{"id":28671,"date":"2024-12-10T05:30:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T10:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28671"},"modified":"2024-12-09T16:02:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T21:02:56","slug":"album-review-cal-tjader-huracan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/10\/album-review-cal-tjader-huracan\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Cal Tjader \u2013 Hurac\u00e1n"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Cal Tjader was a prime exponent of the Latin jazz scene of the 1950s and early \u201860s. Though his activities began long before and continued long after, it\u2019s those years for which he\u2019s most remembered. His run of albums on Fantasy Records served up some thrilling sounds, exuberant stuff filled with panache, passion and energy. His one-off 1958 collaboration with Stan Getz, Cal Tjader-Stan Getz Sextet<\/em><\/a> is a monumental release from that period as well.<\/p>\n

By the 1970s, Tjader had moved toward fusion, but his love for Latin Jazz remained a defining feature of his work. And so it was that long after the exotica- and Caribbean-flavored strain of jazz had seen its biggest days come and go, he recorded and released Hurac<\/i>\u00e1<\/i>n<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Orignally released as a 12-inch EP on a small label (Crystal Clear) in 1978, Hurac\u00e1n<\/i> was in many ways a throwback to what Tjader had been doing two decades before. But it\u2019s done so well, and with so much style and feeling, that it\u2019s a timeless recording. The disc opens with the uptempo \u201cRitmo Caliente,\u201d a thrilling and insistent piece with a backbeat that will lead rock fans to think of early Santana (specifically the outro of their reading of Fleetwood Mac\u2019s \u201cBlack Magic Woman\u201d).<\/p>\n

Tjader\u2019s vibes and Clare Fischer\u2019s electric piano are at the center of the warm and inviting \u201cDesposado,\u201d the perfect soundtrack for a tiki lounge excursion. For listeners who only know Tjader\u2019s earlier work, it might be a btit jarring to hear Robb Fisher\u2019s electric bass in the mix, but it works, and well. The complicated beat of \u201cBachi\u201d is simply mesmerizing, Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja provide some astounding percussion work. Rick Zunigar\u2019s electric guitar \u2013 another sound not heard on early Tjader LPs \u2013 is lovely as well.<\/p>\n

As Side Two opens, Tjader and his band mates deftly fold Latin jazz, bits of fusion and some tasty horn work into the mix for the title track. Some squawking and borderline-atonal sax soloing comes as a bit of a surprise, but it ultimately adds to the texture of the record. The piece is a testament to how much can be done with only one \u2013 occasionally two \u2013 chord(s). The hypnotic \u201cFunquiado\u201d has it both ways, delivering subtlety and complexity in a single tune, often at the same time. Tjader\u2019s always-lovely vibes soloing takes center stage here. The record closes with a throwback, a traditional reading of Osvaldo Farras\u2019 \u201cTres Palabras.\u201d It offers a very different character than the previous tracks on Hurac<\/i>\u00e1<\/i>n<\/i>, but it\u2019s a highlight of the album nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Tjader led the band, but he didn\u2019t compose any of the material on Hurac<\/i>\u00e1<\/i>n<\/i>. Keyboardist Fischer is responsible for four of the six tunes; the others are covers. But none of that takes away from the allure of this wonderfully vivid and splendidly recorded studio outing. The session\u2019s method \u2013 overhead mics rather than then-and-now-standard close-miking \u2013 helps give it a live sound and feel.<\/p>\n

A 1990 reissue added two cuts to the original four for a CD-era release, but that would be it until this new 21st<\/sup> century reissue. Now in 2024 Hurac<\/i>\u00e1<\/i>n <\/i>makes its first vinyl appearance in ages with this new reissue from Liberation Hall. Recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cal Tjader was a prime exponent of the Latin jazz scene of the 1950s and early \u201860s. Though his activities began long before and continued long after, it\u2019s those years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,40,42,64,65,73],"tags":[449,4391],"class_list":["post-28671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exotica","category-instrumental","category-jazz","category-reissue","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-cal-tjader","tag-liberation-hall","cat-28-id","cat-40-id","cat-42-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28671"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28675,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28671\/revisions\/28675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}