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.

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.

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

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

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]]> http://www.imshakin.com/2010/02/12/soul-apollo-w-fredrick-clarke-chombo-pa-la-tienda-loyola-1969/feed/ 6 http://www.imshakin.com/2010/02/05/rafael-duran-y-ortega-pow-pow-mr-g-1967/ http://www.imshakin.com/2010/02/05/rafael-duran-y-ortega-pow-pow-mr-g-1967/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:00:24 +0000 alex larotta http://imshakin.com/?p=1237

Greetings fellow shakers, thought I should spice it up a bit with some Texas-flavored latin soul for this week’s post. To be more precise, this record seems to fall more in line with the guajira boogaloo category, though retaining a uniquely soulful property. Hailing from San Antonio, TX, Rafael Duran Y Omega cut this groove-laden slinky single for the local Mr. G Records. Pow-Pow features a distinctly haunting overtone with a moody B3 organ adding that delightful polyrhythmic quality commonplace in afro cuban rhythms. Though limited information, I did find that Rafael Duran Y Omega cut a full length LP with Mr. G in the late 70s, but it seems to be more of the Ranchera/Tejano persuasion, likely within their latter career days. The duo also released a handful of 45s for Mr. G, but with little radio love they seemed to have disappeared into obscurity due to limited commercial success. Eddie Aleman is credited as singer for this particular recording, and most likely recorded at Mr. Guerra’s Amen Studios in San Antonio, still in operation to this day.

Mr. G Records seem to have also slipped into ambiguity with little information to trail, and although they were an independent/private record label, Mr. G is responsible for some of the biggest, meanest (and rarest) funk and soul to come from our beloved Lone Star State. Recording and releasing records from the now-legendary Mickey and The Soul Generation, quoted to be Josh Davis’s aka DJ Shadow’s “favorite funk band” (check out his own reissue of that band’s recordings, Iron Leg, here) to Dimas and a wealthy grip of Chicano artists, Mr. G kept San Antonio in independent music business.

Interesting to note that the publishing company noted on this record, “Guerra Company Production“, are also responsible for releasing some of San Antonio’s greatest brown-eyed soul and pop groups under the GC Productions label, ranging from Tortilla Factory to Joe Gallardo y Sol to The Royal Jesters and much more. GC Productions was also manned by the aforementioned Manny Guerra and his team of music producers. Lastly, thought I would point out that Jazzman Gerald’s storied Texas Funk compilation features some music from Manny’s labels, and the cover art on the record actually reads, “Mr. G’s Texas Funk“. Props to Austin print designer and record collector extraordinaire, Noel Waggener, for his contributions to the cover and compilation. Without further ado, Rafael Duran y Omega’s “Pow-Pow“, hope you dig it!

LISTEN: Rafael Duran Y Ortega-Pow Pow]]> http://www.imshakin.com/2010/02/05/rafael-duran-y-ortega-pow-pow-mr-g-1967/feed/ 4 http://www.imshakin.com/2010/01/15/ray-barretto-a-deeper-shade-of-soul-fania-1968/ http://www.imshakin.com/2010/01/15/ray-barretto-a-deeper-shade-of-soul-fania-1968/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:25:36 +0000 alex larotta http://imshakin.com/?p=1147

Greetings! Hello again, hope all is well in your corner of the globe. We are back in full force now with the blog, and returning to our regular posts now that the holiday season is over. As mentioned previously, I was down south in the wondrous capitol of Colombia, Santa Fe de Bogota. Though I didn’t find the time there to update the blog while visiting with family, I was able to dig up some fine Colombian and Latin records in the ferrias (outdoor markets) outlying the swelling hub of the maniacal downtown hustle. I met a few of the vinyl and music merchants during my lustful vinyl escapades, and it was in one of the ferrias that I met Leon, an amicable vinyl dealer with loads of latino boogalos, cumbias, porros, salsas, and even some rare 60s era Andean garage and psych records (and a unique taste for 80s death and black metal). Though a few were out of my wallets stretch, I did come through with an affordable grip of all these genres and more (including an oddball Colombian-label release of Dennis Coffey and the Detroit Guitar Band’s Electric Coffey LP).

So, I thought it would be incumbent upon me to share some of my flea market found goodies. And today’s post, in particular, is a personal favorite and I was quite ecstatic when I came across this LP in a dusty, busted-up Coca-Cola crate located under a 30 pound load of mid-century medical Encyclopedias (in good shape, considering). Stepping out of the funk and soul outfit, I’d like to introduce some fine NY-styled latin boogaloo by one of the masters of the game, Mr. Ray Barretto, recorded and released on the giant of Latin labels, Fania Records.

Although Fania was a NY-based label, it represented the explosive musical soundscapes of Latino music and culture in the 1960s, post big-band jazz ensembles and orquestras. Started by famed musician Johnny Pacheco and attorney Jerry Musucci, Fania released a host of latino records by some of the biggest names in Salsa, Latin-jazz, and Boogaloo. Ray Barretto, today’s musician of discussion, is considered by many as the ‘Godfather of Latin Jazz’. Born and raised in Spanish Harlem, Ray’s parents moved from Puerto Rico in the 1920s, where he learned and mastered jazz percussion and incorporated aspects of afro-latin rhythms, now considered to be his signature stylings on latin records of his day. A Deeper Shade of Soul, featured on Ray’s landmark 1968 Acid LP, represents the revolutionary sounding of NY-styled latin boogaloo, with fresh fusions of traditional Cuban mambo rhythm and American boogaloo and R&B, amongst a host of other pan-American influences. Without further ado, hope you enjoy today’s selection, and I’ll have to apologize because I don’t have the ability to post up more pictures due to the fact that my camera was stolen during my trip. SO, until I get the means to get another one, which should be soon, I’ll have to use some photos I found online of the record. And I highly recommend PBS’s fantastic Latin music mini-series, Latin Music USA, for more in-depth info on Fania and the NY latin sound (as well as all facets of Latin-American music), which can be found here. And lastly, a big shout out to Larry G. over at The Funky 16 Corners blog, thanks for the nod! And on that note, check out his post on Mr. Barretto’s The Soul Drummers, a fantastic funked-up slice o’ latin boogaloo also found on this gem of an LP, you can check it out here.

LISTEN: Ray Barretto- A Deeper Shade of Soul