Strut / Fania (label)
31 October 2011 (released)
22 October 2011
When you find yourself dancing around the room during the opening introductions you know you can only be listening to Fania – I’m knackered after the opening credits!
This is a DVD reissue of the legendary feature film that introduced Fania to the world back in ’71 capturing one of the famous Thursday jams at the Cheetah club. Musical direction from the legendary Johnny Pacheco, stars like Ray Barretto, Chero Feliciano, Hector Colon (this was just before Celia Cruz joined the label) and the heart and rhythm shines through like a diamond in a dogturd.
The video quality is rough and ready (technically superb, it was meant to look that way) and the sense of capturing something real and almost secret comes over through the little conversations between the musicians and the dancers off to the side and the music just permeating everything. I love the way that the film has English subtitles when Spanish is spoken and Spanish when the break into English.
The vocals and the horns and the dancing and the continual pounding of the congas and Timbales are the heart of the music but the smiles and the side glances between the musicians, the lines of hopeful vocalists lining up to take a turn and the incredible ‘70’s fashions – all of a piece and utterly, utterly compelling viewing.
The film bounces between the club and the street and the gets to the heart of the ‘Latin Thing’ in New York in the late ‘60’s / early ‘70’s. A rumba jam in an empty lot or an old guy beating away on a box on his stoop with people dancing to his rhythms, kids flocking to the sound of the drums across their rooftops, guys trading in a local shop and then miraculously turning up playing at the jam, everywhere music and incredibly intense jamming and joy. The movie gets over to the viewer the joy of being alive but never hides the hard edge of the streets – the cockfighting sequence is incredible.
This is packaged as a triple with the DVD and a 2 CD set of the music with bonus tracks but the DVD is an essential buy for anyone who loves Fania, Music, New York or film.
