Wild Safari – Barrabas, 1972

🥁🎸🎤🌍💃 Barrabas was born in 1971, when Spanish drummer Fernando Arbex brought together a few musicians from the big wide world: brothers Ricky and Miguel Morales from the Philippines, Portuguese keyboardist Juan Vidal, multi-instrumentalist Ernesto Duarte from Cuba, and his fellow countryman Ignacio Egaña on vocals. The supergroup went on to release their debut album Wild Safari, an instant international success, mixing Latin rock, Afro influences, funk and disco in an explosive cocktail that was immediately spotted by DJs the world over. In a similar vein, Santana comes to mind. Two tracks instantly made the band’s reputation, Wild Safari, and then, on the opening track of the second side (the famous B1 syndrome), Woman, whose chorus and unstoppable funky disco-beat are still remembered today. Barrabas went on to undergo several reworkings and release several more albums, and even if some of the tracks stood out, none of them achieved the success of that first album.