Chico Freeman - Salsa Con Punta

Advances in music technology are important in the early '50s as the solid body electric guitar becomes commercially available and is quickly adapted by R&B artists, and eventually Country and Pop artists. The 78 RPM record is replaced by the LP, long playing, vinyl album and the 45 RPM single is introduced, soon becoming the standard for jukeboxes.

Although major record labels are slow to pick up on the trend, independent record labels such as Sun, Memphis, Ace, Jackson, MS,  Vee-Jay, Gary, IN, Chess, Chicago, Specialty Records, Los Angeles, Atlantic, New York, and other labels are quick to pick up on the opportunity and begin to release Rock & Roll records from newly signed artists. 

In 1955 rock and roll has it's first nationwide number 1 hit... Rock's influence spreads quickly, impacting radio, movies, TV, fashion, attitudes and language worldwide. Initially dismissed as a fad, rock music proves its' staying power and teen culture drives the music industry, from record and jukebox sales, to radio airplay. As the decade ends rock music is the dominant musical style, accounting for 43% of all records sold.

Source: Fifties Music: The Birth of Rock and Roll by Joel Mellor

Chico Freeman - Salsa Con Punta

• Released in: 2010
• Genre: Jazz
• Recorded on: March 2-6, 2010

"Chico Freeman's tenor tone is gritty and exuberant, yet intimate and resonant, capable of anguished cries and tender affirmations inside a moment. His music has been formed by the Chicago blues he played in clubs as a teen."

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