Puerto Rico's gift to the world,
La Sonora Ponceña hardly needed the patronage of Fania maestro
Larry Harlow. To virtually everyone with at least a beginner's knowledge of salsa, the group was truly legendary, its roots in the 1940s predating more than just a few of their birth dates. But
Harlow helped out the group in America tremendously, getting them wider distribution among salsa fans in New York and producing several of their records, beginning in 1968 with their landmark
Hacheros Pa' un Palo and extending to 1974's
Sabor Sureño (both originally released on the Inca label).
Papo Lucca, the second-generation of
Sonora Ponceña leadership, proved his worth as an arranger and multi-instrumentalist; his tight orchestrations for the ensemble are marvelous, peaking with his elegant ending to "Las Mujeres Son de Azúcar" (another highlight is the extended "Telaraña"). His piano playing reaches the same heights as
Charlie Palmieri, and for the traditional "Las Lenguas," he picks up both the trumpet and the tres. ~ John Bush