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The
photo shows Cal in the years before his
death on May 5, 1982. I had met him much
earlier. In fact, if I had never seen Cal
Tjader perform at New York City's Birdland
in 1956, I might never have gone into the
percussion business.
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The
photo shows Cal in the years before his death
on May 5, 1982. I had met him much earlier. In
fact, if I had never seen Cal Tjader perform at
New York City's Birdland in 1956, I might never
have gone into the percussion business.
I
stumbled on this club quite by accident, with
no idea of what jazz was, let along Latin jazz!
From the instant I heard Cal's music, I was hooked.
I bought the album " Mas Ritmo Caliente,"
and that solidified my love for Latin music.
Born
July 16, 1925, in St. Louis, Missouri, Cal Tjader
was originally a drummer and played with George
Shearing. He came to prominence, however, as a
vibraphonist. I remember Mongo Santamaria accompanying
him on congas at the "Village Gate"
in 1961. I never heard anything as exciting in
my life! My career was beginning to take shape--even
if I didn't realize it at the time.
Cal
Tjader had studied music in San Francisco and
had come up through the ranks with Dave Brubeck,
Alvino Rey, Willie Bobo, Vince Guaraldi, and Mongo
Santamaria. His discography is enormous and includes
close to one hundred albums as leader and many
as "sideman"--with the likes of Duke
Ellington, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Rosemary Clooney,
Tania Maria, Anita O'Day, and Carmen McRae. As
a songwriter, his work appears on albums by Poncho
Sanchez, Bobby Shew, Clare Fischer, Jerry Gonzales,
and Stan Getz.
In
1963 Creed Taylor signed him with Verve, and Tjader
worked with Klaus Ogermann and other producers
to create some of the hippest albums of the 1960s.
His single of "Soul Sauce" ("Guachi
Guara") briefly entered the Top Forty charts.
Although
Tjader was often slammed by jazz critics for pandering
to popular tastes, he was well-respected among
the Latin musicians with whom he worked, including
Candido,
Armando
Peraza, Eddie
Palmieri, and Tito
Puente. In his later years, he came to be
recognized as one of the fathers of acid jazz.
His concord album "La Onda Va Bien"
won a Grammy award in 1979.
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