Los Ritmos Calientes - The Cal Tjader Forum

[GA Russell]

Today I opened up Cal Tjader Plugs In from my recent dccblowout.com Skye order.

Steve Hoffman's name is nowhere to be found. I thought he remastered all of the Skye recordings for DCC, but I guess not.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

saw this one today, aqua dulce, it had rhodes and a cover of gimme shelter, but it was the old style fantasy logo (albeit a white promo) so i didnt quite know exactly where to date it....

[Shrdlu]

Seeing this thread led me to stick "Soul Sauce" on again. That's my favorite Cal, but I have a lot of his albums. I have the 1994 CD, which sounds very good. It adds a new item, Mamblues, to the main session, and I think the original LP would have been better if that had replaced Afro Blue, which is an odd track from a different session. The other tracks on the LP are by Cal's regular working group and are very well locked in.

A good Latino performance, when the percussion and bass locks into a groove, is hard to beat!

[mikeweil]

Found this pic of the late 1950's Tjader band with Vince Guaraldi, Al McKibbon, Willie Bobo, and Mongo Santamaria:

[Teasing the Korean]

I have a fairly large and extensive CT accumulation (25 to 30 titles, I'm guessing), but not everything.

Which of his Fantasy albums are generally considered to be the best? (I'm talking his first period with the label).

Also, I don't have anything later than the early 70s. What are his later Concord albums like, and which are recommended?

[GA Russell]

TTK, the Fantasy album which has received the best press over the years has been Monterey Concert, which was a double album now on one CD. One day I'll buy it.

*****

Tuesday I saw on YouTube a video from 1975 of Cal with Clare Fischer playing Soul Sauce. I was surprised at how hard Cal struck the vibes with his mallets. He makes it sound easy, but he didn't make it look easy.

[Teasing the Korean]

Thanks. I've got that double LP. It's long overdue for a spin.

[Teasing the Korean]

The only one I can think of that I would absolutely avoid is the 2-fer called Several Shades of Jade/Breeze from the East. This is a pairing of someone's bad idea to have Call play bad spy-movie music. Hell, even the liner notes acknowledge that these are two of Cal's weakest albums. In fact, the best songs from this CD can be found as bonus tracks on the El Sonido Nuevo CD.

I will agree with you that "Breeze from the East" is probably the weakest CT album.

BUT:

"Several Shades of Jade" is a FLAWLESS album. Truthfully, it's more of a Lalo Schifrin album with Cal in a soloist role, and while it may not be representative of his typical work, it's a terrific album nonetheless. The liner notes to the CD incidentally have nothing bad to say about "Jade," only "Breeze." And I will respectfully disagree with the "bad spy movie music assessment." There are NO BAD Lalo Schifrin albums, Rush Hour soundtracks notwithstanding. GOOD spy movie music album is every bit as good as jazz (They don't call me "Teasing the Korean" for nothing).

It's really too bad these two were paired together on CD. There are only a couple of listenable cuts on Breeze, and those few should have simply been added as bonus tracks to "Jade."

Edited September 3, 2007 by Teasing the Korean

[mikeweil]

Well, it's an opportunity to use the programming function ......

It took me a while to come to terms with "Jade", but if you take it as a Schifrin album with Cal as main soloist it's rather nice.

"Breeze", otoh, is downright corny in places .....

[allent]

Have any of you registered at the Cal Tjader Forum on http://www.caltjader.com?

Mostly fans there, less the specialists, but it deserves to be kept alive!

i just did . . . i'm being impatient, i know, but how long does it usually take to get "approved" to post? thanks, allen

[mikeweil]

No idea - not too much happening there ...

[Teasing the Korean]

No idea - not too much happening there ...

Have there been any CT reissues of note in recent years? I keep seeing the same CDs over and over. The LPs don't pop up too often, at least the ones that I don't have.

[mikeweil]

I just started a Cal Tjader blog to cover the discographical info I accumulated over the years - will take a bit before I typed everything into the BRIAN database ...

[GA Russell]

Looks great, Mike! I've bookmarked it.

[mikeweil]

Thanks for the kind words - I will try to add a new session every other day.

[mjzee]

Enjoying Tjader's work on this:

[mjzee]

Just saw this on Amazon; release date December 11:

[mikeweil]

The release of this double CD was almost cancelled as the label couldn't identify some of the tunes. I offered my help and had them all within a few minutes. Tjader biographer contributed some info on the band and time span, helping them correct the personnel and all.

This is a very causual gig with lots of tinkling an talking between tunes. A great opprotunity to hear lengthy solos from everybody and the only live recording of that Tjader band with Luis Kant, an excellent underrated conga drummer (the same band without Kant recorded Jazz At The Blackhawk).

Read more in the liner notes and in the upcoming Tjader biography, scheduled for release in late spring 2013 (I contributed the discographical part).

The tapes, btw, come from a Californian collection of radio broadcasts etc. - there are some great shows to check out.

http://www.acrobatmusic.net/

[Teasing the Korean]

Is there any film or video footage of Cal Tjader from any incarnation of any of his groups? The last time I checked youtube, I couldn't find anything.

[mikeweil]

That edition of the Tjader Quintet played short sequences in two motion pictures made in 1957, The Big Beat and Salute To Song. It also appeared on the tv show Stars of Jazz (# 32) on February 11, 1957, see James Harrod's blog on Calliope Records.

There is a tv recording from Paul Marshall's Club Night (the other band is a Milt Jackson Quartet) with Clare Fischer made sometime in 1978:

http://youtu.be/iiEBUJtWB5M

There is more, but buried under truckloads of youtube clips with just pics accompanying clips dubbed from discs ...

Edited November 27, 2012 by mikeweil

[Big Beat Steve]

That edition of the Tjader Quintet played short sequences in two motion pictures made in 1957, The Big Beat and Salute To Song.

Thanks for the reminder of that one, Mike! A pretty unlikely place for CT to appear in movie centered on a "Teenage music vs Tin Pan Alley moldy figs" plot.

Have it among my 50s rock'n'roll movies on VHS. Time to dig it out again ... (No, I did NOT choose my forum nick after that one )

Edited November 27, 2012 by Big Beat Steve

[mikeweil]

Do you have the equipment to copy that to DVD? I'd love to watch it, if only for the Tjader combo ...

Edited November 27, 2012 by mikeweil

[JSngry]

I saw that movie on TV one afternoon when I was a kid, before I really knew who Cal Tjader was. To say that his appearance was a contrast to everything else in the movie, before or after, is putting it mildly!

[GA Russell]

Just saw this on Amazon; release date December 11:

I surely hope someone picks this up, and let's us know how it sounds. The description is very appealling, but I am skeptical of the sound quality.

[mikeweil]

I had only MP3s to preview the music and identify the songs, but these sounded very good for a radio recording.

p.s. just saw they chose a photo of Cal Tjader from the 1970's ....