Your favourite Latin jazz records since the 1970s

[JSngry]

 

[JSngry]

Tata Guines and Mario Rivera

THESE guys!

https://jazzdelapena.com/puerto-rico-project/anatomy-of-a-tune-sonora-poncenas-boranda-and-the-boranda-challenge/

 

[Rabshakeh]

On 03/05/2021 at 5:30 PM, JSngry said:

 

I enjoyed these Esteban / Steve videos, so thanks for posting. He plays some interesting stuff. Main take away though is just how hard it looks to play an accordion in a non traditional way. I think that may explain why there are so many more good bagpipe jazz records than accordion jazz.

[HutchFan]

14 hours ago, JSngry said:

Tata Guines and Mario Rivera

THESE guys!

https://jazzdelapena.com/puerto-rico-project/anatomy-of-a-tune-sonora-poncenas-boranda-and-the-boranda-challenge/

 

Jim -- Not be too nit-picky, but both of those are from the 1970s.  Rab's original post said that he wanted suggestions from post-1979 to the present. ... I'm just sayin'. 

All that said, La Sonora Ponceña has never really grabbed me.  Maybe I should give them another listen.

I'm probably prejudiced against the band because so many of their covers could easily be confused for something by Molly Hatchet. 

 

Not as far from Salsa to Southern Rock as you thought! 

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by HutchFan

[JSngry]

On 5/3/2021 at 9:43 AM, Joe said:

I consider Esteban Jordan to be the Sonny Rollins of norteno. I am guessing you are familiar with his work?

 

I just had somebody compare him to James Booker, which is not all that far-fetched?

35 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

Jim -- Not be too nit-picky, but both of those are from the 1970s.  Rab's original post said that he wanted suggestions from post-1979 to the present. ... I'm just sayin'. 

All that said, La Sonora Ponceña has never really grabbed me.  Maybe I should give them another listen.

I'm probably prejudiced against the band because so many of their covers could easily be confused for something by Molly Hatchet. 

 

Not as far from Salsa to Southern Rock as you thought! 

 

Who the hell is Molly Hatchet? 

Oops, got the date range off, my bad.

[HutchFan]

2 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Who the hell is Molly Hatchet? 

A band sorta like Lynyrd Skynyrd -- but not as good.

Clearly, you need to brush up on your derivative Southern Rock, circa the late-70s and early-80s.  

 

[JSngry]

Uh, maybe not? I leave people to their own hells. 

 

[HutchFan]

2 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Uh, maybe not? I leave people to their own hells. 

Probably a good idea.  My Southern Rock hierarchy goes something like this: 

The Allman Brothers Band - Yes, definitely. 

Lynyrd Skynyrd - On certain days, O.K. maybe.

Molly Hatchet - No thanks.

[JSngry]

Allman Brothers are a stretch for me, to be honest. Sometimes, at best, maybe. Oh good, Southern hippies can "play the blues" and still sound like Southern hippies. Well, good for them!

That character on the Sonora Poncea albums, I had that explained to me once, but I've long since forgotten the details. Something to do with local mythology and Ponce de Leon or something. Definitely a thematic thing, though, a hero fighting for the people of Ponce.

The band's most "interesting" work for me was the 70s, on Inca, when Papo Lucca burst out and pushed all kind of boundaries. In that regard, wasn't everybody?

They been together forever, and have of course developed  their routines. In that regard, doesn't everybody?

But that initial burst of Lucca-ian freshness, yeah, that.

[mjazzg]

1 hour ago, HutchFan said:

Jim -- Not be too nit-picky, but both of those are from the 1970s.  Rab's original post said that he wanted suggestions from post-1979 to the present. ... I'm just sayin'. 

All that said, La Sonora Ponceña has never really grabbed me.  Maybe I should give them another listen.

I'm probably prejudiced against the band because so many of their covers could easily be confused for something by Molly Hatchet. 

 

Not as far from Salsa to Southern Rock as you thought! 

 

Ha! As a callow youth I loved Molly Hatchet for a couple of years. They were the highlight of one of my visits to the Reading Festival. Didn't they have about eighteen guitarists? 

At that time my hierarchy was 

Lynyrd Skynyrd 

Molly Hatchet 

38 Special

Black Oak Arkansas 

Marshall Tucker Band 

I was young, impressionable and Punk hadn't happened yet 

And now back to Latin Jazz...

 

[HutchFan]

1 minute ago, mjazzg said:

Ha! As a callow youth I loved Molly Hatchet for a couple of years. They were the highlight of one of my visits to the Reading Festival. Didn't they have about eighteen guitarists? 

At that time my hierarchy was 

Lynyrd Skynyrd 

Molly Hatchet 

38 Special

Black Oak Arkansas 

Marshall Tucker Band 

I was young, impressionable and Punk hadn't happened yet 

Oh yeah.  Back in the day, that stuff was it.  

And those bands are still staples of "classic rock" radio around these parts.   

 

16 minutes ago, JSngry said:

But that initial burst of Lucca-ian freshness, yeah, that.

Will give that stuff another listen!  

 

[JSngry]

42 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

Oh yeah.  Back in the day, that stuff was it. 

Hmmmm....I know there were a lot of records in the stores, but I never knew anybody (well, I knew of them, but didn't know them)who bought them, nor were they played in the stores.

Closed I ever came to "direct exposure" to all that was when I picked up a few months worth of gigs with a biker band (called Booster Cable and the Jump Starts, the leader kept trying to get a sponsorship deal with Interstate Batteries) and that was all they played. I got a crash course in "Southern rock" and the people who lived it. It was like everybody  I went to high school with (well, everybody white) who had all of their worst social instincts reinforced instead of grown out of. It put me in mind of Country only made by people who didn't have that dirt-poor chip on their shoulders, these folks were all about just having the chip, period. "White Grievance", I believe it is called today?

Only good thing that came out of it musically was getting a heightened appreciation for Delbert McClinton. Other than that....yuck.

Ok, 2020:

 

[HutchFan]

6 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Hmmmm....I know there were a lot of records in the stores, but I never knew anybody (well, I knew of them, but didn't know them)who bought them, nor were they played in the stores.

Closed I ever came to "direct exposure" to all that was when I picked up a few months worth of gigs with a biker band (called Booster Cable and the Jump Starts, the leader kept trying to get a sponsorship deal with Interstate Batteries) and that was all they played. I got a crash course in "Southern rock" and the people who lived it. It was like everybody  I went to high school with (well, everybody white) who had all of their worst social instincts reinforced instead of grown out of. It put me in mind of Country only made by people who didn't have that dirt-poor chip on their shoulders, these folks were all about just having the chip, period. "White Grievance", I believe it is called today?

Only good thing that came out of it musically was getting a heightened appreciation for Delbert McClinton. Other than that....yuck.

I hear you.  Of course, the sub-genre had some of that ugly awful-ness.  "Sweet Home Alabama" immediately comes to mind.  As far as that goes, "Yuck" is right.

And I think I'll leave it at that.

 

[rostasi]

Yeah, since we're exploring the great Esteban Jordan,
I thought I'd throw in these two versions of Ran Kan Kan.
First is the Hacienda Records studio version followed by a
fun live one from Austin City Limits. Got to experience him at
least three times and one part of my mind always wanted to
cRaZy dance while another part made me stand slack-jawed.

 

[mikeweil]

To me, the best Latin Vocal Jazz album I know - because the singer is jazz and sings mostly jazz standards arranged in a true Latin/Jazz fusion manner, not just a Latin singer with a jazzy backdrop. 

Edited May 6, 2021 by mikeweil

[HutchFan]

2 hours ago, mikeweil said:

To me, the best Latin Vocal Jazz album I know - because the singer is jazz and sings mostly jazz standards arranged in a true Latin/Jazz fusion manner, not just a Latin singer with a jazzy backdrop. 

Interesting.  I'm gonna check out that record.   

 

[mikeweil]

 

10 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Interesting.  I'm gonna check out that record.   

 

The samples on amazon will give you an idea. Her arranger was a very competent guy.

[HutchFan]

On 5/6/2021 at 10:02 PM, JSngry said:

Tata Guines and Mario Rivera

And their terrific pianist Sonny Bravo.  

 

 

More that I'd recommend con gusto:

This band was co-led by Ray Mantilla & Bobby Watson.  And Jack Walrath is always a plus.  They'll blow your doors off.

 

Tito never stopped bringing goods, IMO.

 

Quincy Jones produced this CD.  Rodriguez is one of Jones' protégés.  (Don't confuse this Alfredo Rodriguez with another Cuban pianist also named Alfredo Rodriguez who's in the band Cubanismo.  Same name, same instrument, different hombres.)

 

Overlook the UGLY cover because the music is burning.  Not hard to understand why with that band.

 

Edited May 25, 2021 by HutchFan

[JSngry]

2 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

And their terrific pianist Sonny Bravo.

And John Rodriguez on cowbell. I sat about 10 feet away from John Rodriguez playing cowbell all night with a Tito Puente "Latin Jazz All Stars" group one night, and....anybody who does not think that cowbell is a serious instrument in itself, and/or that it's jsut there for sonic decoration...hope in the time capsule with me and i will give you my seat so you can hear how fundamentally wrong you are on both counts!

Honestly don't recal the exact personnel (or the club...Fat Tuesdays, maybe), but there were Mariano Rivera, both Gonzalez brothers, Jorge dalto, and John Rodriguez. Hell, that might have been everybody. But John Rodriguez, the "more cowbell" snarky meme/joke has never heard John Rodriguez!

[HutchFan]

1 minute ago, JSngry said:

And John Rodriguez on cowbell. I sat about 10 feet away from John Rodriguez playing cowbell all night with a Tito Puente "Latin Jazz All Stars" group one night, and....anybody who does not think that cowbell is a serious instrument in itself, and/or that it's jsut there for sonic decoration...hope in the time capsule with me and i will give you my seat so you can hear how fundamentally wrong you are on both counts!

Honestly don't recal the exact personnel (or the club...Fat Tuesdays, maybe), but there were Mariano Rivera, both Gonzalez brothers, Jorge dalto, and John Rodriguez. Hell, that might have been everybody. But John Rodriguez, the "more cowbell" snarky meme/joke has never heard John Rodriguez!

Wish I could've heard that!

 

[JSngry]

And seen it too...Andy Gonzalez was leaning into Dalto's left hand with eyes like a hawk and a look of intense concentration, and moving his lines accordingly...that was a revelation also, that a tumbao did not have to be harmonically predictable, not at all.

[Peter Friedman]

With the exception of Bossa Nova recordings, Latin Jazz is not something I focus on much. But here are some of the very few Latin Jazz CDs on my shelves.

[HutchFan]

18 minutes ago, Peter Friedman said:

Two big thumbs from me up for Helio Alves.   

Peter, if you enjoy Kenny Barron's Brazilian outings, you might want to look into Alves' recordings with the Brazilian Trio:
- Forests (Zoho, 2008)
- Constelação (Motema, 2012)
- Águas Brasileiras (Zoho, 2020)

All three are excellent, IMO. 

I dig how the Brazilian Trio evokes the sound of "classic" Brazilian samba & bossa piano trios like the Tamba Trio, Zimbo Trio, and Sambrasa Trio -- while also doing their own thing. 

 

[jazzbo]

I also love Helio's album with Maucha Adnet. Of course. . . I love Maucha Adnet's singing.

[Peter Friedman]

2 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Two big thumbs from me up for Helio Alves.   

Peter, if you enjoy Kenny Barron's Brazilian outings, you might want to look into Alves' recordings with the Brazilian Trio:
- Forests (Zoho, 2008)
- Constelação (Motema, 2012)
- Águas Brasileiras (Zoho, 2020)

All three are excellent, IMO. 

I dig how the Brazilian Trio evokes the sound of "classic" Brazilian samba & bossa piano trios like the Tamba Trio, Zimbo Trio, and Sambrasa Trio -- while also doing their own thing. 

 

Thanks for the recommendations.