Remember when each time you went to the club a new record would grab you with its complexity and beauty? When the harmonies and rhythms were so deep and infectious that one was powerless against the music's demand to move, to dance? Well, neither do we. But Melaza is a group of musicians who can't seem to let go of the challenge that Mongo and Barretto and Hector stamped onto wax, taunting us with the majesty of their swing, the power and effortlessness of their music. So we slug it out, fighting our current cultural amnesia at 4 a.m. at Umbrella's in the BX or quinceaneras in the Heights, refining our craft, trying to balance these ghosts on our shoulders. Last winter, the fourteen of us finally got together, cramming into a studio in south Williamsburg to lay these tracks down live. And if the joy in creating this music seeps out your speakers, then we've done our job.
