That is the original. Frankly, nothing touches it. 9 and a half minutes of AfroCuba meets New York City Jazz distillled by the hippest genius Nuyoricans. It always seemed to me that the “angry elephant” trombones (Brazilian Jose Rodrigues and Israelite Barry Rogers) brought the roar of modern, urban life – Semi trucks and cars, work whistles and machinery, the endless noise of NYC – into AfroCuban dance music.
Next is Eddie versioning himself! Here his “La Perfecta” backs Cuban flutist and bandleader José Fajardo, minus the trombones (sounds like a trumpet and sax in there, but the action is all in Fajardo’s flute). Fajardo was a pillar of the Cuban Charanga since the 1940s – he filled in for Antonio Arcaño for 3 years, led his own Charanga and recorded a Latin Jam Session (descarga) for LP Panart, among other distinctions.
Last is a really lovely version by Chico Orefiche, from the Latin Underground LP on Gema (Greatest ever LP cover alert). Orefiche was a bongocero and Sax player with the Lecuona Cuban Boys Orchestra, an early (1930s-40s) traveling “Rhumba” review led by famed composer Ernesto Lecuona, and later by Chico’s brother, pianist, composer and arranger Armando Orefiche.
The whole LP is really interesting, with a number of great songs, and it’s always struck me that a musician who began in the ’30s pops up three decades later with a fully formed musical expression like this, then disappears from the record again.