Issac Delgado på SOB i New York

Issac Delgado Y Su Grupo

Asi Soy
CD (Universal 178451), Released 2008;

"The second product of the great Cuban singer Issac Delgado’s stay in Miami has arrived in time for Christmas, and per usual with Delgado, it’s a masterpiece. Produced by Delgado and Sergio George and recorded in Puerto Rico with a cast of the best Puerto Rican musicians (Cano Estremera shows up on coro!), it’s a non-stop blast of pleasure. Delgado ventures on the tune "La Fiesta" into deep party music, mixing up some reggaeton with salsa; on title tune "Asi Soy," the percussion goes home-wrecking, the musicians are so excited (actually, the percussion, turned up and placed high in the mix is pretty much brilliant all album long; no fear of percussion in this mix). And while Delgado was there at the inception of timba, his music has long been a sophisticated blending of various Afro Caribbean musics, and Asi Soy is a straight up salsa record, hard and unrepentant, even if at times Delgado starts out his tunes with some near pop singing. It’s as if, on say a track like "No Vale La Pena," with its strong melody and coro, Delgado was putting himself in the same territory as Victor Manuelle and Gilberto Santa Rosa — when they’re singing uptempo swingers. And, per usual, the songwriting is exceptional, with great tunes taken from the book of Amaury Gutierrez, and Jorge Luis Piloto and Sergio George and Delgado himself. It has to be remembered that Delgado’s one of the great singers of the late 20th century, and the album is rife with melodies he’s improvising, asides that add melody on top of melody, that take just a song into something special, something worth remembering, looking forward too. There’s nothing like him, the texture of his voice, his ability to evoke emotion, his freedom, and if there’s any justice we’ll be hearing tracks from this on the radio for the next year. Otherwise, it’s just another historic recording that radio overlooks, again.
Highly Recommended."

Kjelde: Peter Watrous, 2008-11-12.