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CAL TJADER "Cal is one of the healthy youngsters who are the hope of jazz" wrote Ralph J. Gleason in his liner notes for Cal Tjader's first album as a leader. "No coolie, he's not afraid to enjoy his music, and smiling at the audience has not become a major sin in his musical creed. First and foremost Cal Tjader is a swinger." Truer words were never written about a musician. Whether playing straight ahead jazz, cool jazz, or hot salsa rhythms, Cal Tjader is all about music with swing, and that's what has kept his music popular with listeners from the '50s right up to the present day. You'll hear some Latin fans who don't care much for Tjader's often cool approach, and you'll hear from some jazz afficianados who would love Cal if there wasn't so much Latin influence in his music (crazy!), but ultimately it's hard to find anything wrong with almost anything Tjader did. That's why Fantasy's release of Concerts in the Sun and reissues of other Tjader works are so welcome. Concerts in the Sun is comprised of selections recorded at concerts in Honolulu and Santa Monica in 1960, about a year after the Tjader classic Concert By the Sea (now available as Monterey Concerts) was recorded. That recording is considered by many to be Tjader's best work, and this selection finds him in transition, with a group made up of Tjader, pianist Lonnie Hewit, drummer Willie Bobo, and Mongo Santamaria on congas and bongos. The bassists on various tracks are Victor Venegas and Eddie Coleman. Hewitt had replaced Vince Guaraldi in the group just prior to the Concert By the Sea shows, and he is well ensconced by the time of these recordings, swinging hard and handling the Latin tunes with verve as well. Drummer Willie Bobo had come from Tito Puente's band and had not done much jazz drum kit work prior to joining Tjader, but you can't tell from his sharp work here. Santamaria is heard only on the Latin-jazz numbers because Tjader didn't like mixing congas with straight jazz. Nonetheless, Cal is still seen as the instrumental bridge that brought jazz and Latin music together into a viable form that would later be adopted by multiple players and finally accepted as a legitimate part of the jazz tradition. "Love For Sale" starts thing out with a round of sophisticated swing not all that different from what one might have heard from George Shearing's group when Tjader played vibes for him. The Gordon Jenkins-penned "Goodbye," Benny Goodman's theme, is given a sumptuous, though melancholy, workout, with Tjader stating the melody and taking a solo that demonstrates how beautiful the vibes can be when space is left in a player's work for the instrument's sustained notes to ring in the air. Hewitt is good on this track as well, offering a chorus that swings nicely even though heavily studded with block chords. Other standout straight ahead jazz tracks include "Raccoon Straits," a bluesy number composed by Tjader and the uptempo "Sigmund Stern Groove." Santamaria joins the band for Ray Bryant's "Cubano Chant," and Bobo switches to timbales. The band heats up mightily on these Afro-Cuban numbers and there can be little doubt when listening to this music that it influenced everyone from Stan Kenton to Santana. Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Blue" is given a reading that is anything but perfunctory and miles ahead of its time, as John Coltrane's classic version of this tune was still some years away. The Latin portion of the show--and the CD--ends with Tjader's own "Tumbao" and a mambo version of "Day In, Day Out." As Tjader's reputation and influence has only grown since his sudden death in 1982, so the importance of these unreleased live performances is more obvious now that it may previously have been. Santamaria and Bobo left the group shortly after these concerts, and Hewitt followed later (though he reappears on later Tjader recordings). Tjader himself moved to Verve Records in 1961, and his subsequent recordings are quite different than those of his early quintets. Concerts in the Sun is perfect music for breezy spring and summer days, and for anytime you want to hear that mix of Afro Cuban rhythms and cool San Francisco jazz that only Cal Tjader could create.
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