Verve Records has released the first Cal Tjader (1925-82) record in its 180-gram vinyl Verve Vault series, the 1968 gem The Prophet. The last of a whopping 15 discs the vibraphonist waxed for the Verve label between 1961 and 1968, The Prophet – released just this month – may well be the best of a long string of exceptionally-produced and artistically-satisfying recordings that Tjader made for the storied label.
The Prophet was recorded in Los Angeles in September 1967 (not 1968, as the album’s sleeve indicates), with arranger Don Sebesky adding overdubs later on. This disc was waxed in one day, and recorded three months before the bulk of Tjader’s Hip Vibrations, but not released until November 1968 (possibly early 1969), well after Hip Vibrations‘ early 1968 release.
The delay in The Prophet‘s release is likely due to the program’s merciful lack of commercial or cross-over fare. On this particular occasion, Tjader was having none of it. The exceptional quality of the music and the performance on tap here, however, certainly necessitated the album’s eventual release.
Even writer Herb Wong opened his liner remarks by simply stating, “This is an ecstatically beautiful album.” Indeed, it is.
Tjader’s group – here, featuring the magnificent Brazilian composer and pianist Joāo Donato (1934-2023), sensitively swinging on organ – is the vibraphonist’s first studio recording in Los Angeles since 1963. Don Sebesky, in New York, was later sent the tapes and overdubbed exquisitely tasteful strings, horns, flutes and voices (to far better effect than his occasional touches to Kenny Burrell’s Night Song, from the same period).
The album is effectively Tjader’s first of only two projects with producer Esmond Edwards, whom the musician credits for this album’s success: “Working with Es was great. He understood how I felt about playing and was very receptive to the concept. I did not want any pressure on current tunes, and I did not receive such pressure.” Tjader was additionally fulsome with praise for Donato and Sebesky for contributing to the high quality and enduring enjoyment the record provides.
The especially well-programmed set of cookers and ballads is comprised of Tjader and Donato originals, with one nod to Johnny Mandel’s “A Time for Love” (now a jazz standard, from the long-forgotten 1966 film An American Dream).
Donato – whose marvelous “It Didn’t End” Tjader memorably covered in 1966 – delivers three tunes, more jazz than MPB: “Warm Song” (eventually chosen by Wong as the theme to his KJAZ/San Francisco radio show), “Aquarius,” and the especially cinematic “Temo Teimoso.” Tjader’s originals, however, are the album’s highlights and include the superbly tongue-in-cheek “Souled Out,” “The Prophet” (previously heard on Soul Bird: Whiffenpoof), “Cal’s Bluedo” and “The Loner” (which the Tjader group can be seen and heard playing in another long-forgotten film, For Singles Only [1968]).
“The purists in jazz may rebel against this kind of right-down-the-middle album,” wrote Gene Lees at the time. “but as far as I am concerned, if jazz is to prosper in this country, it must relate to the audience (whoever they may be!) in a more direct way than most of this music did in the early 1960s. Cal is making a contact with people in a way his onetime employer, George Shearing. did.
“‘How nice to hear music that makes you smile again’,” the article continued. “Cal does that, but in a modern idiom. His wit is present in several tracks, particularly in his own tune ‘Souled Out’ – even the title is a typical Tjader pun. The album is open, accessible, and enjoyable. Cal’s solos are inventive, skillful, warm. Don Sebesky’s arrangements are sure-handed, unobtrusive. yet there. No challenges here; just quiet pleasure.”1
Despite professing an aversion to covering pop tunes like “Trick or Treat” or “Along Comes Mary,” Tjader soon departed Verve to make the even-more pop-infused, yet superb, Solar Heat – also with Joāo Donato on board – and Cal Tjader Sounds Out Burt Bacharach for Skye. By the early seventies, Tjader returned to his roots in Latin jazz, with a string of records for the Fantasy, Galaxy and Concord Jazz labels.
I was able to select three tracks from The Prophet – “Souled Out” (with Hubert Laws’ brief flute solo), “Cal’s Bluedo” and the title track (with solos by Laws and flugelhorn player Marvin Stamm), all Tjader originals – for my 2008 Verve Jazzclub compilation Cal Tjader – Soulful Vibes, which gathered the best of the vibraphonist’s Verve output.
To date, The Prophet has only been issued once – in Japan – on CD, in 2015. It’s a success on every level, no matter what the format. Kudos to the suits at the label for giving Tjader the chance to make the album he wanted to do. The Prophet reflects well on everyone involved.
Endnote:
- High Fidelity, July 1969, p. 119. ↩︎
Terrific review of a recording by Mr Tjader w string arrangements by Don Sebesky. This recording was my introduction to Brazilian organist Joao Donato who unbeknownst to me had done an earlier session date “The New Sound of Brazil” in 65’ on RCA Victor Records.
Thank you, Earl. Joāo Donato’s “The New Sound of Brazil” is a tremendous recording and one that I should have probably mentioned here.