Ray Barretto: Latin Soul Man

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Oliver Wang wrote in the Nation: "When the Emusica Entertainment Group bought Fania [Records]'s catalog in 2005 … it astutely perceived a continuing market for the music. … Bugalú was always a great bridge between communities; in its heyday, ballrooms would draw black, white and Latino fans from across New York's boroughs to boogaloo the night away. With an equally diverse fan base in this emergent generation, bugalú continues to live up to the cross-cultural ideal it was born out of. That sentiment of unity is brought home on one of the new Fania anthologies, Latin Soul Man, dedicated to the late, great percussionist Ray Barretto. A Nuyorican from an older generation, he was an undisputed forefather of the bugalú. However, unlike his scornful peers, Barretto embraced the style; he even titled his 1967 album Latino Con Soul. The title track of another LP, Together (1969), appears on Latin Soul Man. On it, Barretto expresses the social idealism of the bugalú era, singing, 'I know a beautiful truth and it's helped me be free/ I know I'm black and I'm white and I'm red/ The blood of mankind flows in me.'"