Esto Sí es lo Mío

Ismael Rivera was one of the greatest singers in Latin music; his vocal power was tempered by a hoarse grit and a thick accent that made him sound like your gruff uncle suddenly manifesting a stunning, operatic talent. This 1978 album, recorded when he was 50, is a deceptively modest and traditional effort, ignoring salsa’s late-Seventies moves in the direction of disco, funk and R&B. The instrumentation is acoustic (piano, five-string guitar, bass, trumpet, saxophone, and percussion), and the rhythms are straight from Puerto Rico. Befitting Rivera’s legendary status, the male vocal chorus consists of four titans from the generation after him: Héctor Lavoe, Rubén Blades, Adalberto Santiago, and Nestor Sánchez. The opening track, the seven-minute “Las Caras Lindas (De Mi Gente Negra),” is a potent statement of Afro-Latino pride.