Sumiko Sakamoto/Orquesta de la Luz -- El Cumbanchero

 

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The past 24 hours have brought about the obituaries of a few people. Broadcaster Larry King whom I watched from time to time on CNN both here in Toronto and back in Japan over a few decades died earlier this morning at the age of 87, while baseball legend Hank Aaron passed away at 86 yesterday. I'm just a casual fan of America's Pastime but even I knew about his record-breaking 715th home run over that of Babe Ruth.

I added it to her first "Kayo Kyoku Plus" article about an hour ago but I learned from Mixi and J-Wiki that actress and The Queen of Latin Music, Sumiko Sakamoto（坂本スミ子）, passed away at the age of 84. That first article addressed her contribution to the 1961-1965 NHK music-variety show "Yume de Aimashou"（夢であいましょう）with the titular theme song itself.

"Yume de Aimashou" is a standard of romantic dreams and starry nights but it doesn't reflect Sakamoto's nickname of the Queen of Latin Music. So I looked up her J-Wiki biography and found out that she had appeared on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen for 5 years in a row between 1961 and 1965, and for all of her appearances, she performed a Latin song. Her second stint on the 1962 edition of the New Year's Eve special, for instance, was to perform "El Cumbanchero", the 1943 creation by Puerto Rican songwriter Rafael Hernández Marín. Unfortunately, I have yet to find any of Sakamoto's appearances on the Kohaku via YouTube but I can believe that when she did come onto the stage during those 5 times, things got pretty lively.

I could neither track down when exactly a recorded version of "El Cumbanchero" by Sakamoto was first released so as for the year to put into Labels, I will just go with 1962, the year that the singer presented the song on the Kohaku. The other thing was how is el cumbanchero defined. I've read things with vegetables such as "manly cucumber" and "spicy pickle", but apparently in Puerto Rican, the title means "The Fun Lover". Good enough for me and the lyrics translated into English seem to describe the titular person having a grand old time at a Latin jazz club.

I had heard of "El Cumbanchero" before just from that descending horn riff, and when I heard Sakamoto's version a couple of times, I wondered whether Latin jazz legend Tito Puente had tackled this one. Well, that was a silly question to myself and sure enough, here he is. With that frenetic percussion in the music and lyrics, there was no way that he could ignore this tune.

I also figured that salsa band Orquesta de la Luz has covered "El Cumbanchero" and sure enough, vocalist Nora and the gang did so on their 2008 album "¡CALIENTE!". It sounds like the band added some contemporary beats to their version...maybe it's House (forgive me, I'm not a dance music expert here)? Calling for any wisdom on this part. Anyways, the band is so good and smooth that they managed to make the corner of an empty lounge the most happening place on Earth in the video.