Agua Que Va a Caer

A guaguancó about seeing the storm before it breaks — dark times coming, the sky clouding over, 'water's going to fall.' Credited to the rumbero Ernesto...

A guaguancó about seeing the storm before it breaks — dark times coming, the sky clouding over, 'water's going to fall.' Credited to the rumbero Ernesto Oliva 'El Pluma,' it enters the record in 1967 on 'Patato y Totico,' the classic of Havana rumba transplanted to New York, with Totico's voice over Arsenio Rodríguez's tres and Cachao's bass. Then watch it travel: Rafael Cortijo cuts it in New York in 1969 with his Panamanian sonero Camilo Azuquita out front; a Peruvian sonora gives it electric guitar in 1970; Santana runs it through Latin rock on 'Milagro'; and Barcelona's Tromboranga rebuilds it for the modern salsa-dura floor. A street rumba that kept finding new weather.

Composer

Ernesto Oliva "El Pluma"

Year

1967

Lineage

guaguancó → salsa