José Conde – Souls Alive in the 305 (PiPiKi Records, 2022)
Cuban American artist José Conde likes to change directions in his recordings. Sometimes he makes engaging Cuban son and salsa albums, and then he ventures into pop and other territories. Conde’s new album, Souls Alive in the 305 is certainly not an album rooted in Cuban traditions. Instead, Conde has made a bilingual album that contains a wide range of musical influences, including funk with cool synths and vintage organ, retro tropicalism and plenty of pop.
The album highlights for me are the less pop-oriented songs such as “Poetry in Motion” which features smoky trumpet, irresistible funk, beautifully blended male (José Conde) and female (Geminelle) vocals and flutes; the funk song “Dale Pa Ya” with vocals in Spanish; “Fallen from Eternity”, a cool song with soulful electric guitar, synths and captivating trumpet with a feel that reminds me of chicano rock band El Chicano; and lastly, “Nude Poetry”, a slow tempo song with reverb-drenched blended vocals, enticing trumpet and exquisite jazz guitar.
José Conde describes the “Dale Pa ‘Yá” (dale para allá) single: “The phrase is Cuban, and it literally means ‘get over there! Inspired by my dog, I used to sing it as a joke to him and then decided to put it together as a song!”
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.