Billy Taylor - Cross-Section

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 36:33
Size: 84,8 MB
Art: Front

(2:49)  1. Eddie's Theme
(3:09)  2. Mood For Mendes
(2:55)  3. Lullaby Of Birdland
(3:25)  4. Goodbye
(2:59)  5. Tune For Tex
(3:48)  6. Moonlight In Vermont
(3:12)  7. Biddy's Beat
(2:51)  8. I'll Be Around
(2:56)  9. I Love To Mambo
(3:11) 10. Candido Mambo
(2:57) 11. Early Morning Mambo
(2:17) 12. Mambo Azul

For this CD reissue, pianist Billy Taylor is features on eight songs with his trio of 1954 (which included bassist Earl May and drummer Percy Brice); the four originals (which alternate with standards) were all dedicated to disc jockeys of the time. The trio was pretty tight with Taylor in the lead and, although boppish, it also looked back toward the swing era.

The remaining four numbers match Taylor and May with what was dubbed "Machito's Rhythm Section": Charlie Smith on conga, Joe Mangual on bongos, Uba Nieto playing timbales and Machito himself on maracas. The four mambos are ideal both for listening and for dance music. An enjoyable set. ~ Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/cross-section-mw0000203377

Personnel: Billy Taylor (piano); Machito (marimba, maracas); Charlie Smith (drums, congas); Percy Brice (drums); Ubaldo Nieto (congas, bongos, timbales); Chico Guerrero, Jose Mangual (congas, bongos); Claydes Smith (congas).

Cross-Section

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Machito Orchestra - Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 17:13
Size: 39.4 MB
Styles: Latin jazz
Year: 1951/2005
Art: Front

[2:54] 1. Cancion
[3:14] 2. Mambo
[2:39] 3. Mambo2
[2:11] 4. 6/8
[3:40] 5. Jazz
[2:33] 6. Rhumba Abierta

The Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite is largely remembered as a Norman Granz commission. The reason for this is that the legendary Charlie Parker participated in the first Suite, completed and recorded in December, 1950. Moreover, even many of the musical arts cognoscenti will recall this first Suite as music performed by Machito. Most listeners forget that it was Chico O’Farrill who wrote, arranged and conducted the piece first for Machito and his Afro-Cuban Orchestra. ~Raul de Gama

Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite

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Machito & His Afro-Cuban Orchestra - Vacation At The Concord

Styles: Afro-Cuban, Cha-Cha, Mambo 
Year: 1959
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 32:11
Size: 78,6 MB
Art: Front

(2:29)  1. Guaglione
(2:31)  2. Cocktails For Two
(2:29)  3. Patricia
(2:03)  4. El Aji Caribe
(2:39)  5. Me Lo Dijo Adela (Sweet And Gentle)
(2:36)  6. Mambo La Concord
(3:08)  7. The Continental (You Kiss While You're Dancing)
(3:07)  8. Torero
(2:54)  9. Estacy
(3:10) 10. Cha-Cha-Cha Loco
(2:46) 11. Cha-Cha
(2:12) 12. Cotillion Mambo

A decade after Afro-Cuban rhythms set the jazz world on fire, we find the maestro playing the Concord, a popular lakeside resort 90 miles north of New York City. So it is a "tourist" album, probably given away or sold as a souvenir. The liners and photos tell as much about where to find swimming director Buster Crabbe as Machito. For popular Latin, it has the top standards, as well as a few Machito surprises. The former includes obligatory covers of Perez Prado's smashes "Guaglione" and "Patricia," plus cha cha cha counterparts "Cocktails for Two" and "Rico Vacilon." Surprises include Johnny Conquet's "Estacy" and Italian-Chipmunks-bandleader Renato Corasone's "Torero." One title is particularly Afro-Cuban, "El Aji Caribe." It is an unusual album even for Machito. ~ Tony Wilds https://www.allmusic.com/album/vacation-at-the-concord-mw0000461283

Vacation At The Concord

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Herbie Mann - The Man

Time: 42:34
Size: 97.5 MB
Styles: Flute jazz
Year: 1995/2013
Art: Front

[4:05] 1. Perdido
[4:12] 2. Baubles, Bangles And Beads
[4:00] 3. Herbie's Buddy
[3:28] 4. Yesterdays
[2:33] 5. Here's Pete
[3:45] 6. Nancy (With The Laughing Face)
[2:28] 7. Morning After
[2:54] 8. African Flute
[4:28] 9. Bacao
[3:38] 10. Carabunta
[4:17] 11. Afro-Jazziac
[2:40] 12. Ring-A-Levio

This single budget CD reissues most of two early sessions by flutist Herbie Mann. Mann is teamed up with fellow flutist Buddy Collette on a cool-toned bop date that also includes pianist Jimmy Rowles, bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Mel Lewis. Both of the horns get to play a bit of tenor and clarinet, giving variety to the session. The second date matches Mann with the orchestra of Machito; tenor-saxophonist Johnny Griffin and trombonist Curtis Fuller also have a few solos. Nothing all that essential occurs and these dates are not quite complete but the music is reasonably enjoyable. ~Scott Yanow

The Man

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Machito - Mucho Machito

Bitrate: 320K/s

Time: 38:38

Size: 88.4 MB

Styles: Salsa, Latin jazz

Year: 2010

Art: Front

[2:31] 1. Adiós

[3:24] 2. Holiday Mambo

[3:03] 3. Bongo Fiesta

[3:00] 4. Mambo Mucho Mambo

[3:15] 5. Negro ñañamboro

[3:20] 6. Ay, Que Mate

[2:56] 7. Tin Tin Deo

[2:47] 8. Wild Jungle

[2:30] 9. Óyeme

[5:51] 10. Ring-A-Levio

[2:54] 11. Conversación

[3:02] 12. Kenya

Machito played a huge role in the history of Latin jazz, for his bands of the 1940s were probably the first to achieve a fusion of powerful Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazz improvisation. At its roaring best, the band had a hard-charging sound, loaded with jostling, hyperactive bongos and congas and razor-edged riffing brass. Machito was the front man, singing, conducting, shaking maracas, while his brother-in-law Mario Bauza was the innovator behind the scenes, getting Machito to hire jazz-oriented arrangers. The son of a cigar manufacturer, Machito became a professional musician in Cuba in his teens before he emigrated to America in 1937 as a vocalist with La Estrella Habanera. He worked with several Latin artists and orchestras in the late '30s, recording with the then-dominant Latin bandleader Xavier Cugat. After an earlier aborted attempt to launch a band with Bauza, Machito founded the Afro-Cubans in 1940, taking on Bauza the following year as music director where he remained for 35 years. After making some early 78s for Decca, the Afro-Cubans really began to catch on after the end of World War II, appearing with -- and no doubt influencing -- Stan Kenton's orchestra (Machito played maracas on Kenton's recordings of "The Peanut Vendor" and "Cuban Carnival") and recording some exciting sides for Mercury and Clef. Upon Bauza's urging, Machito's band featured a galaxy of American jazz soloists on its recordings from 1948 to 1960, including Charlie Parker (heard memorably on "No Noise"), Dizzy Gillespie, Flip Phillips, Howard McGhee, Buddy Rich, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Mann, Curtis Fuller and Johnny Griffin. Playing regularly at New York's Palladium, Machito's band reached its peak of popularity during the mambo craze of the 1950s, survived the upheavals of the '60s and despite the loss of Bauza in 1976, continued to work frequently in the '60s, '70s, and early '80s when the term "salsa" came into use. The band recorded for Pablo (in tandem with Gillespie) and Timeless in its later years, and was playing Ronnie Scott's club in London in 1984 when Machito suffered a fatal stroke. A documentary film by Carlo Ortiz, Machito: A Latin Jazz Legacy, was released in 1987. ~bio by Richard S. Ginnell

Mucho Machito  

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