Cal Tjader Agua Dulce

One of the most successful, most recorded and most influential jazz players of his time, Cal Tjader is these days a largely overlooked figure in the music’s history. Part of the cause of his lack of recognition is present in the reasons he was so successful. Tjader made no great leaps forward harmonically or rhythmically, but instead showed how jazz and Afro-Cuban music could blend together with the vibraphone as the lead instrument, its percussiveness working very well in that musical context. In doing so, he was followed by many others, his commercial success affording him the opportunity to record a great number of albums.

Cal Tjader - Descarga (1995) {Fantasy ‎FCD-24737-2 rec 1971-1972}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 412 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 188 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 1971-72, 1995 Fantasy ‎Records | FCD-24737-2
Jazz / Latin Jazz / Afro-Cuban Jazz / Cool / Vibes

Descarga is a merger of two albums recorded near the beginning of the '70s – the fascinating studio session Aqua Dulce and the self-explanatory Live at the Funky Quarters. Having not yet lost his yen for adventure from the Verve days, Tjader neatly integrates Al Zulaica's Rhodes electric piano, electronic effects, and occasionally horns and voices into a bedrock Latin format, and the combination works even at its most outlandish. Two of the reasons why Aqua Dulce stays on track are the solid Latin percussion team of Pete and Coke Escovedo and Michael Smithe, and that Tjader's rippling, to-the-point, easily adaptable vibraphone manner hadn't changed a whit over the years.