Within this last recording of Tamayo y Su Salsa AM,
there is one track which I wouldn’t want to be without. The rest, all self-penned bar one collaboration, range from the aimless to the downright annoying, in my view. If Tamayo’s voice was always weak, it worsened over just a few years, as did his phrasing, timing and the lyrics he wrote for himself. Taken together, and sadly so, given the musicianship and that some of the arrangements have a bit of interest, this is too frequently of nursery rhyme banality. Tamayo had run out of anything worth saying.
The exception, for me, is Que Chiquitico Es El Mundo, a well composed and arranged number. Used to go down well at La Casa Cubana, and I’d still play this out today. Everything is working in balance, good bassline and tumbao, the unusual use of a horn motif, until Tamayo’s fairly mediocre vocal delivery really doesn’t matter. You can have the album if you like, but don’t deprive yourself of this track.
