No, not the epic Joe Cuba boogaloo. “El Tiroteo” was composed by Pete Ortiz and George Rodriguez of El Barrio’s mighty (and still playing as of this writing!) New Swing Sextet for their 1970 LP Revolucionando. Quick lyrical translation: the song basically says “I heard you’ve been messing with my girlfriend. Do it again and I’ll shoot you in the head.” I believe this is the new version recorded in 2005:
Pointing out how closely young Colombian (and Peruvian and Panamanian and Venezuelan) cats were listening to the creations of the NY scene in the late ’60s and early ’70s, this is Fruko’s take on the song, which only appears on a Discos Fuentes 45.
A couple notes – if you aren’t knowing, Fruko is the genius (along with producer Mario Rincon and label boss Antonio Fuentes) responsible for Fruko y sus Tesos, The Latin Brothers, Wganda Kenya and Afrosound. His recordings on Discos Fuentes are perfectly recorded and are absolute thunder on a good dancefloor soundsystem.
While Fruko’s singers included both Joe Arroyo and Piper Pimienta – Colombia’s #1 and #2 of all time, period – this song is sung by the unknown (to me) Huango, whose voice lends a more simple, working class tough tone. Fruko kept the New Swing Sextet’s vibes, added the wicked distorted echo on coro (which sounds incredible on the dancefloor hella loud) and the boogaloo handclaps colombians love.
Finally, we get to this delicious little stripped down version by Peru’s Jimmy y Sus Perlas, led by the great Tres player Oswaldo “Mita” Barreto. I’ll do another post on the fantastic Peruvian tres-led sound of this period (Mita, Los Kintos, Los Magos del Swing etc.) in the future.