Abuse of the Phrase "Bossa Nova" by Gringos in the Early 1960s

[Daniel A]

On 2021-06-22 at 2:56 PM, mikeweil said:

I looked further into this and remembered that Dave Mackay and Vicky Hamilton first recorded "Here" and "Now" on April 1, 1968 for Albert Marx productions. A total of four tracks, which remained unissued until 1983, when they were included on this LP:

Maybe this was a demo, maybe a first session for an album that was never completed - three of the tunes were included on the first Impulse LP of the duo. But since this stuff in 5/4 (or Tom Scott's tune in 7/4) needs some practicing, they might have played them in public, or the demo was passed around. That's how Tjader and others may have learned about it. 

Dave Mackay was in the Hindustani Jazz Sextet with Don Ellis, and a member of his octet and big band, recording on the two Pacific Jazz LPs and the "Pieces of Eight" album that was released posthumously. Hank Levy wrote "Alone" for the Don Ellis big band which basically is a jequibau. and when you slow down two other Mackay/Hamilton tunes, "Pek-A-Boo" and "Jacque The Junkman", they are jequibaus as well.  The guys that studied with Hari Har Rao at the UCLA all were interested in these "new time signatures", and played 5/4 very differently from Brubeck/Desmond (well. that was California, too, and a Darius Milhaud influence): Ellis, Emil Richards, Mackay, Tom Scott ...... Some Brazilians experimented in that direction, too, another gang-type thing: Moacir Santos, Airto, Hermeto Pascoal, Egberto Gismonti ....... 

I love all these things! Much more interesting grooves than the omnipresent "Take Five" groove everybody knows. 

Thanks Mike, really interesting! I never realized that the Discovery album was from a different recording than the Impulse album. I suppose I didn't look too closely and just noted that the musicians were exactly the same. I will search this out for sure! 

[mikeweil]

The Tom Lord Disco mistakenly identifies these tracks with the performances on the Impulse! LP - but they are different, I have both.