.
http://www.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/e2c193b2c8e2f582535ceb305d0695ee6e2d8094.jpg El Barrio

Various Artists

El Barrio

Fania
Rolling Stone: star rating
Community: star rating
5 4 0
December 29, 2011

Salsa is fusion music, and here's proof: a four-CD box of 1960s and 1970s jams with Willie Colón, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto, Joe Bataan and other genre giants cross-breeding Latin rhythms with Afro-American grooves. Latin purists once dissed the hybrid boogaloo, but today songs like Joe Cuba's semi-rapped Spanglish "Do You Feel It? (¿Tú Lo Sientes?)" sound both fresh and funky, and Palmieri's "Chocolate Ice Cream (Helado de Chocolate)" is a jazzy cha-cha-cha to charm all palates. The disco mixes are occasionally overripe, but as Bronx block-party flashbacks go, it's vivid – you can almost smell the cuchifritos.

Listen To "Do You Feel It? (¿Tú Lo Sientes?)": 

Related
Photos: Random Notes

prev
Album Review Main Next

ADD A COMMENT

Community Guidelines »
loading comments

loading comments...

COMMENTS

Sort by:
    Read More

    Music Reviews

    • star rating
      Watching Movies With the Sound Off
    • star rating
      Omens
    • star rating
      Walking on Air
    more Reviews »
    Daily Newsletter

    Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

    Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
    marketing partners.

    X

    We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

    Song Stories

    “Everyday People”

    Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

    "Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

    More Song Stories entries »