Ray Barretto's Acid

Holy Shit!

i was lying in bed last night, reading my book, and this little gem of a song comes on. truly a delight.

the song is the title track of ray barretto's album "acid".

as most anyone reading this knows, i have a thing for percussion. this song (and, really, the whole album) is delightfully rhythm-heavy and dripping with poly's. in a word, it's awesome.

i think it was my dad that first introduced my to percussion, but it was really the loadies in capitol park that got me into it -- drum circles and acid and long, warm sacramento summer nights can do that to an impressionable young man...

when i listen to music that is this good, i find myself imagining (or is it remembering) my earliest conscious memories of the genre being heard. in this case, it's to portola way, my childhood home. i'm in the living room, on a big blue couch, listening to something with timbales. it's the first time i've really given congas and timbales and clave and that zipper-sounding thing any undivided attention, and my mind is being blown. how do they all stay in time with each other? is this one drummer or seven? and where the fuck is the one?

then my dad got a pair of congas. i immediately started spending my afternoons playing (playing? well, more like hitting them repeatedly and learning how to make new sounds) them and annoying the neighbors. when i got back from holland two years later i started going to capitol park and drumming more... how shall i say... traditionally. trance-states and such. heart-beats and pulse rhythms. stuff that would probably annoy the shit out of me now if i were to try and participate in a similar circle.

anyhow, ray barretto is amazing. this song (and the whole fucking album) is amazing. check it.