When it comes to latin influenced disco, Joe Bataan, is definitely one of the early pioneers. That being said, it took me personally a while to get into some of his music, probably because I think I got off to the wrong foot by first being introduced to one of his popular singles, “Rap-O Clap-O”, which didn’t really do it for me. However as I’ve been listing to more and more of his releases, I’m actually finding that as a whole, Bataan’s music is pretty amazing, especially when he moved to Salsoul Records during the mid to late 1970’s. One of the tracks that I cam across recently was his cover version of Isaac Hayes’ 1972 instrumental cut “Theme From The Men”, which served as the B-Side track to his heavily popular Theme From “Shaft” single. Bataan, like most of his tracks, puts a nice latin flavored groove to the epic original. Overall, a solid effort from the man who really helped define the sound of latin influenced disco and dance music during the 1970’s.

Download Joe Bataan’s cover of Isaac Hayes’ 1972 track, Theme From The Men by going here.