Tags: latin

13 May 2010, Comments (2)

Sol-Maranatha (GCP 1975)

Author: alex larotta
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Greetings all, this week I’m hauling in some Chicano jazz-funk from the seemingly endless musical depths of San Antonio, TX. Released in ‘75, bandleader/keyboardist/trombonist Joe Gallardo and Sol released their full-length self-titled album, from which this single comes, on Manny Guerra’s GCP record label. I’ve mentioned Manny Guerra on here before, his wide breadth and key development of San Antonio’s recording industry, from producer to arranger to session player and label owner, seems to stretch endlessly on credits from a diverse spread of recording artists in the region from the late 50s to present day. Manny is also well known to many for his arrangement credits with Sunny and The Sunglows and their cover of Little Willie John’s “Talk To Me” on Huey Meaux’s Teardrop Records, which was one of the biggest hits of their career.

Joe Gallardo’s Sol LP is lauded by many as a Texas psych funk masterpiece, with diverse sound ranges of acid jazz, whirly space synths, guitar freakouts, and funky latin percussion mixed together in a way that only 70s fusion can pull off. “Maranatha”, a shorter stereo mix version of the LP version, embodies the jazz fusion spirit of Herbie Hancock’s “Headhunters” LP, with full body kick drums, wah-wah guitar effects, and luscious horn crescendoes. Joe continues arranging and writing music to this day, and is a centrifugal developer of the Texas Jazz Festival in Corpus Christi that initially started in 1959 when he was a member of the Jazz Club at Del Mar College. He also tenders Grammy credits for his composition work on Mongo Santamaria’s “Amanecer” LP, and continues to perform and record in Hamburg, Germany with a multitude of noted jazz artists and producers from around the world.

You’ll notice that though I don’t usually feature 70s fusion music, I always make exceptions for the exceptional. Sol’s “Maranatha” is a fine example of the rich, versatile soundscapes of Chicano soul in Texas, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Also, just want to mention that we are packing our figurative bags and moving our site to a new server in the next few days. We’re also changing the domain name, but no worries, we will direct you to our new space so we can continue serving you music freaks with the depths of our music collections. Thanks for being with us thus far, we look forward to sharing our new digs with you and spreading the love of vinyl to all of our readers. All that aside, chew on some San Antonio funky fusion and we’ll be back next week on the new site!

LISTEN: Sol-Maranatha
12 Mar 2010, Comments (0)

Sonny Ace & the Twisters – Stand By Love (Cobra) 1964

Author: michael selman
kenny and the kasuals

San Antonio has been known for it’s wide array of musical tones, some have come to know this genre as The West Side Sound. This sound has an amazing conglomerate of influences ranging from blues, rock ‘n’ roll, conjunto, country, polka and rhythm and blues. All of these genres have been braided into a tangible sound, which has captured the attention of fans around the globe. The West Side Sound’s first bid with notoriety came with Sunny Ozuna’s 1963 hit “Talk With Me,” then in 1965 with Sir Douglas Quintet’s hit “She’s About A Mover.” The West Side Sound brings to mind the Chicano soul groups of the late fifties and sixties of San Antonio, Sunny & the Sunglows/Sunliners, Rudy & the Reno Bobs, Charlie & the Jives and Rene and Rene. One, which stands out in San Antonio musical lore is Sonny Ace & the Twisters.

impact scan

Beginning his career in the early fifties, Sonny Ace (Domingo Solis) was a defining faction of The West Side Sound; some even say, if not the pioneer, then one of the pioneers of this tone. Recording under a few different band names, Sonny’s name was always out in front: Sonny & the Rhythm Rockers, Sonny & the Monticlairs, Sonny & the Dell-Sharps. As the Twisters his band consisted of: Sonny Ace (Domingo Solis) (vocals), Martin Linan (tenor sax), Mike Rodriguez (tenor sax), David Spiller (alto sax), Gene Noriega (drums), Tony Villarreal (guitar) and Lil Ralph Mendez (bass). His regional hits included covers of Louis Prima’s tunes “Just A Gigolo,” and “Oh Marie.” Ace’s own material included “Take My Love,” “You’ll Tear Our Dreams Apart,” some notoriety seemed to have followed his cover of Sam the Sham’s (as Ace titled it) “Wooleh Booleh,” a Spanish speaking version of the national hit. Today’s Sonny Ace selection “Stand By Love,” comes to us on Abe Epstein’s Cobra label. Epstein is actually given the writers credit for this tune. Originally this track stood out to me for it’s loungy almost, tittie shaker quality, with a soft repeated, T Bone Walker or Buddy Guy, guitar tone. The horns at the top of the track immediately let any listener know this is San Antonio screeching’ in your face, however with the tacked on blues guitar riff, this track exemplifies the cross-pollinated sound of Alamo City.

impact scan Shown above: Sonny Ace, Charlie Alvarado (Charlie & the Jives)

Sonny Ace – Discography
Dell-Sharps
TNT
153 If My Teardrops Could Talk / Swinging Stroll (1958)
140 I Love Her So / Darling Of Mine (1958)
Twisters
Atlantic
2364 Wooleh Booleh / Chilli Pepper (1965)
Cobra
006 When Your Smiling / Gypsy (1963)
011 Devil Or Angel / Fever (1963)
214 Amor Que Malo Eres / La Tradidora (1963)
1112 Cuatro Copas / Cuatro Vidas (1963)
1113 Anymore / Stand By Love (1964)
1133 Little Girl / Little Spark (1964)
2224 Wooleh Booleh / Chilli Pepper (1965)
4444 You’ll Tear Our Dreams Apart / Oh Marie (1965)
Jox
028 Gotta See My Baby Tonight / Lucille (1963)
Rival
01 Tamales / Take My Love (1959)
02 So Lonely / Oh Little Girl (1959)
06 Just A Gigolo-Ain’t Got Nobody / Really (1960)
Sunglow
107 Easy Rocking / Dreamer Boy (1963)

I was able to pull most of this information from Chicano Soul, Ruben Molina’s book. Get your self a copy, NOW.

LISTEN: Sonny Ace – Stand By Love

23 Feb 2010, Comments (0)

Danny & The Tejanos – Mustard Greens (Tear Drop) 1966

Author: michael selman

Straight from San Antonio, Danny & The Tejanos show us some chicano funk with their instrumental “Mustard Greens.” The Tejanos had a small discography starting with San Antonio’s Pa-Go-Go label; known for it’s famed release of “96 Tears.” Pa-Go-Go was a family owned independent record label based at 408 Hazel St. San Antonio, Texas. The name of the label was derived from the names of the family members who ran the operation: PAto, Rudy and Manuel GOnzales. Danny and the Tejanos stayed with Pa-Go-Go for only one release quickly, within the same year, switching to Huey P Meaux’s Teardrop Records. Teardrop was founded in Winnie, Texas in the early 1960s. Huey P. Meaux quickly moved his label to Conroe, Texas. Many of the Texas releases out there have gone through Meaux, a lot of the time under his original Disc Jockey name the “Crazy Cajun.” Later The Tejanos changed their name to Danny & The Texans and recorded a single for Cobra Records.

Most of the other releases from the Tejanos are slower soul tracks with honking horns and dripping lyrics. “Mustard Greens,” stands out from any other release from this group. Right from the top, the track barrels into a strong bass line and hooky horn section. About half way through when the drum break hits you know you’re hearing some heavy San Antonio Funk. Enjoy.

Pa-Go-Go
112 – Sweet Thing/ What’s The Word (1966)
Tear Drop
3148 – Oiga Compadre/ Por Tu Dulce Amor
3164 – My Love / Mustard Greens (1966)
Danny and the Texans
Cobra
001 – Rockin’ Johnny Home / Old Reb

LISTEN: Danny & The Tejanos – Mustard Greens

12 Feb 2010, Comments (4)

Soul Apollo w/ Fredrick Clarke-Chombo Pa’ La Tienda (Loyola 1969)

Author: alex larotta
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Time to time we come across our most prized findings in the oddest of places, sometimes buried under our noses. Today’s post is a shining example of how rare and otherwise expensive records are sometimes found within the dusty confines of our local record shops dollar bins. Case in point, I came across Soul Apollo’s Chombo Pa’ La Tienda 45 in the dollar bin at one of my favorite local record shops here in town. Out of a stack of seemingly unusual titles and oddball releases, I saw Soul Apollo’s beat-up sleeveless record waiting for me to take him home and sleeve him. A few things struck me when I came across this one buried under some standard golden oldies and children’s records, one being the word Soul in the group title, coupled with spanish wording in the song name, and the genre listing on the record as “Calipso”. Yup, sold. One dollar? Done.

This particular dig awarded me with a fine grip of soulful tunes and garage rock oddities, along with today’s record, but it’s interesting to note that all of them had the name Spice written across the labeling in large lettering, and it’s not the first of his (her?) records that I now own. All told, Spice and Woods are two people in town who really cared to tag their prized vinyl possessions in large lettering, I could likely dedicate an entire crate to their former possessions, but I digress. I listened to this single a few times over, quite content with my finding and amused with the novelty dialogue interlaced throughout the course of the song. I could only decipher some of the spanish, but was at a lost with the thick Antillean accent. What I could gather, however, is that Chombo is sent on a mission by his nagging (and eerily masculine) Mother to fetch some items at at the local store. And his crew, the Soul Apollo, sing the chorus of Chombo’s painful experience with his badgering Mother. Some months later, I was back at that same record shop and picked up a copy of Soundway’s newly released Panama! 3 LP, I came home and hurriedly placed it on the turntable, only then to find that “Chombo Pa’ La Tienda” was a featured cut on the newly issued compilation.

I can’t say I know much about Fredrick Clarke and his Soul Apollo, but I can phrase some of the sentiments from the Soundway clan from their liner notes:

“The historical calypso tradition of tall tales, wit and oral storytelling has been a useful aid in both commenting on and understanding Panama’s complicated social structure. It’s evident, listening to this song in 2009, that theatrical embellishment in music is slowly becoming a lost art. It’s also easy to see why Chombo became so popular, it’s just a pity he never made television!”

That just about says it all for me, nevertheless, hope you enjoy Soul Apollo w/ Fredrick Clarke with their “Chombo Pa’ La Tienda”. And if i might add, I highly recommend Soundway’s in-depth compiled coverage of Panamanian soul, calypso, cumbia and guajira jazz over here, all 3 of the series are a must!

LISTEN: Soul Apollo w/ Fredrick Clarke-Chombo Pa’ La Tienda

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