VA - Cartagena! Curro Fuentes & The Big Band Cumbia & Descarga Sound of Colombia 1962-72

Soundway strikes again with another mind-blowing Colombia-themed comp, this one purportedly a follow-up to Colombia! The Golden Age of Discos Fuentes, the set that helped kickstart the current wave of chic for música-costeña. The real follow-up has mysteriously been stuck in limbo for the last couple of years, with release dates coming and going every few months. In the meantime, we have more of a companion piece than a proper follow-up, as this release takes Curro Fuentes as its focus.

Curro was the youngest brother of Antonio Fuentes, big boss of the mighty Discos Fuentes, the label which dominated the Colombian industry and is responsible for shaping the sounds and trends of the country since its founding in the mid 1930s. Curro, 20 years younger than his more famous brother, formed his own label, Discos Curro, and with legendary merecumbé bandleader Pacho Galán he formed the imprint’s house band, Sonora Curro, and embarked on a career that kept the brothers and their respective labels on their toes in a friendly competition to put out the hottest records in Colombia. When Curro set up shop in Bogotá, he established a partnership with the Philips label, becoming artistic director and immediately setting out to work with the Lucho Bermudez. Much of the material comes from Curro’s Bogotá period.

The second main period comes from his return to the Caribbean coast, and features young bands that played the newer salsa sounds in the red-light district of Cartagena, including Los Seven del Swing, and groups led by Clodomiro Montes and Lalo Orozco. The introduction of the electric bass created a massive bottom end that drove the dancers and collectors wild.

Selected by a killer team of Miles Cleret, William Holland (DJ Quantic), Toronto DJ Sean Uppal, and regular liner note writer Roberto Ernesto Gyemant, the set features a wide range of sounds: cumbia, gaita, hard driving porro, salsa, and jamming descargas. It’s a cracking set that’ll warm up any party, and will tide us over quite nicely while we wait for the follow up to Colombia!, apparently slated for an October release. 

(Miles Cleret of Soundway Records will be special guest DJ at the next installment of Turning Point, taking place Sat. April 9th at the Garrison; tickets are $10 at the door only.)