Banqueto - Tito Puente
When it comes to music, the Internet is increasingly fulfilling its early promise as the ultimate library. Though much of the music it holds is illegally or quasi-legally posted, sometimes it feels like you can find nearly everything ever recorded online if you're willing to do some serious digging.
Thankfully it's not always necessary to resort to this vast gray market to find great music that fell out of print decades ago. In 2008 legitimate record labels continued to churn out killer reissues--so many, in fact, that I was often tempted to simply let myself recede into the past, basking in vintage sounds as fresh and vital as anything made today.
Leading the charge over the past couple years has been the revived Fania Records, which was the key salsa label from the 60s through the early 80s. One of the label's best reissues of 2008 went back even further, though--the music on the first two volumes of Tito Puente's The Complete 78s (two more are on the way) originally came out on the great Tico label in the late 40s and early 50s.
