Grupo Niche

"Jairo Varela, who is Niche, treats his compositions as metamorphic creatures. This is understandable with bands who use numbers as jumping-off points for improvisation, but Niche is Colombia’s leading generator of tightly arranged dance music - only allowing the occasional space for a solo. Rather than tweak and enhance the arrangements of original recordings just for live performances, Varela takes the current incarnation of Niche into the studio to immortalise the new versions. 'Historia Musical' was Varela’s first comprehensive make-over job of 16 of his self-penned songs from the band's 1981 to 1986 repertoire - the second major overhaul was '12 Años' (Sony Tropical 80950/2) in 1993. This two CD set is distinguished by the wonderful plaintive voice of Puerto Rico’s Tito Gómez (ex- Sonora Ponceña, La Terrifica, Ray Barretto, etc) and presence of Venezuelan trombonist César ‘Albóndiga’ Monge, who transcribes Varela’s arrangement ideas. Albóndiga formerly directed Dimensión Latina, the band which catapulted Oscar D’León to fame in the early ’70s. After 'Historia Musical' most of the band walked-out on Varela and adopted the name Los Niches." (John Child 99/00 Catalog)