Search - Joe Arroyo: La Historia, Vol. 1 on DVD

Joe Arroyo: La Historia, Vol. 1

FERNANDO LUJAN | New York, NY USA | 06/17/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What can you say, THANK GOD sony decided to put out a collection of videos from the greatest living exponent of Colombian tropical music, the one and only "JOE ARROYO"!
Colombia is loaded with a veritable fountain of musical talent, but without the proper PR and distribution of it's artist, the rest of the word is still very unaware of these treasures, save for Carlos Vives, Shakira, Juanes, at best. Of all these, Joe Arroyo is without a doubt perhaps the most unique as represented on this DVD- he's got a voice somewhat reminisent of Celia Cruz, facial gestures a la Louis Armstrong, and musical references from Coupe Cloue, Ricardo Lemvo, Arrow, a bit of Fela, (well the world music crowd can relate...). These are his videos to date under the Sony label (check out his earlier videos under the Discos Fuentes label- Arroyo in his prime!)- they run the gamut of Colombian musical rhythms: Mapale, Cumbia, Fandango, hints of Haitian Compas, Zouk & Soca and of course, salsa. The videos are of the usual latin dance variety but what makes this DVD collection most enjoyable to me is that they are set in various points of Colombia's enticing tropical Atlantic coast, there's a video duet with salsa star Victor Manuelle and a short amusing interview with Joe Arroyo regarding his latest album, Marcando Terreno (not yet available stateside). It's a DVD carribean & world music entusiasts should pay attention to as well as for the Salsa element and of course for the die-hard Joe Arroyo fan like yours truly. I would've prefered however if Sony would've deleted the two "karaoke" videos and in their place have put the video for "Ron Pa Todo El Mundo" which is a duet with the Vallenato icon Diomedes Diaz.
I just hope it won't take Sony another 10 years to put out volume 2."