Desde La Bahia - TT: From the Bay Area

Latin Beat Magazine, Dec, 2001 by Jesse Varela

SOUL SAUCE! If Ken Burns' JAZZ had explored the cross-pollination of jazz with Afro-Cuban rhythms, he would have crossed Calle Broadway into North Beach in San Francisco and found the pivotal contributions of Cal Tjader's Latin Jazz Quintet. Tjader died May 5, 1982 in the Philippines, but in the 1950s and 1960s he was one of the city's most important musical exports, with a unique Latin jazz sound that fused the cool of the west with the driving Afro-Cuban beats of the east.

On Saturday, September 15, Arriba Juntos (the non-profit job-training program based in the San Francisco Mission) presented a tribute to the San Mateo-raised vibraphonist with an all-star concert held at the Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium. Hosted by Grammy-winning conga drummer-bandleader Poncho Sánchez, the cast included Tjader alumni and devotees of this pivotal instrumentalist who began his career at the Blackhawk jazz club at Turk & Hyde with the original Dave Brubeck Trio.

Present were luminaries such as Baseball Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, composer/pianist Clare Fischer, Bay Area salsa pioneers Benny Velarde and Manny Duran, and Tjader's Grammy-winning 1980 combo: Rob Fisher (bass), Mark Levine (piano), Vince Lateano and Pete Riso (drums), Roger Glenn (flute) and Poncho Sánchez. Conga drum great Mongo Santamaría was to perform, but after the September11 attack could not get transportation out to the Bay Area.

The evening began with The Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble under the direction of John Calloway. The group featured the talents of flautist Daniel Riera and vibist Sam Ferguson (a first year UC Berkeley student who came out of the award winning Berkeley High School Jazz Band).

The group interpreted several outstanding Tjader and Latin jazz classics that also included Kyle Athaide and Cara Pardo on vibraphone. The rhythm section swung way beyond their teen years with a seasoned cohesion on the tunes Sabor and Sofrito.

From there, a smorgasbord of Tjaderama emerged--Clare Fischer with a lush rendition of Memories of You; the originals Velarde and Duran on a cubop romp of Mambo Inn; Orlando Cepeda talking about the honor of having Tjader compose Viva Cepeda for him, and the virtuosi Rubén Estrada on vibraphone throughout, with the Grammy winners shining brightly on Levine's Linda Chicana and others. Sánchez and his Latin jazz band served up a solid performance, proving why they are keepers of the flame. A rousing finale descarga of Soul Sauce (Guachi Guara) with Santana percussionist Karl Perazzo leaving trails of smoke on timbales, left the several hundred people wanting more.

Kudos to Mauricio Avilés, who produced the event. No doubt it would have sold out if not for the horrific events that occurred justa few days earlier. Yet for those there, it was a special concert that honored Cal Tjader and bis music and left a healing effect from the national grief that shocked the country. Thank you Arriba Juntos!

MONGO! Mongo Santamaría was notable to participate since air transportation was shut down. In a phone conversation with him a few days prior, he had stressed he really wanted to be there. While Tjader's initial mix was of jazz standards with Latin rhythms, his second quintet in 1958 with Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaría was the most authentic. Exceptional musicianship with originals such as Afro Blue set a foundation that inspired future generations.

"Willie Bobo and I were playing with Tito Puente at the Palladium Ballroom when we met Cal Tjader," recalled Mongo Santamaría from his home in Miami, Florida. "Our contract was about to run out with Tito and right there, Tjader asked us if we would come out to San Francisco and join his group. Plans were made and both me and Willie came out to join his quintet."

Born in 1925, in St. Louis, Missouri, of Swedish descent, Tjader was often called the Latin Swede. His parents were vaudevillians who taught him to dance as a young boy and they raised him in San Mateo where they ran a dance studio. He got his first taste of Latin when he traveled back east as part of the George Shearing Quintet in the early 1950s. He heard Puente playing vibes in a Latin jazz context and it sparked an idea.

He returned to San Francisco and formed a small group that fused both jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms, with the vibes as its principal melodic voice. The creation of his Modern Mambo Quintet in 1954 began a life long excursion into exploring these unique combinations. An exceptional player, he soon out-grew bis supporting talent.

What Santamaría and Bobo brought to the mix was a teacher-student relationship that was well versed in Afro-Cuban secular and non-secular music, and innovations such as mambo and Latin jazz. Santamaría met Bobo when he was 13 or 14 years old and taught him everything he knew. What they gave Tjader was an authentic sound that swung with a stronger dance groove that allowed room for improvisational freedom.

"That was a transcendent moment in music. Nobody had ever done what we did in a quintet setting. And we did great things. During my time, pianists Vince Guaraldi and Lonnie Hewitt were part of the band and we all became great friends. Willie and I never practiced, but we did things that left Cal Tjader amazed. It was like we knew what we were going to do before doing it."