Mambos, cha chas, son montunos, pachangas, Latin jazz… Tito Puente played all of those, and he apparently never liked the catch-all term “salsa” (and he stayed out of Fania Records’ orbit, for the most part). And he has a point – each of the sub-genres and rhythms (and there are many more than those listed here) have their own backstory and sensibility….
Airto – Fingers
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | FLAC | Art scans at 300 dpi
1.4GB (24/192) | 865 MB (24/96)
CTI Records 6028| Genre: Fusion, Latin Jazz, Jazz Rock
This post was intended to go up over the weekend as a commemoration to wrap up the Festas Juninas. “Fingers” is really is a masterpiece from Airto Moreira, one of the progenitors of jazz fusion, with lots of help from future members of the Uruguayan group Opa and, of course, his wife Flora Purim. It is less “out” than his solo records up to this point but still retains enough traces of his wild urges toward surprise and experimentation to keep things interesting. The compositions, about half of which are contributed by Opa members, are accessible enough to instantly grab your attention but are always offering new nuances on repeated listens. How many edgy Latin-Jazz-Fusion albums actually contain EARWORMS in their grooves? This album has tunes you will be whistling to yourself for weeks afterward, in particular the track “Parana.” (more below) Continue reading
Angel Canales – El Diferente
1982 Senelac Records LP 8881
Salsa / Latin-Jazz / Fusion
Well Brazil has jumped the shark, so I’m going to devote some musical energy to other places for a while. The U.S. still has a chance of climbing back out of the rabbit hole it’s gone down. And that is in no small part due to the ever-evolving demographic changes that terrify the White Nationalists so much. So, here’s an album from the great Ángel Canales, born in Santurce, PR, but raised in New York. His recording career began on Alegre Records with a record featuring a sexy but somewhat bizarre album cover and a hit in “Lejos De Ti”. By the 1980s, he was putting out records on his own label, SENALAC. This one features a blistering-hot band, with amazing baritone sax blowing by Pete Miranda, and charismatic Canales leading the proceedings. While “El Diferente” is still firmly rooted in salsa, bomba, and plena traditions, there is also a fusion edge to the band’s versatility and ability to surprise with their arrangements (done by no less than six different people). Continue reading
Hilton Ruiz
El Camino (The Road)
1988 Novus 3024-1-N
A1 West Side Blues 6:42
A2 Come Dance With Me 8:25
A3 Sometimes I 6:26
B1 El Camino (The Road) 6:19
B2 Message From The Chief 1:54
B3 Eastern Vibrations 14:55
Recorded At – Uptown Chelsea Sound
Bass – Andy Gonzalez
Congas, Percussion – Jerry Gonzalez
Drums, Guiro – Steve Berrios
Guitar – Rodney Jones
Percussion, Congas – Jose Alexis Diaz
Piano, arrangements – Hilton Ruiz
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute – Sam Rivers
Timbales – Endel Dueno
Trombone, arrangements on A2 & A3 – Dick Griffin
Trumpet – Lew Soloff
Engineer – Tony May
Producer – Ed Michel
Liner Notes – Leonard Feather
Recorded October 15, 1987, Uptown Chelsea Sound, New York City.
LINEAGE: Novus 3024-1-N vinyl; Pro-Ject RM-5SE with Audio Tecnica AT440-MLa cartridge; Speedbox power supply; Creek Audio OBH-15; Audioquest King Cobra cables; M-Audio Audiophile 192 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; clicks and pops removed with Click Repair on very light settings, manually auditioning the output; further clicks removed with Adobe Audition 3.0; dithered and resampled using iZotope RX Advanced. Converted to FLAC in either Trader’s Little Helper or dBPoweramp. Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename. Transferred Summer 2017.
The blog has been way too quietly these last few weeks, as “real life” suddenly got real busy. But it’s all good stuff for once, so it seems like a good moment to post this album that’s been in the queue for a while. Plus it has nice liner notes from the late Leonard Feather which means I can keep my trap shut and let him do most of the talking. This is a tremendous sophomore album by the late, great pianist Hilton Ruiz, who played in Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s band among many others. He brings some heavy weight to this session, which was recorded live to 2-track DAT. The presence of Lew Soloff on trumpet, along with fellow Kirk alum Dick Griffin (who contributes two compositions) and the brilliant Sam Rivers, pretty much insure you’re in for a great listen. As Feather writes, it grabs your right at the beginning and doesn’t let go. The closing number, the fourteen-minute Eastern Vibrations, is in a modal spiritual jazz vibe, and Hilton’s solo is off the hook, pushing into Cecil Taylor territory but never straying too far from the driving pulse of the tune. Here, have a look at the liner notes:
password: vibes
Critics have often blasted Blue Note Records’ output during the 1970s, and not without reason, for inconsistency and an overeager desire to flirt with a more commercial sound than during their classic 50s and 60s heyday. Horace Silver’s own wonderfully “far out,” genre-bending, and delightful three-part series of LPs from 1970-72, subtitled “The United States of Mind” , was probably a case in point for purist curmudgeons. Although he was certainly no stranger to commercial success or soul-jazz crossovers (he did write the song “Doodlin'”, after all), the sprawling eclecticism of the three “phases” of the US of M project must have had some Blue Note fans worried that they’d lost old Horace for good. So I can’t help hearing 1972’s “In Pursuit of the 27th Man” as a kind of deliberate return to form. That’s not to imply that it was a reaction to critics: perhaps Silver just felt like it was time to make a good solid hard bop album again after his recent experimentation.
And that’s what he did here, while retaining a lot of the same players from those other records. The Latin jazz opener, Liberated Brother (written by Weldon Irvine), is of the same high caliber as anything on his Cape Verdean Blues from 1966. Recorded during two sessions with slightly different lineups, half the tracks feature the Brecker Brothers on brass and the other half showcase David Friedman on vibes, which is a first for Silver’s bands. On the titular track, we get both at the same time. The interplay between Silver’s piano and the vibes on this song is marvelous, fabulous, and stupendous. The album also features one tune (Kathy) by the great Moacir Santos, then living in the US and who – as Silver mentions in the notes – was just about to make his first Blue Note LP.
This is a very worthwhile offering in the vast discography of one of my favorite jazz pianists and composers, so do give it a listen.
The ambiance of the record as a whole is an adept mixture of taxi fumes and sunlight, as captured by the breezy “Summer in Central Park.”
Hey let’s take a look at Silver’s charming liner notes now. They include lyrics to one track that are, in fact, not present anywhere on the actual recording. So read them and memorize them to recite along at the proper moment.
Note: the remastering engineer is not named in the credits, as it oddly the case for many of these TOCJ Blue Note CDs from Japan, but like all the others I have heard, this sounds stellar.
This record lacks some of the fire of his Prestige work in the years leading up to this, with the ballads being a little too saccharine-flavored for me, but there are some real cookers on here too. Serengeti is an aural safari. The one Tjader original, Mambo Mindoro, is a natural centerpiece, with Poncho Sanchez on fire throughout, and also notable for its brevity as it comes in at slightly under four minutes. I’m rather fond of the very creative, liberal interpretation of the Edu Lobo/Ruy Guerra composition Aleluia. Of the slower numbers, I enjoy the Johnny Mercer tune “I Remember You” here, with the Rhodes giving just enough gritty texture to balance the sweetness, and a nice jazz flute solo that could only have been improved if Roger Glenn had played it shirtless like Herbie Mann. Mark Levine contributes a quietly smoldering original descarga jam in Linda Chicana, and the album ends on a high note with a composition from former Tjader band member João Donato, Sabor.
“La Onda Va Bien” apparently kicked off the “Picante” sublabel of Concord Records. Like all Concord releases the sound quality is flawless – and that’s not always great, because I like a few flaws in both recordings and performances to keep it interesting. Too much of the Concord catalog is so slick that it becomes sonic wallpaper. But Tjader and Company carry off a laid-back, final-set-of-the-evening-at-3 a.m. feeling here. This 80s-era CD pressing sounds stellar too, extremely warm with a ton of dynamic range. If you’re new to Cal Tjader this might not be the place to start, but it’s a very solid album.
password: vibes
