The Best of Michi Sarmiento

Soundway remain in Colombia for the follow up to Cartagena! Curro Fuentes & The Big Band Cumbia & Descarga Sound of Colombia 1962 - 72, with a collection of pure Colombian dancefloor thunder; 16 tracks of the finest guaguancós, descargas and cumbias recorded by legendary bandleader Michi Sarmiento y sus Bravos, and released on the infamous Discos Fuentes label between 1967 and 1977.

Born into a musical family in 1938, Michi, a musical-child prodigy of sorts, began playing the cabarets, casinos and cathouses of Cartagena in the late 1950's. By 1967 he had formed his Combo Bravo (the band consisted of two trumpets, Michi on tenor sax and clarinet, guitar and piano, electric bass, tumbadora, timbales and a young Joe Arroyo on vocals) and began to play live alongside other exciting young groups such as Toño y su Combo, Los Seven del Swing and Puerto Rico y su Combo.

Along with infectious dance porros and cumbias, Michi y sus Bravos specialized in rumbling guaguancós, descargas and hot covers of early salsa and boogaloo hits. Michi's LPs on Discos Fuentes, brilliantly produced and recorded by Mario 'Pachanga' Rincón, were packed with fast-paced dancefloor burners featuring pumping bass, insistent montunos, sax solos and nasty metallic percussion.