Craft Latino isn’t slowing down and if anything, it’s getting more strategic about what it puts back into circulation. The label has announced a wide mono vinyl reissue of Ray Barretto’s 1968 Acid, a record that didn’t just ride the Nuyorican boogaloo wave, it helped define where salsa would go next. Produced by Harvey Averne and featuring a lineup that reads like a who’s who of late-’60s Latin music, Acid remains one of the most important crossover statements between jazz, soul, and Afro-Caribbean rhythm ever pressed to wax.
This reissue also lands at the right moment. Vinyl sales pushed past $1 billion in 2025, carving out a very real, double-digit share of a market once written off as fully digital. Craft has played this better than most; consistently mining the Concord, Prestige, Stax, and Fania catalogs with reissues that actually matter, and just as importantly, actually sell. Between limited color variants, thoughtful packaging, and a deep bench of culturally significant titles, they’ve turned archival work into a reliable business. Releases like Acid and a Record Store Day 2026 slate that’s already drawing attention aren’t going to sit in bins for very long.
A Definitive Reissue With Audiophile Credibility and Collector Appeal
Set for release on May 22, Acid delivers essential cuts like “A Deeper Shade of Soul,” “El Nuevo Barretto,” and the title track, driven by a lineup that includes Adalberto Santiago, Bobby Rodriguez, Orestes Vilató, Roberto Rodriguez, and Louis Cruz. It’s a sharp reminder of how tight, inventive, and influential Barretto’s band was at a moment when Latin music in New York was reshaping itself in real time.
Craft also knows exactly how to make this land with collectors. Alongside the standard 180 gram pressing, there are two limited color variants that should disappear fast. The Orange Sunshine edition is capped at 350 copies and can be bundled with an Acid T shirt featuring the original artwork through Fania, while Fat Beats will offer a Marbled Yellow version limited to 300 copies.
The production details back it up: all analog lacquers cut from the original master tapes by Dave Polster and Clint Holley, housed in a proper tip on jacket that preserves the album’s psychedelic cover art. This is the kind of reissue that knows exactly what it is doing.
Who Was Ray Barretto?
One of the most revered percussionists of his era, conguero, composer, and bandleader Ray Barretto (1929–2006) was a defining force in Latin music and one of the most recorded conga players in jazz. Born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents and raised in the Bronx, Barretto absorbed everything around him, from the swing of Count Basie and Duke Ellington to the Afro Cuban innovations of Arsenio Rodríguez and Machito. He sharpened his craft alongside Dizzy Gillespie and Tito Puente before becoming a go to session player for Blue Note, Prestige, and Riverside, contributing to recordings by Wes Montgomery, Cal Tjader, and Kenny Burrell.
By the early 1960s, Barretto stepped out front, launching his own group and scoring a breakout hit with “El Watusi” in 1963. As the decade progressed, he became a central figure in the boogaloo movement, a distinctly New York fusion of Afro Cuban rhythms with soul and R&B. In 1967, with a deep catalog already behind him, he joined Fania Records and formed The Ray Barretto Orchestra, a Cuban style conjunto that would help define the label’s early identity.
Released in 1968, Acid captured Barretto at a creative peak. The album moves fluidly between Latin soul, funk, boogaloo, Afro Cuban rhythms, and jazz, with vocals in both English and Spanish from Pete Bonet and Adalberto Santiago. Recorded live in the studio without overdubs, it has an immediacy that still holds up, driven by a lineup that includes Bobby Rodriguez, Orestes Vilató, René Lopez, Roberto Rodriguez, and Louis Cruz. Acid became one of Barretto’s biggest successes and remains a cornerstone of Latin soul, while also pointing directly toward the salsa explosion that followed in the 1970s.
Where to buy: $29.99 at Amazon (pre-order now, available May 22, 2026)
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