Joe Acosta - The Power of Love

Puerto Rico-born pianist Joe Acosta had a long, if unsung career in Latin music, but his Ghetto Records LP is his best and most sought-after album. It’s easy to see why - deep trombones, fantastic piano solos, great Salsa alongside a couple of Latin Soul gems make for heady mix that embodies the Salsoul – Salsa meets Soul – movement kickstarted by Joe Bataan. These are the definitive reissues of these albums, licensed from Joe Bataan, with his oversight and input into a 15 page oversize book by Pablo Yglesias that details Bataan’s larger-than-imagination life and his little Latin label that could.

1.
I Need Her 03:15
2.
Bendita Illusion 02:41
3.
Una Traicion 05:46
4.
Amor Perdido 04:19
5.
Juliana 05:59
6.
Phoenix 03:35
7.
La Bendicion 03:50
8.
La Realidad 04:07
about
Ghetto Records was Latin music legend Joe Bataan’s way to get over on The Man and out of the ’hood, a bold move by an artist looking for independence and creative control in an industry that had exploited his talents and treated him like chattel. As Bataan puts it today, “Ghetto Records was part of my journey, a stepping stone to everything else that I’ve done. I learned enough that it enabled me to get out of the box with my thinking, it showed me how to deal with adversity.” Like many dreams and schemes born of the street, this one was audacious, perhaps even reckless to a fault. Hatched from desperation yet full of hope Ghetto Records came crashing down shortly after its inception. The seven albums in its discography languished out of print - until now.
credits
released November 15, 2023