Manny Corchado: Aprovecha El Tiempo
Manny Corchado is probably now best known for his brash boogaloo tracks “Pow Wow” and “Chicken and Booze,” which go for good money in OG, 7-inch format. Burned out on boogaloo, though, I bought this album hoping to hear some of the more interesting Latin sounds that timbales player Manny Corchado and his orchestra cooked up for this late 60’s Decca release.
The gyrating bomba song “Farfallota” is one of the most rhythmically-interesting tracks on the album. Bomba is a Puerto Rican musical style with African origins in which drummer and dancer engage in a “rhythmic dialogue” with the drummer attempting to mimic, musically, the movements of the dancer. The album closes with “Manny’s Guaguanco”—a short and torrid little song that expertly condenses what feels like ten minutes of musical information into a two-and-a-half-minute sprint to the end of the record.
One of the things I love about this album—and Latin music in general—is that, rhythmically, it is never boring. The interplay of instruments seems to always yield some new and unexpected combination of sounds, allowing the music to not just evade the predictability that plagues less rhythmically-enlightened music (e.g., tacky funk), but also inspire new ways of thinking about rhythm, movement, space, and time.
Audio:
“Farfallota”
“La Fresa”
“Manny’s Guaguanco”
“Pow Wow”
6 Comments
reynaldo – that last para was really well put. love your site. beto
Hola si este disco lo tiene en formato de lp estoy interesado en comprarlo. soy de colombia.
¿que precio tiene el disco?
what ever happen with manny corchado we played for joe quijano back in 70’s also herman gonzales does any one know
iwould like to know what ever happenned to manny corchadoand maria. we used to be good friends whe i was living with ray armando in the 60s.if i can recallwe all used to live in east harlem. cheo feliciano and coco used to live in the same building with their boys.i used to baby sit some times. when ray and i separated we lost touch.
Greetings Faustino”cuco”Cruz, Manny Corchado is still alive and doing well. He still lives in NYC. My dad Herman Gonzalez Sr. passed away May 20 2005. I do remember the Great Joe Quijano Bands of the 60′ AND 70’s. Joe is still alive and doing well in Puerto Rico. I keep in touch with Joe often…also spoken with Manny a couple of times too.
would love a copy of the album any know where i can purchase a copy from
regards Les