JSngry

And in Havana, no less

This one takes too long to get to the footage, but hang in there...

Dude, I saw a Tito Puente "Latin Jazz All Stars" gig at Sweet Basil's (iirc) with Andy on bass and Jorje Dalto on piano. Andy was placed right behind Dalto's left side and you know how he always has this clenched-jaw eagle-like look of otherworldly laser focus while he plays, well man, he had that look trained on Dalto's left hand all night, and as Dalto moved, so did he. Between those two, Mario Rivera's fierce playing (and there's a guy who gets seriously overlooked, Mario Rivera), and being about 8 feet away from John Rodriguez' cowbell (people who don't know make jokes about cowbell, but people who do know, uh, don't!)....wow, talk about playing hard and playing for keeps, that was as much it as anything I've ever heard. I find it telling (I guess) that Eddie's career evolved into a concert attraction rather than a club band. No idea what the NYC "Latin" scene is now, but if things are truly bad all over, when people do go out to dance, it's likely to a DJ. That changes everything. Not saying for better or worse, just that it changes everything.

What are the thoughts about Conrad Herwig's to "Latin Side Of...." albums compared to the Fort Apache Band? I actually kind of went into the first few a little cynical and low-expectation-ish, but was won over, resistance was futile. Then again, I've only gotten to the Miles & Coltrane albums. Interesting, maybe, how both have strong E. Palmieri pedigrees, albeit from totally different eras & socio-musical dynamics. I think their musics reflect that as well, all of it.

Let this serve as a reminder to us all that the best way to kickstart any kind of tribute for any artist is to buy their stuff while they're alive! Having said that, Brian Lynch has all kinds of credlegitmacy with me. Will definitely keep an eye out on this one.

Can't do YouTube from work, but there is an account holder there named "Ruben Toledo" who has a buttload full of footages up. The stuff I saw was not at all well-presented, no complete clips (if indeed they do exist), but still, a relatively ginormous amount of kinescopes (from either Cuban or PR TV, I would think) and movie clips, etc, seemingly from the 50s through the early-ish 70s. Artist identity is also a non-given, so this is really an archeology project. Now the question I have is simple - if this guy has these excerpts to compile on YT, does that mean that he also has full footages, or is this all that has survived? Some of this stuff is revelatory, really, seeing this music and these people, actually moving and singing, really doing that, instead of coming out of record player speakers, incredibly cool.

Ok, thanks. Sounds about as I recall it, taut, then shark-jumpy sillyish. Might be interesting to revisit at some point.

I have mixed memories of that show that I don't particularly want to feel safe in trusting...is there a consensus as to how it holds up today?

Pat Azzara Azar Lawrence Brett Kayzar

I you really want it, be aggressive in your strategies. I've found it to be one of the more "necessary" Mosaics as far as telling a real story about one artist. Pretty palpable changes to follow all the way trhough, and the differences between the first cut of the first disc and the last cut of the last disc are really breathtaking if you stop to think about what all happened individually and collectively to go from there to there. And the set documents all that spectacularly. So, basically, no, don't pay "outrageous" for it, give it while to sit and settle, but just sayin'...this is a carpe diem that won't take a whole lot of option-weighing, imo. When stuff like this happens to me, I look at the paying more as a self-flagellation, as a punishment to myself with the purpose of DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!!! Of course, hey, that only works until it doesn't.

Mr. Fumbles Mr. Frumble Mr. Tumble

Very much a fan of Ya Yo Me Cure. Hanrahan might not have been wholly accurate in his assessment, but he was not wholly inaccurate, either. I like all of the Fort Apache Band and related projects, but sometimes it seems like the "jazz" soloists aren't always as tied into ("into", not "to") the clave as might have benefited them. Perhaps this is inevitable, though.

Ron Paul Paulette Goddard Polly Jane Rocket Adams

Who is the guy who's playing tres on a Fender? Wtf?I

I've upped some of the older threads that I could think of. New ones always eelcome, plenty to talk about for sure!

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Up for soulpope and anybody else who's interested.

Yeah, workout booty and this booty ain't the same type of booty, just sayin'.... Any further info on Courtney Hafela? This and Jazz On A Summer's Day, two pretty interesting projects...surely there's one or two more credits? Also, can anybody ID anybody in Tito's band?

Kitty Wells The Drinkard Singers Kisha McThirsty

I know that stuff, believe me. It's native to it's environs and is beautiful because of that. But the New York Salsa thing is also VERY native to its environs as well. NYC is not a sunny Caribbean island with Happy people shaking from the sunshine that never stops, ok? It's an island, yeah, but that's where the comparisons end. Talk about "professional"...When I was contemplating relocating to NYC ca. 1978, I kept hearing about 'The List", which was something that a new arrival without already strong connections was given by friends who had just been in the same situation. It was, purportedly, a list of EVERY contractor for EVERY Latin gig in the city and Jersey. The saying that accompanied The List was that if you called every name on this list that you would be guaranteed of getting one gig, if only a sub gig for one night, and then if you could play, you'd get A gig, meaning an engagement or even band membership, depending on how things went on and off the bandstand. There were so many Latin gigs in NYC at the time, literally more gigs than there were ready made players. It's not like that in the Carribean, there, there's more players than there are gigs (or were, no idea what it's like now). That's why cats would leave, to get more work and get broader exposure Puerto Rico itself had its players and bands who were based there, but those were closed circuits, the cats who had those gigs kept those gigs, right? Salsa as social identifier...you got all kind of cats coming into a world where work abounds, but to push though to the upper tiers, good intentions and happy dispositions are not enough. You gotta bring some kind of heaviness, be it vibe, chops, inagination, connections, whatever. And then, not just bring it, but have the chops to keep bringing it. AND do so with a relevancy that speaks to the ethnocultural concerns of your audience, immediate and extended. You damn well BETTER be professional to get through all that. And dig - when "salsa" diminished as a commercial force and other forms came in (merengue among them) there was a LOT of grumbling about how we got away from bugalu, now we gotta do THIS shit, more basic party music with nowhere to push, just parrypartyoartyparty. And yeah, I know, give the people what they want, etc. but the flipside of that is that no matter how exquisitly transcendant some purveyors of lowest common denominator are, without some kind of pushing from within, the party stops being about how delightfully somebody reminds us that 2 + 2 = 4, the party then becomes an orgy about the fact that 2 + 2 = 4, and, really, ok, we just gonna do this for the rest of our life, this 2 + 2 = 4 shit? Hell, we gonna act like babies, we gonna get treated like babies. Either way, where's the bottle? So...whatever. Too comfortable, too formulaic, too generic, too assembly line, those I get. But too professional...that just means don't be as good as you are, be worse than what you're become. Lower the bar, Richard. Really not feeling that, dawg.

Whoever that alto player is, listen to the last two bars of the solo, it goes to a very non-beboppy place...If not Ortega, maybe Jimmy Woode? Or maybe even Shank or Pepper slipping one in past the sensors.