Willie Colon & Ruben Blades Siembra LP 2021 Emerald Green Vinyl Ltd 500 OOP

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150

Willie Colon & Ruben Blades Siembra LP 2021 Emerald Green Vinyl Ltd Ed 500 copies OOP
Absolutely the best of these 2 masters .... Essential ....Ruben's voice Ahhhh PRESENTE !
Remastered from the original analog master tapes.Craft webstore exclusive "Emerald Green" version.  Limited to 500 copies.

Siembra is the second studio album by Panamanian singer and songwriter Rubén Blades and Puerto Rican-American singer and trombonist Willie Colón. It was released through Fania Records on 7 September 1978. It is considered the best selling salsa album in the history of salsa music. Was recorded by Jerry Masucci and Johnny Pacheco at the La Tierra Sound Studios between 1977 and 1978.

The high point of Willie Colón's ongoing collaboration with Rubén Blades (and close to a career peak for both artists), Siembra exploded on the salsa scene in 1978 and has never been forgotten by fans. Beginning with a minute of playfully deceptive quasi-disco arrangements, Colón and his band slip into a devastating salsa groove for the opener, "Plástico," on which Blades first criticizes America's throwaway society and then brings all of Latin America together with a call to unity. Blades wrote all but one of the songs on Siembra, and shines on all of them; his extended high-tenor salsa scatting lifts "Buscando Guayaba," his tender side comes across on the love song "Dime," and he outlines a devastating life-in-el-Barrio exposé with "Pedro Navaja" (Peter the Knife). For the latter, Colón and Luis Ortiz's tight arrangement adds immeasurably to the song, using street noise and sirens, breaking into an ironic "I like to live in America!," and punching the statement home with a four-trombone line. Reflecting the tough times but optimistic attitude of el Barrio during the late '70s, Siembra joined Cosa Nuestra as one of Willie Colón's career landmarks

Craft Latino, the Latin repertoire arm of Craft Recordings, is proud to present an all-analog remastered vinyl reissue of Siembra, the transcendental LP that caused a revolution in Latin music and, for many years, was the best-selling album in salsa history. 

Out this August 6th, and available for pre-order today, the new edition of Siembra was remastered from its original analog master tapes by Phil Rodriguez at Elysian Masters and pressed on 180-gram audiophile quality vinyl at Memphis Record Pressing. 

The iconic album will also be released in hi-res digital for the first time, including 192/24 and 96/24 formats. In addition, an Emerald Green color vinyl exclusive is being offered only 500 copies 

Released in 1978, Siembra was the second full-length collaboration between Panamanian singer/songwriter Rubén Blades—formerly a vocalist with Ray Barretto’s orchestra—and visionary Nuyorican producer Willie Colón, who had already made history with a string of superlative albums featuring mercurial salsa star Héctor Lavoe. 

Colón’s soulful sonic identity—built on layers of trombone riffs, always eager to incorporate the influence of outside genres—provided the perfect counterpoint to Blades’ songwriting universe.  If their previous album together had already merged Afro-Caribbean beats with sociopolitical messages, Siembra was the thinking Latino’s ideological manifesto.  

Opening track “Plástico” uses a disco-flavored false start as the jumping board for a simmering salsa jam condemning prejudice and materialism.  “Buscando Guayaba” combines picaresque innuendo with a devastating groove, complete with an improvised “mouth solo” in lieu of a guitar.  Siembra’s title track is all about Latino pride and emancipation.  And the epic “Pedro Navaja,” a seven-minute tour de force blending Kafka, Bertolt Brecht, West Side Story and tropical fever, remains to this day the ultimate salsa epic, a stark, richly layered illustration of the genre’s unlimited potential.

Legend has it that Fania executives at the time were hesitant to release a record so unrepentant in its desire to lead salsa into a new level of poetic vision.  But the public, weaned on a full decade of wondrous tropical albums, fell head over heels for the duo’s ambitions.  Colón’s sophisticated sound, Blades’ memorable lyrics and hummable hooks are now legendary.  Siembra signaled the commercial apex of both Fania as a label and the ’70s salsa explosion as cultural phenomenon.  It would remain a record-breaking LP