Unity: The Latin Tribute to Michael Jackson is released!
BY DAMIEN SHIELDS
Back in mid-January we saw the explosion of Unity: The Latin Tribute to Michael Jackson with the release of “Smooth Criminal” from their forthcoming album (see above). And now, that album is here!
Released today, April 14, 2015 on Universal Music Classics in collaboration with Universal Music Latin Entertainment, Unity: The Latin Tribute to Michael Jackson – a Latin interpretation of Michael Jackson’s music, completely re-arranged in authentic Latin style, recorded by Latin superstar singers and musicians, and officially released worldwide – is the result of four years hard work. The passion project of Peruvian-born, Miami-raised producer/multi-instrumentalist/arranger (and huge Michael Jackson fan) Tony Succar, it features more than one hundred musicians, Latin superstars such as Tito Nieves, Jon Secada, and Obie Bermúdez, and the magic touch of Michael Jackson’s longest-serving and most trusted mixing engineer Bruce Swedien in the first-ever Latin album salute to The King of Pop.
Unity: The Latin Tribute to Michael Jackson made such a big impact on the music scene around the globe back in January that even Billboard.com featured a story on the project, which spawns from a successfully funded 2011 Kickstarter campaign that initially had the project penned as A Tropical Tribute to The King of Pop.
“I’ve always been a fan of Michael Jackson – since I was a kid,” Succar told Music Times in an interview published today. “[Michael Jackson’s] music is a universal language. I wanted to do something that comes from the heart, and my heart – being Latino and growing up in Miami – leant itself towards doing something in the Latin format. I wanted to do something different where we could put a lot more creative input into it and differentiate ourselves from the rest of the world.”
“It’s inspiring,” adds one of the projects many talented lead vocalists. Jean Rodriguez. “To be connected to Michael [Jackson] in this way, and then to be connected to my Latin roots in this perfect marriage is beautiful.”
Succar listened to Michael Jackson’s entire discography on shuffle to help narrow down which songs he intended to reimagine for the project, explaining that song selection was dependent on which of Jackson’s tracks gave him goosebumps.
“Unfortunately most of the gave me goosebumps,” laughs Succar. “So then I would listen to the melody and try to see how it would fit into the Latin rhythms. There’s an important rhythm that is throughout all Latin music – which actually comes from Africa – called la clave. It’s a pattern. So we tried to imagine those melodies on that rhythmic pattern, and which ever song would fit right I would tackle it and see how I could arrange it.”
Ultimately, twelve songs made the album’s final cut. They are: I Want You Back Billie Jean Man In The Mirror Blame It On The Boogie Earth Song Human Nature I Just Can’t Stop Loving You Black or White Smooth Criminal They Don’t Care About Us Thriller You Are Not Alone
Succar and his production company have also produced an hour-long documentary about the four-year experience of conceptualising, developing, recording and releasing Unity: The Latin Tribute to Michael Jackson, which will be released on DVD this month in Mexico. There are also plans to release the documentary in the United States in the future.
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