Dig Deep: The Latin Blues Band featuring Luis Aviles – Take A Trip Pussycat – Speed (1968)

Latin Blues Band – (I’ll Be A) Happy Man
Latin Blues Band – Take A Trip
Latin Blues Band – Rumbo Con Guaguanco

Been a while since I put up some records for sale via Rose Records, but there are currently 5 records up on Ebay right now, including releases from Ketty Lester (featuring master drummer Earl Palmer) and Harry Ray, plus a few that I’ve actually featured here before including Jun Mayuzumi’s “Black Room,” Horace Tapscott & the Pan-Afrikan People’s Arkestra and one of my deepest digs of all time, Yuzo Kayama. Another record that is currently up on Ebay (at least until this Wednesday, just enough time before my wife’s birthday to hopefully get her something extra nice! take a look and spread the word if you know people looking for some quality vinyl), is the Moon People’s album Land Of Love. As is the case with the Mayuzumi, Harry Ray and Yuzo Kayama, the only reason I’m able to sell these records is that I’ve essentially replaced them in my collection with a version that I appreciate more.

In the case of the Moon Men, I picked up this album from the Latin Blues Band around my birthday that features “I’ll Be A Happy Man” the vocal version of “Happy Soul” which was revisited as “Happy Soul With A Hook” and as “Hippy Dippy Moon Strut,” all apparently by the exact same backing band. Of those four versions, I enjoy this one featuring full on vocals most of all. I’d always felt that the instrumental “Happy Soul” just was missing something and gets to repetitive after a while, no matter how great of a break beat that instrumental is. As soon as I began listening to this album, I realized that several of the other tracks on the Moon Men album were instrumentals of tracks from this album, including ‘Take A Trip,” “Lay An Oz On Me” and “Pussycat.” In just about all of those cases I prefer the vocal versions and these would be the ones I’d be most apt to play if I spun out some place so it made good sense to hold on to this one and let the Moon People find their way into someone else’s collection. Additionally, the second side of this album is full of some really nice and really tight pre-Salsa latin tracks that simply hit the spot.

Cheers,

Michael