Jocy de Oliveira - 1971 - Estórias Para Voz, Instrumentos Acústicos e Eletrônicos

Jocy de Oliveira

1971

Estórias Para Voz, Instrumentos Acústicos e Eletrônicos

01. Estória II

02. Wave Song

03. Dimensões Para Quatro Teclados

04. Estória IV

Percussion – Rich O'Donnell

Voice – Rozalyn Wykes*

Electric Piano, Electric Organ, Harpsichord, Piano – Jocy de Oliveira

Bass Guitar – Dodo Ferreira*

Percussion – John Boudler

Violin [Electronic Violin] – Ayrton Pinto

Voice – Jocy de Oliveira, Martha Herr

Recorded At – Electronic Music Studio, Washington University, St. Louis, USA

The legendary debut of Jocy De Oliveira - and a landmark classic from the 70s Brazlian Electronic music scene. To quote Keith Fullerton Whitman, this is the "lost Tropicalia / Psych / free-Vocal / Ring-Modulator freakout / jam hybrid that you’ve only dreamt about!"

It is difficult to overstate the importance of Jocy De Oliveira. Defined by a body of singular music spanning seven decades, within the histories and continuing legacies of avant-garde practice, she is without equivalent. Her work is a lens - a window into breadth, idealism, and actualities of her many eras - of all the possibilities they’ve held. While she remains a widely celebrated voice in her own country - Brazil, perhaps more than any other figure, Oliveira’s life and career, with her album Estórias Para Voz, Instrumentos Acústicos e Eletrônicos from 1981 - resonating through a shimmering body of organised sound, unveils truths lingering in the shadows - histories long suppressed and lost - the sins suffered by the Latin American avant-garde, with the actualities of its astounding heights.

Oliveira began her career as a concert pianist, dedicated to the cutting edge works of the avant-garde. She left Brazil at young age to study in America and Europe, before being recruited by major orchestras across both continents - working under Stravinsky, and having pieces written for her and premiering of works by Berio, Xenakis, Santoro, Cage, and Manuel Enriquez. Her rendering of Messiaen’s Catalogue D'Oiseaux is still widely held as the definitive version. During the early 1960’s, Oliveira shifted her efforts toward composition. A wildly restless creative mind, she embarked on a process of folding organised sounds across nearly every context it could inhabit - public and private interventions, theatre, installations, film, video, tape, as much as the concert hall - blurring the lines between performance and composition, incorporating diverse media well beyond the world of sound. In 1961, within a collaborative theatre work written with Luciano Berio - Berio Apague Meu Spot Light, she instigated the first performance of electronic music staged in Brazil. In 1968 she joined Pauline Oliveros and Annea Lockwood as one of the only women asked to contribute to the legendary publication Source: Music of the Avant Garde - entering its fourth and seventh editions, and became its sole Latin American contributor. Only the beginnings of what, over the coming decades, would rise as her singular and astounding body of achievement and work.

Released in 1981, during the last years of her country’s military dictatorship, Estórias Para Voz, Instrumentos Acústicos e Eletrônicos was met by controversy before quickly sinking from view - heard by almost no one beyond Brazil’s borders. Among the most astounding realisations of electroacoustic process ever recorded - a work of shimmering beauty and potential, across its two sides, Oliveira yields works which level the field. A series of sonic stories for voice, and acoustic and electronic instruments - prepared piano, violin, percussion, synthesizers, electric celesta, etc, it the album’s singularity, culture, humanity, and introspection which can not be displaced. Like its composer, Estórias Para Voz, Instrumentos Acústicos e Eletrônicos is Brazilian, and to be be Brazilian, is to be many things at once. It’s works draws on a diverse range of the country’s musics and percussion traditions, as well as Indian raga structures, and Japanese Shomyo singing - inspired in part by the sounds of immigrant communities within Sao Paulo, the city where Oliveira grew up. Across the album’s breadth, electronic music returns home - distilling the entirety of Oliveira’s being, radically diverse culture, and idealism. A work of profound democracy, optimism, and truth - reforming history, and in so doing, placing the future of the avant-garde back into its own hands.

Reissued for the first time since it original release, this marks the return of one of the 20th century’s most important electronic works. Presented with the care and craft for which Blume editions has become known, these are the wonders of art - the towering heights of sounds - the realm where countless possible utopias unfold. The LP comes as a limited edition, in full color cover with a printed inner sleeve housing a Nagaoka anti-static record sleeve, Red colored vinyl and an original insert that functions as Obi as well.

El Trío - 1974 - Todo en su Medida y Armoniosamente

El Trío 

1974

Todo en su Medida y Armoniosamente

01. La Petichita Hace Lo Que Puede
02. Albarraseis
03. ¿Quien Se Llevo A Mi Negra?
04. Todo En Su Medida Y Armoniosamente
05. Contextos Oblicuos
06. Milonga 'N Roll
07. Se Acabo El Recreo
08. Haceme Shaft

Bass – Adalberto Cevasco
Drums, Piano – Pocho Lapouble
Electric Guitar – Ricardo Lew (tracks: A1, A3 to B4)
Percussion – Pocho Lapouble (tracks: A3, B4)
Piano – Adalberto Cevasco (tracks: A2, A4 to B2, B4)
Twelve-String Guitar – Ricardo Lew (tracks: A1, A4, B2, B4)
Vocals – Patricia Clark (4) (tracks: A4, B4)

Mega rare 1974 jazz funk rock album recorded by Argentina’s top jazzmen Pocho Lapouble, Ricardo Lew and Adalberto Cevasco (also members of Quinteplus, Jorge Lopez Ruiz’s band and Gato Barbieri’s group among many others).

Includes the irresistible fast-paced funk rock track ‘Se Acabó el Recreo’ and the ethereal ‘Todo en Su Medida y Armoniosamente’ and ‘Haceme Shaft’, featuring Patricia Clark on vocals and unexpected moog arrangements.

Highly inventive, and primarily instrumental, guitar trio with fuzzy electric and some well placed acoustic bits. The two tracks with female vocals are the highlights, and add to the jazzy psych allure of the material.

I'm going to step away from the El Reloj reference, but despite that, last night's listen resulted in a +1 experience. The album is very unusual in its construct. It's jazz rock but very inventive. The label tries hard to claim it's jazz funk, but that's not the case really. It's just their market they're trying to appeal to. For me the highlight is the title track with Patricia Clark's beautiful wordless voice. Guessing she's not a native with that name, but who knows. This track in particular sounds Brazilian and reminds me of the best of Sergio Mendes. The guitarist isn't highly amplified, but he's active as is the rhythm section. B3 is another highlight. I can do without A3, but the rest is splendid. Unfortunately the album is too short coming in at 32 minutes with one 3 minute throwaway. Even still, it's one of a kind and well worth pursuing.

Coke - 1972 - Coke

Coke

1972

Coke

01. Na Na 3:59

02. You Turn Me On 6:07

03. Got To Touch Your Face 2:13

04. Que Seria De Mi 3:10

05. Bun Bun Bun 2:58

06. Bang Bang 3:24

07. Sabor A Mi 3:20

08. Te Amo Mas 3:33

09. Nuestro Amor 2:30

10. Quiero Decirte 3:14

Bass – Ariel Hernández

Drums – Rubén Pérez

Guitar, Leader – Paúl García

Organ – José Rubio

Trumpet – César Godínez, Víctor Rodríguez

Vocals – Peter Fernández

At it’s inception, the bands’ name was not COKE. The original name of the group was “Instant Garage Band.” The name COKE emerged later during a rehearsal session when the original members decided they needed a catchier name. Those founding members were Ariel Hernandez (bass), Paul “Polito” Garcia (guitar), Ruben Perez (drums), Gary (lead vocal), and an Italian fellow by the name of Tony (keyboard) who was sipping a Coca-Cola during rehearsal and said “why don’t we call it COKE.” As they say, the rest is history. From that day on “Instant Garage Band” was COKE – short and sweet.

One of the most recognized local bands in Miami at the time were the Antiques. The Antiques were in high demand for Quinces, Open Houses and private events, but that was about to change. You see, in 1971 a “Battle of the Bands” event took place at Dinner Key Auditorium. Much to everyone’s surprise, including the Antiques, little known COKE played so well that day the crowning Antiques had their work cutout for them.

The Battle of the Bands first prize winner (or winners I should say) turned out to be both COKE and The Antiques. It became a three way tie between COKE, The Antiques and 2 Plus 1 (if I’m not mistaken.) The award ceremony took place at Salon Sophia, and the trophies were presented to the bands by “La Gorda de Oro.” Do you remember “La Gorda de Oro?” She was Mirta Silva, the Puerto Rican singer, composer and television producer who was affectionately known as “La Gorda De Oro”.

That event put COKE on the local map and it set the stage for a recording opportunity that allowed the band to get recognized in other markets like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Puerto Rico. That’s when the Coca-Cola Bottling Company steps in and stops the boys dead on their tracks. In order to protect its brand, the company served them with a legal letter to cease and desist from using the Coke brand as their name. Ouch! This put a dampener on things for sure. By now the band had already established an identity and had carved a niche for itself with its fusion of Latin rock, psychedelia, and funk that was part of the Miami Sound.

In March of 1973, COKE was #14 in Chicago in the Latin Billboards and #12 in Los Angeles (see figure 1 on the right.) They were still climbing the charts and the record promoters had a lot of money at stake, so they replaced the K with Q (COKE to COQE) to stay under the radar of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Two months later in May of ’73, COKE had climbed to #2 in Miami with the Antiques trailing close behind at #4 (see figure 2.) The following month COKE had dropped to # 6 in Miami while the Antiques hit #1 with “Dias Como Hoy” sung by Eddy Diaz.

The demand from the Coca-Cola Bottling Company to cease and desist came the following year in ’74. That very same year, the band officially changed their name to “Opus” upon the release of their second album entitled ‘Opus’ featuring Frankie B (Frank Batista) as lead singer. The album included popular hits such as “Beware”, “Marta” and “Get Yourself Up”. Shortly after, the band recruited saxophonist, Chester Rosas-Guyon. Months later Peter Fernandez joined the Antiques as lead singer and Joe “Tito” Rubio on keyboard and were part of the “Antiques Experience” – the album with the hit song “Cuando Vuelva a tu Lado.”

Marcos Valle - 1983 - Marcos Valle

Marcos Valle

1983

Marcos Valle

01. Estrelar

02. Fogo Do Sol

03. Samba De Verão

04. Para Os Filhos De Abraão

05. Naturalmente

06. Tapa No Real

07. Tapetes, Guardanapos, Cetins

08. Dia D

09. Mais Que Amor

10. Viola Enluarada

Fabiola, Leon Ware, Marcio Lott - backing vocals

Fernando A. De Souza - bass

Picolé - drums

Marcos Valle - electric piano

Claudio Stevenson, Robson Jorge - guitar

Lincoln Olivetti, Marcos Valle - keyboards

Ariovaldo, Peninha - percussion

Eduardo Lages, Lincoln Olivetti - piano

Leo Gandelman, Oberdan Magalhães, Zé Carlos - saxes

Serginho Do Trombone - synthesizer, trumpet

Bidinho, Marcio Montarroyos - trumpet

Marcos Valle’s Marcos Valle is a quintessential example of Brazilian boogie. Valle began writing and recording this record following his return home to Rio in 1980 after an extended furlough in Los Angeles where he met future collaborator and legendary R&B and Soul composer, Leon Ware (whose talents are demonstrated on this album a number of times, namely on linear party tracks like “Dia D,” which he wrote and recorded). The record’s single, opening track “Estrelar,” was successfully marketed as “workout music” by Brazilian record label Som Livre, which contributes to the kitschy allure imposed by the dazzling album cover.

This album is cooling exotic bliss in a sonic form. It flows seamlessly from tracks like “Naturalmente” to “Viola Enluarada” like some hyper-evolved liquid hell-bent on making you relax in ecstasy. Mentally isolate any one slice of this album (e.g. the production, arranging, melody, etc.) and you’ll be hypnotized by shimmering rays of sonic pulchritude. Overall this album is a consistently funky piece of jazz-infused soul that doesn’t compromise its Latin roots, and it definitely invokes the same dancing proclivity attached to those roots. From gliding and skipping bass, to elegant samba standards like “Samba De Verao,” to the warm embrace of a Fender Rhodes, this album is nearly perfect and requires not a single press of the “skip” button…devour in its entirety!

Sometimes you have to judge a record by its cover: »Marcos Valle« by Marcos Valle sets up the juice bar, his footballer haircut sits perfectly. Valle, the curly-haired Brazilian from Rio, grins merrily at the camera: a drink in his hand, which shines so brightly turquoise, that the waves of the Copacabana could have washed right up into the cocktail glass.

Marcos Valle is a Brazilian national hero. The man who, at 79, still looks like Björn Borg has switched from the tennis court to the rock stage in the 80s, has released over 100 albums over the course of 60 years. Whether samba or bossa nova, boogie or funk, muzak heaven or hit song gaiety – Valle has made just about every disco ball spin in his career. To commit to a single record in his discography would be tantamount to taking an all-inclusive holiday without a free buffet. That »Marcos Valle« from 1983, of all things, enjoys cult status nevertheless has its reasons.

The record celebrates life between jet set and jacuzzi, sashaying in linen trousers beneath palm groves, smooching on the beach at sunset and waving adiós to the pool party – all captured on VHS. Which is why you ask yourself the whole time: how close can samba and saudade really get? Marcos Valle’s album, released 40 years ago on the Brasilo label Som Livre and most recently reissued by Mr. Bongo, has bagged summer, sun, beach and swirl, stuffed it in a blender and dumped it onto two sheets of vinyl.

»Marcos Valle« is a vibe that cannot be described, but has to be felt. Sounds patético, but­: what’s the point of writing about the bass line on »Estrelar« without gyrating your pelvis at the same time? Why expound on the billowing Hawaiian shirts on miles of sandy beaches without sipping away at your second caipirinha while listening to »Samba de Verão«? And are you even capable of love if you don’t find yourself lost in togetherness under the Sugarloaf Mountain listening to »Mais Que Amor«?

»If you don’t rise up, you’ll have no place in the sun.« That’s how Valle’s brother Paulo Sérgio poetised it on the glitter-glamour-and-good-mood hit »Estrelar«. Also good: »Bodybuilding, breathing, air in the lungs.« This Pulitzer Prize-worthy poetry is capable of making your Speedos slip into your bum crack. With a little imagination in your holiday paradise, you can even click your tongue to »It has to stretch, it has to bend, it has to fit«. No wonder the TikTok kids are at it today.

And before your loins overheat, the next tutti-frutti mixture is dumped into your system. »Para Os Filhos de Abraão«, the secret masterpiece on the record, crushes ice cubes in four-four time, shakes the bass until it falters and mixes liquid diabetes into a melody that makes you mime the statue of Christ to a falsetto bridge. And because some things should never change, the sound still spins on the turntable with its banana and cherry flavour like it did 40 years ago!

By the way: the fact that Marcos Valle almost beat Marlon Brando up a few years before the release of »Marcos Valle«, because the actor had tried to seduce his girlfriend, is sure to go down well during the next round of speed-dating small talk. Which leaves us enough time in future to gaze out of the window, lost in thought, while thinking about Marcos Valle standing on the balcony of his 4,000-square-metre penthouse, arranging his fruit juices by summer month.

Phirpo Y Sus Caribes - 1972 - Parrilla Caliente

Phirpo Y Sus Caribes

1972

Parrilla Caliente

01. Comencemos (Let's Start)

02. Pa' Los Rumberos

03. Y Esa Pava Que?

04. Do Wah Nanny

05. Oye Como Va

06. Que Pasa En La Oscuridad

07. Micaela

08. Vacaciones De Verano

09. Muchacha Morena (Brown Girl)

10. Mi Moooto

11. Feliz Porque Regreso A Casa

12. Hombre Formal

“Porfi Jiménez”, whose real name was “Porfirio Jiménez Núñez”, was born in 1928 in Hato Mayor del Rey in the “Dominican Republic”. He began his musical training at the early age of 9. After studying at the Municipal Academy of Music he became a member of an orchestra at the radio station “Voz Dominicana”. Its director “Enrico Cabiatti” introduced him to the art of arranging.

Due to the Trujillo dictatorship, he left the country in 1954 and went to “Venezuela”, where the young musician became famous as a trumpeter and played in the most important groups of the time. The quality of his original arrangements opened the doors of the most famous record companies of the time in Venezuela. Porfi also became one of the most outstanding composers and arrangers of those years, rebuilding Cuban “José Pagé’s” Cuban label “Velvet” in Venezuela and working for all the label’s national and international singers.

At the end of the 50’s until the beginning of the 60’s, he worked in orchestras of various TV stations in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. In 1963, Jiménez founded his own orchestra, which became known as one of the most important musical groups in Venezuela throughout Latin America.

In the 70’s, musical transformations resulted from the emergence of new musical styles & rhythms. Porfi Jimenez, as a contemporary artist and passionate jazzman, began to incorporate new musical elements into his songs that distanced him from the prevailing commercial style. This resulted in the album “Parrilla Caliente”, which was released as the band “Phirpo y sus Caribes” and remained the and’s only album. The production, practically unknown, allowed him to experiment and express his artistic creativity, distancing himself from the traditional style of his dance orchestra.

Salsa music and its orchestras lost importance in the 80s and were displaced by new music. However, another Caribbean rhythm filled the gap: the “Merengue”, which triggered an international boom. Porfi also embarked on this path, releasing an album that immediately catapulted him back to fame. It was a period in which he received numerous awards, such as two gold and one platinum disc.

Shortly before his death, on June 9th 2010, Porfi Jiménez managed to realize his lifelong dream: the formation of his jazz big band, with which he performed at numerous festivals in Caracas. With it, he left an important musical legacy, with several original compositions and arrangements of the most prominent names in jazz history. In 2007, Porfi Jiménez was honored by the “United Nations” as one of the most outstanding musicians of the continent.

The original Phirpo Y Sus Caribes ‘Parrilla Caliente’ LP from 1972 looks like something you might find in a charity shop but realistically it will set you back £500!

Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical - 2020 - Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical

Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical

2020

Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical

01. Muévete Mi Amor

02. Vuelo A Saturno

03. Las Oladas

04. Lamento

05. La Minga

06. Mi Querido Ucayali

07. Licenciado

08. Cumbia En Tu Soledad

09. Cumbia Sin Nombre

10. Rojo Lamento

11. Ángel Terrenal

12. Marlenita

13. La Tuctuructia

14. La Danza De Don Lucho

Raúl Llerena Vásquez (vocals, guitar)

Rider Zumba (bass)

Manuel “Paluca” Contreras (timbales)

Rolando “Resortes” Chu (tumbas)

Víctor Rivas (bongos)

Luis Nigro (guitar)

Milio Piña (guitar)

Betto Gaviria (guitar)

If you travel up the Amazon, past the city of Manaus and past the Brasilian/Peruvian border, you will eventually reach the city of Iquitos. It was here that Werner Herzog filmed Fitzcarraldo, the visionary epic of one man’s struggle to drag a ship over a mountain; and it was here, in a city completely cut off from the Peruvian coast, accessible only by air and water, and surrounded by impenetrable forests, that a new, distinctly Amazonian style of Cumbia emerged in the early 1970s.

One of the style’s greatest practitioners is Raúl Llerena Vásquez – known to the world as Ranil – a Peruvian singer, bandleader, record-label entrepreneur and larger-than-life personality who swirled the teeming buzz of the Amazonian jungle, the unstoppable rhythms of Colombian and Ecuatorian dance music, and the psychedelic electricity of guitar-driven rock-and-roll into a knock-out, party-starting concoction. It’s cumbia alright, but you’ve never heard cumbia quite like this before.

Ranil’s music came into being far from Lima, the Peruvian capital, where Cuban-style big band and guitar waltzes vied for popular supremacy. On the distant banks of the Amazon, where Ranil spent the early years of his adulthood working as a schoolteacher, the air was full of the criollo waltzes of his youth, carimbó rhythms from nearby Brasil and crackly broadcasts of cumbia from Colombia picked up on transistor radios.

When Ranil returned to Iquitos after several years teaching in small towns, he assembled a group of musicians and prepared to take the city’s nightlife by storm. His unique blend of galloping rhythms and trebly, reverberant guitar was so successful that he was soon able to take his band to Lima to record their first record at MAG studios, where many of Peru’s most successful psych, rock and salsa bands began their recording careers.

et Ranil had no intention of entering into the indentured servitude that comes with signing one’s life away to a record company. Instead he established Produccions Llerena – possibly the first record label founded in the Peruvian Amazon – which allowed him to maintain complete control over the release and distribution of his music. His fearsome negotiation skills and his insistence on organising his own tours turned him into one of the central figures of the Amazonian music scene.

Although his records were popular throughout the region, Ranil never sought his fortune in the capital, preferring to remain in his hometown of Iquitos where, in recent decades, he has concentrated his considerable energies on his radio and television stations, and become involved with local civic politics. Yet his legacy has continued to grow among those fortunate enough to track down copies of his legendary – and legendarily difficult to find – LPs.

Ranil’s extraordinary output has remained one of the best kept secrets among collectors of cumbia and psychedelic Latin sounds. With the release of Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical it is a secret no longer. Assembled by Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb from original LPs sourced from Ranil himself, this fully-licenced compilation presents 14 tracks – many of which have never seen wide release outside the Amazonian region – by a singular artist at the very height of his considerable powers. Prepare yourself for a guitar groove you won’t soon forget.

This record has been a highly addictive listen for me. It's one that has me walking to the turntable to simply to turn over the disc and play it again....and again...and so on.

It's a compilation of janky Peruvian Cumbia music that centres itself around the needling dual guitars in front of infectious yet somewhat lackadaisical rhythm. There's not too much singing from the man himself, Ranil who ran the label, the band and produced the records and the live shows. According to the liner notes (Analog Africa always provides good reading mat'l to accompany their releases) Ranil never made it big outside of the Amazon and his home base, the city of Iquitos in Northern Peru but that never seemed to bother him much.

Ray And His Court - 1973 - Ray And His Court

Ray And His Court

1973 

Ray And His Court

01. La Señorita Lola

02. Lo Sabia

03. Venimos Acabando

04. El Alacran 2:55

05. La Pena Pa'Goza

06. Cookie Crumbs

07. De Eso Nada Monada

08. Sunny

09. Soul Freedom

Bass Clarinet – Gary Gottfried

Bass Guitar – Jesus Vera

Congas – Miky Vera

Drums – Teddy Williams

Organ, Flute – Ray Fernández

Percussion – Yrelis Lores

Saxophone – Rick Washington

Trumpet – Bob Rodriguez, Timbalito, Martell A. Williams

Ray & his Court are a family of musicians led by composer, arranger, organist and flutist, Ray Hernandez. Hailing from Miami, they were still playing together in the early 2000’s, more than 30 years after they emerged on on the music scene in the mid-70’s!

Heavily influenced by deep funk and Latin music, their psych-tinged creations also incorporated many other kaleidoscopic sound infusions, including soul, calypso, Afro-Cuban and salsa. Fronted by Ray Fernandez, his band included his very talented wife and two sons and proved to be a highly influential group on Miami’s Latin music scene in the late 70’s! What also made them stand out was their versatility; this group could easily shift from Cuban funk to Reggae in a blink. Their instrumentation was also different to the ‘norm’, and where a lot of similar sounds were saxophone-led, this band used a bass clarinet! Instead of bongos, Ray and His Court played with the unique Osi drums from Africa.

Originally released as a single in 1973 on Miami’s Sound Triangle Records (and featuring on their debut album released that same year), Soul Freedom is a heavy-groove instrumental that demonstrates the band’s many diverse influences and instrumentation perfectly. The Afrobeat groove is punctuated by heavy percussion and airy, sun-drenched horns, whilst its sinuous, funk melody kicks out dark, earthy tones on that striking bass clarinet.p

Shadow - 1984 - Sweet Sweet Dreams

Shadow

1984 

Sweet Sweet Dreams

01. Let's Make It Up 6:11

02. Let's Get It Together 6:27

03. Dreaming 7:04

04. Moon Walking 5:47

05. Without Love 4:51

06. Way, Way Out 4:48

07. D'Hardest

Bass – Renold Reid

Drums – Errol Wise

Guitar – Winston Bailey

Keyboards – Skice

When it came out in 1984 the far-out album Sweet Sweet Dreams by Trinidad & Tobago’s Shadow (aka Winston Bailey) was described as “way ahead of its time”. Undeservedly it was panned by critics and, unable to reach markets, disappeared into the dusty record collections of a few music aficionados. Now, more than three decades later that cosmic dance-floor UFO is about to take off again, change all that and set the record straight. Remastered and cut by Frank Meritt at The Carvery the album is truly a masterpiece.

 who is this Shadow behind Sweet Sweet Dreams? Shadow is a man of understated magnitude. A truly enigmatic artist, he first emerged in Trinidad and Tobago during the 1970s, becoming a part of the tapestry of Caribbean music and reinvigorating calypso at the time. Calypso, the indigenous folk music of Trinidad and Tobago, has roots in West African kaiso rhythms, French Creole influences, and the hardships endured by the African slaves brought to Trinbago, whose descendants still use it as a tool for satire, self-expression, and social commentary. Calypso has also given birth to several other music genres, including soca, with its uptempo beats and festival context. Shadow effortlessly moves between both.

Shadow came from a humble but musical family and started writing songs as a youth while tending cattle in the fields. To his family’s initial chagrin he chose calypso over church music but his talent and drive were undeniable. In the early days of his career Shadow’s style was cramped when working with some of the more conservative music arrangers who felt that calypso and soca should fit a mould. But after a while Shadow teamed up with more innovative arrangers, including Arthur “Art”de Coteau, who followed their and Shadow's intuitions resulting in a long line of hits.

“The first time we met for me to arrange his music we had a heated argument on the arrangement for one of his songs; I was theoretically correct but Shadow was musically right. Shadow broke all the traditional musical rules and made his own and that made him a musical giant. He changed the face of Calypso music in 1974 with the release of "Bassman" a tune in which Bass and magnificent horn line took central stage changing Soca music for ever. What Shadow did with his music was to put calypso on the International Dance circuit, giving it a totally different groove. You could take his music and swing it in any direction; Disco, Pop, Calypso, you name it. His music was different from anything that existed before”. - Carl "Beaver" Henderson, one of Trinidad's veteran producers.

This inert creativeness culminated in Sweet Sweet Dreams which was arranged by Shadow and deals with burning and ever-relevant themes like love and the ups and downs of relationships. a surprising fact for someone mainly known for his satirical and political lyrics. It prompted his manager to wonder if Shadow had written the lyrics while in a state of ‘tabanca’ (a word used in Trinidad and Tobago to describe lovesickness).

Sweet Sweet Dreams was recorded at the legendary SHARC studios, located on a hill in Chaguaramas (near Port of Spain) and despite a fantastic sound and monster Soca-boogie tunes like “Lets get it together”, “Lets Make it Up” and “Way, Way Out” the album was a commercial flop, probably due to the fact that it didn’t sound like anything else coming out of Trinidad & Tobago at the time: It fused a range of different rhythms and new sounds, primarily heavy synth riffs.

Shadow took the album’s lack of success in his stride with usual aplomb:

“When I did Sweet Dreams I expect something could happen. But nothing big happen because I have no big market and no distribution and all this thing now. So I just cool myself and move on to another song. I wasn’t doing just one song. I used to always have plenty songs at the one time. And be writing music”.

What Shadow didn’t realise back then was that the proto-electronic cocktail he had mixed in 1984 would only find the recognition it deserved three decades later. Life has swung full circle: Sweet Sweet Dreams has come true and been elevated to holy grail status becoming one of the most sought-after Caribbean disco records in existence. Asked about this turn around Shadow mused “I’m trying to understand that part. A lot of people ask me for it over a few years now. But I never give anybody it. That music wasn’t for then. It’s for now”.

Originally released in 1984. The far-out album by Trinidad and Tobago's Shadow was panned by critics and unable to reach markets, disappearing into the dusty record collections of a few music aficionados. A truly enigmatic artist, Shadow first emerged in Trinidad and Tobago during the 1970s and became a part of the tapestry of Caribbean music, reinvigorating calypso. Calypso, the indigenous folk music of Trinidad and Tobago, led to several other music genres, including soca, which has up-tempo beats and is played in a festival context. Shadow effortlessly moves between both calypso and soca. Coming from a humble but musical family, Shadow started writing songs at a young age while tending cattle in the fields. To his family's initial chagrin, he eventually chose calypso over church music. In the early days of his career, Shadow's style was cramped due to conservative music arrangers who felt that calypso and soca should fit into a mold. But after a while, Shadow teamed up with more innovative arrangers, including Arthur DeCoteau. Shadow's inert creativeness culminated in Sweet Sweet Dreams, which deals with burning and ever-relevant themes like love and the ups-and-downs of relationships - a surprising fact for someone mainly known for his satirical and political lyrics. It prompted his manager to wonder if Shadow had written the lyrics while in a state of "tabanca" (a word used in Trinidad and Tobago to describe lovesickness). Sweet Sweet Dreams was recorded at the legendary SHARC studios, located on a hill in Chaguaramas (near Port of Spain). Sweet Sweet Dreams delivers a fantastic sound with monster soca-boogie tunes, fusing a range of rhythms and new sounds, primarily heavy synth riffs. What Shadow didn't realize was that the proto-electronic cocktail he mixed in 1984 would find the recognition it deserved three decades later. Sweet Sweet Dreams has come true and been elevated to holy-grail status, becoming one of the most sought-after Caribbean disco records in existence.

Gene Lawrence - 1977 - Sunset To Sunrise

Gene Lawrence

1977

Sunset To Sunrise

01. Your Song

02. Sereno Sereno

03. My Cherie Amour

04. Papa Bois

05. After Sunrise

06. Feel Like Making Love

07. Marjorie

08. Men Capitan

Bass – Wayne (Barney) Bonaparte

Drums – Errol Wise

Keyboards – Gregory La Salle, Max, Robert Bailey

Keyboards, Synthesizer – Carl (Beaver) Henderson

Lead Vocals, Guitar, Twelve-String Guitar – Gene Lawrence

Gene Lawrence, is hailed as one of the Caribbean’s most versatile and accomplished musicians, and every musical thread he has woven throughout his illustrious career has turned into gold.

Born in St Vincent, he has the unique pleasure of being a citizen of T&T, St Lucia and St Vincent. Lawrence, who has been married to Katherine Buxo for 51 years, is the father of Barry Lawrence and Jodi Phillips.

Lawrence has fond memories of his childhood in St Vincent and in Trinidad, an experience which endears him to both countries. “I left St Vincent at the age of nine,” said Lawrence this week. “My family owned Brighton & Connery estates up in the country in Georgetown, but we lived in Kingstown. I lived close to a place named Victoria Park where all the major sporting activities on the island took place, like football and cricket so, as a child I enjoyed the things all boys enjoy. When the family migrated to Grenada I attended Presentation College where I wrote GCE.

“Most of my holidays were spent in Trinidad but I came to live in Trinidad around the age of 16. A lot of guys remember me from school holidays and think that I was Trinidadian. I grew up with guys like John Henderson, Syl Dopson, Willy West and John ‘Buddy’ Williams, all good musicians. The steelband and guitar were my big entry into music.” Lawrence recalled playing pan in St Vincent and subsequently adopted the guitar as his instrument of choice.

He said: “When my father went away to fight in World War II, unknown to us, he left behind a guitar which was given to me at the age of ten. At that stage I couldn’t play a guitar but I had a good ear for music. I used to tune bottles, filled with different amounts of water, and played music on them. My musical colleagues and I did a record—Kaiso 1—which was released in Trinidad in 1958. Of the guys that played on that record I am probably the only one alive. It was a super recording and was done upstairs a residence in Woodbrook. The record had only traditional Trinidad calypsoes on it.

A finger-style acoustic guitarist, Lawrence is versed in classical, folk, popular music, calypso and jazz. An original member of Silver Strings Combo, one this country’s foremost musical aggregations, a composer and arranger, Lawrence has also played with the Troubadours and was a pan player in the early days of Silver Stars steel orchestra.

He was also a guitarist in Olive Walke’s La Petite Musicale folk choir for many years.

He recalled: “I was very much involved in Olive Walke’s choir. We made songs like Mangoes and Zingay Tallala which became very popular. Denyse Plummer’s father, Buntin, and myself were the guitarists of Walke’s La Petite Musicale. We did a tremendous number of shows before I went to England to study.”

Lawrence said idleness and the restlessness of youth caused him to eventually go to Britain. He disclosed: “I was on a fast track in Trinidad, partying every night. I worked then at T Geddes Grant and used to find myself falling asleep on the job every day as almost every night I’d be out somewhere liming ‘til morning. I realised I was wasting time so decided to go to London. I didn’t have money then and bought my passage to England by selling my car. I did Building Construction at Hammersmith School of Building and Arts in Shepherd’s Bush, London.”

The late 50s were heady times for Lawrence as he played music in perhaps then the country’s top combo. “Before 1960 we started the very first combo with electric guitars and called it Silver Strings,” recalled Lawrence. “The group’s leader was Kenneth Pinheiro and the band also had Stanley Pinheiro and Dennis Garcia, known as the Elvis Presley of Trinidad. Dennis, who was from Belmont, combed his hair like Elvis, and danced like Elvis. Silver Strings became extremely popular.

“Before the electric guitar and amplification of instruments, which came into focus after the second world war, horn instruments held the spotlight. The electric guitar became something of a new instrument, taking over the lead in a band and pushing horns in the background. Coming fast and furious thereafter were combos like Cassanovas, Group Solo and Esquires. The combos had a new sound and new approach to music. It caused a marriage between combos and the big band sound. A real revolution took place in the music in the late 50s. The big bands had very little vocalists but the combos made vocalists very popular in fetes.”

Saturday Night Sunday Morning, recorded at Semp Studios, was Lawrence’s first solo LP. This disc included a unique version of Rio Mansanare. Lawrence has since done four more LPs, namely Sunset to Sunrise, Special Delivery, Together and Spirit of the Caribbean. There are several original compositions on each album.

Through the years Lawrence has worked with artistic luminaries like Aubrey Adams, Beryl McBernie, Helen Camps, Peter Minshall.

He has done it all, teaming up with Group Solo leader Robert Bailey to produce several shows, including a special performance with opera singer Monica Ortiz Ruck at Queens Hall; opened for the Spanish duo of composer Jose Greco and flamenco dancer Nana Lorca; and toured with Paul Keens Douglas on various occasions. He was the original “singing emcee” for Keens-Douglas annual Talk Tent Theatre for three years, and was a special guest at the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Talk Tent in 2008.

Having done feature performances at the Queens Park Oval in 2003 and 2004, Lawrence has accompanied several popular calypsonians including Mighty Sparrow, Relator, Terror, Gypsy and Bill Trotman.

Overseas, Lawrence formed the Triniana Quintet in England, a popular Caribbean group in London in the 60s. In England, he performed at the West Indian Students’ Centre, Oxford and Cambridge May balls, town halls, and other venues. He also played and entertained the touring West Indies cricket team at the prestigious Waldorf Hotel. Lawrence has appeared on British television, and composed and performed a special calypso for a show called This is Your Life, hosted by Eamonn Andrews, for the late Sir Learie Constantine.

Lawrence’s musical career is one that has to be the envy of many, one rarely accomplished by most. He has toured many Caribbean islands, and performed live and on radio and TV in Barbados, St Vincent, Grenada, St Lucia, St Croix, Martinique and T&T. He also performed for the first and third editions of the Story Telling Festival of the Caribbean, held in Barbados.

While resident in St Lucia, Lawrence has performed at the St Lucia Cultural Centre and other venues for that island’s Folk Research Centre, Cancer Society, Sickle Cell Association, Drug Rehab Centre, the government and numerous hotel venues.

Lawrence has the honour of composing and arranging music and lyrics for St Lucian musical The Hewanorra Story which opened at Pigeon Island Ampitheatre, and was subsequently performed through the year at local theatres. Excerpts of this work were used for the opening of the 1998 St Lucia Jazz Festival. Lawrence said he has done many compositions and arrangements of theatrical works in St Lucia. He said: “I composed and arranged music and lyrics for the plays La Chunga and Mary Could Dance, performance at Eagles Inn through the month of October 2000 and again at Bay Gardens Hotel, St Lucia. I was also presented and was featured in A Man for all Seasons, staged at St Lucia’s Tent Theatre in December 2002. This work was a two-hour long performance of mainly my own compositions. For this work I received the M&C Fine Arts Award for Best Performance 2004.”

In more recent years Lawrence has continued to create and produce excellent music, collaborating with the best in the region. He recalled: “I worked with Derek Walcott in the very early days of the Little Carib Theatre in Trinidad, and more recently in arranging and presenting the music for his play Steel as its musical director; as well as composing and arranging the music for Walcott’s play Odyssey which was performed in Italy and Spain.

“At the Trinidad Jazz Festival in March 2010, I was the featured performer at Jazz on the Greens, along with greats like Ray Holman, Douglas Redon and Michael ‘Ming’ Low Chew Tung. Three years later, I performed for the international Literary Festival (Word Alive) at Samaans Park, St Lucia. Also in 2013, I was the sole musician in the stage performance of Walcott’s Starry Starry Night, staged at Central Bank Auditorium, Port-of-Spain, in November, to sold out audiences.”

Lawrence received the prestigious music award as Honoured Composer in 2013 from St Lucia’s Cultural Development Foundation. His most recent work is the CD Melemelanj, released last month. This disc consists of several original compositions using authentic indigenous Caribbean rhythms.

Musing on the evolution of Caribbean music, Lawrence said: “The music has changed and has become much more technically sound. A lot of the young fellas now have taken the trouble to learn, to read and score the music. They have come to learn the importance of musical notation and putting proper arrangements together.

“Today’s musicians, like Dougie Redon, are much (more) proficient in music than we were back in the old days. This has also happened with the steelband and has made a significant impression on my own music. When you listen some of the intricate arrangements in Panorama are comparable to any classical piece of music you will hear.”

Exciters - 1969 - The Exciters In Stereo

Exciters

1969

The Exciters In Stereo

01. Ojos Verdes (Danzón)

02. Exciters Theme (Soul)

03. Es Amor (Bolero)

04. Nunca En Domingo (Cha Cha Soul)

05. Prisioner Of Love (Soul)

06. Ese Muerto No Lo Cargo Yo (Típico Soul)

07. Yo, Que Nada Tengo (Balada Soul)

08. I Can't Turn You Loose (Soul)

09. Cocktel Español (Balada Soul)

10. Let Your Self Go (Soul)

The Pan-Caribbean workforce brought in to build the Panama Canal shaped the musical culture on the isthmus, and it became a hot-spot for new rhythms. Growing out of the combos nacionales scene, one of the most successful funk and soul groups of 60s and 70s Panama, Los Dinamicos Exciters (later The Exciters) was led by drummer Horacio ‘Ray’ Adams. Legendary in their day, the band were booked solid for years. Their core sound was Latin soul and funk (heavily influenced by James Brown) but they also played boogaloo, calypso and ska. The US Black Power movement struck a chord, especially in the Canal Zone, where Afro-Panamanians had long suffered discrimination. Co-founders of the Instituto Soul, the Exciters were the first to invite an African-American ‘soul queen’ to lead their carnival parade in 1971.

Hailing from Panama, Los Dinamicos Exciters (later known as just The Exciters) created a core sound that was centred around Latin soul and funk, but they also played boogaloo, calypso and ska! Led by drummer Horacio ‘Ray’ Adams, this band gained legendary status in their day and were booked solid for years! They took their what inspired them, blended it with their roots and what came out was a new strain of Latin funk!!

Issuing a handful of 45’s and a few LP’s in the late 1960’s-early 1970’s, today’s instrumental delight can be found on their self-titled debut, which was released in 1969 on Panamanian label, Loyola Records

Not every track on this record is is as heavy on the funk as Exciters Theme (more’s the pity), but it’s a pleasant listen and its definitely worth checking out the rest of their repertoire if you fancy digging out some more gems?

Exciters Theme is definitely a breed apart though, and has such a lovely contrasting softness/crispness between that striking horn melody and those slinky keys. It’s so sleek and silky!

Di Melo - 1975 - Di Melo

Di Melo

1975

Di Melo

01. Kilariô 2:49

02. A Vida Em Seus Métodos Diz Calma 3:45

03. Aceito Tudo 2:58

04. Conformópolis 2:45

05. Má-Lida 3:32

06. Sementes 1:34

07. Pernalonga 2:46

08. Minha Estrela 2:32

09. Se O Mundo Acabasse Em Mel 4:09

10. Alma Gêmea 3:59

11. João 2:28

12. Indecisão 2:00

Acoustic Guitar, Viola Caipira – Heraldo Do Monte

Backing Vocals – Coral Eloá

Bandoneon – Rafael Romero

Drums – Dirceu

Electric Bass – Claudio Bertrami

Keyboards – Luiz Melo

Keyboards, Percussion, Flute – Hermeto Pascoal

Saxophone – Bolão

Synthesizer – Ubirajara

Trumpet – Capitão

One of the holy grails of Brazilian funk - the monster album that is Di Melo’s 1975 debut. The criminally underrecorded Brazilian singer, songwriter, painter and poet released only two 45s and one album in 1975 earning him comparisons to Brazilian household names like Jorge Ben and Tim Maia, but going missing in action straight after put a stop to that, making him the stuff of legends for decades to come.

Word on the street even insisted he was dead until 2011, when a documentary called ‘Di Melo, A Imorrivel’ (‘Di Melo, the Immortal’) was released, followed by a comeback album and a series of collaborations.

‘Kilario’, ‘Vida em Seus Mtodos Diz Calma’ and ‘Permalonga’ are the most obvious entry points to this album, but it wouldn’t be right to reduce this masterpiece to nothing more than a handful of MPB funk bumpers - this is a brilliant work of art from start to finish, Di Melo’s versatility clearly displaying a singular and unrivaled genius.

Di Melo's debut album was originally released in 1975 and it's a fusion of genuinely Brazilian rhythms with Funk, Soul and the right amount of psychedelia. Di Melo is one of the main Brazilian Soul Music artists, seen by many as talented and musically creative as his peers Jorge Ben and Tim Maia. Di Melo went missing in action from 1976 to 1997, the year his song "A Vida em Seus Mtodos Diz Calma" was on the collection "Blue Brazil" from Blue Note record label. The word on the streets was that he was dead until 2011, when the documentary called "Di Melo, o Imorrvel" (Di Melo, the immortal) was released. In this 2021 edition the album contains the original 1975 insert with lyrics plus photos from personal family archives and for the first time the full credits with all the name of every single musician who tookpart,among them, Hermeto Pascoal.

Chelique Sarabia - 1971 - Revolución Electrónica En Música Venezolana

Chelique Sarabia

1971

Revolución Electrónica En Música Venezolana

01. El Pajarillo

02. Maracaibo En La Noche

03. Polo Margariteño

04. Cantos De Mi Tierra

05. El Cumaco De San Juan

06. El Diablo Suelto

07. Polo Coriano

08. Mare-Mare / Por Comer Zopoara / El Pájaro Guarandol

09. Sombra En Los Médanos

10. Barlovento

11. Río Manzanares

12. La Bella Del Tamunangue

Musicians – Alberto Naranjo, Angel Melo, Carlos Morean, Enrique Lira, Frank Hernandez, Jorge Romero, Chelique Sarabia, Joseph Kast, Julián Romero, Luciano Hardy, Oswaldo De La Rosa, Tito Iglesias

In the early 70s, well–known composer and arranger Chelique Sarabia (who penned the famous "Ansiedad" when he was just a kid) decided to register an album of traditional & folkloric songs from Venezuela but giving them a modern touch, using especially developed equipment (M.R.A.A.), based off of the principles of the Moog.

Chelique, helped by a team of gifted musicians, employed traditional instruments like the cuatro and the bandola llanera, filtering them through oscillators, playing with feedback, tape delay, synthesized frequencies, echoing sounds...The result was "Revolución Electrónica en Música Venezolana", an album with a truly exotic, psychedelic, and ahead of its time sound.

Originally, the album was sponsored by the Shell Company in Venezuela, given away to customers, employees and friends of the company as a Christmas gift in 1973. It was titled "4 Fases del Cuatro – Música Venezolana desarrollada Electrónicamente por Chelique Sarabia" ("4 Phases of Four – Venezuelan Music Electronically Developed by Chelique Sarabia"). Once the exclusivity period with the petrol company was over, Chelique did a commercial release, this time under the name of "Revolución Electrónica en Música Venezolana" ("Electronic Revolution in Venezuelan Music"). Thanks to this, Chelique and his team were considered electronic music pioneers in Latin America.

"In the past five decades, there have been many attempts at modernizing the vast folkloric tradition of Venezuela, but nobody has reached the level of depth that CHELIQUE SARABIA did when he put his impeccable reputation as a composer and arranger at risk with this out–of–the–blue revolutionary musical manifesto in 1971.

Bobby Paunetto - 1968 - El sonido moderno

Bobby Paunetto

1968

El sonido moderno 

01.  Aguantando 3:53

02. Mi Flor Tropical 3:44

03. Is It Tasty? 4:08

04. Alfie 2:32

05. Why Is Woody Sad? 3:30

06. Mambo Sevilla 3:25

07. El Senor Sid 4:11

08. Dig It Like It Is 2:51

09. Chinatown 2:52

10. Pero Dime Tu 5:51

Bobby Paunetto: vibes and marimba

John Marrero: piano

Art Ferrero: alto sax

Fernando Oquendo: bass

Tony Centeno: voice, pandereta (tambourine), calabaza

Ray Cruz: timbales

Ray Miranda: timbales on “Mambo Sevilla”

Tommy López: tumbadoras (conga drums)

Jimmy Centeno: trap drums

John “Dandy” Rodríguez: bongoes, cowbell and tumbadora

Henry Zapata: bass on “Mambo Sevilla”

Bobby Vince Paunetto was born in New York on June 22nd, 1944, into a family of Italians and Spanish Catalans who eventually made their home in a middle class section of the Bronx. As children, Bobby and his two older brothers would often listen to their mother sing tangos and watch her dance the lindy hop. When Bobby was but five years old his mother took him along to an audition (she was an aspiring dancer) at the famed Roxy Theatre (demolished in 1960), where he first saw the fancy footwork of Fred Astaire, no doubt getting a first-hand glimpse into the world of American show business. Undoubtedly, it was at this point that the young lad began acquiring a taste for music. In later years, she was also very helpful, writing the Spanish lyrics for his initial recordings. But English was the main language that was spoken at home, and because American radio meant everything to the post-war generation, it exposed Bobby to just about every type of music possible.

Young Bobby was introduced to jazz very early on, when he heard popular DJ “Jocko” Henderson’s radio program on WOV (changed to WADO in 1959). Most likely, it was on one of these shows that he first heard Charlie Parker, an event that changed his life forever. For him, Parker had conquered the speed of light, and would forever be his favorite alto sax man. On the other end of the musical spectrum were those lively Cuban dance rhythms, which had somehow made their way into the lives of Charlie Parker and so many other bebop jazz stars. It was – as pianist René Leyva would often say to me – fusion without confusion. It was Bobby’s older brother Raymond who would ultimately help him to make the connection. Raymond would go dancing at the Palladium and whatever he would pick up from watching the great bands of the day, he would share with his younger brother Bobby. But as fate would have it, it was neither Bird nor the Palladium that would lead him to a career in music. It would be his athletic prowess.

Bobby Paunetto was a natural born athlete. In fact, so athletic was this young man that in 1959 he was awarded and recognized as one of the top young athletes within the New York Public School system. Not long afterward he and some of his fellow basketball team mates were invited by the Police Athletic League to a concert at the Yorkville Casino in upper Manhattan. The year was 1961 and the performing jazz artist at that event was none other than Cal Tjader. One of Bobby’s friends, saxophonist Pat Patrick, introduced him to Cal, and the two immediately hit it off. At the close of the evening, Cal offered Bobby his telephone and address in California. Not much is known as to their conversation, but obviously Bobby had made some points with Cal, because the following year Mr. Tjader released his first Verve album In A Latin Bag (1962). It was for Cal, the culmination of many years of melding two distinct idioms, Jazz and Cuban music. Even today, many folks who are “in the know” have hailed that album as Cal’s crowning achievement. Included in that album was a piece that he (Tjader) had composed in honor of Bobby Paunetto. That tune was “Pauneto’s Point” (Pauneto spelled with only one n).

Mild-mannered Cal Tjader had lit the flame and it was up to Paunetto to carry the torch. Not only did Tjader inspire Bobby to take up the instrument, but it was Cal – along with percussionist Johnny Rae – that also provided him with his first set of vibes. That same year Bobby bought his first piano and started composing his own material.

Sports had by now taken a back seat to his new passion and he submerged himself in all aspects of the music. He studied ardently; theory, composition, orchestration, harmony, and he practiced his instrument up to seven hours a day. It would take him little over a year to become a professional, and as fate would have it – once again – he managed to open up for his friend Cal Tjader in 1963 at the Embassy Ballroom in New York City. Bobby Paunetto was now groovin’ in mambo heaven.

It was August of 1965 and once again fate would intervene; Bobby Paunetto was drafted into the armed forces, serving honorably until 1967. Upon his return to civilian life – and to his beloved New York – Paunetto sought out some of his old cohorts and was soon doing gigs in and around the city. Strangely, he could not help but notice that the old Cuban sound of mambo and cha cha chá had been replaced by a hybrid dance form known as “latin boogaloo”. I won’t go into the who, what, where and why of it, but suffice to say that by 1967 there were boogaloo bands in every borough of the city. The older and more established bandleaders were not at all pleased with this new form, yet they began to include boogaloos in their overall repertoire. Collectively, they knew that as a genre it would eventually have to disappear, so they nonchalantly went along with it.

1967 was the year that pianist Pete Rodríguez released “I Like It Like That”. It was an instant hit and set the bar for the remainder of the decade. Not wishing to be left out of this new money-making pop craze, Bobby Paunetto decide to incorporate the soul-montuno blend into his own format, but instead of just rehashing the same old chord changes and vocal melodies, he dug deep into the jazz idiom, as Cal Tjader himself had already done with his crossover hit “Soul Sauce”. He did not overlook any of these fine points when he began writing the music for El Sonido Moderno. Bobby’s own blend of soul sauce was both tasty (con sabor) and hip (jazzy), yet it produced two adverse effects. First, it resulted in being way too sophisticated for the record buying audience of the day. Top selling artists such as Pete Rodríguez, Johnny Colón and The Lebron Brothers had put special emphasis on raw, uninhibited vocals and a hard driving backbeat (influenced no doubt by that joyous-soul-stirrin’-gospel sound), bolstered of course by a stompin’ party atmosphere. Clave was not totally lost, but it did take a back seat, and all those fancy Palladium style steps were no longer “the thing”. The new audience was a happy let-it-all-hang out crowd, and the hybrid music mirrored that audience. It was a pre-curser to what would later come. It was latin rock in the making, sans the cool jazz element.

Secondly, the lack of promotion that was (not) given to the album was a determining factor in the lack of sales. Spanish language radio was no longer the domain of Alegre, Panart, Seeco, Tico, RCA, Decca, United Artists and Columbia Records. The airwaves in NYC were now being controlled by Cotique and Fania. The radio deejays were now speaking in English and there were new labels popping up left and right. El Sonido Moderno was considered good music by most musicians, but the dancers were not buying it, not in the middle of a dance craze that was sweeping the charts. The next three years would see a few subtle changes, but the truth of the matter was that Latin jazz had begun to wane – but not for long.

It was indeed a fad, a youthful, trendy kind of phase that began winding down around 1969. Traditional Latin American dance forms did prevail and the boogaloo bands started going back to the roots. Arsenio’s classic son montuno and guaguancó combination was now being played again, thanks to Orchestra Harlow, Charlie Palmieri and Johnny Pacheco. The big bands of Tito Rodríguez, Machito and Tito Puente played on with the old stand-by mambos and cha cha chá’s, and despite a large Puerto Rican community, bomba, plena and other genres from that island were still not quite on the horizon – not yet anyway. Within such a huge crucible as New York City, these and other rustic forms would eventually meld to form a new and unique sound. The fruits of what Fernando Ortíz termed transculturation would begin to blossom in the following decades, but not haphazardly. Bobby Paunetto, whose background came from various immigrant groups, was taking notes.

The Dominican civil war that began in 1965 kicked off a cycle of migration from that country into the U.S. and in particular to New York City. As the Dominican community skyrocket during the 70’s the island’s national dance, the merengue, began to see a rise in popularity within the hispanic community in general.

With the passing of several amendments to U.S. Immigration laws, 1965 also saw a large second wave of Colombian immigration into New York City, adding this particular group to the crucible of Latin Americans that were already here. Each subsequent wave of hispanic immigrants would invariably add their unique folkloric elements to the city’s soundscape. The Big Apple was indeed changing, quite rapidly, and musical tastes were beginning to change along with it. Right smack in the middle of all this musical conglomeration was the bebop jazz of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and the afrocubano rhythms of Chano Pozo and Machito. Bobby Paunetto, still taking notes, must have at some point wondered out loud; will this amalgam swallow up the jazz that we loved so dearly? Will the record labels begin to cater exclusively to these new hybrid forms, undermining the rich jazz traditions of Gone City?

Not one to be discouraged, he began to look for alternatives. Armed with letters of recommendation from Latin jazz icons such as Ramón “Mongo” Santamaría, Tito Puente and Cal Tjader himself, plus invaluable financial help from The U.S. Veterans Administration, Bobby Paunetto was accepted into the prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he would be tutored by vibraphonist Gary Burton, among other professors of music. The subsequent years at Berklee would strengthen his musical foundation, broadening not only his musical abilities but his sensitivity to the time tested trinity of melody-harmony-rhythm, adding more texture and depth to his compositions.

Mr. Paunetto graduated from Berklee in 1973 and immediately set out to form his own record label, Pathfinder Records. His brother Raymond would be his partner, and future music legends from his home base, New York City, would be his support team. The synthesis of intellect and emotion displayed in his work would be long remembered by all who were involved, but it would also be forgotten within the world of commercialized music. Such is the legacy of a genius.

“Bobby Paunetto was a truly great artist, a well studied musician with big dreams. He loved Cal Tjader’s music and modeled a sextet after his, adding a saxophone later on to make it a septet. I had the privilege of working with him when we both lived in the Bronx and I even recorded with him a few times. We became very good friends and he would often sit in with me in Tito Puente’s band as a percussionist. He is, in fact, the conga drummer on Tito Puente’s version of “Maria Cervantes”, where I played timbales, Juan “Papi” Cadavieco switched to bongoes and Tito handled the vibes. Bobby was a very talented arranger and composer who focused more on the aesthetics of the music than on the commercial or business aspect. His peers will always remember him as a wonderful human being who loved his art and unfortunately, died much too young.”

– John “Dandy” Rodríguez, percussionist

In later life, health problems did not allow Mr. Paunetto to fully develop as a recording and performing artist, and he stopped performing altogether in 1978. He did however, manage to produce two masterpieces during the years between 1974 and 1976. Joining him in those later sessions were Ed Byrne and Todd Anderson (both fellow alumni from Berklee) and luminaries such as drummer Tom Sala and saxophonists Justo Almario and Bill Drewes. He also brought together some of the best percussionists in the New York City area, among them Gene Golden and Jerry González. Below is a brief review of these classic gems.

Black Sugar - 1974 - Black Sugar II

Black Sugar

1974

Black Sugar II

01. Fuego 5:40

02. Valdez In The Country 4:38

03. Don't You Worry About A Thing 2:51

04. The Dawn Of My Madness 2:33

05. I Want To Believe 3:18

06. Checan 5:10

07. Kathy 4:49

08. All Your Love 3:45

09. Wake Up 3:30

Alto Saxophone, Flute – Pedro Gosicha.

Guitar, Percussion, Vocals – Victor "Coco" Salazar

Drums – José "Arroz" Cruz

Electric Bass – Roberto Valdez

Organ, Piano, Synthesizer [Moog], Percussion – Miguel "Chino" Figueroa

Percussion – Coco Lagos, Miguel Salazar

Tenor Saxophone, Flute – Jorge Chávez

Trombone, Vocals – Luis Calixto

Trumpet, Vocals – Antonio Ginocchio

Vocals – Carlos "Pacho" Mejía

Released in 1974 with a “quadraphonic” sound. Brilliant songs by a cohesive band that knew how to materialize a memorable and original fusion project at an international level.

If Latin funk exists, it’s thanks to pioneering bands like Black Sugar, a Peruvian group created in the early seventies that recorded two fundamental albums for the Afro-American and Latin genre. A pair of albums that are now re-released by the Valencian label Discos Monterey with the usual sound and visual quality to which we are accustomed. The roots of this band come from the Far-Fen (syllables for Farfisa and Fender), formed in the late sixties by guitarist Víctor “Coco” Salazar and Miguel “Chino” Figueroa on keyboards. One night they were spontaneously joined by the sensational voice of Carlos “Pacho” Mejía. In the seventies, in the Peruvian capital there was a shortage of “white” sugar and the darker cane sugar was consumed. Hence the group’s name. Peru was in the midst of a dictatorship and the military were against music that did not come from Peruvian folklore. Rock and roll with foreign roots languished due to the imposition of the established power, and Black Sugar emerged, whose main skill was to mix, with enormous passion and fascinating ability, Latin sounds and the funk that came from the United States.

The result is two memorable albums, with a large part of their own songs and most of them composed by Pacho. The first, with an eponymous title, was released in 1971 by Sono Radio, whose musical director Jaime Delgado Aparicio was in charge of the fiery arrangements with generous brass and energetic percussion. Released with the credits in English, they managed to break into the Top Ten of the Miami charts with the song “Too Late”. They even received an offer to record their next album in the United States, but decided to stay in their country. That second album was released in 1974 with a “quadraphonic” sound, taking advantage of the label’s magnificent studios. From the mid-seventies onwards the desertions began and it would not be until 2010 that the project would be recovered with some historical and younger musicians.

To listen to Black Sugar is to go back to the Peruvian night of the seventies with fiery music, full of sensuality and rhythm. Brilliant songs by a cohesive band that knew how to materialize a memorable fusion project, very original and at an international level. Two unique albums reissued by Monterey that will delight all lovers of Afro-Latin sounds and good music in general.