FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Our Latin Thing 

Today I have to think of the time before Corona when in our bar on Saturdays we played After La Murga by Willie Colon or I Like It Like That by Pete Rodriguez.... With melancholy and tears in my eyes, but also in the hope that we will all see each other again soon! "Our Latin Thing (Nuestra Cosa)" is about such a night and it was in 1971. At that time, Latin American music basically only existed for a minority. Quite different from today, when Salsa has even conquered our shop in Berlin. The percussionist Ray Barretto played a big part in this. His great achievement was the "Our Latin Thing" concert by the Fania All-Stars on 26 August 1971 at the Cheetah Club on 52nd Street in Berlin. If you are not yet familiar with Latin American music, do some research on Fania Records, because the label is synonymous with Latin. The "Our Latin Thing" concert in conjunction with Fania gave Latin its worldwide breakthrough - and you've been dancing to it in our bar ever since. Larry Harlow describes this noche inolvidable, where no one was the "star" but everyone jammed together. The songs were open for everyone to shine! We experience a dozen singers, a fat horn section and the driving percussion combo led by Barretto. Until the release of the DVD, we had to make do with grainy VHS recordings on youtube. In the past, I was asked again and again by customers. But a DVD did not exist. "Our Latin Thing" launched a whole series of great careers and since then Latin has been "commercial". In a good sense! Otherwise we wouldn't be able to dance together to Latin hits we all know! Leon Gast produced the film on a low budget on 16mm. If you enter his name in our catalogue, you will end up with "When-We-Were-Kings" (DVD4880), his 96 Muhammad Ali documentary. A unique film! Just like "Our Latin Thing", which incidentally introduces us to barrio life with its cockfights and domino games. The film production corresponds to the concert. The music basically rehearsed their pieces on stage for the first time, while Leon Gast shot his film in no time at all. In less than a week. Sometimes you think the camera is dancing to the music! Some songs are just for dancing, others document a growing political awareness. You hear the story of an Indian princess of a captive people. Or the song of a tired farmer returning from his field work. It is music from the Lower East Side, where the Cuban immigrants live in shabby tenements. It is their life, their film.