Johnny Colon & Orchestra: Boogaloo Blues

A “Top 5 Cotique” LP according to some, and I wholeheartedly agree. I picked this album up on the strength of the tracks “Boogaloo Blues” and “Mira Ven Aca,” which blew me away when I first heard them (on a comp).

“Mira Ven Aca” has a deceptively simple and absolutely infectious beat—it’s perfect cruising music. In fact, I was playing this song last weekend while driving down Pacific Ave. in Stockton with my thorough chick Dorothy. We were dancing and laughing, just about oblivious to anything that wasn’t the music or each other; I may have even ran a couple of red lights… who knows, I was having too much fun to care.

Like the first taste of a new love affair, the song “Boogaloo Blues”—with its whirling horns and plodding pace—has the power to make one woozy. Fittingly, the song itself is about the drug-like affect of love, signified by the chanted refrain, “LSD has a hold on me” (with the L standing for love, and so on). Truly capturing the fervency with which new lovers take to each other, lead vocalist Tito Ramos sings, “I’ll take you out, I’ll show you the town; I’ll give you the world!—diamond rings, mink coats, a penthouse … .” I’m starting to become very familiar with the dangerously intoxicating feeling that inspires a man to make those sorts of expensive promises, and never before have I felt so alive!

In addition to those two tracks, the album has more only slightly less brilliant music to offer. There’s the track “Descarga,” for example, which is latin served fast, hard, and violent (on account of some interesting vocal outbursts). Also notable is an excellent cover of “Guantanamera” played in a catchy cha-cha style.

Audio:
“Boogaloo Blues”
“Mira Ven Aca”
“Descarga”