During the '50s,
Ismael Rivera
had been featured in one of the best groups in all of Latin music,
Cortijo y Su Combo
, but he spent a significant chunk of the '60s behind bars on drug charges. By the dawn of the salsa era, he had refound himself, with a new band that he fronted,
Los Cachimbos
. Their work is excellent, but 1971's
Lo Ultimo en la Avenida
is a different type of album, and a superior one at that. Paired with
Kako
, one of the other best Puerto Rican congueros of the era (beside
Cortijo
himself),
Rivera
sounds as energized as he was during the late '50s. The opening "Mi Negrita Me Espera" is equaled only by
's virtuosic vocalizing on "El Cumbanchero," and he's closely followed (at an incredible pace) by
and his combo.
is a one-off that rightly should have been followed up multiple times. ~ John Bush