Well, it’s finally out there, the unreleased salsa album entitled "Fe" which she recorded for Warner Bros in 1992 but was never released. An in house promo cassette surfaced on Ebay last year and now somebody has made the album available. So is it justified that Warner Bros chose not to release it? Has the world been deprived of some great music all those years?

Well to be perfectly honest, after knowing about this album for 17 years and hoping it would someday see the light, I was left a bit disappointed when I first heard it. Same way I was disappointed with both E-Train albums Sheila released. Why? Because it could have been better. In 1994 Sheila toured the US, Europe and Japan with her then new band E-Train, and the shows on that tour sort of became my benchmark, they were absolutely amazing, offering an eclectic mix of latin, jazz, fusion and funk that sounded fresh and fierce. Lots of incredible percussion, imaginative arrangements and first class musicianship. I was fortunate to see E Train in concert 4 times and these shows rank as the best I have seen in my life.

When the first E-Train album (Writes of Passage) came out, I was expecting it to be like the live shows, but it wasn’t. It was smooth jazz with a hint of latin and funk, and no exciting percussion work, or tracks with a strong hook. And where was "Fe" which had performed in concert as well as on Arsenio?

Back to this album though: is the original "Fe" album actually the better E-Train album?

The album opens with probably the strongest track, the aforementioned "Fe", a latin instrumental with complex breaks. It has almost 100% the same arrangement as the live versions from 1994. Although you can’t be sure, it does sound like Eric Leeds on sax on this. Next up is "Regalame", a straight up vocal salsa number which could have appeared on Mi Tierra by Gloria Estefan. Nice enough but nothing special. It’s sung in Spanish- Sheila does a convincing job at this even though she doesn’t speak Spanish. Same goes for "Distantes", another Spanish salsa song which Gloria could have recorded.

Track number 4 is "Tu Para Mi" which is the same song that appeared on "Sex Cymbal", but it’s an alternate mix here. It runs a bit longer as well and there is a guitar solo over the percussion break (strange!). It’s one of the best songs on the album but since it’s latin flavoured pop it seems a bit out of place here.

Rumera Mulata is an up tempo salsa track sung by a male vocalist, no idea who, but most definitely not her dad. The title seems to be misspelt and should probably be Rumbera Mulata. The chant "a-hey a-hey rumbera..." sounds very familiar, not sure if it’s from a Pete Escovedo track, maybe somebody can help? There’s a great conga and timbales solo towards the end of the track. Definitely one of my favorites on the album!

"Guantanamera"is a song everybody knows of course, the version here is a ballad version with nothing but a harp accompinament and birds chirping in the background. It sounds a bit Andreas Vollenweider-ish, which is no surprise as Sheila has said she is a fan of his.

Three pretty non-descript salsa songs follow: Soy Feliz, Te Nesesito (it sounds like Eric Leeds on sax on this track) and Amado, a cover of Unchained melody in Spanish. La Vida Glamarosa is a re-working of The Glamorous Life of course which sort of sounds like a salsa version of the track but as the song progresses turns into a song of it’s own with little to do with the original. No fierce timbales here unfortunately...

The final song is a full on percussion workout, like the ones that Pete Escovedo usually has as a final track on his albums. He can be heard singing on this, as well as playing. The album was recorded with a full-fledged salsa band, since credits are missing you can’t be sure who played what but one can assume that the usual musicians that she and her dad worked with at the time played on the album, so that would include Wayne Wallace, Ray Obiedo, the Escovedo Family and Rebeca Mauleon.

All in all it is an enjoyable album with a few standout tracks and too many non-descript salsa tracks that could have been performed by anybody. It was recorded a year before Gloria Estefan’s Mi Tierra which was a huge success, so who knows, it could have been a big album for Sheila as well. My favourite Sheila E latin albums remains Latina Familia, which has a more latin jazz feel, like the Pete Escovedo solo albums, than "plain" salsa and arguably has the best percussion solos Sheila has ever recorded.

Still, I'm very happy to FINALLY have this in my collection! Was Warner Bros wrong to not release it at the time? I would say yes!

Wow,I never knew about this album!! And I agree,the two E-Train albums were somewhat disappointing....bland latin jazz Quiet Storm music that doesn't really display Sheila's remarkable talents.I would love to hear this unreleased 'Fe' album.

Shelia's solo efforts always seem 2 leave me cold.

I really like this. La Vida Glamarosa is brilliant, I always pick it over the original these days.

I forgot I even had this cd.....the Spanish Version of Glam Life is sort of cool though.
[Edited 3/4/09 13:41pm]

Graycap23 said: