August 24th Soul Spectrum Radio Show

Or, download the whole show here.

Takin' it to the Air Waves: Soul Spectrum is now on KZSU Radio

Apologies for my absence. I knew that as soon as I had a baby something would lose out on the zero-sum game that is my life and it turns out the unlucky extracurricular that got the axe was the blog. But, as life changes and evolves, new opportunities emerge . . .

My day job at Stanford University has facilitated my entry into the world of college/independent radio at KZSU 90.1 FM Stanford. Starting earlier this summer I scored a regular radio spot for my show "Soul Spectrum". Currently, the show is on Wednesdays from Noon-1pm PST and if it ever changes time slots, I'll be sure to update you here.

Starting right about now I'm going to post my radio shows to the blog so that you can check them out and hear what's been floating my musical ark as of lately. If you're in the Bay Area, you might be able to get our signal at 90.1 FM or you can always stream the show live using this link.

With that, here's the last show I did with special guest DJ Ricky Pang from July 20th.

You can see the playlist for this and all of my shows here.



Or download the show here.

Kicking Funk Loops from Here to Cal Tjader

They don't make 'em like Cal Tjader any more. As a band leader he had a very straight forward vision: make interesting music that audiences could relate to. He did this for more than three straight decades, releasing dozens of albums on many record labels. He worked with many different bands with members such as Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, Vince Guaraldi, Al McKibbon, Pete Escovedo, Coke Escovedo, Clare Fischer, Poncho Sanchez, Lonnie Hewitt, Armando Peraza, Tito Puente, Stan Getz, Carmen McCrae, Airto, Joao Donato, Lalo Schifrin, George Duke, Charlie Byrd, Eddie Palmieri and many more. Paraphrasing Cal's biographer (book due out in a couple years), musicians liked to play with Cal because he would give great sidemen the spotlight to shine, something that Cal's East Coast colleague Tito Puente would never do and resultingly Mongo and Willie jumped ship for Cal's cool latin band in the late 50s.

Cal's an unlikely source for hip-hop samples with his white-bread collegiate look and chunky glasses, but a quick survey of hip-hop classics will show you that Tjader had a knack from creating interesting sounds that made for great moody samples (Midnight Marauders interlude music, for instance). Just ask Pete Rock:

“It’s coming soon, so chill and don’t stress the creator/ I’ll kick funk loops from here to Cal Tjader…" (from the Pete Rock and CL Smooth song “In the Flesh,” from their “Main Ingredient” album).

This blog has a great two-part mix with Tjader originals interspersed with songs that sampled him, many of them rare instrumental versions.

I've been working on my Tjader collection since moving to the Bay Area and have nearly completed the 1965-1975 era, which is probably my favorite as it sees Tjader trying to stay hip and relevant and doing a pretty damn good job. The early sixties saw him switch from the Bay Area-founded Fantasy Records to the more nationally-focused Verve Records where he scored his biggest hit, "Soul Sauce". His mid-sixties Verve albums range from soft ballads to funky latin fusion and are all excellent listens. In the late 60s he founded Skye records with like-minded musical oddballs: Gabor Szabo and Gary McFarland and released three albums: Solar Heat, Sounds Out Burt Bacharach and Plus In. A recently released session from those years "Latin + Jazz = Cal Tjader" is particularly revelatory in that it represented, according to Tjader's biographer, Cal's preferred live repertoire: a couple ballads mixed in with some mid-tempo Latin-Jazz numbers.

When Skype folded after a couple years Cal went back to Fantasy and put out his funikiest and hardest-hitting Latin albums, in my opinion: Agua Dulce (1971), Tjader (1971), Last Bolero in Berkeley (1973) and Primo (1973). The seventies also saw him focus a lot on recording live, with great results, on Live at the Funky Quarters (1972), Puttin' It Together (1974), At Grace Cathedral (1975) and Here (1977). As you can see from the tracklist below, some of the best versions of his most loved songs can be found on these live albums. All in all, I don't think Cal ever made a bad album, nor did he fully sell-out in a commercial sense - there's no such thing as a Cal Tjader disco album and you can't say that for most jazz musicians that survived the 70s. I've assembled some of my favorite "Tjader Tjams" from the period 1964-1974 for your enjoyment. Eventually, I hope to get around to putting together the ying to this yang, "Tjader Tjems", the mellow companion to this Latin groovathon. Tjam On!



















The Ambassador Presents Cal Tjader - Tjader Tjams
1. Moneypenny Goes for Broke, from: Sounds Out Burt Bacharach
2. Souled Out, from: The Prophet
3. Armando's Guajira (live), from: Latin + Jazz = Cal Tjader (CD only)
4. Soul Sauce (Guachi Guaro), from: Soul Sauce
5. Cubano Chant (live), from: Live at the Funky Quarters
6. Fried Bananas, from: Solar Heat
7. La Murga Pana Mena, from: Primo
8. Amazonas (live), from: Puttin' It Together
9. Agua Dulce (Cool-Ade), from: Agua Dulce
10. Mambero, from: Tjader
11. Ran Kan Kan, from: Agua Dulce
12. Solar Heat, from: Solar Heat
13. Leyte (live), from: Live at the Funky Quarters
14. Gimme Shelter, from: Agua Dulce
15. I Showed Them, from: Tjader
16. Walk on By, from: Sounds Out Burt Bacharach
17. Never My Love, from: Solar Heat
18. Never Can Say Goodbye, from: Last Bolero in Berkeley
19. Morning, from: Agua Dulce
20. Curtain Call, from: Last Bolero in Berkeley

A Friend's Selling this Killer Painting SALSA LATIN FANIA

Click here to view the painting on eBay

My buddy needs to sell the painting and I'd like to see that he gets a good price for it seeing as he'd prefer not to sell it at all.

Here's some info from the listing on eBay:

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to own a unique original (and very beautiful) painting by Island Records UK in-house artist Tony Wright used for a UK-only release by the Fania All-Stars on Island Records in 1975.

The gorgeous 16" square painting depicts a 70s Spanish Harlem barrio street scene, complete with bodegas, tenement buildings and ghetto residents including the obligatory conguero with a big 'fro playing on a stoop in front of a building!

Bay Area Peeps: Wonderfull - This Saturday @ Mezzanine with DJ Spinna & Bobbito and more

I've been meaning to get to one of these Wonderfull events since I first heard about it years ago back in NYC and for some stupid reason I just have never been able to make it, but this time I'm gonna break the curse and get my ass down to Mezzanine this weekend. And in honor of that I have some of my favorite Stevie Maravilha (his Brazilian nickname) deep cuts and cover tunes for your listening pleasure. Also, check out P-R-O-P-S radio for a killer set of Wonderfullness. Not much on commentary here and no albums covers (too many songs here and it's busy here at work), so just hit play on the yahoo media player and Stevie and friends take you on a trip through music of Stevie's mind . . .

Stevie Wonder - Christmas Greeting
Couldn't pass this one up given the time of year. I want a whole album of keyboard based Christmas funk from 'Lil Drummer Stevie.

Stevie Wonder - Love a Go-Go
This is one of the first album track/deep cuts that I sought out and as a result was even further inspired by the breadth and depth of Stevie's genius. I think this was big in the UK/Norther Soul thang . . .


Syreeta - I Love Everything About You
Possibly my favorite Stevie version ever . . . and all-time favorite song. period. when I first got this album I listened to this one track on repeat for two days straight. seriously.

Tamiko Jones - Creepin'
Who woulda thought you could fuck with Stevie & Minnie dueting on the original version? I'm not saying it's better, but its damn good!

Ray Charles - Living For the City
The most recent Steviania acquisition . . . so dope. Nobody (aside from Stevie) does Fender Rhodes so nasty and raw as "The Genius".

Ellen McIlwaine - Higher Ground
By far those most left-field cut here . . . you can't deny Ms. McIlwaine's mastery of this song. The way she does it, you can imagine that she wrote it. For me, this speaks to the universality of Stevie's tunes.

Main Ingredient - Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing
Main Ingredient have a long history of doing Stevie tunes, but this has got to be my favorite.

Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered (Live)
A somewhat rare early-seventies live recording from an Jazz/R&B festival from 1974. I posted the whole album awhile back, but have since taken the songs down.

Sister Sledge - As
I can't say this holds a flame to the original, but it's such a great song that I could tolerate some less than perfect cover versions. This one is from the Sisters Sledge right before their Chic-produced breakout album. This one was recorded in Germany with the masterminds behind Silver Convention, Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay.

Laso - Another Star
Here we have a latin instrumental take on another Songs in the Key of Life classic. Laso was a Joe Bataan side project that sounds very much like an MFSB or Vince Montana release from the same time. New York Latin Disco, Yeah!

The Gary Byrd Experience - The Crown (Instrumental)
I feel a bit like a racist posting the instrumental version of this song and by default ommitting the social-conscious lyrics of Prof. Gary Byrd, but honestly his rap sucks and the best part about this song is the "Good Times"-esque bass line and Stevie's one verse about 1/2 way in. He just kills it!

Stevie Wonder - All I Do
Thanks to my brother Charlie for hipping me to this tune early on. I honestly thought Stevie was done with Songs in the Key of Life until I heard this joint. This is some superb soulful mid-tempo disco. I forgot to bring it, but I also love the previously unreleased version of Syreeta doing this tune from back in the late 60s in a straight-up Motown cookie-cutter formula (and I don't mean that in a bad way) cause it sounds like a totally different song in that style, tempo and from a female perspective.

Stevie Wonder - Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away
My favorite sleeper Stevie track from Fullfillingness First Finale. This is the kind of religious music I can get down to.

Argentinian Fire From Egle Martin

I picked up this rare 7" single in Curitiba, Brazil back in 2004 at a record store run by a very nice dude named Julio. I was buying a fair bit of stuff so he just sorta threw it in as a bonus and because it was a Uruguayan (turns out its an Argentinian record - I could be wrong again but it would appear that Egle's from Argentina, but the band is from Uruguay - correct me if you know differently) record he wasn't even sure what it was worth. It's since become a favorite of mine and a few friends I've shared it with.

But then last night I dropped it in my set at Dalva (word up, Toph One) and it became the clear runaway hit of the night. I'll be scanning the cover and uploading for all to see, but here are the two tracks, both great, but the intro to the first one is so dramatic and jazzy . . . then the smokin' latin beat drops!

Egle Martin - Dombe BariloEgle Martin - El Dombe

There's an Argentine pressing here on eBay.
This is what that eBay seller had to say about the record:
Egle Martin (a.k.a. La Negra) was sorta like La Lupe from the south of the southern hemisphere. She was deeply involved into the Afro-Latin American culture, and especially the underground Uruguayan and Brazilian scene (experiencing the Bossa and Candomble, often with her Brazilian friends, Maysa and Luiz Eca, among others, and skilled Uruguayan musicians). The Dombe was a rhythm inspired by the afro-Uruguayan Candomble, of her own creation, which also mixes American Funk, Boogaloo and Latin Jazz. Dombe Barilo is a KILLER track in its own right, with those fantastic bongo drums, brass sections, horn arrangements, funky bass-n-drums, plus Egle's vibrant manner of singing, with some lush and intense scat vocal in parts. El Dombe, is the track which gives its name to the rhythm, and is equally good. Both tracks have cool lyrics, and they mainly refer to the dance, and this rhythm.

R.I.P. Joe Cuba - From Radio Rios

Check out a personal and touching tribute to the King of Spanish Harlem, Joe Cuba, from Soul Spectrum contributer Radio Rios.

Different Strokes From Familiar Folks

Once a band or an artist has found a style that they're successful in, they generally stick pretty closely to that formula. They might dabble in different genres, but mostly their style will transcend these flitting aesthetic deviations. The following songs are some examples of pretty familiar artists doing some distinctly different sounding songs, so much so that at first listen you might be astonished to think that THAT band could sound like THIS?

The Turtles - Buzzsaw
The Laurel Canyon staples of the pop-rock scene (everyone knows their ubiquitous "Happy Together" hit) do their best Booker T. & the M.G.s on their finest album, "Battle of the Bands". Check out a post next door at Weed, Whites & Wine for another song from this same album.

Mick Fleetwood & the Superbrains Group - Superbrains
The patriarch of the Mac from 1981 and his first solo outing. He recorded the entire album in Ghana with a handful of anglo players and a rotating set of Ghanaian musicians and groups. The songs on the album range from bluesy-rock to straight-up afrobeat. This song was written and performed by the group Superbrains with just Mick and his bassist sitting in. I love the haunting echo-laden guitar part that runs through this tune.

Michael Nesmith & the First National Band
So I finally got this, Nesmith's second solo album with the First National Band, and when I flipped the record to the first song on side two, I was floored. That spooky kalimba-sounding intro is ripe for sampling and then he starts singing in nasally, white-bread country-inflected Spanish! A weird song, but definitely worth checking out. Nesmith keeps me guessing. Check out the lengthy post I did on WW&W if you like what you hear here.

Nina Simone - Baltimore
Nina does reggae? Yep, and damn well. And its a Randy Newman tune. What a weird combo, but it sounds as natural as peanut butter and jelly. The only tip off that it's 70s CTI jazz is the string arrangement. Arranger David Matthews of James Brown fame is responsible for the production.

Bill Wyman - Si Si (Je Suis Un Rockstar)
This has been my jam for awhile. Many thanks to Josh Nice for hooking me up with this one. Yes, this is THE Bill Wyman that played bass for the Stones FOREVER. A weird song, but trust me, upon repeat listen this will be a new fav!

Oh and for something unrelated, but equally strange, check this out over on Waxidermy and be sure to read all of the comments.

Tjader Tjams

I'm not gonna spend a lot of time waxing poetic about these set of 1970s Cl Tjader recordings on Fantasy. I've been really working on filling out my Tjader discography as of late and when going through all of his albums, I'm really drawn to this period of his work. After the Skye record label that he founded in partnership with Gary McFarland and Gabor Szabo, he returned to his original record company, Fantasy. I feel like this blog post is a aural response to the wikipedia entry for Tjader that subtitles his 1970s output as the "Lean Years." His early seventies Fantasy output is consistently excellent with his top notch band really stretching out into longer cuts with electric piano, stellar percussion work and some well chosen cover tunes from a wide range of sources, including Tito Puente, The Rolling Stones, Donovan, Joao Donato, as well as revisiting some of his older recordings in this funkier format.

Cal Tjader - Ran Kan Kan
A great take on a classic Tito Puente jam. We already listened to two tracks from this album on a previous Soul Spectrum post.






Cal Tjader - Mambero
This album might just be my favorite Tjader album. He does to awesome Donovan covers (who would have thought?) and this smoking latin jam. I usually avoid anything with a reference to "Mambo", but this track is a monster!

Cal Tjader - La Murga Panameña
A killer take on the Willie Colon classic from around the same time. And while I don't have the album jacket with me now to check, this album features some arrangements or production from none other than Tito Puente. The whole album finds Tjader really embracing the burgeoning New York Salsa sound, and keep in mind this album came out close to the birth of this scene in 1970.

Cal Tjader - Manteca (Live)
Tjader recorded no fewer than three live albums during this period, this being the first. On this cut he reinterprets an older tune of his and really stretches out with his band. Al Zulaica on electric piano, as he is one many of these albums.

Cal Tjader - Never Can Say Goodbye
On this album it seems as if Tjader is trying his best to match the sound and feel of the contemporary CTI recordings. He features a fuller band with guitar, strings and some poppy tunes. This album does sound a bit "lighter" than the others from the same "lean years" era, but I find the arrangements and song selections to be tasteful and really fun to listen to.

Cal Tjader - Amazonas (Live)
I couldn't post Tjader without a nod to his sometimes bandmate, friend and collaborator, João Donato. This is Tjader's extended take on the Donato classic.

Top 4 favorite things about moving to SF:

1. Mexican Food
2. Availability & Affordability of Produce*
3. Aguas Frescas

I can't get enough of the delicious juices that you can get at virtually every Mexican joint in town, be they cantelope, watermelon, strawberry or whatever. So refreshing! I try to kid myself that they're not loaded with sugar, because the presence of actual fruit chunks makes me wanna believe that they're 100% natural and 100% good for you. For the reason that will soon become obvious to you, Agua de Fresca made me think of my #4 favorite thing about SF . . .

4. Cal Tjader (he called the Bay Area home for most of his life)

And with that I give you two songs from his fantastic early seventies album on Fantasy, called "Agua Dulce"

Cal Tjader - Agua Dulce (Cool-Aid)
Cal Tjader - Gimme Shelter








* edible, medicinal, etc

Sunday Strumming

Sorry, for the delay in posting. Life's been a bit hectic as of late, but I'm back home now and have a string of posts lined up that I hope to get online this week. Today we're gonna start with some recent acquisitions: Gabor Szabo & Luiz Bonfá. I'd also like to highlight some excellent independent record stores from whence I purchased these two items for very reasonable prices. I picked up the Bonfá at a shop in Hampden, a neighborhood of Baltimore, MD on a trip down to those parts earlier this week. The shop is called "The True Vine" and I suggest you pop in next time you pass through the Mid-Atlantic region. When I was there they had lots of new stock lined up on the floor. The condition of the records varied but the prices were very reasonable with lots of items going for three bucks (including the long sought-after Dave Pike album "Bossa Nova Carnival" from 1962 where he covers only João Donato tunes!)

The Gabor Szabo record I picked up at "Eat Records" in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The shop's been open for a few years now and sadly this was only my third time in there. They recently renovated and added more seating as it also doubles as a cafe. I was able to drink a beer while rummaging through their racks! The prices are about the best you can find for an actual store in New York City. The owner that I met is very nice and helpful, though they're working on organization as it can be difficult to find something if you're looking for a particular artist or album. Now on to the tunes . . .


Luiz Bonfá - Amazonas
I've been a fan of Bonfá since my early Bossa Nova obsession but lately I've been passing on his records because he's got so many albums and fast and furious guitar is just not really my thing. I picked this one up because it was an early collaboration with Eumir Deodato on arrangements. It was Bonfá who brought Deodato to the U.S. to do arrangements for his wife's, Maria Toledo, first U.S. release on Dot Records. So, Bonfá was an early champion of Deodato's and used him for arrangements on several later 60s sessions as well as on his sole funky album "Jacaranda"(thanks Loronix!). This is a short and sweet little track that I first thought was his take on the classic João Donato tune, but it's a Bonfá original with a nice little percussion break-down in the middle.

Gabor Szabo - Somewhere I Belong
This Gabor Szabo album is one of the few he did on Skye Records, a label he co-owned with Gary McFarland and Cal Tjader - what a chill record exec. lounge that must have been - that lasted only a few years as McFarland died all of a sudden (there's a nice article about him in a recent Wax Poetics). The album has lots of pop covers that are alright, but as soon as I dropped the needle on this last cut from the second side, I had to listen to the whole song right there. If this hasn't been sampled, then some producer out there needs to hop to it . . . so dark and moody and those drums have a really nice echo to them.

That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be: Unusual Covers

I am almost completely out of my old house. I have one more car-load to pick up after work today and then I'm done! Well, done except for all of the unpacking, sorting and dumping of shit that won't fit into the smaller apartment I've moved in to. I was trying to think of some songs that had to do with moving and moving in with a girlfriend/partner/whatever. The first one that came to mind was Lou Bond's cover of the Carly Simon song "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be." Now, Lou Bond is an interesting character. Cosmo over at Cosmo's Crates recently posted Lou's 1974 album (his only LP), but I've been digging this album since 2002 when my friend Hugh in London sent me a tape with Lou Bond on one side and Dennis Wilson's "Pacific Ocean Blue" on the other. I had asked for the Dennis Wilson album, but it was Lou who I kept returning to.

Thinking I was on to some deep shit here I insisted to my then girlfriend that the song "That's the way . . ." was a Lou Bond original, but she persisted that she recognized it from somewhere. I was wrong. Carly Simon wrote it for her debut album and it was a top ten hit. I can be forgiven cause I didn't listen to the radio back in 1971. The song is a bold one for a male soul singer, but Lou was not your average soul singer; he was sensitive. The song is a powerful one that describes the expectations and pitfalls of adult love and romance. First it gives a portrait of the singer's parents in their unhappy marriage and then the singer begins to speculate about his/her own future and how it could be or should be and then it ends in a more triumphant, optimistic tone.

I am moving in with my girlfriend, but we are not about to have kids (that I know of), so the autobiography only goes so far. Here's Lou Bond with:

"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be"





And here are a couple of other interesting cover tunes:

Cal Tjader's take on the Stones' "Gimme Shelter"




Patato & Totico's latin-percussion version of Jorge Ben(jor)'s "Mas Que Nada"