Perez Prado - Tequila!

June 28th, 2012

PEREZ PRADO

Tequila
Cannon Records
1974
Belgium

Everybody has heard about the king of mambo, Perez Prado. At least at some point. But most of the people don’t know that there was two of them. Brothers Damason Pérez Prado and his little brother, Pantaleón Pérez Prado both shared the same artist name. Neither of the Perez Prados used their first name, but only their last names and the confusion was quite obvious. While Damason Pérez Prado was mainly working on the States, his bass playing brother was in Europe acting as the “true king of mambo”. Even when Pantaleón Perez Prado died in 1983, the press announced the death of his brother as the news was only about the death of Perez Prado. In Spanish speaking countries people have two last names. First one is the paternal (father’s surname) and second is maternal (mother’s surname). That’s the reason for the name issue. So, Damason Pérez Prado was the more famous brother, the king of mambo, but his brother was the funkier one. Even though a lawsuit in 1956 eventually restrained Pantaleón from making further use of the name Perez Prado, there was still few of his albums released in the 1970s under that name. And they were pretty banging.

This album was most propably released originally in Italy, as it was licensed from Beat Records. I’m just not sure what the name of that version is. Tequila! was the name of the Belgian release and the album was also released in the UK by the name Now. Anyways, whatever the name is, it’s a very strong album. There’s no weak tracks, it’s just full of very funky afro-cuban groovers with a loads of breaks. Check for yourself.

Brazil