Thanks to director Leon Ichaso, I got to see an advance screening of the film El Cantante. Ichaso found out that I’m a huge Hector Lavoe fan, so he invited me to see the film. To me, the Willie Colon albums with Hector Lavoe singing rank up there with such albums as Sgt. Pepper’s, Pet Sounds, What’s Going On?, Innervisions, London Calling, Straight Outta Compton, Nevermind & Low End Theory. They are that good.

Lavoe’s story is legendary. His voice captivated a generation and pushed Salsa into the forefront. In the Fania Records heyday, the artists were filling up concert halls all over the world, including selling out Yankee Stadium. There were many talented musicians that were responsible for making Fania a giant in the record business, but Hector was Fania’s rock star. With that came his tragic rock star life.

In the movie, Marc Anthony has the daunting task of playing Hector Lavoe. For not being a Marc Anthony fan I think he does adequate job of it. During the film, especially during the live sequences, it's easy to forget Marc isn’t Hector. The same cannot be said about J-Lo. Jennifer Lopez plays the part of Lavoe’s wife, Puchi, and she never stops being J-Lo, perhaps her biggest downfall as an actress. There are very few moments when she slips out of the J-Lo role and is somewhat believable. Most of the film is done as a narrative from Jo-Lo’s character's point of view, a la a Behind The Music piece. It would have been better to skip that all together and perhaps develop a better script that gave the characters more depth. The rest of the cast is only serviceable, just enough to keep the story moving along. Besides the script never allowing the supporting cast room to develop, it never showed the development of the revolutionary style of music called Salsa. The way the film portrayed the origins of Salsa was as if the style developed overnight. rather than showing it was music that developed through time. The movie's pace seemed better suited for a T.V. movie. I wanted more from this movie than it could ever give me.

The legendary Joe Bataan is making a rare appearance in the Los Angeles area. You don't want to miss this! Joe, who had retired from live performances for over twenty years at one point, has been doing sporadic shows in the homey hot spots for the last couple of years. He has done shows in San Francisco, L.A., The Bronx and Japan, where the slow and low lifestyle is still going strong.

Many of Joe Bataan albums are still available. Most of what was released on the Salsoul label that Joe Bataan started in the 70’s is still in print. Fania Records has recently reissued Joe Bataan’s classics Mr. New York and the East Side Kids, Riot, and Saint Latin's Day Massacre. Vampisoul, the retro label out of Madrid, has also reissued several of Joe’s classics as well as 2005’s brilliant Call My Name, a collaboration with ESL’s Daniel Collás that kept Joe’s funky Latin soul intact.

Both shows are in the hood, so if you really want to see the old school with their elbows up going side to side, you'll won't want to miss these shows!

Friday, June 15 @ The Montebello Inn, Montebello, Ca.

Saturday, June 16th @ La Conga Mexican Bar & Grill, San Pedro, Ca.

This will be a first in an ongoing series revolving around the Fania Records reissues. Since Fania released over 1500 titles, it was impossible to catch every one, especially since some have been out of print for quite some time until recently. Having the opportunity to listen to some of these great recordings, I'd like to give props to the lesser known releases in their extensive catalog.