Ravel, La mujer de mi vida - Guillermo Ravel, músico; grabación de sonido - TT: Ravel, The Woman of My Life - TA: Guillermo Ravel, musician; sound recording - Artículo Breve

Latin Beat Magazine, April, 1999

(Merengazo)

From the Dominican Republic and based out of New York City, Guillermo Ravel, professionally known as simply Ravel, brings us his latest production, La mujer de mi vida. The title track and opener is a beautiful Ricardo Montaner composition which Ravel morphs into a romantic merengue, maintaining much of the magic from its original form. Quickly he shifts to overdrive-speed merengue on the tracks El pepino and Pan con queso, both dance-floor friendly and guaranteed to make you sweat. He pays tribute to the Puerto Rican jibaro singer Odilio González with a medley he named Popurry Odilio González and includes segments from González's favorites like Yo quisiera, Merceditas, Tu me celas sin razón and El rostro mio, all in a bachata/waltz style. Ravel's vocals are strong throughout most of the eight tracks of this production and the arrangement work is fine. He covers José Alfredo Jiménez's classic bolero La media vuelta as if to showcase his dominion of this slow musical form, and seems to include a little of everything on this production. (RM)