Cal Tjader, Paul Horn and the 1959 Monterey Jazz Festival [From the Archives]

 © -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

For many years, newspaper columnist Ralph J. Gleason [San Francisco Chronicle], radio disc jockey and impresario Jimmy Lyons, newspaper columnist Philip Elwood [San Francisco Examiner] and Jazz educator and writer Grover Sales, provided a running commentary on the San Francisco Jazz scene.

All were particularly devoted to those musicians who based themselves in that lovely city with special emphasis on Dave Brubeck [even after he left to take up residence in Wilton, CT], Cal Tjader and Vince Guaraldi.

And all were very proud of their association with the Monterey Jazz Festival, which Jimmy Lyons and Ralph co-founded in 1958 and which has been held at the Monterey County Fairgrounds on the third weekend in September for much of its storied existence.

Today, Jazz Festivals are so universal that it is difficult to remember how novel they were when first established at Newport, RI and Monterey, CA in the 1950s.

The standard Jazz environment of the time, aside from occasional forays into philharmonic halls and auditoriums, was usually a nightclub in the seedier part of town. Booze and blues went hand-in-hand.

I was fortunate to be able attend both the Newport and the Monterey Jazz Festivals quite early in their existence.

As you would imagine, Cal Tjader the San Francisco-based vibraphonist and percussionist made numerous appearances at the Monterey Jazz Festival where he received a kind of “local-boy-makes-good” welcome from the fans.

I particularly enjoyed Cal’s appearance at the 1959 MJF because he added flutist and reedman Paul Horn to his standard quartet and also brought along conguero Mongo Santamaria. Like Cal and pianist Lonnie Hewitt, Paul was a great straight-ahead player and his flute lent an added “voice” [dimension] to the Latin Jazz numbers.

Here’s a more detailed look at Cal Tjader’s Monterey Concert [Prestige PR 24026], one of the earliest recordings associated with the Monterey Jazz Festival which as Phil Elwood explains was not actually recorded at the MJF, but which had a lot to do with ensuring the success of later festivals.

By way of background, “Phil Elwood blazed a trail with his jazz shows on FM radio, primarily KPFA in Berkeley, from 1952 to 1996 and was a respected critic for the San Francisco Examiner from 1965 to 2002. He died of heart failure on January 10, 2006, just two months shy of his 80th birthday.” [S. Duncan Reid, Cal Tjader: The Life and Recordings of The Man Who Revolutionized Latin Jazz, p.43].

© -  Concord Music Group; used with permission; copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“The Monterey Festivals have been a basic annual part of the jazz scene for so many years that it isn't easy to recall that way back in 1958 they got off to a rocky, money-losing start. Then came this [April 20, 1959] "preview" concert by Tjader prior to the '59 Festival; it was hugely successful, and another permanent jazz institution was launched! This package presents the concert in its entirety.

Standing still as an artist in a readily defined field is a lot easier than to shift, drift, and change one's image. Look around pop music and jazz—there are plenty of petrified performers still going through the same old thing for their same stagnant audience.

In popular music of all kinds categorization and definition have long been tools of dedicated enthusiasts as well as casual fans and the musicians themselves. Terms like the "swing era", "traditional jazz", and "cool", and the artists identified with such classifications, are assumed in jazz studies.

But when a boat-rocking jazzman like Cal Tjader comes along, all kinds of established attitudes are jumbled. Cal's music has never remained stationary long enough to be permanently defined—or to have petrified.

It's best termed just Tjader jazz.

Back in the 1948-1951 period when Callen Tjader, Jr., was teamed with pianist David Brubeck he might have been identifiable as a jazz drummer. But even then, Cal was doubling on vibraharp and coming up with some highly individualistic rhythmic material, both in the Brubeck trio and in the experimental Octet in which Brubeck, Tjader, Bill Smith, Paul Desmond and others participated.

Tjader recorded in 1949 with a full drum set, plus bongos, and conga. Yet in 1953 he was quoted as saying, "I am not an innovator, I am not a pathfinder—I am a participator."

That, of course, was a ridiculously (though typically) modest comment. What

Tjader really should have admitted was that he has remarkably good ears, and instrumental talent to make use of what he hears. When he is a "participator" it means that he is playing, and Tjader's playing for 25 years has been opening up his listeners' ears to all kinds of new musical worlds.

When Tjader made that remark, in '53, he was exactly at the point in his career that Latin music was becoming his dominant expression. He had joined George Shearing's quintet, where he stayed for 18 months, and was discovering all kinds of Latin music cul de sacs around the nation (which Shearing toured regularly), especially in the East Coast cities.

Interestingly enough it was during the same period that Shearing, too, made a noticeable shift into Latin material, and, like Tjader, explored the possibilities for harmonic and melodic adventure that Latin music could provide.

The prime source for both Shearing's and Tjader's Latin-kicks was the giant string bassist, Al McKibbon, who was playing with Shearing at the time and is with Tjader on the two 1959 concert LPs in this set.

There was little in the stiff and self-conscious rhythms of most 1950 "bop" that had the swing and freedom that Latin rhythms offered. And whereas the jazz of the '50s moved increasingly away from the dance scene (and thus, that "participation" that Tjader finds so important), the Latin music world assumes dance-participation.

Tjader and McKibbon toured the Spanish Harlem music scene whenever the Shearing band got near New York, and the more he heard, the more Tjader liked.

The work of Machito and Tito Puente especially intrigued him. And, typically, he plunged into this "new" musical world with energy, persistence . . . and participation.

Tjader, McKibbon and guitarist Toots Thielemans (who doubled on harmonica) developed some fantastic rhythmic patterns within the Shearing group and contributed immeasurably toward Shearing's own emergence as an "Afro-Cuban" jazz interpreter.

While around New York in 1954 Tjader recorded his first Latin-jazz sides, for Fantasy, including conga performer Armando Peraza in the personnel;  in that same March week, in '54, Tjader also recorded a number of jazz and pop standards, using Peraza and/or Roy Haynes or Kenny Clarke as percussionist. He was already making his musical category rather difficult to identify.

When Tjader left Shearing and returned to his San Francisco Bay Area home (a house boat at that point), Tjader's future musical direction was discernible. Before the end of 1954 he had hired pianist Manuel Durand and his brother Carlos, on string bass, as well as conga performer Benny Velarde and bongoist Edgar Resales (all from the S.F. Latin music community) and was appearing as "Cal Tjader and his Modern Mambo Quintet."

Within a year or two Tjader's name was well known in California and his earliest Fantasy "Mambo-jazz" records were spreading the word, and sounds, nationally.

Some people were even beginning to pronounce his name correctly.

An eastern tour in 1956 was something less than spectacular but it did get Tjader into Manhattan, where his mambo jazz was booked opposite Dizzy Gillespie's big band for a couple of weeks at Birdland. And Tjader also laid the groundwork for future New York engagements for his combo in various Spanish Harlem dance halls.

"None of the country was ready for Latin-jazz", Tjader commented, recalling that tour, "except parts of California and the big eastern cities."

Returning to the San Francisco area late in 1956, Tjader established some kind of a record by producing nearly two dozen Fantasy LPs in a four year period, and identifying himself nationally as the leader in Latin-jazz expression.

In the midst of that awesome four year output the Monterey Jazz Festival's managing director, Jimmy Lyons, brought Tjader's group to Carmel's Sunset school auditorium on April 20, 1959, to give what was called a "Jazz Festival Preview." Actually the performance was designed to get some local interest going for the big September event (the first Monterey Jazz Festival, the fall before, had suffered financially) and also to work out some concert-production difficulties with the same crew that would handle the Festival.

The complete concert from that April night in '59 comprises the music of this pair of Prestige discs.

That period at the end of the 1950s was a particularly important one for the larger jazz scene—from which Cal Tjader can also not be separated. Jazz festivals were burgeoning jazz clubs were in greater abundance than at any other time (before or since) and, although none of us was quite sure of it, the end of the most significant of all jazz eras was not far off. Basic blues-rock rhythms in pop music were arriving fast, ready to capture the public's fancy and swamp the free-blown sounds of the 1960's avant garde "jazz".

Cal Tjader has always been frank in his observations and thoroughly professional in his attitudes toward music and in structuring his presentations. Looking over the selections from the 1959 Monterey peninsula performance one is struck by their variety.

A handful of ballads—mellow, standard, material. Tjader loves pretty music—over the years I cannot think of a musician friend who gets more turned-on by the beauty of some popular ballads.

On the concert he also included three bop-oriented themes ("Doxie", "Midnight", "Tunisia"), a couple of swinging originals and some Latin-inspired specialties.

This is the Tjader approach and it is the reason for his continuing popularity, regardless of the current rages in pop or jazz or "free music". Tjader plays his mallets off, and tries to provide some kind of musical stimulation for everyone in any audience.

At the Monterey Jazz Festival, for instance, no artist has played more often nor been so successful. And there are plenty of San Francisco area nightclub owners who are quick to acknowledge that Tjader draws larger and more enthusiastic audiences year in and year out than do most of the "big name guys that we import from the east", as one put it to me recently.

Tjader's life has always been in musical performance, a fact that no doubt accounts for his consuming interest in all aspects of his art— and in his awareness of the broad variety of taste likely to be represented in any audience.

When you start in as a four year old vaudeville tap dancer (as Cal did) and four decades later you're still out there performing before a crowd, a certain dedication is obvious.

And this absorption in his musical craft has meant, naturally, that all manner of instrumentalists have been Tjader colleagues over the years.

Mongo Santamaria and Willie Bobo, with Cal on these LPs from Monterey, had underground Latin-popularity prior to their associations with Tjader. But their widespread fame came with Tjader, who was usually cast in the role of a dual catalyst.

He introduced Santamaria and Bobo (and many other Latin musicians) to a jazz-oriented audience and the Latin musicians, in turn, brought many of their followers into jazz surroundings and introduced that phase of American music to their ears.

What has been happening in "Latin-rock" with such groups as Santana or Malo (not surprisingly, both San Francisco bands )is a continuation of what Cal Tjader has been doing since the early 1950s.

And note that on these concert recordings the flute and alto sax of Paul Horn are featured —an extra, added attraction for the performance. Horn's flute brings some of the melodic beauty that Tjader so loves into the presentation, and his alto helps to shift the sound, occasionally, closer to the Brubeck-style combo jazz that Tjader also presents with integrity.

There are few instrumentalists whose careers have been broader in scope than Horn —the last time I saw him he was soloing behind Donovan, and he is abundantly evident on rock, pop and soul recordings.

Horn is, of course, only a single example of the astonishing breadth and depth typified by the Tjader colleagues over the years.

By never being static, even in the size of the groups, Tjader has given himself as well as his audiences the opportunity to absorb the whole spectrum of musical sound. I guess that's what he means when he says he's just a "participant".

I'm glad I've been a participant in his participation all these years. When Cal's playing there is always something worth hearing.”

—Philip E wood, S.F. Examiner

The following video features Cal and Paul Horn along with Lonnie Hewitt on piano, Al McKibbon on bass, Willie Bobo on timbales and Mongo Santa Maria on conga drums performing A Night In Tunisia.

Cal Tjader - The 1957 Downbeat Interview

© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Lately, I’ve been on a vibraphonist and percussionist Cal Tjader “jag” - [for those who may not be aware, the “T” is silent in his last name and it's pronounced “Jader”].

The dictionary definition of “jag” that I am referring to is “to be completely unrestrained” in the sense of listening to all the music I can lay my hands on regarding certain artists and checking the Jazz literature to see what I can find to form a piece about him/her that I can put up on my page - these include insert notes.

Here’s one of the earliest features in the Jazz literature on Cal in which he discusses his approach to Jazz and how it developed. It took place a few years after he took on  the leadership of his own quintet following stints with Dave Brubeck and George Shearing,

The interview was published in the September 5, 1957 edition of Downbeat by John Tynan who its West Coast editor.

“So far as Cal Tjader is concerned he hopes “they never take Jazz out of the saloons.”

Not that he overindulges. But he doesn't believe the same mood and unfettered spirit for the music can prevail in a more formal environment.

"Not too long ago," explained the 32-year-old Missourian, "the quintet played a couple of weeks in the Los Angeles Jazz Concert hall. Now this was a formal, concert-type presentation of jazz. But you know something? I wouldn't care for it as a steady diet. It just wouldn't make it for me. You get a little lazy, and the groove isn't there when you play to an audience of sitters and listeners. Of course, I do want people to listen to us—but relaxed, not too deliberate. In a club, the audience and the band can let their hair down."

ONE POSSIBLE reason Tjader places so much stock in a thoroughly relaxed audience could be that his group plays a lot of dances, principally in the Los Angeles area, in Spanish-speaking communities.

"I like people to dance to the Latin stuff," he said emphatically. "At one of our dances in the Sombrero ballroom, for example, you can play a montuna, and everybody is responsive to it. Of course, in clubs you have to gear it more to the listener; but to me this is much more rewarding than playing to row-upon-row of concert listeners.

"And when you feel that you can just play to a dancing audience, there's an emotional kick - the pressure's off. It gives me a real boot when one of the dancers will come to the stand and say with real sincerity, 'Ey, I sure like your progressive mambo, man.’” Tjader's fresh face brightened in one of his frequent grins.

Leader of his own quintet for the last 3 ½  years, since he left the George Shearing group early in 1954, the vibist-drummer was born Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. in St. Louis, Mo., 1925.

COMING FROM A musical show business family (his father was a dancer with the Duncan Sisters, playing the Orpheum vaudeville circuit when Cal was born; his mother a student concert pianist), it was a small surprise that at 2 Cal already was a piano pupil of his mother. This was in 1927 when the family moved to San Mateo, Calif., where his parents opened a dance studio.

After an introduction to drums in high school, Cal joined the navy in 1943. Upon discharge three years later, he enrolled in San Francisco State college, majoring in music and education. Latching onto an old set of vibes, he began teaching himself to play the instrument and was shortly sitting in with local groups around the bay area.

In 1948, while still a student, Tjader met Dave Brubeck, who then was studying at Mills college. With bassist Ron Crotty, he joined Brubeck to form the original trio led by the piano man.

Three years later, in 1951, he left to form his own quartet in San Francisco.

In 1953, Cal disbanded to join Shearing on vibes.

"One of the chief compensations of being with Shearing," he said, "was that back east I got to hear a lot of Machito, Tito Puente, and Noro Morales. 

Those bands had a tremendous effect on me. Immediately I wanted to reorganize a small combo along the same lines, only with more jazz feeling incorporated in the Latin format."

THE FRUITION OF this desire was in the formation of his first so-called mambo quintet in 1954. A booking at San Francisco's Macumba got the group off to a good start.

In addition to its six-month stint at the club, the first albums on Fantasy quickly established the quintet as a new unit to be reckoned with in concerts and clubs on the west coast. Today, according to Fantasy's Sol Weiss, Tjader is the label's biggest seller. In 1955, after a nationwide tour, Cal won new star laurels in Down Beat's Jazz Critics poll for his performance on vibes.

In June,1956,he radically reorganized his "mambo quintet." In effect, this entailed his dropping the mambo tag and placing the emphasis on jazz appeal.

It took about a month before he crystallized a new concept for the group; when he began taking bookings again, it was a predominantly jazz quintet that hit the road.

THE PRIMARY REASON for this change, according to Tjader, is that "Latin has its definite limitations, especially from the standpoint of improvisation. It's like a hypnotic groove. First you set the rhythmic pattern, then the melodic formulae follow — until pretty soon you realize there's not much real music invention happening.

"See, the Latin percussionist's conception of time is very straight, rigid," he elaborated. "It's not really loose like it has to be for jazz. That's why there's nothing more of a drag than having Latin percussionists sit in with a jazz group. Generally they seem to lack that loose, free rhythmic way of blowing. But on the other hand, you can take a jazz number like Bernie's Tune, for instance, and adapt it to Latin treatment, still preserving the flavor of both styles of music."

These days, Cal is not so much concerned with preserving Jazz feeling within a Latin context as he is with blowing straight Jazz in an identifying manner. 

As collaborators to this end, he can count on Vince Guaraldi, former Woody Herman piano man; Eugene Wright, bassist who played with many varieties of groups from Count Basie to Sarah Vaughan; and his steady versatile drummer, Al Torre. Then, to widen the appeal of every set, Latin percussionist Louis Kant contributes to several numbers in the Ritmo Caliente vein.

On the subject of an identifying sound, Cal is a stickler. “If you can get a real sound of your own, it’s half the battle,” he insists. “In fact, I believe a group sound is more important to make a band go over than the individual improvising talents of its members.”

“Of course, I realize that most groups starting out today will have to sound like some other existing units. This can’t be helped, but it doesn’t mean they still can’t play worthwhile Jazz.”

“It takes time to evolve a sound of your own. Look at the Modern Jazz Quartet: they were working for perhaps three years before they caught on and really got their identifying sound. For us the Latin thing worked. But there’s no law that says we had to stick to it. I think we’ve proved by now that we can make it with straight Jazz.”

With his breakthrough into chi chi haunt [stylish setting] of Hollywoodiana, Ciro’s on the Sunset Strip, Cal sees no reason why the quintet shouldn’t play similar rooms throughout the nation. As he views it, it boils down to living up to your responsibilities to an audience.

“You don’t necessarily have to be smiling all the time,” he explains. “You’re trying to sell Jazz right? Then you have to have a responsible presentation.The MJQ appeals admirably there. They’ve got a freedom in their individual playing, but as a group they’re disciplined. This is the most important thing, I believe.”

The vibist drummer, a well-scrubbed Joe-College type in a searsucker, has much to say regarding Jazz rooms. While a lot of this is unprintable, much of it is praise for happy rooms that are conducive to playing.

He rates San Francisco’s Blackhawk as one of these. Another of these he considers as an ideal room is Zucca’s Cottage in Pasadena, CA. 

“One more thing,” he added emphatically. In every contract that a band signs when it takes a club engagement, there should be a specific clause that the piano should be tuned to A440 [440 Hz, which serves as a tuning standard for the musical note of A above middle C].”

“Well,” he said with a wistful smile, “club owners being what they are, maybe that’s a lot to expect.”

11/24/2023 Record Day - Forthcoming Releases - Cal Tjader "Catch the Groove"

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

In the September 1965 issue of Jazz magazine, Herb Wong queried Tjader on many topics, …. Near the end of the profile, Tjader revealed that the performance level of his band fluctuated. This was due in large part to how they felt about a given venue. He expressed affection for the defunct Blackhawk [San Francisco] and designated the Lighthouse, the Penthouse in Seattle, the Rubiot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and El Matador [San Francisco] as "warm clubs." All of the owners went out of their way to create a comfortable atmosphere for the musicians. "I really dig El Matador," he said. "The group likes to come to work there and the audience really comes to listen. Even the waiters seem to dig the whole thing. The feeling and tone of El Matador somehow puts the artist and the audience into instant rapport." 

S. Duncan Reid, Cal Tjader: The Life and Recordings of the Man Who Revolutionized Latin Jazz

“Cal Tjader made great music. He played beautifully. I have to say, for me, Cal Tjader was the world's greatest vibes player. God only made one vibes player that great to play that pretty and that beautifully. I'm not saying he was the world's greatest vibes player because he played fast. No, Cal didn't play fast. He played very simply, very plainly. He played flowing melodic lines, but complex ones, too. He was melodic. Simple and complex and with a beautiful touch on the vibes. He played like Count Basie. Basie never overplayed. Neither did Cal.

I was 24 when I joined the Cal Tjader band in 1975. We were playing at the Coconut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel. That was a big step up for me, a local musician around Los Angeles playing with local bands, weddings, American-Legion gigs, VFW halls and like that. Then to play with Cal Tjader. That was another level.

Cal was a complete gentleman, a sweetheart, a very nice man. Before our first show, he told me which songs I should know and those I should learn. But I knew a lot of them already being such a big fan of his from childhood with my brothers' and sisters' records, plus Cal had Fantasy Records send me about a dozen albums. He told me which songs we would probably play the next week. A week later I was playing with him. He knew I didn't read music, but he told me, "Just catch the groove man. I know you can do it."”

• Poncho Sanchez, conguero, bandleader

The forthcoming Record Store Day on “Black Friday” November 24, 2023 is a day to celebrate new releases, especially those involving the resurgent interest in vinyl editions with CDs of these albums generally following a few weeks later.

It seems that the Black Friday” Jazz releases often focus on what are termed today as “iconic Jazz masters,” a phrase I fear would be a source of great embarrassment for the artists in question if they were still with us.

Having had direct contact with some of the Jazz artists so designated and read or listened to interviews with many others, I think their humility and civility would have a problem with being lauded with such appellations.

I’ve been the fortunate recipient of preview copies of new Jazz recordings by some of these accomplished Jazz legends to be released on the upcoming Record Store day and I thought it might be fun to share the information on the media releases which accompanied them to make you aware of what could be the cause of a lessening balance in your bank account come November 24th!

From Ann Braithwaite/Braithwaite & Katz Communications

PRODUCER ZEV FELDMAN'S IMPRINT, JAZZ DETECTIVE, LAUNCHES NEVER BEFORE RELEASED CAL TJADER LIVE SETS RECORDED IN THE 1960s AT THE PENTHOUSE JAZZ CLUB IN SEATTLE

THIS IS THE FIRST OFFICIAL RELEASE OF PREVIOUSLY UNISSUED LIVE CAL TJADER MUSIC IN NEARLY 20 YEARS!

Transferred from the original tape reels and mastered for vinyl by Bernie Grundman, Cal Tjader: Catch The Groove - Live at the Penthouse 1963-1967 is presented as a 180-gram vinyl limited edition 3-LP SET and will also be available as a Deluxe 2-CD set and as a digital download.

LP Release Date: November 24th CD Release Date: December 1st

The deluxe package includes reflections by producer Zev Feldman and Brent Fischer (son of pianist Clare Fischer), liner notes by DJ and music journalist Greg Casseus, as well as interviews with Poncho Sanchez, Eddie Palmieri, Joe Locke, Gary Burton, Carl Burnett, and a statement by Tjader's son and daughter Rob and Liz Tjader.

The extensive booklet contains previously unpublished photos by Ray Avery and Fred Seligo.

All of the performances heard on this set are previously unreleased. 

Vibraphone legend Cal Tjader is heard with a variety of quintets, backed by pianists Clare Fischer, Lonnie Hewitt and Al Zulaica, bassists Fred Schreiber, Terry Hilliard, Monk Montgomery and Stan Gilbert, drummers Johnny Rae and Carl Burnett, and percussionists Bill Fitch and Armando Peraza.

CATCH THE GROOVE

LIVE AT THE PENTHOUSE 1963-1967

Taking its name from Feldman's handle "the Jazz Detective" and reflecting his determined work unearthing hitherto unheard, award-winning treasures, the Jazz Detective label is an imprint of Deep Digs Music Group, a partnership with Spain's Elemental Music, with which Feldman has enjoyed a long professional relationship.

Feldman says, "It's been a great thrill to be on this journey bringing these spectacular recordings of Tjader's performances at the Penthouse to the world. It's been a project several years in the making. I've had the good fortune of working with Charlie Puzzo, Jr., son of Penthouse founder, Charlie Puzzo, Sr., and the original recording engineer and radio host Jim Wilke, to produce this joyful collection of music for release. It's just wonderful music, a little bittersweet because Cal Tjader is today, truly an underappreciated jazz giant. To me, it's sad that Cal Tjader's stature seems to have diminished since his death in 1982, even though in his day, he appealed to and reached an enormous audience. And a wide audience, comprising both young and old."

"This is a treasure trove from a great Pacific Northwest jazz club, which Cal and his sidemen regarded as one of their favorite venues in the country. And it is our hope that the superlative playing heard within this package will contribute to the large-scale reassessment that Cal Tjaderhas long richly deserved." GREG CASSEUS

"On behalf of my brother, Rob, and myself, Elizabeth Tjader, we offer our sincere gratitude to Zev Feldman for releasing this outstanding collection of previously unheard recordings from Cat Tjader live at the Penthouse Jazz Club in Seattle. The audio quality of these recordings is phenomenal. It's as if we're transported back to the Penthouse Jazz Club itself, seated a few feet from the stage where the synergy between the audience, our dad and the band members becomes virtually palpable." ROB and LIZ TJADER

"I felt that Cal made a unique and important contribution to vibes history. Although he was an unlikely guy to do it, he played a significant role in blending jazz and Latin music. I say unlikely because he didn't come from a Latin background. But he really brought together some of the most important musicians of that genre and became very popular in a field that most jazz people never knew about." GARY BURTON

"Cal was a wonderful person. That's why we hit it off. We were both conscientious of what we were doing. We were both artists with our own orchestras. He loved what he did, and I loved what I did. We bonded together and it was a wonderful bond." EDDIE PALMIERI

"Cal Tjader made great music. He played beautifully. I have to say, for me, Cal Tjader was the world's greatest vibes player." ARMANDO PERAZA

Here and There with Cal Tjader by Mark Holston

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

On paper, Cal Tjader (1925-1982) seemed unlikely to achieve considerable success in Afro-Latin jazz. On disc, however, it was another story. The Swedish-American drummer-turned-vibist came a long way from St. Louis, his hometown, to bring a cool. West Coast sensibility to los ritmos calientes of Latin music. Tjader always hired the best players and discerningly mixed standards, Latin grooves, jazz tunes, and melodic contemporary pop. This was certainly the case on these 1976-77 performances, almost half of them recorded live. The dates also served as a reunion between Tjader and the superb pianist Clare Fischer who, like the leader, was (and is) an Anglo with a complete understanding of the push and pull of Latin styles.

Tracks 1-6 were originally issued as Guarabe [Fantasy 9533] and the remaining tracks, with the exception of Gary’s Tune not included due to reasons of space limitations on the disc, were released on Here [Galaxy 5121].

There are a lot of lessons to be learned and insights to be gleaned from the following sleeve notes by Mark Holston to Cal Tjader: Here and There not the least of which is how misleading cultural stereotypes can be when it comes to those musicians who perform Latin Jazz.

And Mark is “right-on-the-mark” when it comes to identifying the elements that made Cal Tjader one of the most successful, artistically and commercially, musicians to ever play Latin Jazz, not the least of which is to keep things simple and work with the best musicians available.

Another thing to listen for is how, as the author Ted Gioia has observed, Cal doesn’t overplay the vibes; he let’s them breathe. The instrument almost becomes a horn in his hands.

Happily and thanks to an early interest in the music in large part sparked by Cal Tjader, Mark Holston today writes about Latin Jazz for Jazziz, Americas, NY Latino, Hispanic, arid Latina Style magazines.

© Copyright ® Mark Holston/Concord Music Group, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“It would  have been easy to brush off the request for an interview from a neophyte Jazz journalist, but that wasn't Cal's style. Instead, he probably sacrificed much-needed rest to meet me in the lobby of his Edmonton, Alberta hotel to spend an amiable half hour indulging me in my pursuit of information about two favorite subjects, Cal Tjader and Latin jazz.

After all, in 1981 jazz journalism in the U.S. was virtually dominated by Down Beat, a magazine that had in recent years stretched the definition of jazz to the breaking point by lavishing coverage on blues, rock, and even country music personalities — just about everybody, it seemed, but Cal Tjader. JazzTimes was a struggling newcomer to the scene and Jazziz had yet to be conceived. Publications like New York Latino and Latin Beat, today's champions of the Latin jazz movement, wouldn't emerge for over a decade. Cal, just like his music, was way ahead of his time.

So, it wasn't surprising a month or so later, after having submitted a proposal to Down Beat to consider a Tjader piece, to open a letter from the editor and find the terse reply: "Cal Tjader is not in our plans at this time."

One can imagine an editorial staffer sniffing, "Not cutting-edge enough." Another may have added, "After all, Latin jazz really isn't to be taken seriously, is it?" And, Tjader's career had been tainted by that most fatal of sins: he was far too popular. Yeah, Cal always appealed more to the fans than the critics.

But back to our brief interview, conducted right after he had been paired with conga player Mongo Santamaria and his band for a performance at Edmonton's annual International Jazz Festival. Seeing Cal and Mongo reunited more than two decades after their historic late 1950s association underscored what made the vibraphonist so unique: he was easily the most successful non-Latino musician to perform the style, but he never crossed the line and tried to "go Latin." Just as Mongo struggled with English, Cal spoke his few words of Spanish with a bad tourist accent. He moved a bit stiffly on stage, probably wishing his body would just surrender to the hypnotic Afro-Cuban beat and get it over with, but remaining until the end a hostage of his thoroughly Anglo, Midwestern upbringing.

To his credit, Cal never went native. The crew cut, horn-rimmed glasses, conservative attire, and low-key demeanor all seemed to reinforce the simple fact that, when it came to the music he loved, Cal Tjader was one serious cat.

His stories about discovering the Latin scene in the Fifties, and beginning the transition from sideman for such mainstream jazz stalwarts as Dave Brubeck and George Shearing to unparalleled success as a Latin jazz bandleader, were still related with a certain sense of awe. It's entirely likely that during any given performance over the years, Cal caught himself thinking, "Wow, is this really happening to me?"

And his knowledge of Latin music, although undoubtedly encyclopedic, could be boiled down to a few simple pointers. "Keep it basic," he said, when asked about the rhythmic aspect of his style. "The first thing I learned when I started to hang around the Latin guys is just how easy it is to mess things up, to lose the groove. Everything has to be in its proper place, in harmony with what all of the other rhythm players are doing." Sounds simple, but few leaders—including some major-league Latin musicians—have managed to consistently produce the smooth blend of jazz improvisation and authentic Afro-Cuban rhythms with which Cal became synonymous.

The second and equally important part of the Tjader formula can be found in his choice of musicians. From famous names to new kids on the block, Cal had a knack for finding and employing marvelously talented musicians who would readily set egos aside for the collective good, for achieving that patented Tjader sound.

The 11 tracks on Here and There present Cal in the company of two exemplary, long-serving associates, keyboardist Clare Fischer and conguero Poncho Sanchez.

Fischer, an influential early pioneer in both Latin jazz and Brazilian bossa nova movements, was one of Tjader's longest serving and most simpstico pianists. He remains active in both genres to this day, leading a popular Latin jazz ensemble and writing arrangements for none other than bossa guru Joao Gilberto.

Sanchez, whose seven-year tenure with Cal more than prepared him for a career as a leader, has been propelled in recent years to the very front ranks of Latin jazz stardom. A devoted Tjaderite, Poncho's current album, Soul Sauce, is a tribute to his mentor, the latest in a recent spate of recordings by such artists as vibraphonist Victor Mendoza and the Estrada Brothers that have effectively evoked the Tjader touchstone.

Representing all but one cut from two mid-Seventies albums, Guarabe and Here, the collection captures the Tjader sound at the peak of its small-group-format evolution. Sans the horn section and soloists that shaped his earliest forays into the Latin jazz, these sessions, with long-form arrangements, focused more attention on the improvisational talents of Cal and Fischer and less on the typical structure common in many more routine Latin jazz dates.

The album also reminds us of Cal's legendary good taste and love of songs with strong melodic interest. "Where Is Love," given a tender bolero treatment, is a case in point. "This Masquerade," the Leon Russell hit that made George Benson a pop superstar, was recorded just months after the guitarist hit platinum with it. Bob Redfield delivers some of Benson's Wes Montgomery-derived flair and offers another insight into Tjader's genius. His ear was quick to recognize worthy material when he heard it, whether it sprang from the pop music realm or the most obscure Latin American sources. Also, his use of a guitarist provided an element all but unused in Latin jazz but highly effective in this small-group setting. Always respectful of tradition, Cal never hesitated to break the mold if it resulted in more compelling performances.

Highlights abound on Here and There. "Reza," a rousing Afro-Brazilian theme from the Sixties, is invigorated in its translation to the Afro-Cuban idiom. "Black Orchid," a lovely Tjader original that taps a lush exotic mood, features Cal on marimba and radiates the flavor of Latin jazz a new generation of fans today considers to be the essence of hipness. "Tu Crees Clue," a Mongo Santamaria tune, ignites memories of Cal's heady early days as a Latin jazz trailblazer. "Liz-Anne," a charming jazz waltz inspired by Cal's daughter, reveals the full, elegant range of his vastly underrated abilities as a soloist. "Morning," the Clare Fischer standard, and the beguiling "Here" emerge as quintessential Tjaderesque takes.

If Cal were alive today — he passed away in 1982 — he would undoubtedly be overjoyed at the growth and current popularity of Latin jazz, the recognition of the style by the Grammy Awards, and the continued success of such former colleagues as Clare Fischer, Poncho Sanchez, and a host of others.

The innumerable contributions he made over the years, symbolized by the level of enthusiasm and artistry displayed on Here and There, all but guaranteed the style's longevity and contagious popular appeal. There's no doubt that Cal Tjader's timeless music will delight fans new and old for many years to come.”

- Mark Holston,  1996