Los Ritmos Calientes - The Cal Tjader Forum

[mikeweil]

Since we're mentioning so many of his Verve albums, a word of praise and a heartfelt recommendation for this recent issue is due:

These excerpts from six live dates at the Penthouse in Seattle show how different Tjader's live gigs were from his studio albums. He had not changed his basic attitude of starting with straightahead jazz and adding the conguero later for the Latin numbers, and lost none of his jazz chops. The bands were tight, the sound identitly clear, even with sidemen that stepped in for only  a few weeks or months. The joy of playing is evident, as is the good spirit and interaction within the band. 

The concepts of the studio albums were dominated much more by Creed Taylor than I previously thought. To save on airplane fares, and because it was his preference, he used New York studio professionals, which had its pros and cons. Here's an overview of the Verve albums, with year of issue:

1 - In A Latin Bag -  1961 - basically his regular band with Paul Horn and Armando Peraza added. Mongo Santamaria and Willie Bobo had left, replaced by Wilfredo Vicente and Johnny Rae. Lonnie Hewitt played piano. Very elegant, very professional production, less casual than with Fantasy, but recorded in LA.

2 - Saturday Night / Sunday Night At The Blackhawk, San Francisco - 1961

A straightahead quartet live recording at one of all jazz musicians' favourite venues in California, with Lonnie Hewitt, Fred Schreiber, and Johnny Rae. It was to remain his only live album for Verve, Creed Taylor rarely was saitified with the sound and all. But this shows Tjader was up to par with any vibist of his generation, and perhaps had the most beautiful sound on the instrument.

Both of these were coupled on a British reissue in perfect sound, Universal never bothered to consider them. 

https://www.discogs.com/release/14772484-Cal-Tjader-In-A-Latin-Bag

3 - Anita O'Day & Cal Tjader - Time For 2 - 1962

Both were Verve artists at the time, the combination works fine, they used used Tjader's band with O'Day's pianist Bon Corwin steping in on several tracks. Since drummer Johnny Rae was an accomplished vibist as well, Tjader played drums on some tracks, the instrument that he started on and kept playing on a few recording sessions.

This was reissued by Verve on CD.

 

4 - Cal Tjader Plays The Contemporary Music Of Mexico And Brazil - 1962

The bossa nova craze had not yet started when Tjader went for Clare Fischer's idea of combining the beautiful melodies of Mexican composer Mario Ruiz Armengol with a rather unusual selection of modern Brazilian tunes. Tjader never went for the Jobim/Gilberto repertoire that everybody played. This, too, was reissued by Verve. I recommend programming the player for either the Armengol or the Brazilian tunes. Tjader's vibes sound is exceptionally beautiful here.

5 - Soña Libré - 1963

Recorded with Tjader's working band of the time with Clare Fischer on organ as well as piano, this  remains one of my favourites. A tight band, well chosen repertoire. There is one set with this personnel  in the Penthouse set. Believe it or not, this was among the first fifty CDs reissued on CD from the Verve catalog - but it is long out of print.

6 - Several Shades of Jade - 1963

This may be an attempt to profit on some type of exoctica fashion, but Lalo Shifrin's great arrangements make this a winner. New York studio guys play their asses off for a perfect backdrop for Tjader to solo on - this is as much a Schifrin as a Tjader album. 

7 - Breeze From The East - 1964

In an interview, Tjader confessed that he vomitted when he left the sudio after a mixing session. This may be exaggerated, but it definitely is the un-jazziest album he ever made. The number of preliminary sessions  and outtakes tells the story of how ill-conceived this mismatch of producer/arranger Stan Applebaum and Tjader was. In my ears, it fails even as an exotica album. Not nearly as Japanese as the cover suggests.

The last two albums were thrown together by Verve for a CD reissue. https://www.discogs.com/release/994955-Cal-Tjader-Several-Shades-Of-Jade-Breeze-From-The-East

8 - Warm Wave  - 1964

One of Tjader's greatest wishes was to record an all ballad album with some of the great New York studio pros, like Hank Jones. What he got was was this album where an overbearing string orchestra was arranged on top of the basic tracks. Claus Ogerman was one of Creed Taylor's favourites. If they had mixed the strings, flutes, and voices at lower volume this would sound much more elegant. It is good, but .... Never got a single CD reissue, not even in Japan, only a few tracks pop up on compilations.

9 - Soul Sauce - 1965

Undoubtedly Tjader's best selling Verve album. Taylor had booked an all-star band with Donald Byrd, Jimmy Heath, Kenny Burrell, Armando Peraza etc. and wanted some popular tunes from Tjader's book and some standards, but somehow it did not take off. So they flew in Tjader's band from California who laid down a series of first takes in one session. The title is a new name for one of the warhorses of the Dizzy Gillespie band with Chano Pozo, Guarachi Gurao, which hardly anyone was able to pronounce correctly. After Willie Bobo had overdubbed his vocal comments the following day and remarked this version was spicier than the original, Taylor came up with the title Soul Sauce, branding a whole style of music - salsa!

Only Afro Blue from the all-star sessions made it to the album. This was on CD several times in the US and Japan, but only the 1994 CD reissue has the two bonus tracks that presumably were arranged by Gary McFarland.

10 - Soul Bird; Whiffenpoof - 1965

Trying to follow up a hit record with another one often fails. Neither this nor the next became as popular as Soul Sauce, despite the inclusion of another Gillespie/Pozo number, Tin Tin Deo, and one titled Soul Motion. Taylor had leaned his lesson and kept Tjader's band for the session. 

This was on CD in the US LP replica series.

 11 - Soul Burst - 1966

Another attempt to follow up Soul Sauce - this time Manteca was included. Oliver Nelson was the arranger here for four tracks, of an all star band of New York pros including a young Chick Corea, but a comparison with the Penthouse live sets of that year shows that his working band played much livelier. This too was on US CD.

 

 

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The remaining five will come tomorrow.

Edited 6 hours ago by mikeweil

[GA Russell]

Great work, Mike!  I have eight of the eleven.