JVC has recommended the “Latin classic” Guarare by Ray Barretto for calibration. Said JVC:
“A Latin Classic guaranteed to rock you, guaranteed to shake your hips. It elevates my mood. The beat just elevates your mood and your heart. That song just goes right into my body and gets me excited. I hear the introduction to that song I just have to get up out of my chair–it always makes me feel like dancing–love that song.”
At musicofpuertoric.com :
“Barretto, Ray – Jazz
Barretto was born on 29 April 1929, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, of Puerto Rican parents. Noted for his many years as a prominent Latin bandleader, his music career actually began as a studio performer on the conga for jazz recording sessions.
He was raised in the Latin ghettos of East Harlem and the Bronx, in an environment filled with music of Puerto Rico but with a love for the swing bands of Ellington, Basie and Goodman. He escaped the ghetto by joining the United States Army when he was 17 years old, but he did not escape the music.
Influenced by a record of Dizzy Gillespie, “Manteca”, with conguero Chano Pozo. He was hooked and he knew then that his calling was was to become a professional musician. Barretto sat in on jam sessions held at the Orlando, a GI jazz club in Munich, Germany. After military service in 1949, he returned to Harlem and taught himself how to play the drums.”
mean speed/objective tempo=97.1 beats per minute
mean space/average beat=618 milliseconds per beat
Ian Schneider
Princeton, New Jersey
July 15, 2008
