Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I would ordinarily not review a book I didn't finish, but Rondón made two errors in the first 28 pages so grievous that I put the book down for good. First, about the debut album from Eddie Palmieri's band La Perfecta, he claims: "Eddie's older brother, Charlie, was the pianist and in charge of composing and arranging most of their repertoire." If he owned this album--one of the most important in the history of salsa--he could plainly see that Charlie wrote the liner notes and did nothing else on it.
Then, a few pages later, he attributes the song "Micaela" to Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez. Now this is an error so common that Fania records itself has made it on at least one of their compilations, but Rondón should know better. There were two different artists named Pete Rodriguez on the Fania label--Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez, the salsa singer who did "Catalina La O," among other classics, and Pete Rodriguez (and his Orchestra), who was dubbed "The King of Boogaloo." It was the latter who did "Micaela."
It's bad enough that Rondón, a Venezuelan, tries desperately to maintain that Venezuela was as important to the history of Salsa as Puerto Rico, but these huge factual errors (as well as minor ones--the original Perfecta included a flautist and was heavily influenced by charanga, though Rondón seems not to know this) indicate a stunning lack of knowledge about his subject and a failure to get anyone to fact check his work.
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