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LA27-1020 - Atlas (Japan)  - Lew Tabackin & his West Coast Friends -  rec. 1982 - Engineer: James Mooney " My Old Flame"       

Working on a show about Tjader in the 1950s and will be doing a sequel about his Verve recordings as well later this year.

On to the Fantasy LPs from 1970 to 1977. As the label was located in San Francisco it was more convenient for than having to deal with a lbel on the other coast. His producer beacme Ed Bogas, who had been invloved in the psychedlic scene (there was a single album with a band The United States of America) and was one the earliest users of the Moog synthesizer. He went on to successful  career in movie and TV music, succeeding Vince Guaraldi after the latter's death to provide music for The Peanuts. Bogas had his own ideas about the fusion of Latin Jazz with pop tunes but seriously tried to find compromises with Tjader's and the way the band played live. In addition, Tjader's band was still suffering from the difficulties to find suitable replacements for Lonnie Hewitt, Mongo Santamaria, and Willie Bobo - a situation that was bettered when pianist Al Zulaica came on board. Drummer Dick Berk became a regular, and conguero Michael Smithe. The were the core band for Tjader, a studio album that, including overdubbing horns and vocals, took a few months to complete. Sound and repertoire take a nod to the success of Santana in the preceding years, Tjader even plays organ on a few tracks. The opening track, I Showed Them, is a clever reference to a hit reocrd of The Turtles, You Showed Me. Why Fantasy never reissued this escapes me, there only were two Japanese CD reissues.  1 - Tjader (1970) 2 - Agua Dulce (1971) The next was similar, with a bit more Latin focus, due to the Escovedo brothers being temporary members of the band, before founding the great Azteca group that helped Santana through a minor crisis.  Fantasy should have paired these two albums on a twofer CD, instead they oddly paired Agua Dulce, which also saw single CD reissues in Japan and the UK, with the third, a live album, and named the twofer Descarga.    3 - Live at The Funky Quarters (1972) His working band with Al Zulaica, John Heard, Dick Berk, and Michael Smithe. Not as much bite as the 1950's Fantasy live albums. For the CD reissue they had to omit the last track, which makes the choice evne more odd. They all are really not bad, but they could have issued less comps and the rest instead. Along Comes Cal and Hip Vibrations would have made a great twofer CD.

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