The Bottom Line
Cecilia Noel is a Peruvian Los Angeles-based salsa singer with her own brand of spicy music that she has termed 'salsoul.' A mixture of Afro-Caribbean and contemporary styles, A Gozar! mixes classic & new numbers fused with soul, rock, boogaloo, cumbia and more. A great album for those that like their salsa with a more contemporary sensibility.
Pros
- Hot, sassy, unexpected blend of various Afro-Caribbean & contemporary rhythms
Cons
- Mix of English/Spanish, fusions with soul, rock, disco might put some off
Description
- 12 tracks of salsa fusion
- Blending of salsa, cumbia, soul, disco, rock, boogaloo, funk and more
- Released May 2009 by Compass Records
Guide Review - Review: Cecilia Noel - 'A Gozar!'
A Gozar! opens with the Rafael Hernandez classic “El Cumbanchero,” but Noel’s version sure doesn’t sound like the versions that filled the airwaves in the 1950s and were performed by the likes of Ismael Rivera, Tito Puente, Xavier Cougat and Celia Cruz. This “El Cumbanchero” really rocks with a big band intro and jazzy, soulful arrangement that immediately clarifies the term ‘salsoul.’
The album then moves to a more traditional mambo/salsa version of “Everybody’s Mambo” followed by the Beny More standard “La Culebra” sung in Spanglish. Then there’s another Ismael Rivera standard, “Asi Se Compone Un Son” which is performed in a classical fashion while “Candela,”is a merengue sung in English.
Noel has remarked that A Gozar! “is the soundtrack of my life,” but this soundtrack applies to the lives of many of us with themes of love and flirting, regret and boundless energy and joy. The mix of languages and genres might be grating to some, but I loved the energy, the melting pot arrangements and, most of all, the dynamic vision and performance by Noel.
Intense, fiery, witty and unexpected, A Gozar! will keep you up as you dance along to songs that grab rhythms of your life, stirring up both the music and the listener.
