[engl] Born on September 3, 1934 in the barrio of San Roque in Barranquilla, Adolfo Ernesto Echeverría Comas started singing on the radio first as a young man, forming his own conjunto and signing with various labels over the years, becoming one of Colombia’s premier band leaders, composers, interpreters and producers of tropical costeño music in the process. Among many other accolades, he is a winner of five Congo de Oro and one El Cacique de Oro awards; his holiday songs ‘Las cuatro fiestas’ and ‘La Inmaculada’ are recognized as national treasures. During his long and successful career, he has toured Venezuela, Panamá and Ecuador, and while performing in the United States was befriended by Celia Cruz and Tito Puente. Recognizing his songwriting talents, the pair asked him for a tune and he gave them ‘Salsa de tomate’, inspired by Tito’s hatred of the term, which they recorded for their “Alma con alma” release on Tico Records in 1971.By 1976, Adolfo Echeverría had signed with Discos Fuentes, where he was to remain until 1990 when he suffered a heart attack and was sadly never able to resume his career. Echeverría’s first year with the label was a great success, with his eponymous debut LP containing his biggest hit, the self-penned cumbia party anthem ‘Amaneciendo’. The following year, working again with the Fuentes hit production team of Isaac Villanueva and Hernán Colorado, Echeverría came out with “Sabroso bacalao”, sharing the vocals with Freddy Cruz and Manuel Cassiani. As with the first album, in addition to some hot, driving hardcore salsa tracks like ‘Mi viejo barrio’ and ‘Perdóname’, Echeverría made sure to include his beloved tasty indigenous cumbia and porro. In addition, the cut ‘Llorando por ti’ is in the Afro-Cuban oriza rhythm style, while ‘Locura es mi cumbelé’ is described as a ‘cumbelé’ (inspired by The New Swing Sextet’s 1970 song ‘Cum Cumbele’, which is a variant on the bomba, an Afro-Puerto Rican folkloric drum-based genre). Throughout this diverse genre-hopping album one can always hear the forcefully fiery piano of Hugo Molinares, who also composed the monster guaguancó track ‘Sabroso bacalao’. At the time, the LP yielded the domestic hit ‘Fantasía marina’ but in recent years ‘Noches de cumbia’ and the title track have become international tropical DJ dance floor standards across the globe, making this record a must-have for collectors, disk jockeys and aficionados of the classic Fuentes sound.