Customer Rating: 
Summary: It Grooves!
Comment: The best thing about this album is that it grooves. My personal favorite is "Watermelon Man." I also enjoyed the "Congo Blue," where at the end, there are three shekeres going at the same time. It is a lot of rhythmical fun. Although the arrangements might not be the most complex, this music will hit you in your soul.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Refreshing
Comment: Congero at it's best!. This CD gets you into the "Salsa" mood even if you are listening to it at your office--"careful not to get caught by your manager dancing on your desk"-- Full of rich conga sounds and latino brass wraped in fine jazz this is a delighful esperience from the mellow "Besame Mama", to the powerful "El congero"....still there?....get it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great music - Great Dancing
Comment: Around the time this CD was released, salsa dancing seemed to become the "hot" thing for gringos like me. Fresh out of a few classes with some rudimentary steps under my belt, my date and I stumbled into this little known (to me) club called the Conga Room in Los Angeles where Poncho Sanchez was playing.At first all I could do was try to concentrate on my steps as I quickly became aware of just how much I needed to learn (the dancers packed into this intimate club are incredible). After I loosened up a bit I started realizing just how good the music was. Before long we both became lost in the music and we danced for hours. Something about the repetitiveness, the rhythms, just waves of pleasure that flow endlessly. What a wonderful time!
Being completely new to this type of music, it wasn't until long after that I realized this guy is practically a legend. Sometimes when you least expect it, life deals you pleasant surprises, you know? No CD could completely recreate the experience of "being there" but I would say this comes the closest. Listening to it makes we want to take the intermediate classes now. :-)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not that bad...
Comment: While I agree with Darío Zapata's review that Poncho's neither the most varied nor the most inspired Latin Jazz percusionist, Latin Soul is likely to be his best recent album. The Groove is here and although the style is a bit repetitive it's good fun. Anyway, it'd be tough to make classics such as Cold Duck Time boring as the rain.Give it a try.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Increasing the momentum of mediocrity
Comment: It is often stated that the most important musical tool for musical succes is not the music itself. In the case of Poncho Sanchez this can not be more true. I do not understand how his simple arrangements and repetitive phrasing can be held in the highest regards in a musical genre that contains such a high degree of musical complexity and vast expression of individual and grouped creativity that is so ignored by the majority, only to be represented by a musician that has not progressed in his method of displaying creative emotions since he played with Cal Tjader in the seventies. His phrasing and solos have not changed since, and they are almost identical to Mongo Santamaria's and I do emphasize the word almost. At least when mongo did it, it was different than Patato's or Armando Peraza's or Aguabella's or Julio Collazo's. Just like today you can distinguish between Giovanni, Anga, and Richie Flores. Being a resident of Miami Florida, I am constantly in touch with senior percussionist from Cuba, West Africa, Puerto Rico, who all express the same disapointment in the way Poncho Sanchez' playing is regarded in America. People should not waste their time and money on a concept that has not progressed since the early sixties. The most progressive and creative productions are usually what will be mainstream in the future unless someone in the limelight decides not to take a risk. Miami is residence to some of the leaders in this movement. Even the masters Cachao and Mongo Santamaria have expressed discontent in the state of the music;so has Eddie Gua Gua Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Ed Calle, Bobby Rodriguez, Mike Orta, Edwin Bonilla, Nestor Torres, and too many others not to make mention of the stagnant musical state. The works of The Latin Jazz Crew seem to be some of the most creative in this movement. Also, the recent best kept secret by Timbalaye brings out the potential that this musical genre has to offer. It seems that risk taking and creativity is applying standard latin signatures to standard jazz classics or creating the same feel as straight ahead jazz with a latin rythm section; which was also started back in the fifties. Then in the sixties it was "bring the Real Book and I'll get a conga player and we'll do that latin thing" which is what Poncho has been doing ever since.
