Salvador

Salvador burst onto the Christian music scene with the promise of introducing a bit of spicy salsa to the increasingly bland musical menu out of Nashville. Skeptical at first, I was soon won over by the gritty vocals of Nic Gonzales, the Santana-influenced guitar solos by the likes of George Cocchini and Chris Rodriguez, the visceral growl of the Hammond B3, the sizzling horn parts and, of course, the funky Latin percussion that made their debut project a pleasant departure from the safe, sanitized, generic sounds that permeate much of the CCM scene. The band built a reputation as one of the industry’s few ‘jam-bands’ and a reliable source of Latin funk with a distinctly Christian message. The band’s fifth studio project, Dismiss The Mystery, brought Salvador to a new level with tight, powerful arrangements, and songs that showed a diversity of influences including such classic rock/pop acts as Sly and the Family Stone, Chicago, and Edgar Winter’s White Trash. Now, with Aware, the band’s sixth studio outing, Salvador seems to have leveled off, delivering a project that gives us what we’d expect from this band but perhaps sounding safer and a little more mainstream than ever before. This is not to say that Aware isn’t a fine project from Salvador …maybe just a milder version of that salsa they gave us last time.

The opening track on Aware starts with a strong two-punch of chunky acoustic rhythm guitar and horns, but before long “Fly Again,” reveals a horn section sounding a bit too clean and faceless. A check of the official band line-up on Salvador’s MySpace page doesn’t include Jared Solis (trombone and saxophone), or Edwin Santiago (trumpet and Flugelhorn), who did such excellent playing on the previous album, or any horn players, for that matter! Hopefully, these men are still involved with the band, but whoever is handling the horn parts (there are plenty of excellent session men around) is, in some respect, at the mercy of what the producers do to the finished product - in this case, Otto Price produced along with Nic Gonzales and Chris Bevins. The earthy sound that this band has nurtured so far suffers from too much studio tweaking – thankfully, the song is brought back to basics with an excellent electric piano solo and some strong organ work.

While Nic Gonzales’ vocals are as effective as ever, this time there’s less fire in the tracks and a bit more ‘pop’ in the ‘Latin / pop’ formula. Songs such as “What Would It Be Like,” and “Free to Be,” are exactly what you’d expect, with lyrics about how wonderful the world would be if we would all just be ourselves and learn to love one another. I’m not trying to be overly cynical, but we’ve not only heard it before, but we’ve heard it before from Salvador, only in a fresher, more interesting way. In a sense, Salvador is now a band that’s competing against itself, and the challenge is to keep everything fresh and interesting, and re-visiting similar themes is dangerous if you’ve already done it well on your previous project. Even the title track, “Aware,” sounds pretty much by-the-numbers, and has Salvador sounding ever closer to becoming Nic’s back-up band instead of the hot ensemble that they ought to be. By the time we get to the eighth track, “You Really Are,” it becomes obvious that the risk, at this point, is sounding like pop music dressed up in a Latin costume, instead of being the real thing. The final track, “Brand New Love,” is perhaps where the album should have taken its musical cue from – this is a hot, funky track that’s right where Salvador shows what they’re capable of (even though the horn riff is uncomfortably close to a Rolling Stones hit with a one-word title that I won’t print here).

Aware is a project that’s good enough, but ‘good enough’ has never been what Salvador has been about. I certainly can recommend it, but for long-time fans, it might be a bit underwhelming.

Tagged as: Aware, Dismiss the Mystery, Latin, Salvador

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