Joe Bataan - Tropical Classics: Joe Bataan '2013

Tracks list

No recording artist has more impeccable street credentials than Joe Bataan, the
originator of the New York Latin soul style that paralleled Latin boogaloo and
anticipated disco. His musical experience began with street corner doo wop in
the 1950s, and came to include one of the first rap records to hit the charts,
1979s Rap-O, Clap-O. In between these milestones, he recorded classic albums
like Saint Latins Day Massacre, a perennial favorite in the salsa market,
Salsoul, which gave the record label its name and helped spark the national
explosion of urban dance music, and Afrofilipino, which included one of the very
earliest New York disco hits, an instrumental version of The Bottle.

Born Peter Nitollano, of African-American/Filipino parents, Joe Bataan grew up
in Spanish Harlem, where he ran with Puerto Rican gangs and absorbed R&B,
Afro-Cuban, and Afro-Rican musical influences. His music career followed a pair
of stints in Coxsackie State Prison. Self-taught on the piano, he organized his
first band in 1965 and scored his first recording success in 1967 with Gypsy
Woman on Fania Records. The tune was a hit with the New York Latin market
despite its English lyrics sung by Bataan, and exemplified the nascent Latin
soul sound. In early anticipation of the disco formula, Gypsy Woman created
dance energy by alternating what was fundamentally a pop-soul tune with a break
featuring double-timed handclaps. Bataan would take this tendency even further
on his influential Salsoul, which fused funk and Latin influences in slick yet
soulful orchestrations. Salsoul remains influential as a rare groove cult item,
and pointed to the future at the time of its release. The LP embodied the
artists highly deliberate and culturally aware musical concept. Bataan theorized
the 70s next big thing as a hybrid: an Afro Cuban rhythm section playing
Brazilian influenced patterns over orchestral funk. In many ways, his vision was
on the money, though most of the money would go to others and mainstream stardom
would elude him. He did, however, get in on the ground floor of the new trend as
an early hitmaker. His biggest commercial move was a Salsoul production released
under the umbrella, and promoted to the new disco market as Afrofilipino, which
included 1975s The Bottle, a much-anthologized classic that drives an R&B horn
arrangement with a relentless piano montuno.

Always in touch with the street, Joe Bataan picked up on rap very early in the
game. His minor rap hit, Rap-O, Clap-O was a bit more successful in Europe than
in the States, and is remembered as raps debut in the European market.
Nevertheless, his legacy remains his gritty and realistic Latin soul lyrics, his
self-identification as an Ordinary Guy, and his highly personal and prophetic
merger of Latin and soul influences. ~ Richard Pierson, Rovi

Tracklist: 
01. Joe Bataan - The Bottle (2013 Remaster) (3:33)
02. Joe Bataan - Latin Strut (4:02)
03. Joe Bataan - When Sunny Gets Blue (3:44)
04. Joe Bataan - Mestizo (2013 - Remaster) (6:45)
05. Joe Bataan feat. Jocelyn Brown - Sadie (She Smokes) [feat. Jocelyn Brown]
(2013 - Remaster) (5:06)
06. Joe Bataan - Fin (2:55)
07. Joe Bataan - Ordinary Guy (2013 Remaster) (4:50)
08. Joe Bataan - Women Dont Want To Love Me (4:33)
09. Joe Bataan - Aftershower Funk (5:12)
10. Joe Bataan - Johnny (4:39)
11. Joe Bataan - When Youre Down (Funky Mambo) (2013 Remaster) (4:32)
12. Joe Bataan - Latin Lover (4:49)
13. Joe Bataan - When We Get Married (4:41)
14. Joe Bataan - Rap-O Clap-O (2013 - Remaster) (3:51)
15. Joe Bataan - Ling Ching Tong (12 Mix) (4:51)
16. Joe Bataan - Chico and the Man (Main Theme;2013 Remastered Version) (3:05)
17. Joe Bataan - X-Rated Symphony (2013 Remaster) (4:08)

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