The Celia Collection

Once in a while, an album comes along to take your breath away. That is certainly the case with this boxed set, which contains no fewer than 25 CDs tracing the history of jazz piano from early 1899 to the end of 1958. Several years ago, the same record company issued a set ten CDs covering some of the same ground, but this expanded version is even more amazing.

There are a lot of latin-compilations as many as grains of sand on a vast beach. As we know, quantity has nothing to do with quality, though. On one hand there are astonishingly boring anthologies that do not get much attention by the audience. On the other hand there are compilations which are compiled without any plan by a trainee who was given maximum 30 minutes of time in the archive of the label to compile the cheap „ritmo-latino-cd“ of the week…

Since the appearance of mambo in the 30s, as an evolution of Cuban 'danzón' and 'son montuno', reached its greatest popularity during the 50s. Musicians like Pérez Prado, Cachao, Tito Puente and Machito were some of the greatest creators and performers of this Cuban rhythm. This double CD album offers a collection of 36 original songs performed by some of the most famous groups and singers of those golden years, as Tito Puente (El Rey del Timbal), Tito Rodriguez, Machito & his Afro-Cuban or Sonora Matancera with Celia Cruz among others.