VARIOUS

Cartagena!

2011-05-02

The Discos Fuentes record label was begun in 1934 in the Columbian town of Cartagena. As the music evolved from straight up cumbia to more jazzy, big band arrangements mixing cumbia with mapale’ and salsa, the record label was there to record it. In the 1950’s, Curro Fuentes took over and moved the label to Bogota. The music, which was considered low-class was presented to high society with the musicians “dressed in tails”. Young people flocked to the shows and “danced like blacks” to the high energy music. The recordings took off in popularity, but they never really made it out of Columbia. Since then, just last year in fact, Curro Fuentes passed away, but thanks to UK record label, Soundway, the music of that era can be had on this various artists compilation of hot Latin music. Rebecca Ruth

Quick Links:

• Soundway Record Label