El Clan Antillano was an obscure, short-lived salsa group started in 1975 by singer Jacky \u201cEl Caballo\u201d Carazo, originally from Cartagena, and radio host \/ song composer Mike Char, from Barranquilla. The band was active only until 1977, with a mere two albums to its name.<\/p>\n
Carazo and Char, \u201clos amigos coste\u00f1os\u201d (friends from the Caribbean coastal area) created El Clan Antillano as a fresh start after the previous group Carazo had been the lead singer for, El Afrocombo, had become inactive.<\/p>\n
Char primary passion was music, especially songwriting. One of his skills in this area was adapting foreign songs, often in a different language, rhythm, arrangement or genre, and refashioning the tune in an uptempo Caribbean dance mode as a salsa or cumbia. This formula, as well as his own original compositions, soon brought him success not only with coste\u00f1o friends like Carazo and Vicentini, but also with Medell\u00edn\u2019s Fruko, allowing him to make a name for himself with record labels in that city. It was at this juncture, in 1975, that El Clan Antillano was born.<\/p>\n
This is their first album and was recorded with local studio musicians. It\u2019s been said that most on the first album were from Fruko Y Sus Tesos (the voice of Joe Arroyo can be heard on coro) as well as others involved with various groups like La Protesta (de Colombia) and Juan Pi\u00f1a\u2019s La Revelaci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n
The album kicks off with \u2018Donde \u2018sta? Donde \u2018sta?\u2019, a medley of coste\u00f1o lyrical phrases quoting various popular porros. Gradually changing the vibe, this is followed by Enrique Aguilar\u2019s \u2018El baile del rat\u00f3n\u2019, a humorous cumbia that changes into a salsa halfway through. As if El Clan Antillano were not entirely confident about featuring purely salsa from the start, the same cumbia\/salsa hybrid formula is used in the third piece, a faithfully rendered version of Eddie Palmieri\u2019s \u2018Mi cumbia\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018Est\u00e1s equivocada\u2019 rocks hard like the best Venezuelan salsa of the time. \u2018Esta ma\u00f1ana\u2019 is a cover version of an obscure bolero from Cura\u00e7ao\u2019s Erwin Castaneer with Super Combo Castaneer.<\/p>\n
\u2018En la oscuridad\u2019 is an interesting mashup of Puerto Rican bomba and New York style pachanga. \u2018El despertar\u2019 is a sunny sounding pop song reinvented as a Nelson y sus Estrellas style salsa\/cumbia hybrid with a fantastic \u2018montuno\u2019 section.<\/p>\n
Up next is a hard salsa jam in the \u2018preg\u00f3n\u2019 (street vendor\u2019s cry) genre, written by Fruko Y Sus Tesos percussionist \u00c1lvaro Vel\u00e1squez (composer of \u2018El preso\u2019). The original album track list closes out with a fantastic rendition of Puerto Rican singer\/composer Bobby Cap\u00f3\u2019s classic \u2018El negro bemb\u00f3n\u2019 that the world first leaned to love through Cortijo y Su Combo.<\/p>\n
Three bonus tracks have been added to the album as it was originally very short. Interestingly, there were four songs from two 45 singles cut by the band that were never included on either long play.<\/p>\n
While the ephemeral El Clan Antillano may not be as well known as the groups it\u2019s related to, namely El Afrocombo and Fruko Y Sus Tesos, it certainly deserves credit as a worthy participant in the historical evolution of salsa colombiana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Debut album of heavy Colombian salsa by the obscure and short-lived El Clan Antillano. <\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n Founded in 1975 by singer Jacky Carazo and radio personality \/ composer Mike Char and backed by a studio orchestra comprised mostly of Fruko Y Sus Tesos band members.<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n The record has been remastered from the original tapes, with an additional three bonus cuts taken from two rare 45 singles, including the sought after track \u2018Alma\u2019.<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n First time reissue. 180g Vinyl.<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":110561,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[195,193,206],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-110562","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-colombia-en","7":"product_cat-latin-en","8":"product_cat-salsa-en","9":"product_shipping_class-lp-en-4","10":"pa_formato-lp-en","12":"first","13":"instock","14":"sale","15":"taxable","16":"shipping-taxable","17":"purchasable","18":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/110562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=110562"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=110562"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=110562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}