Cal Tjader
Encyclopedia
Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader (July 16, 1925–May 5, 1982) was a Latin jazz
musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz
musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba
, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his death.
Tjader primarily played the vibraphone
. He was also accomplished on the drums
, bongos
, conga
s, timpani
, and the piano
. He worked with numerous musicians from several cultures. He is often linked to the development of Latin Rock and Acid Jazz
. Although fusing jazz with Latin music is often categorized as "Latin Jazz" (or, earlier, "Afro-Cuban Jazz
"), Tjader's output swung freely between both styles.
He won a Grammy in 1980 for his album La Onda Va Bien, capping off a career that spanned over forty years.
to touring Swedish American
vaudevillians
. His father tap dance
d and his mother played piano
, a husband-wife team going from city to city with their troupe to earn a living. (His grandfather was Dr. Anton William Tjader, a notable Nevada
surgeon
mentioned in Mark Twain
's Early Tales and Sketches.) At the age of two, Tjader's parents settled in San Mateo, California
and opened a dance studio. His mother (who dreamed of becoming a concert pianist) instructed him in classical piano and his father taught him to tap dance. He performed around the Bay Area
as "Tjader Junior", a tap-dancing wunderkind. He performed a brief non-speaking role dancing alongside Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in the film The White of the Dark Cloud of Joy.
He joined a Dixieland
band and played around the Bay Area. At age sixteen, he entered a Gene Krupa
drum solo
contest, making it to the finals and ultimately winning by playing "Drum Boogie." The win was overshadowed by that morning's event: Japanese planes had bombed Pearl Harbor
.
in 1943 and served as a medic until 1946. Upon his return he enrolled at San Jose State College under the G.I. Bill, majoring in education. (He hoped to become a schoolteacher.) Later he transferred to San Francisco State College, still intending to teach. It was there he took timpani lessons, his only formal music training.
At San Francisco State he met Dave Brubeck
, a young pianist also fresh from a stint in the Army. Brubeck introduced Tjader to Paul Desmond
. The three connected with more players and formed the Dave Brubeck Octet with Tjader on drums. Although the group only recorded one album (and had an abysmal time finding work), the recording is regarded as important due to its early glimpse at these soon-to-be-legendary jazz greats.
After the Octet disbanded, Tjader and Brubeck formed a trio, performing jazz standards in the hope of finding more work. The Dave Brubeck Trio succeeded and became a fixture in the San Francisco
jazz scene. Tjader taught himself the vibraphone
in this period, alternating between it and the drums depending on the song.
and completed his degree at San Francisco State.
Jazz pianist George Shearing
recruited Tjader in 1953 when Joe Roland left his group. Al McKibbon was a member of Shearing's band at the time and he and Tjader encouraged Shearing to add Cuban percussionists. Tjader played bongos as well as the vibes - "Drum Trouble" was his bongo solo feature. Down Beat
's 1953 Critics Poll nominated him as best New Star on the vibes. His next 10" LP as a leader was recorded for Savoy during that time, as well as his first Latin Jazz for a Fantasy 10" LP.
While in New York City, bassist Al McKibbon
took Tjader to see the Afro-Cuban big band
s led by Machito
and Chico O'Farrill
, both at the forefront of the nascent Latin jazz sound. In New York he also met Mongo Santamaría
and Willie Bobo
who were members of Tito Puente's orchestra at the time.
Tjader is often credited as the musician who brought the vibraphones to Latin jazz. However, John Storm Roberts claims Tito Puente
deserves the title, as he performed Afro-Cuban tunes on the vibraphone in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
, the group produced several albums in rapid succession, including Mambo with Tjader.
The Mambo craze reached its pitch in the late 1950s, a boon to Tjader's career. Unlike the exotica
of Martin Denny
and Les Baxter
, music billed as "impressions of" Oceania
(and other locales), Tjader's bands featured seasoned Cuban players and top-notch jazz talent conversant in both idioms. Some consider his Modern Mambo Quintet his greatest band, and perhaps the greatest small-combo Latin jazz band ever.
Tjader also cut several notable straight-ahead jazz albums for Fantasy under separate groups, most notably The Cal Tjader Quartet (composed of bassist Gene Wright, drummer Al Torre, and Vince Guaraldi
). As such, he is considered a member of San Francisco's flourishing 1950s bebop
scene. Tjader is sometimes lumped in as part of the West Coast
(or "cool
") jazz sound, although his rhythms and tempos (both Latin and bebop) had little in common with the work of Los Angeles jazzmen Gerry Mulligan
, Chet Baker
, or Art Pepper
. He did team up with legendary jazz saxophonist Stan Getz
in 1958, producing a well-received album.
Tjader and his band opened the second Monterey Jazz Festival
in 1959 with an acclaimed "preview" concert. The first festival had suffered financially. Tjader is credited with bringing in big ticket sales for the second and saving the landmark festival before it had even really started.
The Modern Mambo Quintet disbanded within a couple of years. Tjader formed several more small-combo bands, playing regularly at such San Francisco jazz clubs as the Blackhawk
.
, founded originally by Norman Granz
but owned by then by MGM. With the luxury of larger budgets and seasoned recording producer Creed Taylor
in the control booth, Tjader cut a varied string of albums. During the Verve years Tjader worked with Donald Byrd
, Lalo Schifrin
, Anita O'Day
, Willie Bobo
, Armando Peraza
, a young Chick Corea
, Clare Fischer
, Jimmy Heath
, Kenny Burrell
, and others. Tjader recorded with big band orchestras for the first time, and even made an album based on Asian scales and rhythms.
His biggest success was the album Soul Sauce (1964). Its title track, a Dizzy Gillespie
cover Tjader had been toying with for over a decade, was a radio hit (hitting the top 20 on New York's influential pop music station WMCA
in May, 1965), and landed the album on Billboard's Top 50 Albums of 1965. Originally titled "Guachi Guaro" (a nonsensical phrase in Spanish), Tjader transformed the Gillespie/Chano Pozo
composition into something new. (The name "Soul Sauce" came from Taylor's suggestion for a catchier title and Bobo's observation that Tjader's version was spicier than the original.) The song's identifiable sound is a combination of the call-outs made by Bobo ("Salsa ahi na ma ... sabor, sabor!") and Tjader's crisp vibes work. The album sold over 100,000 copies and popularized the word salsa
in describing Latin dance music.
The 1960s were Tjader's most prolific period. With the backing of a major record label, he could afford to stretch out and expand his repertoire. The most obvious deviation from his Latin jazz sound was Several Shades of Jade (1963) and the follow-up Breeze From the East (1963). Both albums attempted to combine jazz and Asian music, much as Tjader and others had done with Afro-Cuban. The result was dismissed by the critics, chided as little more than the dated exotica that had come and gone in the prior decade.
Other experiments were not so easily dismissed. Tjader teamed up with New Yorker Eddie Palmieri
in 1966 to produce El Sonido Nuevo ("The New Sound"). A companion LP was recorded for Palmieri's contract label, Tico, titled Bamboleate.
While Tjader's prior work was often dismissed as "Latin lounge
", here the duo created a darker, more sinister sound. Cal Tjader Plays The Contemporary Music Of Mexico And Brazil (1962), released during the bossa nova
craze, actually bucked the trend, instead using more traditional arrangements from the two countries' past.
In the late 1960s Tjader, along with guitarist Gábor Szabó
and Gary McFarland
, helped to found the short-lived Skye record label. Tjader's work of this period is characterized by a groovier, almost funk-based sound. Solar Heat (1968) and Tjader Plugs In (1968–69) are precursors to acid jazz
and remain valued among rare groove
fans today.
). Few of these albums made an impression on jazz critics. He also played on the soundtrack to the 1972 animated film release Fritz the Cat
, most notably on the track entitled "Mamblues".
It was in this period Tjader discovered and groomed conguero Poncho Sanchez
. Sanchez has called Tjader his "musical father".
In 1976 Tjader recorded several live shows performed at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Like the Monterey Jazz Festival show, he played a mix of jazz standards and Latin arrangements. Later he toured Japan with saxophonist Art Pepper, the latter recovering from alcohol and drug dependencies. These shows were considered successful in a time when jazz music was increasingly seen as anachronistic.
, president of Concord Records
, created a subsidiary label called Concord Picante to market Latin jazz. In reality, Jefferson formed the label specifically to promote and distribute Tjader's work, whom he'd recently signed.
Unlike his excursions in the 1960s and his jazz-rock attempts in the 1970s, Tjader's Concord Picante work was largely straight-ahead Latin jazz. Electronic instruments and rock backbeats were dropped, reverting to a more "classic" sound. During the prior decade he'd built up a top-notch crew of young musicians, his best lineup since his Modern Mambo Quintet of the 1950s, with Mark Levine
on piano, Roger Glenn on flute, Vince Lateano
on drums, Robb Fisher on the bass, and Poncho Sanchez
on the congas.
Tjader cut five albums for Concord Picante, the most successful being La Onda Va Bien (1979) (roughly "The Good Life") which earned a Grammy award in 1980 for Best Latin Recording. That Onda would win an award as best Latin album reveals Tjader's expertise and his ability to cultivate the same in his band. La Onda Va Bien is regarded as a seminal Latin Jazz album.
Just as lifelong performer Tjader was born on tour, he also died on tour. On the road with his band in Manila
, he collapsed from a heart attack
and died on 5 May 1982.
and Milt Jackson
, many vibraphonists today count Tjader as a vital influence, including Dave Pike
, Spyro Gyra
's Dave Samuels
, and Ruben Estrada. Latin rock guitarist Carlos Santana
also named Tjader as a forebearer.
Tjader's legacy is associated with Gábor Szabó
and Gary McFarland
's, who worked and founded Skye Records
together.
The American Hip-Hop Band, "A Tribe Called Quest" sampled songs from Cals', "Aquarius" as an outro to most of the songs off the album, "Midnight Marauders."
Latin jazz
Latin jazz is the general term given to jazz with Latin American rhythms.The three main categories of Latin Jazz are Brazilian, Cuban and Puerto Rican:# Brazilian Latin Jazz includes bossa nova...
musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his death.
Tjader primarily played the vibraphone
Vibraphone
The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
. He was also accomplished on the drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, bongos
Bongo drum
Bongo or bongos are a Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra and the smaller the macho...
, conga
Conga
The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...
s, timpani
Timpani
Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
, and the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. He worked with numerous musicians from several cultures. He is often linked to the development of Latin Rock and Acid Jazz
Acid jazz
Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are...
. Although fusing jazz with Latin music is often categorized as "Latin Jazz" (or, earlier, "Afro-Cuban Jazz
Afro-Cuban jazz
Afro-Cuban jazz is an early form of Latin jazz that mixes Afro-Cuban rhythms with harmonies and musical timbre typical of Bebop. It was developed in the early 1940s by both Cuban musicians and Jazz musicians, with Dizzy Gillespie, Mario Bauza, Machito and Stan Kenton among some of the most notable...
"), Tjader's output swung freely between both styles.
He won a Grammy in 1980 for his album La Onda Va Bien, capping off a career that spanned over forty years.
Early years (1925–1943)
Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. (last name pronounced "chay-der") was born 16 July 1925 in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
to touring Swedish American
Swedish American
Swedish Americans are Americans of Swedish descent, especially the descendants of about 1.2 million immigrants from Sweden during 1885-1915. Most were Lutherans who affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ; some were Methodists...
vaudevillians
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
. His father tap dance
Tap dance
Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sound of one's tap shoes hitting the floor as a percussive instrument. As such, it is also commonly considered to be a form of music. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses more on the...
d and his mother played piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, a husband-wife team going from city to city with their troupe to earn a living. (His grandfather was Dr. Anton William Tjader, a notable Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
mentioned in Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
's Early Tales and Sketches.) At the age of two, Tjader's parents settled in San Mateo, California
San Mateo, California
San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...
and opened a dance studio. His mother (who dreamed of becoming a concert pianist) instructed him in classical piano and his father taught him to tap dance. He performed around the Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
as "Tjader Junior", a tap-dancing wunderkind. He performed a brief non-speaking role dancing alongside Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in the film The White of the Dark Cloud of Joy.
He joined a Dixieland
Dixieland
Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...
band and played around the Bay Area. At age sixteen, he entered a Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa was an American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...
drum solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
contest, making it to the finals and ultimately winning by playing "Drum Boogie." The win was overshadowed by that morning's event: Japanese planes had bombed Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
.
Army and college (1940s)
Tjader entered the United States ArmyUnited States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in 1943 and served as a medic until 1946. Upon his return he enrolled at San Jose State College under the G.I. Bill, majoring in education. (He hoped to become a schoolteacher.) Later he transferred to San Francisco State College, still intending to teach. It was there he took timpani lessons, his only formal music training.
At San Francisco State he met Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck
David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...
, a young pianist also fresh from a stint in the Army. Brubeck introduced Tjader to Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond , born Paul Emil Breitenfeld, was a jazz alto saxophonist and composer born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five"...
. The three connected with more players and formed the Dave Brubeck Octet with Tjader on drums. Although the group only recorded one album (and had an abysmal time finding work), the recording is regarded as important due to its early glimpse at these soon-to-be-legendary jazz greats.
After the Octet disbanded, Tjader and Brubeck formed a trio, performing jazz standards in the hope of finding more work. The Dave Brubeck Trio succeeded and became a fixture in the San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
jazz scene. Tjader taught himself the vibraphone
Vibraphone
The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
in this period, alternating between it and the drums depending on the song.
Sideman (1951–1954)
Brubeck suffered major injuries in a diving accident in 1951 in Hawaii and the trio was forced to dissolve. Tjader continued the trio work in California with bassist Jack Weeks from Brubeck's trio and pianists John Marabuto or Vince Guaraldi, recording his first 10" LP as a leader with them for Fantasy, but soon worked with Alvino ReyAlvino Rey
Alvin McBurney , known by his stage name Alvino Rey, was an American swing era musician and pioneer, often credited as the father of the pedal steel guitar...
and completed his degree at San Francisco State.
Jazz pianist George Shearing
George Shearing
Sir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...
recruited Tjader in 1953 when Joe Roland left his group. Al McKibbon was a member of Shearing's band at the time and he and Tjader encouraged Shearing to add Cuban percussionists. Tjader played bongos as well as the vibes - "Drum Trouble" was his bongo solo feature. Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
's 1953 Critics Poll nominated him as best New Star on the vibes. His next 10" LP as a leader was recorded for Savoy during that time, as well as his first Latin Jazz for a Fantasy 10" LP.
While in New York City, bassist Al McKibbon
Al McKibbon
Al McKibbon was an American jazz double bassist, known for his work in bop, hard bop, and Latin jazz.In 1947, after working with Lucky Millinder, Tab Smith, J. C. Heard, and Coleman Hawkins, he replaced Ray Brown in Dizzy Gillespie's band, in which he played until 1950...
took Tjader to see the Afro-Cuban big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
s led by Machito
Machito
Machito , born as Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, was an influential Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music...
and Chico O'Farrill
Chico O'Farrill
Arturo "Chico" O'Farrill was a composer-arranger best known for his work in the Latin idiom, although he also composed straight-ahead jazz pieces and even symphonic works....
, both at the forefront of the nascent Latin jazz sound. In New York he also met Mongo Santamaría
Mongo Santamaría
Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez was an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. He is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue," recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All...
and Willie Bobo
Willie Bobo
Willie Bobo was the stage name of William Correa , an American jazz percussionist.-Biography:William Correa grew up in Spanish Harlem, New York City. He made his name in Latin Jazz, specifically Afro-Cuban jazz, in the 1960s and '70s, with the timbales becoming his favoured instrument...
who were members of Tito Puente's orchestra at the time.
Tjader is often credited as the musician who brought the vibraphones to Latin jazz. However, John Storm Roberts claims Tito Puente
Tito Puente
Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...
deserves the title, as he performed Afro-Cuban tunes on the vibraphone in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Leader (1954–1962)
Tjader soon quit Shearing after a gig at a San Francisco jazz club called The Blackhawk. In April 1954, he formed The Cal Tjader Modern Mambo Quintet. The members were brothers Manuel and Carlos Duran on piano and bass respectively, Bayardo "Benny" Velarde on timbales, bongos, and congas, and Edgard Rosales on congas (Luis Miranda replaced Rosales after the first year). Back in San Francisco and recording for Fantasy RecordsFantasy Records
Fantasy Records is a United States-based record label that was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. They had previously operated a record-pressing plant called Circle Record Company before forming the Fantasy label...
, the group produced several albums in rapid succession, including Mambo with Tjader.
The Mambo craze reached its pitch in the late 1950s, a boon to Tjader's career. Unlike the exotica
Exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same title, popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s, typically with the suburban set who came of age during World War II. The musical colloquialism, exotica, means tropical ersatz: the non-native, pseudo experience of Oceania...
of Martin Denny
Martin Denny
Martin Denny was an American piano-player and composer best known as the "father of exotica." In a long career that saw him performing well into his 80s, he toured the world popularizing his brand of lounge music which included exotic percussion, imaginative rearrangements of popular songs, and...
and Les Baxter
Les Baxter
Les Baxter was an American musician and composer.Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer...
, music billed as "impressions of" Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
(and other locales), Tjader's bands featured seasoned Cuban players and top-notch jazz talent conversant in both idioms. Some consider his Modern Mambo Quintet his greatest band, and perhaps the greatest small-combo Latin jazz band ever.
Tjader also cut several notable straight-ahead jazz albums for Fantasy under separate groups, most notably The Cal Tjader Quartet (composed of bassist Gene Wright, drummer Al Torre, and Vince Guaraldi
Vince Guaraldi
Vincent Anthony "Vince" Guaraldi was an Italian American jazz musician and pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip...
). As such, he is considered a member of San Francisco's flourishing 1950s bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
scene. Tjader is sometimes lumped in as part of the West Coast
West coast jazz
West Coast jazz refers to various styles of jazz music that developed around Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a sub-genre of cool jazz, which featured a less frenetic, calmer style than bebop or hard bop. The music tended to be more heavily arranged,...
(or "cool
Cool jazz
Cool is a style of modern jazz music that arose following the Second World War. It is characterized by its relaxed tempos and lighter tone, in contrast to the bebop style that preceded it...
") jazz sound, although his rhythms and tempos (both Latin and bebop) had little in common with the work of Los Angeles jazzmen Gerry Mulligan
Gerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...
, Chet Baker
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...
, or Art Pepper
Art Pepper
Art Pepper , born Arthur Edward Pepper, Jr., was an American alto saxophonist and clarinetist.About Pepper, Scott Yanow of All Music stated, "In the 1950s he was one of the few altoists that was able to develop his own sound despite the dominant influence of Charlie Parker" and: "When Art Pepper...
. He did team up with legendary jazz saxophonist Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
in 1958, producing a well-received album.
Tjader and his band opened the second Monterey Jazz Festival
Monterey Jazz Festival
The Monterey Jazz Festival is one of the longest consecutively running jazz festivals. It debuted on October 3, 1958 and was founded by San Francisco jazz radio broadcaster Jimmy Lyons.-History:...
in 1959 with an acclaimed "preview" concert. The first festival had suffered financially. Tjader is credited with bringing in big ticket sales for the second and saving the landmark festival before it had even really started.
The Modern Mambo Quintet disbanded within a couple of years. Tjader formed several more small-combo bands, playing regularly at such San Francisco jazz clubs as the Blackhawk
Black Hawk (nightclub)
The Black Hawk was a San Francisco nightclub which featured live jazz performances during its period of operation from 1949 to 1963. It was located on the corner of Turk Street and Hyde Street in San Francisco's Tenderloin District. Guido Caccienti owned the club along with Johnny and Helen...
.
Verve and Skye Records (1960s)
After recording for Fantasy for nearly a decade, Tjader signed with better-known Verve RecordsVerve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
, founded originally by Norman Granz
Norman Granz
Norman Granz was an American jazz music impresario and producer.Granz was a fundamental figure in American jazz, especially from about 1947 to 1960...
but owned by then by MGM. With the luxury of larger budgets and seasoned recording producer Creed Taylor
Creed Taylor
Creed Taylor is an American record producer, best known for his work with CTI Records, which he founded in 1968. Taylor’s career also included work at Bethlehem Records, ABC-Paramount, Verve, and A&M Records...
in the control booth, Tjader cut a varied string of albums. During the Verve years Tjader worked with Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
, Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations...
, Anita O'Day
Anita O'Day
Anita O'Day was an American jazz singer.Born Anita Belle Colton, O'Day was admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer"...
, Willie Bobo
Willie Bobo
Willie Bobo was the stage name of William Correa , an American jazz percussionist.-Biography:William Correa grew up in Spanish Harlem, New York City. He made his name in Latin Jazz, specifically Afro-Cuban jazz, in the 1960s and '70s, with the timbales becoming his favoured instrument...
, Armando Peraza
Armando Peraza
Armando Peraza is a Latin jazz percussionist. Through his long associations with jazz pianist George Shearing, vibraphonist Cal Tjader and guitarist Carlos Santana, he has been internationally known from the 1950s through to the 1990s...
, a young Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
, Clare Fischer
Clare Fischer
Clare Fischer is an American composer, arranger, pianist and organist. His parents were of German, French, Irish-Scot, and English backgrounds.-Early years:...
, Jimmy Heath
Jimmy Heath
James Edward Heath , nicknamed Little Bird, is an American jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger. He is the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath.-Biography:...
, Kenny Burrell
Kenny Burrell
Kenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell is an American jazz guitarist. His playing is grounded in bebop and blues; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians.-Biography:...
, and others. Tjader recorded with big band orchestras for the first time, and even made an album based on Asian scales and rhythms.
His biggest success was the album Soul Sauce (1964). Its title track, a Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
cover Tjader had been toying with for over a decade, was a radio hit (hitting the top 20 on New York's influential pop music station WMCA
WMCA
WMCA, 570 AM, is a radio station in New York City, most known for its "Good Guys" Top 40 era in the 1960s. It is currently owned by Salem Communications and plays a Christian radio format...
in May, 1965), and landed the album on Billboard's Top 50 Albums of 1965. Originally titled "Guachi Guaro" (a nonsensical phrase in Spanish), Tjader transformed the Gillespie/Chano Pozo
Chano Pozo
Chano Pozo was a percussionist, singer, dancer and composer who played a major role in the founding of Latin jazz...
composition into something new. (The name "Soul Sauce" came from Taylor's suggestion for a catchier title and Bobo's observation that Tjader's version was spicier than the original.) The song's identifiable sound is a combination of the call-outs made by Bobo ("Salsa ahi na ma ... sabor, sabor!") and Tjader's crisp vibes work. The album sold over 100,000 copies and popularized the word salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
in describing Latin dance music.
The 1960s were Tjader's most prolific period. With the backing of a major record label, he could afford to stretch out and expand his repertoire. The most obvious deviation from his Latin jazz sound was Several Shades of Jade (1963) and the follow-up Breeze From the East (1963). Both albums attempted to combine jazz and Asian music, much as Tjader and others had done with Afro-Cuban. The result was dismissed by the critics, chided as little more than the dated exotica that had come and gone in the prior decade.
Other experiments were not so easily dismissed. Tjader teamed up with New Yorker Eddie Palmieri
Eddie Palmieri
Eddie Palmieri , is a Grammy Award winning Puerto Rican pianist, bandleader and musician, best known for combining jazz piano and instrumental solos with Latin rhythms.-Early years:...
in 1966 to produce El Sonido Nuevo ("The New Sound"). A companion LP was recorded for Palmieri's contract label, Tico, titled Bamboleate.
While Tjader's prior work was often dismissed as "Latin lounge
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
", here the duo created a darker, more sinister sound. Cal Tjader Plays The Contemporary Music Of Mexico And Brazil (1962), released during the bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
craze, actually bucked the trend, instead using more traditional arrangements from the two countries' past.
In the late 1960s Tjader, along with guitarist Gábor Szabó
Gábor Szabó
Gábor Szabó was a Hungarian jazz guitarist, famous for mixing jazz, pop-rock and his native Hungarian music.-Biography:...
and Gary McFarland
Gary McFarland
Gary McFarland was an influential composer, arranger, vibraphonist and vocalist, prominent on Verve and Impulse! Records during the 1960s, when he made "one of the more significant contributors to orchestral jazz"...
, helped to found the short-lived Skye record label. Tjader's work of this period is characterized by a groovier, almost funk-based sound. Solar Heat (1968) and Tjader Plugs In (1968–69) are precursors to acid jazz
Acid jazz
Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are...
and remain valued among rare groove
Rare groove
Rare groove is defined as very hard to source or relatively obscure soul or jazz music. Rare groove is primarily associated with funk, jazz and pop, but is also connected to sub-genres including jazz fusion, Latin jazz, soul, R&B, northern soul, and disco. Vinyl records that fall into this...
fans today.
Lean years (1970s)
During the 1970s Tjader bounced from Verve to Skye and then back to Fantasy, the label he'd started with in 1954. Attempting to stay current and relevant, Tjader added electronic instruments to his lineup and began to employ rock beats behind his arrangements. His most notable album during this period is Amazonas (1975) (produced by Brazilian percussionist Airto MoreiraAirto Moreira
Airto Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Airto is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. He currently resides in Los Angeles.-Biography:...
). Few of these albums made an impression on jazz critics. He also played on the soundtrack to the 1972 animated film release Fritz the Cat
Fritz the Cat
Fritz the Cat is a comic strip created by Robert Crumb. Set in a "supercity" of anthropomorphic animals, the strip focuses on Fritz, a feline con artist who frequently goes on wild adventures that sometimes involve sexcapades. Crumb began drawing this character in homemade comic books when he was a...
, most notably on the track entitled "Mamblues".
It was in this period Tjader discovered and groomed conguero Poncho Sanchez
Poncho Sanchez
Poncho Sanchez , a Mexican-American, is a conguero , Latin jazz band leader, and salsa singer. In 2000, Sanchez and his ensemble won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for their work on the Concord Picante album Latin Soul...
. Sanchez has called Tjader his "musical father".
In 1976 Tjader recorded several live shows performed at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Like the Monterey Jazz Festival show, he played a mix of jazz standards and Latin arrangements. Later he toured Japan with saxophonist Art Pepper, the latter recovering from alcohol and drug dependencies. These shows were considered successful in a time when jazz music was increasingly seen as anachronistic.
Final years (1979 to 1982)
Carl JeffersonCarl Jefferson
Carl Jefferson was an American jazz record producer, and was the founder of the Concord Records label.Prior to entering the music business, Jefferson sold used cars. In 1969, he organized a jazz festival in Concord, California, the Concord Summer Festival; several years later it was renamed the...
, president of Concord Records
Concord Records
Concord Records is a U.S. record label now based in Beverly Hills, California. Originally known as Concord Jazz, it was established in 1972 as an off-shoot of the Concord Jazz Festival in Concord, California by festival founder Carl Jefferson, a local automobile dealer and jazz fan who sold his...
, created a subsidiary label called Concord Picante to market Latin jazz. In reality, Jefferson formed the label specifically to promote and distribute Tjader's work, whom he'd recently signed.
Unlike his excursions in the 1960s and his jazz-rock attempts in the 1970s, Tjader's Concord Picante work was largely straight-ahead Latin jazz. Electronic instruments and rock backbeats were dropped, reverting to a more "classic" sound. During the prior decade he'd built up a top-notch crew of young musicians, his best lineup since his Modern Mambo Quintet of the 1950s, with Mark Levine
Mark Levine (musician)
Mark Levine is a jazz pianist, author and educator. He has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Shaw, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaría, Cal Tjader, Willie Bobo, Bobby Hutcherson, and many others....
on piano, Roger Glenn on flute, Vince Lateano
Vince Lateano
Vince Lateano is an American jazz drummer who has toured with numerous great jazz musicians over the years, including Cal Tjader, Woody Herman, Vince Guaraldi, and Stan Getz....
on drums, Robb Fisher on the bass, and Poncho Sanchez
Poncho Sanchez
Poncho Sanchez , a Mexican-American, is a conguero , Latin jazz band leader, and salsa singer. In 2000, Sanchez and his ensemble won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for their work on the Concord Picante album Latin Soul...
on the congas.
Tjader cut five albums for Concord Picante, the most successful being La Onda Va Bien (1979) (roughly "The Good Life") which earned a Grammy award in 1980 for Best Latin Recording. That Onda would win an award as best Latin album reveals Tjader's expertise and his ability to cultivate the same in his band. La Onda Va Bien is regarded as a seminal Latin Jazz album.
Just as lifelong performer Tjader was born on tour, he also died on tour. On the road with his band in Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
, he collapsed from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
and died on 5 May 1982.
Legacy
Alongside Lionel HamptonLionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
and Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson
Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
, many vibraphonists today count Tjader as a vital influence, including Dave Pike
Dave Pike
David Samuel Pike is a jazz vibraphone player. He learned drums at the age of eight and is self-taught on vibes. He has also played marimba, particularly with Herbie Mann. Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, and Cal Tjader were early inspirations for him.Pike made his recording debut with the Paul Bley...
, Spyro Gyra
Spyro Gyra
Spyro Gyra is an American jazz fusion band that was originally formed in the mid-1970s in Buffalo, New York, USA. With over 25 albums released and 10 million copies sold, they are among the most prolific as well as commercially successful groups of the genre...
's Dave Samuels
Dave Samuels
Dave Samuels is an American vibraphone player who has worked with various jazz and fusion artists, such as Spyro Gyra. Currently, he plays in an ensemble called The Caribbean Jazz Project, a Grammy-winning jazz-Latin music group...
, and Ruben Estrada. Latin rock guitarist Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
also named Tjader as a forebearer.
Tjader's legacy is associated with Gábor Szabó
Gábor Szabó
Gábor Szabó was a Hungarian jazz guitarist, famous for mixing jazz, pop-rock and his native Hungarian music.-Biography:...
and Gary McFarland
Gary McFarland
Gary McFarland was an influential composer, arranger, vibraphonist and vocalist, prominent on Verve and Impulse! Records during the 1960s, when he made "one of the more significant contributors to orchestral jazz"...
's, who worked and founded Skye Records
Skye Records
Skye Records was a music label formed in early 1968 by vibist Cal Tjader, guitarist Gábor Szabó, composer/musician Gary McFarland, and music executive Norman Schwartz....
together.
The American Hip-Hop Band, "A Tribe Called Quest" sampled songs from Cals', "Aquarius" as an outro to most of the songs off the album, "Midnight Marauders."
Albums
- Vibrations (Savoy, 1951)
- Cal Tjader: Vibist (Savoy, 1953)
- Cal Tjader, Vol. 1 (Savoy, 1953)
- The Cal Tjader Trio (Fantasy, 1953)
- Tjader Plays Mambo (Fantasy/Original Jazz Classics, 1954)
- Mambo with Tjader (Fantasy/OJC, 1954)
- Tjader Plays Tjazz (Fantasy/OJC, 1954)
- Plays Afro-Cuban (Fantasy, 1954)
- Cal Tjader Quartet (Fantasy/OJC, 1956)
- The Cal Tjader Quartet (Fantasy, 1956)
- Latin Kick (Fantasy/OJC, 1956)
- The Cal Tjader Quintet (Fantasy, 1956)
- Jazz at the Blackhawk (Fantasy/OJC, 1957) (en directo)
- Más ritmo caliente (Fantasy, 1957)
- Cal Tjader (Fantasy, 1957)
- The Cal Tjader-Stan Getz Sextet (Fantasy, 1958) (con Stan Getz)
- Cal Tjader's Latin Concert (Fantasy/OJC, 1958) (falso directo: grabado sin público, simula que se trata de un concierto real)
- Latin for Lovers With Strings (Fantasy, 1958)
- San Francisco Moods (Fantasy, 1958)
- Concert by the Sea, Vol. 1 (Fantasy, 1959) (en directo)
- Concert by the Sea, Vol. 2 (Fantasy, 1959) (en directo)
- Monterey Concerts (Concert by the Sea, Vols. 1 & 2) (Prestige, 1959) (en directo)
- Cal Tjader Goes Latin (Fantasy, 1959)
- Live and Direct (Fantasy, 1959)
- Night at the Black Hawk (Fantasy/OJC, 1959) (en directo)
- West Side Story (Fantasy, 1960)
- Concert on the Campus (OJC, 1960)
- Demasado caliente (Fantasy, 1960)
- Latino (Fantasy, 1960)
- In a Latin Bag (Verve, 1961)
- Cal Tjader Plays Harold Arlen (OJC, 1961)
- Cal Tjader Plays, Mary Stallings Sings (OJC, 1961)
- The Cal Tjader Quartet (Fantasy, 1961)
- Saturday Night: Sunday Night at the Black Hawk, San Francisco (Verve, 1962) (en directo)
- Cal Tjader Plays the Contemporary Music of Mexico and BrazilCal Tjader Plays the Contemporary Music of Mexico and BrazilCal Tjader Plays the Contemporary Music of Mexico and Brazil is a 1962 studio album by Cal Tjader. - Track listing :# "Vai Querer" – 3:03# "Qué Tristeza" – 2:51...
(Verve, 1962) - Cal Tjader Live and Direct (Fantasy, 1962)
- The Cal Tjader Quartet (Fantasy, 1962)
- Time For Two (Verve, 1962) (con Anita O'Day)
- Sona libre (Verve, 1963)
- Several Shades of Jade (Verve, 1963)
- Breeze from the East (Verve, 1963)
- Soul Sauce (Verve, 1964)
- Warm Wave (Verve, 1964)
- Soul Bird: Whiffenpoof (Verve, 1965)
- Soul Burst (Verve, 1966)
- El sonido nuevo: The New Soul Sound (Verve, 1966) (con Eddie Palmieri)
- Latin for Dancers (Fantasy, 1966)
- Along Comes Cal (Verve, 1967)
- Hip Vibrations (Verve, 1967)
- The Prophet (Verve, 1968)
- Solar Heat (Skye, 1969)
- Plugs In (Skye, 1969)
- Sounds Out Burt Bacharach (Skye, 1969)
- Bamboléate (Tico) (con Eddie Palmieri)
- Live at the Funky Quarters (Fantasy, 1970)
- Primo (Fantasy/OJC, 1970)
- Descarga (Fantasy, 1971)
- Tambu (Original Jazz Classics, 1973) (con Charlie Byrd)
- Puttin' It Together (Fantasy, 1975)
- Amazonas (OJC, 1975)
- Grace Cathedral Concert (Fantasy, 1976)
- Guarabe (Fantasy, 1976)
- Here (Fantasy, 1977)
- Breathe Easy (Fantasy, 1977)
- Tjader (Fantasy, 1978)
- La Onda Va Bien (Concord Picante, 1979)
- Gózame! Pero ya (Concord Picante, 1980)
- The Shining Sea (Concord Picante, 1981)
- A fuego vivo (Concord Picante, 1981)
- Heat Wave (Concord Jazz, 1982) (con Carmen McRae)
- Good Vibes (Concord Jazz 1984)
- Latin + Jazz = Cal Tjader (DCC, 1990)
- Huracán (Laserlight, 1990)
- Agua Dulce (Fantasy, 1991)
- Last Night When We Were Young (Fantasy, 1991)
- Talkin' Verve (Verve, 1996)
- Concerts in the Sun (Fantasy, 2002) (en directo)
- Cuban Fantasy (Fantasy, 2003)
- Cal Tjader Live At The Monterey Jazz Festival 1958-1980 (Concord, 2008) (en directo)
Tribute albums
- Louie RamirezLouie RamirezLouie Ramirez was a boogaloo, salsa and latin jazz percussionist, vibraphonist, band leader and composer. He was born on February 24, 1938 in New York City. He died on June 7, 1993...
: Tribute to Cal Tjader (Caimán, 1986) - Poncho SanchezPoncho SanchezPoncho Sanchez , a Mexican-American, is a conguero , Latin jazz band leader, and salsa singer. In 2000, Sanchez and his ensemble won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for their work on the Concord Picante album Latin Soul...
: Soul Sauce: Memories of Cal Tjader (Concord, 1995) - Paquito D'RiveraPaquito D'RiveraPaquito D'Rivera is a Cuban alto saxophonist, clarinetist and soprano saxophonist. The winner of multiple Grammys and other awards, D'Rivera has lived in the United States since the early 1980s. He has worked in a variety of contexts, but is perhaps best known for playing Latin...
and his Latin Jazz Ensemble with Louie Ramírez: A Tribute to Cal Tjader (Yemayá, 2003)
External links
- Soul Vibrations: The Cal Tjader Website
- The complete Cal Tjader discography from Music City
- Space Age Pop
- Cached history of Dr. Anton William Tjader, by Gary Tjader
- Excerpt from Early Tales and Sketches referring to Dr. Anton Tjader
- Downbeat's 1953 Critics Poll
- Poncho Sanchez: Straight-ahead Jazz With A Little Salsa On The Side