In the 1950s, many top New York jazz musicians found additional work playing in top Latin bands. The mambo and cha-cha-cha were in full swing, and the demand for live bands was high, especially in the smaller clubs in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. The jazz players were top sight-readers, which was a big plus.
So bands led by Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriquez employed players such as Al Cohn, Eddie Bert, Doc Cheatham, Herbie Mann and many others to fill out their sections. Little by little, swing rubbed off on the Latin players and Latin rhythms rubbed off on the jazz players.
One of the best albums to feature this synergy was Machito's Kenya: Afro-Cuban Jazz. Recorded in December 1957 for Roulette, the LP featured some of the best jazz and Latin players in town.
I first came across this album while working at Sam Goody's in 1975. Harry Lim turned me on to it. Back then, Tico had picked up the album and renamed it Machito and His Orchestra: Latin Soul Plus Jazz. One of my favorite tracks on the LP is Conversation, written and arranged by A.K. Salim, a fascinating orchestrator. I'll post about him soon.
Conversation featured Joe Newman (tp,solo); "Doc" Cheatham, Francis Williams, Joe Livramento, Paquito Davila and Paul Cohen (tp); Bart Varsalona and Eddie Bert (tb); Cannonball Adderley (as); Jose Madera and Ray Santos (ts); Leslie Johnakins (bs); Rene Hernandez (p); Roberto Rodriguez (b); Candido Camero and Carlos "Patato" Valdes (congas); Uba Nieto (timbales); Jose Mangual (bongos); and Nilo Siera and Pedro Boulong (perc).
Here's Machito and an all-star Latin-jazz band playing Conversation...
Other Perfection tracks in this ongoing series...
- Paul Desmond and Jim Hall: Any Other Time, go here.
- John Coltrane: You Say You Care, go here.
- Quincy Jones: Funk Junction, go here.
- Art Farmer's Work of Art, go here.
- Miles Davis: A Gal in Calico, go here.
- Gene Krupa: Mulligan Stew, go here.
- Dave Brubeck: The Duke, go here.
- Horace Silver: The Back Beat, go here.
- Horace Parlan: Up & Down, go here.
- Dexter Gordon: Society Red, go here.
- Barney Kessel: You Go to My Head, go here.
- Count Basie: Corner Pocket, go here.
- Herbie Mann: Manteca, go here.
- Donald Byrd: Bronze Dance, go here.
- George Shearing: I'll Be Around, go here.
- Ammons & Stitt: You Talk That Talk, go here.
- Count Basie: Blues in My Heart, go here.
- Moonlight in Vermont, go here.
- Johnny Griffin / Matthew Gee, Here, go here.
- Jimmy Smith / Stanely Turrentine: When I'I Grow Too Old to Dream, go here.
- Chet Baker: Estate, go here.
- Jazz Studio 1: Tenderly, go here.
- Herb Pomeroy: Down Home Outing, go here.
- Frank Sinatra: There's a Small Hotel, go here.
- Bill Harris Herd: Blackstrap, go here.
- Gerry Mulligan: Westwood Walk, go here.
- Red Garland and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis: We'll Be Together Again, go here.
- Bill Evans: Reflections in D, go here.
- Ted McNabb & Co.: Mountain Greenery, go here.
- Maynard Ferguson: Fox Hunt, go here.
- Serge Chaloff & the Herdsmen: The Most!, go here.
- Maynard Ferguson: Starfire, go here.
- Urbie Green, Please, go here.
