Charanga De La 4 - Charanga De La 4

compilation CD released 1993

cover art from SAR 1010

Produced by Roberto Torres

Available at Amazon, Descarga, etc


REVISED POST (November 21, 2008)

1. Aqui Hay Un Hombre Gozando 9:04 (Orlando Alonso)
2. Tumba La Cana 7:34 (D.R.)
3. Me Gusta El Son 5:37 (Roberto Torres)
4. Bilongo 10:12 (Guillermo Rodriguez)
5. Consuelate Como Yo 8:52 (Chano Pozo)
6. Seboruco 5:26 (Jose Carbo Menendez)
7. Sabrosona 4:36 (Rafael Lay & Richard Egues)
8. Que Me Digan Feo 5:33 (D.R.)

This CD is a compilation of songs by Charanga De La 4 culled from several vinyl albums with the cover from their second vinyl album from 1980 re-used. The original source of the songs is as follows.

tracks 1-3– from Charanga De La 4 (1979) SAR SLP-1006
tracks 4-5 – from Charanga Del La 4 (1980) SAR SLP-1010
track 6 – from Se Pego (1986) SAR SLP-1044
track 7-8 – from Mas Charanga Que Nunca (1988) SAR SLP-1047

Aqui Hay Un Hombre Gozando and Bilongo made salsanewyork.com list.

According to John Child of descarga.com, Charanga De La 4 was characterized by anonymity of its musicians. Arrangers and directors were sometimes but not always mentioned; they include Raul Alfonso, Alfredo Valdes Jr, Manolo Albo, Pupi Legarreta, Jose Gomez and Frank Bello. Some musicians also talk about being a part of Charanga De La 4 at one point or another of their career; these include well-known violinist Alfredo De La Fe and bassist Marino Solano (late of SonSublime).

Original albums were released as follows.

Charanga De La 4 - untitled (1979, SAR 1006 vinyl)
Las Matancéras Son / Aquí Hay Un Hombre Gozándo / Tumba La Caña / Me Gusta El Son

Charanga De La 4 - untitled (1980, SAR 1010 vinyl)
La Sallita / Bilongo / Pare Cochero / Consuelate Como Yo

Charanga De La 4 - Recuerda A Beni More Vol 1 (1981, SAR 1025 vinyl)
Manzanillo / Soy Campesino / Guantanamo / Adios A Palma Soriano

Charanga De La 4 - Recuerda A Beni More Vol 2 (1983, SAR 1035 vinyl)
Santa Isabel De Las Lajas / Bonito Y Sabroso / Tu Veras Margot / Mulata Con Cola

Charanga De La 4 - Recuerda A Beni More Vol 3 (1983, SAR 1036 vinyl)
Tumba Tumbador / Mata Siguaraya / Guajiro De Verdad / Baila Mi Son

Charanga De La 4 - Se Pego..! (1986, SAR 1044 vinyl)
Cucho / Seboruco / Guantanamo / Soy Campesino

Charanga De La 4 - Mas Charanga Que Nunca (1988, SAR 1047 vinyl)
Que Me Digan Feo / Clavelitos / Suavito / Oyeme Viejito / No Me Mires Mas / Sabrosona

Roberto Torres Con Charanga De La 4 (1993, SAR 1054 - CD)
El Tractor Amarillo / Caballo De Batalla / Nunca Nunca / Se Me Olvido Otra Vez / Nina Hipocrita / Yo Soy El Son Cubano / No Vale La Pena / Un Madrigal / El Alardoso

Charanga De La 4 - Interpreta A Matamoros (1997, SAR 1072 – CD)
Frutas Del Caney / El Que Siembra Su Maiz / Buchi Pluma / Son De La Loma / Lagrimas Negras / El Paralitico / Compay Gallo / La Mujer De Antonio

Other currently available Charanga De La 4 CDs using older vinyl material are as follows.

Lo Mejor De La Charanga De La 4 (uses cover from SAR 1006 vinyl)
- This album contains one track from SAR 1006 (Las Matanceras) as well as two tracks from SAR 1010 (La Sallita, Pare Cochero), SAR1025 (Guantanamo, Soy Campesino – both also represented in SAR 1044), SAR 1035 (Bonito Y Sabroso, Tu Veras Margot), and SAR1044 (Cucho). By purchasing this album along with the album reviewed here, you can complete the first two Charanga De La 4 LPs as well as the two original songs included in SAR 1044 LP.

Recuerda A Beni More (uses cover from SAR 1025 probably)
- This album combines Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Recuerda A Beni More.

Se Pego (uses cover from SAR 1044)
- This album contains entire Recuerda A Beni More Vol 3 (SAR 1036) and four of six tracks from Mas Charanga Que Nunca (SAR 1047). However, this CD DOES NOT contain any material from the original Se Pego LP (SAR 1044), which is very confusing. By purchasing this album along with the album reviewed here, you can complete the original material from SAR 1036 and SAR 1047.

Much gratitudes to anonymous commenters, who drove me to improve this review. Original post is included below (to see how much things changed)

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Exerpts from OLD EDITION of this post (originally posted on June 30, 2008)

According to John Child of descarga.com, Charanga De La 4 was characterized by anonymity of its musicians. Arrangers and directors were sometimes but not always mentioned; they include Raul Alfonso, Alfredo Valdes Jr, Manolo Albo, Pupi Legarreta, Jose Gomez and Frank Bello. Some musicians also talk about being a part of Charanga De La 4 at one point or another of their career; these include well-known violinist Alfredo De La Fe and bassist Marino Solano (currently of SonSublime). However, there is absolutely no musician, arranger or director credit for this album.

The time of release for this album for me was made quite confusing because of a descarga.com review possibly with many errors. There is a compilation album Lo Mejor De La Charanga De La 4, and descarga.com gives this compilation album the designation SAR/Guajiro 1006. I think that this designation is wrong. The SAR 1006 designation probably belongs to another Charanga De La 4 untitled album (1979), which probably has not been released as a CD. The cover art for these the original 1979 album and the compilation album may be identical.

The Charanga De La 4 album reviewed here has the identifier SAR 1010 (SLP-1010 Serie 0798). I'm dating this Charanga De La 4 release date as 1980 based on the SLP (Stereo Long Playing record album) number. Linda Leida's "Con Sabor A Montuno" (1979) is SAR SLP-1005 or SAR SCD-1005, and Henry Fiol's "Fe, Esperanza Y Caridad" (1980) is SAR SCD-1012. Was the cover art done by Henry Fiol or was it merely inspired by Fiol? In any case the painted cover art is another indication that the album was released as an LP before being re-released as a CD suggesting that the original release date was well before the printed date of 1993 on my CD.

Aqui Hay Un Hombre Gozando and Bilongo made salsanewyork.com list.

Musicians include (my speculation):

Alfredo Valdes Jr / Piano
Alfredo De La Fe / Violin

My best guess of Charanga De La 4 original album releases

Charanga De La 4 - untitled (1979, SAR 1006)
Charanga De La 4 - untitled (1980, SAR 1010)
Charanga De La 4 - Recuerda A Beni More Vol 1 (1981, SAR 1025)
Charanga De La 4 - Recuerda A Beni More Vol 2 (1983, SAR 1035)
Charanga De La 4 - Se Pego..! (1986, SAR 1044)
Charanga De La 4 - Mas Charanga Que Nunca (1988, SAR #?)
Roberto Torres Con Charanga De La 4 (1993, SAR 1054)
Charanga De La 4 - Interpreta A Matamoros (1997, SAR 1072)