fade. The accordion offers just enough to get your attention, and is weird enough to make you shake your head. The result is that at the end of side one, as you rush to flip it over, you say, and for a brief moment you actually believe, this is "The Greatest Record Ever Made." "Salsa Machucada" begins side two and the accordion goes into that upper register that made you love Colombian playing in the first place, oh, and the second…and third. The side ends with "Salsa Jala-Jala" another sloppy and tight ramble containing some dog-whistle high accordion and great drumming. Most of the songs here are penned by the vocalist, Lucho Pérez, the band led by Edel Manrique. The group's name plays on a common group designation, "Corraleros" as in the famous "Los Corraleros (Correleros) de Majagual," "Caporales" being a Mexican term of higher rank. Here's the hazy history I've been able to dig up: The band was formed around 1970, and loosely enlisted Gutiérrez after he left Los Corraleros. Like Gutiérrez, the band hales from Columbia's Sucre State, and some LPs claim they are "by blood one hundred percents sucreña." Pure sugar. Caporales survived for about 15 years when they dumped the trombones, became the Revolutionaries, and subsequently fizzled out. Around 2003 Caporales resurfaced. How active? You got me. Regardless, recordings are difficult to find. Like every record that will appear here, "¡Asi Es…" is "The Greatest Record Ever Made."
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