Many music fans will remember Jimmy Salcedo due to his wonderful work as arranger and producer with the duo Elia and Elizabeth. The celebrated anthology La Onda de Elia y Elizabeth (VAMPI 160CD/LP) made half the world aware of a handful of lost pearls in Latin America's underrated pop music history. Their delicate songwriting acquired, after his treatment, a special tropical aroma that even included the funk influences received by Salcedo at that time. Jimmy Salcedo (Barranquilla, Colombia) was a talented and charismatic musician from the bohemian and jazz scene in Bogotá. After touring some time with Los Be-Bops, his first band, he founded a new group, La Onda Tres. His increasing popularity boosted after conducting a TV show of musical and comedy content: El show de Jimmy. He released with his band, La Onda Tres, a few LPs and singles on Famoso, a Codiscos sublabel, that had a limited distribution, mainly in Colombia only. Here are two songs from the mid-70s that seem to have been conceived to round off a perfect dancefloor-oriented 45. "Maraguango" is an irresistible mix of Afro-Latin percussion and catchy tropical harmonies spiced up with Moog keyboard sounds, fuzz and wah-wah guitars and even touches of Hammond, in a psychedelic funk style. On the flip, "Moogambo" is an exhilarating Moog-driven instrumental with a heavy Afro-funk rhythm that could have easily been recorded by any of the many solid Afro-American bands following the teachings of James Brown, George Clinton, or The Meters at the time. This song has never been available on a single before. Both songs are reissued here for the first time, acknowledging the undisputed genius of Jimmy Salcedo.
