Puchi Colon – Salsa Praise 2

Puchi Colon
Salsa Praise 2
LGR Records (2008)
http://www.puchicolon.com/

Psalm 150 instructs us to praise God with the sound of the trumpet, the lyre and harp, the tambourine, flute, and cymbals.

To this list of instruments, Puchi Colon adds congas, timbale, bongos, maracas, and a hot brass section.

He calls it “Salsa Praise.”

If you are not familiar with Puchi (pron. poo-chee) Colon, he is a Christian artist who blends Latin music, jazz, tropical sounds, CCR and gospel into his distinctive style of praise and worship. He began recording in 1996 and just released another Spanish-language album, Que No Pare (Don’t Stop the Praise).

Salsa Praise 2 is the follow-up to Colon’s 2002 Salsa Praise, his first salsa album in English. On the first album, Colon spiced up well-known gospels such as the Winans’ “Tomorrow” and old hymns such as “At the Cross,” making each sound as if it were destined for salsa treatment.

The follow-up finds some of that – there’s a cover of MercyMe’s smash “I Can Only Imagine” – but Colon writes a fair number of tracks, too, either alone or with his wife, JoAnn (incidentally, JoAnn’s lead vocal on “Stubborn Love,” from the first Salsa Praise, is pure delight).

While the first album was more melodic, the second favors rhythm and brass, as if Miami Sound Machine were recording an inspirational album, with Colon subbing for Gloria Estevan. In many ways, Colon’s gently flowing vocals sound like a male Estevan.

“We Wanna Worship” is the choice track on Salsa Praise 2, and it is offered twice: as a salsa performance and as a pop version. The salsa performance is superior to the pop version because of its polyrhythmic tempo and muscular musicianship. The comparison demonstrates how much firepower a Latin arrangement, skillfully rendered, can add to a song.

Three of Five Stars

gPod Picks: “We Wanna Worship.”

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.