This is our opening night. Ray and I will be spinning selections from the Discos Fuentes, Fania, Tico, SAR, and Allegre labels. Also we will play some great music from obscure South American, Mexican & Central American groups from the 70's & 80's.

We will have a performance by the best Cumbia/Vallenato group in L.A. right now, Buyepongo. On top of all that, there is no cover charge.

We hope to have that dance floor moving. I think we should enforce the Midnight Star "No Parking On The Dance Floor" rule that night. Maybe we could have someone in a cop uniform go up to someone who's not dancing and say:

Excuse me, madam
You’re standing still in a no parking zone
You don’t get a move on that body
I’ll be forced to give you a ticket
So get with it

Wednesday, June 4th
Mal's Bar
2331 S. Hill Street
Los Angeles, Ca. 90007
213-746-2177
Starts @ 9 p.m.
21 and over
FREEE!!!!

I asked a sale rep from Miami Records, the U.S. distributor of Discos Fuentes, why they don't release older Disco Fuentes titles with the original covers. She told me that their core market wants new music and doesn't care about the older titles anymore. I have to tell you, the biggest selling Discos Fuentes related  title we had at Amoeba Hollywood last year was the Colombia! compilation, put together by the Soundway label out of England. Soundway licensed classic Discos Fuentes tracks that the Miami Records rep said no one cared about and added a great booklet with liner notes and photos of the original album covers. The Colombia! Compilation was geared towards the Anglo market who aren't familiar with the music but many Latinos who grew up with the music bought it because it included many tracks that had been out of print for years. It goes to show you that most record company people tend to be oblivious about their own market.

The best place to find those out of print Fuentes titles are in the World Music Vinyl section, now located at the end of the Rock Vinyl section.

Soundways Records out of England does it again. Their Panama and Afro-Beat releases are excellent but this release is their best by far. Discos Fuentes are to Colombian music what Stax & Motown are to soul, Trojan to Reggae, Blue Note to Jazz and what Sun Records is to rock music. They released thousands of records since 1934 and still do to this day. The compilation covers the classic years of Discos Fuentes (1960-1976) It is mostly Cumbia and Salsa music with Champeta and some modernized versions of traditional South American music.

Much of what is on this comp hasn’t been released in quite some time and has only been available through out of print records. Included are rare tracks from well known Colombian artists, Fruko Y Su Tesos, The Latin Brothers and Afrosound, plus the classic tracks from Los Corraleros De Majagual, Pedro Laza y Su Pelayeros and Lucho Bermudez. This is straight up dance floor madness. Even those who can't dance will have a tough time resisting the rhythms produced by this release. Great liner notes with many pictures of the original album covers to make the record collector in you salivate.