Our tour of great Latin
instrumental productions continues with a focus on three very different
artistes in the same genre. Soloists can just as crucially predetermine a style
as much as the maestro or an arranger. Soloists usually develop a penchant for
playing notes with particular accents, or they may creatively reimagine their
instrument breaking out of their conventional moulds. To set the mood, let’s
imagine a picturesque piazza/plaza somewhere in 1960s Italy, Spain, Corsica,
Mexico, Peru, Argentina or Brazil…
Chet Baker’s two LPs – A
TASTE OF TEQUILA and HATS OFF – performed with a specially assembled Mariachi
Brass was a chance discovery on eBay.com following a random search using the
term ‘Latin instrumentals’. In fact, after getting hold of the disc, I realize
that I could have gone straight to their online label, ACE RECORDS
(www.acerecords.co.uk), and its online retail site specializing in music of
many genres from the 1960s. As most music fans would know, Chet is better known
as a ‘jazz artiste’ specializing in a ‘West Coast kind of sound’ that is lush, full
of long passages, and mostly laid back and evocative of an extended daydream.
Improvisations can take on very long notes just as often, with bridges built
into familiar verses and chords of an original song written by someone else.
The Chet Baker sound epitomizes West Coast jazz as most fans of his would swear
by. Yet in the 1960s, Chet was equally caught up like his trumpeter
contemporaries Herb Alpert, Horst Fischer, Kenny Baker and Doc Severinsen in
partaking of the fusion of Latin rhythms with the danceable pop music rhythms
(rock and roll, a-go-go and others) of the decade. This is musical territory
shared with easy listening for sure! Just look at these ‘exotic’, and mildly
titillating covers of the original LPs:
TRACK LISTING (tracks 1-10 belong to ‘A Taste of Tequila’; 11-22 from
‘Hats Off’ with the last track a bonus remaster):
01 Flowers On The Wall
02 Tequila
03 Mexico
04 Love Me With All Your Heart (Cuando Calienta El Sol)
05 Hot Toddy
06 Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa
07 Speedy Gonzales
08 Come A Little Bit Closer
09 El Paso
10 La Bamba
11 Happiness Is
12 Sure Gonna Miss Her
13 Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
14 The Phoenix Love Theme (Senza Fine)
15 These Boots Are Made For Walking
16 On The Street Where You Live
17 Armen's Theme
18 Spanish Harlem
19 Chiquita Banana
20 When The Day Is All Done
21 You Baby
22 It's Too Late
23 Colonel Bogey March
Chet Baker’s trumpet style relies heavily
on drawing out the notes of each composition in a languid way even where he
plays in tempo with his jazz ensemble on fast numbers like ‘La Bamba’,
‘Tequila’ and ‘Speedy Gonzales’. The latter track is as cheesy as one can get
in the easy listening Latin songbook. I expected to cringe at the thought of a
jazz genius trying to interpret what was already a tight, jaunty pop hit from
that decade of mod beats and a-go-go sounds. Instead Chet springs a surprise by
keeping to that laid back trumpet, imitating the carefree rhythms of a
stereotyped Mexican small town neighbourhood where everything slows down in the
mode of enjoying each of life’s many moments of love and passion in performing
daily routines. This is a tilt towards
the Mariachi Band rather than Cuban and Brazilian salsas and sambas. The same
alluring pattern threads itself through the Latinized pop standards ‘Love me
with all your heart’, ‘El Paso’ and Bacharach’s [surprise] ’24 Hours from
Tulsa’. ‘Hot Toddy’ is a less well known gem that will easily get you off your
feet. There are no cultural shocks on these two albums even if you encounter
the Mexican side of easy listening Latin for the first time. You’ll simply need
to break into that 1960s mode of experimenting with ‘These Boots are Made for
Walkin’, ‘On the Street Where you Live’ and that unforgettable Italian love
theme ‘Senza Fine’ done the Latin way. In fact, if you enjoy this Chet Baker
excursion into Latin, try doing some research into the ‘huapango’ dance and
music rhythms - as I have while writing up this review – and you’ll appreciate
why these Chet Baker albums deserve to be in every easy listener’s library.
Kai Winding is a Danish-born American
trombone player. Like Chet, more music fans would identify him as a jazz
artiste that anything else. But on the 1961-2 release titled KAI OLE, the
trombone goes into Sixties glam mode. Oozing grooviness at every change of
note, Winding adapts the Cuban cha-cha influences to suit a smoother but harder
driving trombone sound. Consider Winding’s version of ‘Amor Amor’ (strangely spelt
in French in the track list as ‘Amour’ although this is a thoroughly
Latin-Spanish album!) for example.
Winding follows closely to the cha cha but ensures that the familiar repeating
chorus of this classic number tempts you to get on your feet in no time. What
is engrossing is that remarkable trombone sound in Latin – it is all soulful
and never awkward, misplaced or too slow. How does the trombone compare to the
trumpet? An apple versus orange contest – both are unique and cannot be
decisively compared. If you ask me, the trombone lends emotion a bigger body of
sound and brings more air to very recording. Wait for Kai Winding to lead you
through ‘Them There Eyes’, ‘Autumn Leaves’, ‘Esto Es Felicidad’ and Besame
Mucho’, you will never want to say ‘Adios’ to this album ever!
Collectors of Sixties’ instrumentals
should also acquire this remaster simply because it is an integral part of the
‘Beat Generation’ sound. Kai Winding does it in style, it really does sound
like he’s got a 20-30 strong studio orchestra to accompany his playing!
According to the JAZZ MESSENGER (www.jazzmessengers.com) CD liner notes,
these musicians played on the LP:
JOE NEWMAN, DOC
SEVERINSEN, JIMMY MAXWELL, trumpet
CLARK TERRY, flugelhorn
BILLY BYERS, second trombone
PHIL WOODS, also sax
TONY STUDD, GEORGE WEST, bass trombone
EDDIE WASSERMAN, tenor sax & flute
DANNY BANK, baritone sax & clarinet
ROSS TOMPKINS, piano
HAL GAYLOR or MILT HINTON, bass
unknown, drums
WILLIE RODRÍGUEZ, bongo.
Arranged & conducted by BILLY BYERS and AL COHN.
CLARK TERRY, flugelhorn
BILLY BYERS, second trombone
PHIL WOODS, also sax
TONY STUDD, GEORGE WEST, bass trombone
EDDIE WASSERMAN, tenor sax & flute
DANNY BANK, baritone sax & clarinet
ROSS TOMPKINS, piano
HAL GAYLOR or MILT HINTON, bass
unknown, drums
WILLIE RODRÍGUEZ, bongo.
Arranged & conducted by BILLY BYERS and AL COHN.
TRACK LISTING:
From the LP ‘Solo’:
1. How Are Things In Glocca Morra?
2. Recado [Bossa Nova]
3. Playboy`s Theme
4. The Things We Did Last Summer
5. The Sweetest Sounds
6. Hey There
7. I`m Your Bunny Bossa Nova
8. Days Of Wine And Roses
9. You`ve Changed
10. I Believe In You
11. Capricious
From the LP ‘Kai Ole’:
12. Hacia El Fin De La Tierra (To The Ends Of
The Earth)
13. Amour [Amor, Amor]
14. Them There Eyes
15. Caribe
16. Esto Es Felicidad
17. Manteca
18. Hojas De Otono (Autumn Leaves)
19. Dansero
20. Que Pasa?
21. Besame Mucho
22. Adios
23. Kai Winding - Surrey With The Fringe on
Top
As we sit back and lounge into a South American sunset, our final
artiste for review is easily one of a handful of pianists from the continent
who achieved rare worldwide fame – including in Asia – for his trademark piano
chops. According to his biography found on most EMI LP covers, music as a
career was an accidental discovery and the realization of a childhood yearning.
His parents wanted him to develop a stable career in the professions. He
studied dentistry in Mexico but found it a painful process which held little
interest for him. All this while he was inspired by his sister’s passion for
playing the piano. He took music lessons as a hobby and played whenever time
allowed. He tried his hand at a full career in mining in the Mexican state of
Chihuahua but that too held short-lived fascination. One night out with friends
in Mexico City, he was persuaded to celebrate one of their birthdays in a hotel
restaurant where a piano was available in the corner. He gamely showed off what
he had picked up since young and the rest became his life story – as an
instrumentalist like no other. The Jaramillo sound was born: a memorable melody
was made even more so when he speeded it up, wove the rhythms of some of the
percussive instruments in an orchestra into his ivory leads, and unfolded the
melody in pulse formation.
Many listeners would describe his style as honed in Cha-cha, Samba, or Bossa
nova. But it was more than that. He found a way to evoke the ambience of a
quiet evening (or afternoon) as a mood or an imagined, contented backdrop, and
then mysteriously eased in a tantalizing fast rhythm. I would best describe
this mood as quiet speed in relaxed tempo.
The 1979 LP ‘Just for You’ was sufficiently popular in Southeast Asia in
its heyday for EMI (Singapore and Malaysia) to justify remastering it for
release as a full CD in 1996 as part of the record label’s 100th
anniversary celebrations. Jaramillo’s signature style is still evident in his
selection of pop favourites from the hit parade of the day. The title track,
along with ‘Love is in the air’, Paul McCartney’s ‘My Love’, the Bee Gees’ ‘How
Deep is Your Love’, Boney M’s ‘Rivers of Babylon’ and Manhattan Transfer’s
‘Walk in Love’ are all tastefully done to the extent that you might think they
were composed specially for Jaramillo’s style. In the liner notes, it is stated
that the famous British arranger and brass band leader Tony Osborne conducted
the orchestra on this album. Alan Lockey is credited for producing the album
for the Norman Newell Organisation.
JUST FOR YOU - TRACK
LISTING:
A1Just for You
A2Love Is in the Air
A3My Love
A4The Touch of Your Lips
A5How Deep Is Your Love
A6Distant Horizon
B1That's When the Music Takes Me
B2Walk in Love
B3I Only Have Eyes for You
B4A-Ba-Ni-Bi
B5It Must be Him
B6Rivers of Babylon
The same production/arrangement team of Osborn and Lockey worked on
Pepe’s 1977 LP ‘Down Mexico Way’. This was another EMI LP on the Studio 2
Stereo series remastered in 1996 for EMI’s 100th anniversary celebration. Made
and released in limited quantities in Singapore by EMI under catalogue number
7243-8-54913-2-0. In contrast to ‘Just for You’ , this is an even more
traditional Latin album in the sense that Tony Osborne arranged for whistles
and flutes in the background arrangements. This is of course evocative of the
1960s arrangements by Edmundo Ros, Percy Faith and Herman Clebanoff. This nice
touch of neo-tropical exotica was accompanied by the crystal clear notes of
Pepe Jaramillo’s piano magic. Even the David Soul pop standard ‘Don’t Give Up
on Us’ gets an Italian motif with the employment of a mandolin in the second
half of the song. ‘South of the Border [Down Mexico Way’ goes without saying as
the quintessential signature sound to the Jaramillo sound on this one.
DOWN MEXICO WAY – TRACK
LISTING:
1.
South of the Border
[Down Mexico Way]
2.
What I did for Love
3.
Save your Kisses for Me
4.
Send in the Clowns
5.
Caranta Noches
6.
Cordoba Sunset
7.
Fernando
8.
Don’t Cry for Me
Argentina
9.
Feelings
10. Don’t Give Up on Us
11. Natalie
12. The Homecoming
And so, on the sweet note of ‘The Homecoming’, we end another installment of the LATIN-CONTINENTAL SOUND OF THE SIXTIES. At this time, the
Spanish record company VINTAGE FM has started remastering many of Pepe’s LPs
from the 1960s. I have yet to sample them and this can perhaps serve as next
rich serving of Part IV of the LATIN-CONTINENTAL SOUND!
ALAN
September 2019
