Angel Canales – Sabor

Sabor by Angel Luis Canales, a talented artist with a unique singing style, is a classic and a salsa lovers go-to album. His way of vocalizing his “soneos” during his performances has been widely admired but never duplicated. He started his career as a member of the Mark Dimond band. Mark was formerly known as Willie Colon’s pianist before creating his own group.

Angel was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico in 1950. He grew up in New York’s Barrio as have so many Latin recording artists. He always admired the singing talents of Ismael Rivera. This album, from the Alegre Records catalog and produced by the late Joe Cain, features a well-balanced array of music. The breakaway hit from this album was “Lejos De Ti”, where Angel sings about his love of Puerto Rico.

Canales imposed a new style in salsa, his clothes, his shaved head, the choreography and above all his powerful orchestra full of informal musicians to which he added the most eccentric and aggressive jazz artists of the city, free to improvise on complicated mambos that came from a baritone sax, a towering trumpet and two sour trombones.