Musica Caliente

One thing I find extremely hard to do is to declare all-time favorites when it comes to artists/groups, albums, and songs. For example, I know that Arthur Russell is my all-time favorite artist, however when it comes to my top five, it starts to get kind of hazy. The more I think about it however, the more that I've concluded that one of my top five favorites is the funky Latin rock band Barrabas. I've posted their music on this site many times and I find they are one of those groups that truly blurs the lines between many of my favorite music genres including disco, Latin funk/jazz, along with heavy Afro-hitting percussion rhythms. Today, I thought I would share another one of my favorite tracks of theirs in "Take It All". This funky 1975 cut represents one of the group's more hard-to-find songs to hunt down. I first heard it on Vampi Soul's 2005 Barrabas-retrospective compilation titled Musica Caliente. The double-vinyl album serves as sort of a "greatest hits" type of release for the group however, in fair criticism, some of the group's best material is missing from the release including "Woman" and "On The Road Again" among others. The other thing I question when comes to the Musica Caliente record is the accuracy when it comes to which album each song was originally included on. I own most of Barrabas' original albums and some of the back-cover information seems to be slightly inaccurate. For instance, "Take It All" was supposedly released on an album titled Desperately and according to my knowledge Desperately is a single released by the group and not an album. Regardless, the overall Vampi Soul release is solid and helps outline many of Barrabas' best and at times rarest tracks like "Take It All". Even with what I feel like are some song credit inaccuracies, I still believe Musica Caliente is a record definitely worth owning. Enjoy!

Barrabas - Take It All