There are tribute albums, and then there are acts of restoration. Arsenio and Beyond: Live at the Bronx Music Hall belongs in the second category. Bobby Sanabria is not simply saluting Arsenio Rodríguez here; he is trying to put him back where he belongs: at the center of the story of Afro-Cuban music, mambo, son montuno, salsa, and Latin jazz.
The album’s own framing is unapologetically grand, calling Arsenio “the true Father of Mambo and Son Montuno,” and for once the scale of the claim seems matched by the scale of the music. Recorded live in the South Bronx, near where both Arsenio once lived and Sanabria grew up, the record presents itself as history lesson, homecoming, and big-band spectacle all at once.
What makes the project compelling is the contemporary, large-ensemble arrangements that aim to magnify Arsenio’s ideas rather than merely reenact them. That ambition is clearly reflected in the album’s runtime of 71 minutes across nine tracks, several of them extended pieces.
“El Elemento del Bronx” is the album’s grand statement. At 11:14, it is one of the longest performances on the record, and this is where the album’s concept comes fully into focus. Big-band power, neighborhood memory, and Afro-Cuban lineage are all fused into a single extended canvas.
Another track worth singling out is “La Cartera.” arranged by Andrew Neesley, it showcases the album’s balance of structure and swing. The Multiverse Big Band proves its dramatic sense while maintaining orchestral discipline and dance-band instinct.
“Arsenio and Beyond” is a statement. Not merely that Arsenio Rodríguez mattered, but that he still matters enough to justify this much force, this much arrangement, and this much ceremony. Sanabria’s Multiverse Big Band has always been good at marrying intellectual ambition to visceral impact, and here, that combination appears to find one of its strongest subjects.