''Chicano Power!'' (subtitled: ''Latin Rock In The USA 1968-1976'') is a 1998 compilation album released by
Soul Jazz Records
Soul Jazz Records is a British record label based in London. Outside of releasing records, the label also publishes books, occasionally films and performs as a DJ set. The music releases labels from a variety of genres, including reggae, house ...
. The album contains Latin bands predominantly from the United States during the late 1960s and 1970s who combined rock, jazz and Latin music. The album was released to positive reception from online music database
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...
but to more lukewarm or mixed reviews from ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'' and the ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
''.
Music and content
''Chicano Power'' is a compilation album that focuses on Latin bands throughout the United States who combined rock, jazz, and Latin music in the late 1960s and 1970s. Richie Unterberger of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...
noted that despite the title, the album contained music beyond Mexican-American bands from Los Angeles and San Francisco but also Puerto Rican-American groups and artists from New York and Miami. The music is primarily protest songs.
Release
The album was released in September 1998. The album was released on compact disc and vinyl record.
Reception
Unterberger of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...
commented that "At its best, this collection, like early
Santana, is an intoxicating mix of rock, R&B, psychedelia, jazz, and Latin music; even at its least impressive, it's still pretty enjoyable. Santana themselves are represented by the song that's probably the apex of the whole musical movement, "Soul Sacrifice." The only major complaint one could offer is that 75 minutes of music is spread throughout two discs, and could have been combined onto one CD." Dan Glaister compared the album unfavorably to Soul Jazz Records previous release of ''
Nu Yorica!
''Nu Yorica! – Culture Clash in New York City: Experiments in Latin Music 1970–77'' is a 1996 compilation album of Latin music released by Soul Jazz Records in 1996. The album was received positive reviews in '' The Guardian'' and ''Muzik'' o ...
'', finding that while ''Nu Yorica!'' had "some truly wonderful music going for it, Chicano Power! has at best, Santana's Soul Sacrifice, and at worst, well, any number of sub-standard rock cliches fused with familiar Latin rhythms." Glaister noted that albums liner notes that document the "brief but fascinating period of political and cultural change, charting the rise and fall of the
Chicano Power Movement
Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American iden ...
..yet the musical impact of the movement was minimal - Santana aside." Dele Fadele of the ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' declared that the album was "mainly of interest to archivists and nostalgists. Anyone who cares about where Latinos are going in America today, on a musical level, would do better to search out current releases. For the record, 'Chicano Power!...' is a compendium of mostly disappeared groups who made mainstream sense in the context of hippies, Jefferson Airplane and San Francisco flower power."
Track listing
Disc 1
# Sapo – "Been Had" (5:30)
# Black Sugar – "It's Too Late" (3:00)
# Chango – "Mira Pa Ca" (2:51)
# Harvey Averne Barrio Band – "Cayuco" (5:21)
#
Tierra
Tierra may refer to:
Astronomy
*Earth in the Spanish and Asturian language
Computing and games
* Tierra (computer simulation), a computer simulation of life by the ecologist Thomas S. Ray
* Tierra Entertainment, now known as AGD Interactive, a ...
– "Sun God" (2:39)
# Benitez – "Night Life" ( 4:22)
#
Malo
Mal, which in Spanish means ''bad or evil'', may also refer to:
Places
*Malo, Italy, a town
* Malo Island, formerly known as St. Bartholomew, Vanuatu
* Malo (Solomon Islands), an island
*Malo, Washington, Ferry County, Washington, United States
* ...
– "Street Man" (4:55)
#
El Chicano
El Chicano was an American brown-eyed soul group from Los Angeles, California, whose style incorporated various modern music genres including rock, funk, soul, blues, jazz, and salsa. The group's name was from Chicano, a term for United Sta ...
– "Ron Con Con" (3:46)
# Mother Night – "Fools Are You" (4:46)
Disc 2
#
Santana – "Soul Sacrifice" (4:53)
# Black Sugar – "Viajecito" (5:08)
# Toro – "Ramona" (4:04)
# Malo – "Pana" (6:45)
# The Antiques – "Chaucha" (2:49)
# Benitez – "Butterfly" (2:29)
#
Azteca – "Azteca Theme" (4:36)
# Sapo – "Sapo's Montuno" (6:07)
References
Sources
*
*
* {{cite web, url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/chicano-power-latin-rock-in-the-usa-1968-1976-mw0000438744, publisher=
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...
, title=Chicano Power: Latin Rock in the USA 1968-1976, accessdate=September 7, 2021, last=Unterberger, first=Richie
1998 compilation albums
Soul Jazz Records compilation albums