Cal Tjader Soul Sauce

Having finished his tenure with George Shearing in 1954, a thoroughly Latin-inoculated Cal Tjader took off on his own, recording several short slices of infectious Latin jazz, from which a dozen were selected for this album. Many of the selections are standards retrofitted with percolating Latin rhythms, cut and shaped to fit the old three-minute limit of 45 or 78 rpm singles. Tjader's crystalline vibes are teamed with a San Francisco Latin percussion section that lays down the grooves crisply and succinctly, with an occasional emulation of the more laid-back Shearing Latin sound ("East of the Sun"). Elsewhere, Cal experiments with a hot four-man trumpet section on four of the tracks, the best of which is a rhumba version of "Fascinating Rhythm"…

Only six months after the third volume of Verve Remixed was released, Verve issued this, a box combining the three volumes of the series with an additional disc of extra remixes.
Though variously rooted in hip-hop, rave and dance clubs sensibilities, the art of mixology has evolved into a potent staple of contemporary pop music. That mainstreaming reached a new zenith with the release of the first installment of Verve Remixed in 2002 and continued to expand via two subsequent collections of eclectic Jazz/R&B-rooted remixes that found a growing, enthusiasitc audience at public radio and other adult-oriented radio outlets. This set compiles those three savory, largely Downtempo anthologies of Jazz-DJ Fusion, from the reworked takes on classic vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday that dominated the first set to the follow-up editions' more expansive palette…