International music reviews

Pocos son los autores que mas que cantar, "dicen". Sabina es ante todo, un poeta capaz de arrancar la mas profunda de las emociones con un solo verso. Este disco recopila todo su talento en dos facetas que aunque no antagonicas, resultan distintas. Para todos los gustos.

Estos discos compactos son una recopilacion de poesia y buena musica. Van bien para el desayuno, almuerzo y la cena (y el bar).

Que mas se puede decir del gran Joaquin Sabina, este disco es estupendo la calidad sonora, el calor del publico (presente a traves de todo el disco), las versiones de las canciones clasicas y nuevas, la maestria del flaco. Un disco que debe de ser infaltable en tu discoteca. Gracias flaco.

Marc's debut album is raspy, brutal and nothing short of perfection. He is an artist the likes of which we haven't seen ia a long time. His traditional Salsa is wonderful and erotic, even when he is speaking of betrayal and hurt. Marc has a voice that charges from the very depths of his soul out through your radio and down into the pit of your gut, knocking you to the floor. He may be small in build and height but the surprise comes through in his very powerful voice and in all of his beautiful songs. He is right on the money and has come very far. He will be making music for a very long time, I am quite sure.

Marc Anthony is the real Latin sensation. Listen to this CD and trust me, you start wondering what Ricky's appeal is. Marc Anthony has a voice that melts!

I have always loved Marc right from the beginning. I have all his albums and I know all his songs. No matter weather he sings in english or spanish. I will always be a fan of Marc. For life. He's always going to make it to the top. And I wish him much succes always. Hearing him sing is like a rainbow in the sky. He sings with such emotion and feelings. You could hear that in every song he sings. He's real and true. There's nothing fake about him. Keep up the good work Marc.

His rich tones and the music just takes you AWAY! So tasteful, absolutely the best in mariachi. Again, the lyrics are fun, upbeat - positive even in the most disapointing situations/relationships. Alejandro is simply a great blessing to the music industry. His talents can only be heaven sent! Bravo Alex!

A very special gal introduced me to the music of Alejandro Fernandez. Ever since than I've enjoyed his dark yet warm vocals, especially the early mariachi albums. This is his best cd, it's romantic, happy, and warm. Great album!!!

ALEJANDRO'S TALENT IS INDESCRIBABLE...AND THOSE BLUE NOTES THAT ONLY HIM AND (SELENA QUINTANILLA) CAN DO....THEY CAN EMBRACE YOU WHITH THEIR SPELL....BEAUTIFUL MUSIC....I'M NOT MEXICAN BUT I LOVE MEXICAN MUSIC...RICH MUSIC! BEAUTIFUL MUSIC! THIS CD IS PHENOMENAL....BEAUTIFUL LYRICS...(AS ALWAYS) I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

I have collected all of Chayanne's CD from "Es Mi Nombre" 1984
to "Simplemente" 2000. He gets better every time, if you like
romantic ballads and upbeat latin music you'll love this one.
Chayanne fans add it to your collection.
Guy's if you want to make your girlfriend happy buy this one and play it!! Or any of his 8 other CD's.

Este es uno de los mejores CD's que a tenido

Simplemente Awesome!!

This album sold 6200 copies the first day it was released in Chayanne's homeland of Puerto Rico!! The arrangements on this album are superb!! So many different instruments and sound techniques are used and the variety of rhythms is wonderful. Simplemente is a great song to start the album with - it "invites" you (by its quality) to stay and listen on (but who needs an invitation??!!) I think my favorite song overall is Candela. It has a great melody and rhythm and I love it when he rolls his rr's as he sings "dejame recorrete entera"!! Cuando Un Amor Se Va (with Ruben Blades) runs a close second. It is beautiful! Their voices together are like milk and honey!! Oye Mar is so powerful with haunting vocal expression - it gives me goosebumps!! We're all going to be dancing to Ay Mama and Mariana Mambo (he's such a tease in this one) - you won't be able to keep still!! Yo Te Amo - is another dynamite song and the one he chose to release to the radio stations to play before the CD was released. His voice sounds so strong and assured on this album. He has outdone himself with "Simplemente"!! I "simply" LOVE it!! Get it NOW and "move your body to the beat" as he sings in the final cut on the album - Boom Boom!!

....as she is learning how to speak Spanish, and loves Latin American music. She's a big fan of Son by Four. After ordering it from Amazon for her (and it arrived promptly) and hearing it played around the apartment, now I'm a fan of the CD, too.

Any time I feel down and I just want to reflect about the things that are going on in my life, I listen to son by four and I feel at peace.

i first heard this Purest of Pain in the original form in the Mis Tres Hermanas show which was showing here for the last few month..Love the song so much but no idea what is the name until recently the music video was showing on the same channel and with the title of the song and the singer. So finally i found what is the name of the great song..and i will surely get it.. Love the slow spanish version more then the english one..seem like something is lost there...

Just a quick update on Jed Marum's STREETS OF FALL RIVER album; two tracks from this Boston Road Record release have been nominated for the JPFolk [...] Celtic Original Song of the Year, 2002. LOOK AHEAD TOMMY and the FIGHTING TIGERS OF IRELAND both made the top 20 songs for this category and will be considered for the finals in March of 2003. The nominees were chosen from among some 7,200 albums and over 110,00 songs!

Jed's newest album, THE SOUL OF A WANDERER (released Nov 2002) is also available on Amazon.com. The record was produced by Paul Mills at the Millstream in Toronto Canada and features; Brian McNeill, Rick Fielding and Curly Boy Stubbs.

Patrick Malloy, Director of Artist Relations, Boston Road Records

This man has a way with imagery that is simply stunning! I am a performer in this genre, and am not easily impressed. But I must tell you that Jed clearly does his homework. His lyrics show that he not only has a way with words, but he does his research as well. Put this together with astoundingly beautiful work on his instrument of choice, and you have a sure winner. I would commend this CD to all other musicians and songwriters as an example of the craft and the art.

Superbly good work! Jed has a wonderful voice that tells the stories in a way that appears to have been written long before their time. Fine guitar work, excellent back up vocals, and a true story line. You can't go wrong with this album - puts Bob Dylan to comercial shame -

I bought this album at a modern dance/capoeira show i saw downtown. I picked it becuase one of the songs is titled "Ginga," and that was primarily what sparked my interest, since i practice capoeira. BUt i didn't think it would become one of my fave CDs! I play it when i'm relaxing, when i practice, or when i just need a pick-me-up and while all teh songs are good, my absolute favorites are "Caminho" and "Raio." Great for fans of electronic music, or for those who just want to try something new. TRY IT!

I think Ramiro is a genius , check this album and make your own rating .
unforgettable music . If you listen to it just one time , you will never forget it . I loved it .

i was waiting for something like that .At least i found it !
this is the music of my dreams . This is unbelievable fantastic . I can�'t describe it . You have to listen to it and then you will see how difficult is to describe what SUDAKA is all about .

this is i fine work of art. It has the thing that the backstreet boys dont have and thats, longevity(in truth the list is endless). in a way this album, being a live album, is like a picture of history, yet manages to stay current.
though the idea that everything on this album is spontaneous(the sing alongs and the such) is, i admit somewhat attractive, but to me it comes off as alittle formal. Also some of the songs on this record are leaning twords juvenile and subsiqently these few have been scratched off my CD. these are the reasons i cant give it a five.
At its peak, no other latin singer ever even attempt to rise to this level without being left covered in dust, crying in a meager fashion.
buy this cd, if not here somewhere

With the release of this album in April 1963 Trini Lopez became one of the more unusual singing stars of the Folk Revival. "Trini Lopez at PJ's" made it to #2 on the Billboard charts and stayed in the Top 40 for about a year while the single "If I Had a Hammer" became Lopez's first hit. Lopez was actually the singer and guitar player for a folk trio that had Dick Brant on bass and Mickey Jones on drums. A key part of this album is that it is a live performance, which played to Lopez's strengths as an infectious and likeable performer. Not that Lopez was an overnight sensation. Buddy Holly had tried to get Lopez signed with his label, but prejudice against his ethnicity killed that deal and it was not until Frank Sinatra signed Lopez to his personal label, Reprise, that Lopez was able to record his first album under his own name.

Lopez's reputation as a folk singer was made on the strength of "If I Had a Hammer," which eventually sold five million copies and made it to #1 in over two-dozen countries around the world. A fair share of the songs here are indeed folk songs, such as as "This Land Is Your Land" and his medley of "Gotta Travel On" and "Down by the Riverside," but Lopez also plays on his Latin heritage by doing "A-Me-Ri-Ca" from "West Side Story," his own versions of "La Bamba" (the song that greets you at Lopez's official website), "Cielito Lindo," and "Granada." He even throws in a little Ray Charles by covering "What'd I Say." The common denominator for all these songs is Lopez's high energy.

Hoping to repeat the instant success of this album a second LP, "More Trini Lopez at PJ's" came out in August of that year, but it represents more of a shift away from folk and towards rock. Trini Lopez is one of those artists where his best album was the first one, and if you pick up anything beyond one of his better hits collections this would be the album.

The one constant thought that crosses my mind when listening to Live at PJ's is how I wanted to be in that audience; to soak up that 1960's nightclub atmosphere. A place where gin, bourbon and cigarettes ruled and no one was ordering Skye Vodka or drinking French wine. This is Trini Lopez at his early and hungry best, before the horns, the orchestra, overproduction, time and big money combined to clutter up his clean and unique sound. This is raw, energetic, live music at its best with just a guitar, bass and drums and no toys in between to mess up the signal. You can hear the obviously well-lubricated crowd drowning out Trini when they join in on the refrains and screaming "one more time" again and again as they clearly enjoy a night they will never forget. This was entertainment before the smoking nazis and health police forever destroyed the classic nightclub scene.

La seleccion de canciones es representativa y muy buena, no admite mayores discusiones. Est�n incluidos todos los exitos: "Rosa Rosa", "Las Manos", "Quiero llenarme de ti", "Como lo hice yo", etc. He visto compilaciones de este artista de las mas variadas, pero no puedo entender por qu� en ninguna de ellas se cubre el per�odo digamos "rockero" de Sandro, con su conjunto Los de Fuego. En particular, esta compilaci�n arranca con "Melod�a Desencadenada", grabada en 1966 si mal no recuerdo. Pero entre 1963 y 1965 Sandro todav�a no compon�a y grababa "covers" de temas famosos de otros artistas (el caso de "Melod�a Desencadenada" o "Unchain Melody"); por ejemplo, de temas de Los Beatles podemos encontrar grabadas por Sandro (castellanizadas por supuesto) a "A hard day's night", "We can work it out", "I'll get you", "Can't buy me love", "A world without love", "From a Window" y muchas otras. Otro pu�ado de canciones que Elvis Presley interpetaba tambi�n fueron grabadas por Sandro (quien quer�a parecerse a Elvis seg�n ha declarado). Por eso digo que se trata de otra buena compilaci�n aunque incompleta por omitir toda esa primera �poca que si bien no representa ni al mejor ni al m�s conocido Sandro, resultar�a interesante que se incluya algo de este per�odo. Por lo dem�s, no hay quejas en cuanto a los temas incluidos. Por esa omisi�n es que le doy "solamente" 4 estrellas a este disco.

You can travel back through time with this outstanding album. Here you can appreciate one of the greatest latin singers of the past 30 years.
Para los latinos,este album recoge las mas bellas melod�as de la carrera de este gran artista. El sentimiento que despliega en cada una de las canciones es caractr�stico de Sandro. Realmente una joya musical imperecedera.

After listening to SANDRO'S way of enterpreting a melody is hard to keep the tears from falling, his unique stile of beeing able to totally feel and understand the emotions that were felt by the composer reminds me of an old interview I had the privelige of listenig by the "REY DEL BOLERO" TITO RODRIGUES in which he explained that his susscess was based upon the fact that he understood the writers emotions and was able transmit it to the public ..IF GITANO CD AND MOVIE EVER BECOMES AVALABLE PLEASE LET ME KNOW BECAUSE SANDRO IS ALSO A GREAT ACTOR EVEN WHEN THE SCRIPT WAS LAME HE TURNED INTO A GOOD MOVIE. THANK FOR PROVIDING THE WORLD THE OPPORTUNITY TO LISTEN TO THE TRUE MAESTRO..
JUAN TORRES

I got into Amazon.com, and it is showing as delivered. I never received it. At 1:55 p.m. there is nobody in my house.
Thanks
Hilda

I just love the way Arjona writes, although many people consider him as a trovador (minstrel), he looks more to me like those persons you find in a bar, armed with thousands of tales. Animal Nocturno was Arjona's blessing & curse- his fame increased so much that costed his privacy. Being just one more guy in the city was (at least to me) the key of writing those delicious and fun tales- Animal Nocturno, Yo Te Encontrare, Quien Diria, etc. Jesus Verbo No Sustantivo has such a beatiful message, the lyrics make so much sense- "Brother, what are you doing reading the Bible all the day? What's written talks about love, go and try it", "Praying Our Father 10 times won't bring the dead person back to life", "There are more religions in the world than happy childern", etc. Animal Nocturno is Arjona's most richful work, when he was a rebel poet, a guy who was disrespecful to the music by his way of writing, the essence of that album.

Definitivamente a la persona que gusta de la musica de Arjona, y luego de poder escuchar todos sus nuevos exitos, entenderan que es algo raro, pero generalmente los primeros discos tienen mucha frescura, y muchos matices sutiles que se pueden apreciar...Este disco de Animal Nocturno tiene una magia, que me hace recordar porque me gusta este cantante y la razon es sencilla: Arjona sabe mezclar lo cotidiano con lo rutinario, sin parecer cans�n como otros cantantes. Para mi es y sera uno de mis favoritos de toda la carrera de Arjona.