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Cal Tjader always slipped between music’s cracks. He was an
accomplished jazz swinger – first on drums, then on vibraphone. He was
also one of the first to successfully introduce Latin dialects to the
jazz language. This accorded him great popularity – and, as a result,
critical disdain.
Pigeonholed throughout his career, Tjader was never tjust
tjazz. His music appealed to many with varied tastes but was never
likely to tjibe with those who were hoping to hear tjust one thing
(whatever that is).
Born on July 16, 1925, in St. Louis, Missouri, Cal Tjader was
first heard in the drum seat of Dave Brubeck’s 1949 trio (right before
Paul Desmond joined the group) and later in pianist George Shearing’s
famed and hugely popular quintet (where he first met up with
percussionist Armando Peraza).
Tjader kicked off his own recording legacy at San
Francisco’s famed Fantasy Records, where he recorded an amazingly
large and varied body of historic and defining records, including TJADER
PLAYS TJAZZ (1954), JAZZ AT THE BLACKHAWK (1957), CONCERT
BY THE SEA (1959) and WEST SIDE STORY (1960) – many
featuring several of his own musical discoveries, like Peanuts-man Vince
Guaraldi (1928-1976) and “Afro Blue” percussionist Mongo Santamaria
(1922-2003).
Tjader switched to the high-profile Verve Records label in
1961, where producer Creed Taylor set the vibist on a rollercoaster of
musical settings, yielding such classics as SEVERAL SHADES OF JADE
(with Lalo Schifrin - 1963), SOUL SAUCE (1964) and the
influential EL SONIDO NEUVO (with Eddie Palmieri – 1966), which
introduced the entirely new Latin sound of Salsa and was followed by the
even better BAMBOLEATE (Vampisoul).
The music heard here catches Tjader mid-career in the first
two of his three albums on Skye Recordings, the label he owned with
fellow musicians, Gary McFarland and Gabor Szabo. These recordings
represent Tjader’s studio output for the label – excepting a live
album for Skye issued in 1969, another live date issued years later on
DCC Jazz and a guest spot on Armando Peraza’s Skye album WILD THING
– and catch him away from his regular group and a little outside his
usual bag.
SOLAR HEAT, probably meant to continue the wave of
soulful titles Tjader popularized like SOUL SAUCE, SOUL BIRD
and SOUL BURST, was recorded in January 1968 and is the very
first of 20 Skye Recordings made during 1968 and 1969.
Tjader is beautifully framed here by Gary McFarland’s
crystalline arrangements (and occasional dual vibes work) and
João
Donato’s gorgeously understated organ. McFarland,
who was sponsored by Tjader early in his career, had done some arranging
for Tjader in 1964 (in several unissued Verve recordings) and came up
with the sprite treatment of Mongo Santamaria’s “Afro Blue” that
Tjader performed on SOUL SAUCE (Verve-1964). Tjader
and McFarland are ideally matched here, particularly on the pop covers
of “Never My Love” and “La Bamba” and McFarland’s own “Fried
Bananas” and the entrancing “Eye Of The Devil,” the theme to a
little seen film McFarland scored featuring David Niven, Deborah Kerr,
David Hemmings and ill-fated Sharon Tate.
João
Donato, previously heard on Tjader’s magnificent THE PROPHET
(Verve – 1967), is also a notable presence here. Employing one of the
softest touches on organ ever heard, Donato lends the music shades of
the exotica the album’s title suggests – particularly on his own
“Amazon” (the sole song here that ended up in Tjader’s
repertoire). Recorded
eight months later, CAL TJADER SOUNDS OUT BURT BACHARACH is a
curious collection that continued Skye’s emerging reputation for
putting a pretty polish on pop perennials. Here,
Tjader sounds out an offbeat – even downbeat – set of Burt Bacharach
originals with a rhythm section of L.A. studio musicians and an
ever-subtle sprinkling of overdubbed horns and strings. Again,
producer McFarland seasons the vibist’s front line with a light-touch
organist (Mike Melvoin), cultivating an appealingly mellifluous pairing
he first crafted on organist Shirley Scott’s LATIN SHADOWS
(Impulse-1965).
What’s most interesting here is that Bacharach’s harmonic
and rhythmic complexity is nearly absent – although “Moneypenny Goes
For Broke” (from the James Bond spoof Bacharach scored, CASINO
ROYALE) hints at it – forcing the listener to consider the
composer’s gift for melodic writing and Tjader’s melodic approach to
playing. Unlike other vibists who emphasize the rhythmic quality of the
instrument, Tjader reveals himself to be more of a melodic player, not
like Milt Jackson but similar.
This is particularly evident in the way Tjader handles the
tunes made popular by Bacharach’s most cogent muse, Dionne Warwick:
“I Say A Little Prayer,” “You’ll Never Get To Heaven” and the
hymn-like “Message To Michael.” One can only wonder what Tjader
would have made of “The Look Of Love,” a Dusty Springfield vehicle
which, unfortunately, was not covered here.
The Skye label continued to issue records by Tjader, Szabo
and McFarland, as well as records by SOLAR HEAT drummer Grady
Tate, Tjader percussionist Armando Peraza, even Tjader’s godchildren,
the talented teen-aged folk singers Wendy & Bonnie (Flowers). But it
didn’t last long. While the records were magisterially produced (most
by Gary McFarland) and beautifully packaged, the expense of the records
regrettably outweighed their sales.
By 1970, Szabo left for Bob Krasnow’s recently launched
Blue Thumb label and McFarland folded operations into the Buddah Records
group (several Skye albums were reissued on the Cobblestone label before
turning up later on Gryphon and DCC Jazz).
Tjader went back to Fantasy Records, home to his first famed
musical forays of the 1950s, where he recorded more in the Latin jazz
bag he was known for. He continued performing in and around his San
Francisco home base, recording a series of fine albums for Carl
Jefferson’s Concord Jazz label, before dying on May 5, 1982, at age
57.
But the albums he recorded for Skye Recordings, which slipped
between the cracks of 1968, are fine examples of the different places
the vibist could go and still sound like the one and only Cal Tjader.
Douglas Payne |
| www.dougpayne.com |
SOLAR
HEAT/CAL TJADER SOUNDS OUT BURT BACHARACH