Joe Bataan - Riot! (Fania / Craft Recordings CR0085, 1968/2024, RSD Black Friday)
This is a party record! It’s a city record, too. A party in the city, I guess. If you are familiar with a city, then you know what I mean. If you - however - have lived removed from urban locales, then you’ll have to imagine what I’m talking about. Joe Bataan’s Riot! Is a walk through the neighborhood on the hunt for...maybe lunch. It’s being hungry and wondering where to go and enjoying the character that the block offers. Finally, you settle into a cozy bodega and order something from across a well-worn counter while four different people speak four different languages. There’s a lot of direct eye contact. Riot! sounds like what you might hear walking across 103rd Street and Lexington Avenue in East Harlem which is fitting because that’s where Joe Bataan grew up.
That’s what Riot! is to me, it’s a city block interaction of salsa and the Fania sound grouped in with doo wop and group harmony and rock and roll and funk, too. It’s crowded, but - somehow - there’s space for everyone, just like the 6 train at rush-hour. “Can I fit?” you’ll question from the platform. Sure you can, squeeze in. Argue with me that this album may be just a smidge too connected with the pop sounds of 1968 to be considered a true Fania grail, but I’d counter back: who cares? And I might continue that argument with: that’s your point? It works. There’s a reason why the album was Bataan’s biggest seller, and I think that’s it: this may be the moment he most successfully fused together the many elements of his musical life.
This is a AAA reissue from Craft Recordings as they continue to explore the Fania catalog. It’s a clean pressing (Memphis Record Pressing), thanks for the Mofi-style inner sleeve, too! Remastered by Clint Holley and Dave Polster at Well Made Music, it sounds good, but - and I’ve never heard an original copy with which to compare - it presents a bit bright to my ears. There are still plenty of details to catch. Battan’s Riot! Is a party, and - you know what? - you’re invited. Come over.
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