Latin-Jazz

Señor Coconut - Simoon feat. Mouse on Mars - Yellow Fever! (Essay 2006)


Pucho & the Latin Soul Brothers - Yania - Yania (Cubop 1997)


Willie Bobo - Roots - Latin Sounds (Verve 2004)


With the ridiculous temperatures throughout the county melting away ice cream cones and brain cells alike, there is not a more appropriate time to talk about some hot Latin sounds. Along with sweltering heat enveloping my air condition-less apartment, there is a much-anticipated package from Forced Exposure, a distributor of genreless music that never ceases to fascinate. Among the many rough diamonds was a very humble looking cd case with artwork that look like it was straight from the flea market crate of 60-year-old strung out war vet. Blatantly retro, to the point that it if it was the vinyl version, I would absolutely believe it to be from the 50s, the cover art is of a small toy reminiscing of the Chiquita lady that pronounces ‘YELLOW FEVER!’ with subdued gusto. In the top left corner it reads, ‘Señor Coconut and his Orchestra including Argenis Brito,” and underneath, a tiny cut out star with a straight-faced Brito looking hesitantly at an imaginary crowd. Fuck Yea, I can already tell this is going to be good. Little did I know that it was actually a German DJ/producer covering Yellow Magic Orchestra (Japan’s answer to Kraftwerk) with a Latin-jazz big band. Damn, it is goood.

Here is the short review I wrote for the lucky DJs who will be spinning this at WLUW-FM Chicago (pay no attention to the terrible pun at the end, sometimes corny humor is the best, especially if you are going on the 4th hour of an overnight DJ shift):

Laptop-salsa??? Acid-merengue??? Personally, I’m already sold, but in case you lack playfulness or fear hyphenated madness, I’ll continue with more info. The brilliantly named Señor Coconut, or German DJ/producer Uwe Schmidt who left the dismal blandness of Germany for the bright colors of Chile, has already produced albums consisting of Latin Big Band covers of Kraftwerk, Sade and Michael Jackson, and this time he is paying homage to Japan’s answer to Kraftwerk, the Yellow Magic Orchestra. With all three original members on board to contribute, as well as a full ensemble of Latin Jazz artists and other more electronic-minded artists like Mouse on Mars, Towa Tei and Burnt Friedman, Schmidt had ample and able musicians and creative minds to give YMO a proper Latin makeover. The results are amazing and sound truly like authentic Latin music for the most part, and I would assume that most unaware listeners would consider it to be just that. This is incredibly fun, surprising and dare I say ‘hot hot hot!’ (er, I apologize, that was completely uncalled for).

But I won’t leave you with just that; how about two more amazing Latin-jazz cuts:

Pucho & the Latin Soul Brothers – Yania – Yania (Cubop 1997, originally 1971)

Henry ‘Pucho’ Brown did wonders in melting away the line between Latin-jazz and soul-jazz, kind of the same way Roy Ayers did with R&B and jazz. He was a hefty, and seemingly cuddly, African-American who became so obsessed with the rhythms of Afro-Cuban salsa that by his later years, most people mistook him for an actual Latino (which I’m sure he took as a compliment). Like most people in the latter half of last century with any interest at all in Latin-jazz, Tito Puente was the starting point, and Pucho followed his idol into the percussion field, concentrating on the timbales. He recorded for Prestige, Right On! and Epic in the 60s and 70s before falling off until the 90s when acid jazz revived his career. Thanks to the always wonderful Fantasy re-releasing his early records, Pucho has returned to his rightful place in the upper echelon of Latin-jazz percussionists. ‘Yania’ was originally recorded in 1971, and re-released by Cubop in 1997. It is an excellent album of most laid-back Latin-jazz heavy on flute and vibes, and features covers of The Rolling Stones ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want,’ Kenny Burrell’s ‘Chitterlings con Carne’ and John Coltrane’s ‘Naima.’

Willie Bobo – Roots – Latin Sounds (Verve 2004)

The flamboyant and genre-hopping percussionist Willie Bobo would make significant contributions in fusing Latin rhythms into jazz, R&B and pop throughout his lengthy career. Specializing on the congas and timbales, Bobo was seated next to Tito Puente by the age of 19 and never looked back. Throughout the 60s and 70s he worked with such amazing jazz artists as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wes Montgomery, Chico Hamilton, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Stitt and Cal Tjader, was responsible for the Latin standard ‘Afro-Blue’ and recorded for Blue Note, Verve, Columbia and Sussex. Latin Sounds is a compilation put together by Masters at Work compiling some of Verve’s finest Latin-jazz music. ‘Roots’ also appears on 1967’s ‘Juicy,’ which obviously came out on Verve.