It's a Scream How Levine Does the Rhumba
This two-CD set is the first of its kind: an in-depth historical
examination of the cultural and political relationships between
U.S. Latinos and Jews through popular music! The songs
feature Jewish artists engaging with Latin styles, and Latino
artists engaging with Jewish themes, following the evolution of
a musical relationship from early 20th-century novelty songs
through 1970s and 1980s salsa classics.
The project includes archival images and ephemera, online
oral histories, and an extensive booklet of essays written by
Steve Berlin of the legendary Chicano band Los Lobos and
acclaimed NYC bandleader and pianist Arturo O Farrill.
The range of songs unveils a rarely documented musical
genealogy of Jewish-Latino musical interchange in the U.S.,
moving from early Yiddish rhumba records by Irving Kaufman
and the Barton Brothers up through the Catskills mambo
experiments of top Latin bandleaders like Machito and Tito
Puente, Hava Nagila makeovers by legends like Celia Cruz
and Damiron, the influential band innovations of Eddie Palmieri,
and the 1970s salsa output of artists like Larry Harlow, dubbed
El Judio Maravilloso by his Latino bandmates.