Cachaito!!!! The perfect summer album!!
Yes I went there. Rarely have I ever heard something so vivid that it paints a picture right in your brain...musically! Before I delve in this album, I've to say that it is a refreshing, light, airy, and yet challenging work.
1. Siempre Con Swing (intro)
2. Redencion
3. Mis Dos Pequenas
4. A Gozar El Tumbao
5. Cachaito In Laboratory
6. Tumbao No. 5
7. Conversacion
8. Tumbanga
9. Oracion Lucumi
10. Wahira
11. Anais
12. La Negra
As a whole, this album may not appeal to a few listeners who expect the same 50s style Cuban music made famous by Buena Vista Social Club. Though Cachaito was a member of that famed lineup of musicians, he, as an artist, is human, and as such is constantly evolving.
This album is a beautiful step forward in that evolutionary process as we witness descarga (in itself a blend of jazzy improvisation with afro-cuban rhythms) with be-bop, hip-hop, funk, and 'psychadelia-atmospheric/airy' guitar and organ sounds (for the lack of a better term.)
Further on view is an interesting blend of some other instruments not commonly used in standard afro-cuban music; with the violin, a stringed instrument called the pizzicato, and other various 'alien' sounds, if you don't like the music, you'll at least leave with deeply interested ears (and believe me they'll thank you for the experience.)
I'll now attempt to give a brief summary of each track:
1.) Siempre con Swing> the album begins with a brief telephone conversation...
2.) Rendencion>...leading into a curiously inquisitive bass line. You suddenly feel the pull in by the violin, and the flute comes in to lead you through the track. The piano and flute play off each other, but a key sound for me was the accent on the timbale drum that sounds like a summer barbeque and your friend cracking open the cooler of tasty cold beverages.
3.) Mis Dos Pequenas> starts with a standard latin chord progression on the organ. The first improvisation/solo is on the violin-sounding very similar to the "Flight of the Bumblebee." The guitar soon takes over, and you're transported to a West African music festival, with period cowbell kicks bringing in the spice.
4.) A Gozar el Tumbao> starts with a cowbell timbale and bongo medley. Personally this is one of favourite songs percussively. An infectiously catchy base line comes in, and the hawaiian surf guitar overtones really add a beachy feel to the song. It reminds of a lizard running around on a really hot rock on a calm beach. The music seems to really accent this duality of tension and calm.
5.) Cachaito in the Laboratory> the first experiment with descarga and hip hop. It's unique to say the least, and the bass line is excellent. Seems like a reference to some rap songs ("...back to the lab, I got a habbit, no you can't solve it, you silly rabbit...")
6.) Tumbao no. 5 (para Charlie Mingus)> the initial bass line with the percussion ensemble should really get you dancing, unless you're dead. As you can guess, this is Cachaito's tribute to jazz great and bass extrodinaire Charles Mingus. An interesting part of this song is somewhere midway where it suddenly switches from hot Cuban night, to smokey Chicago nightclub, while a more jazzy pattern is employed on the ride cymbol, and Cachaito starts playing Mingus' classic "Haitian Fight Song."
7.) Conversacion> this song is more arrhythmic and focusses more on the instrumental improvisation between the flute and guitar. Words can't really describe it, but the interplay is phenominal. It progresses to a really funky Cuban grove while the two instruments interplay.
8.) Tumbanga> begins with another really catchy bass line; as the bongos come in you think it's another standard cuban song, but the trumpet and organ hits you out of left field, and you're literally transported into a hammock with a nice cold one. No more worries, I mean it; words cannot express how moved I was by this song.
9.) Oracion Lucumi> begins with a rhythmic introduction, and the melody played a remarkably airy stringed instrument. If I've not gotten my facts wrong, this new instrument is called the pizzicato; the song seems to be a Lucumi melody; the Lucumi are an indigineous tribe of Cuba. Anyway the music seems somehow Amazonian. The picture I keep thinking of are tall canopies and a jaguar running across a waterfall.
10.) Wahira> this is a traditional Cuban standard. If you've the Afro-Cuban All Stars' first CD, this is the first song on it. The song is a tale that a man recites to his son about love and life-to my knowledge. It begins, however, distinctively more 'funky'; owing in part to the guitar comming in with a wah-wah pedal. The saxaphone and guitar exchange in telling the story by interplaying with one another.
11.) Anais> is one of my other favourite rhythmic songs on this album. It starts almost like a Miami Vice type feeling, but progresses into a heavily rhythmic section with the bongoist serioursly gettin' his groove on. The guitar, organ, and pizzicato play a few notes over, but the rhythmic ensemble's what drives it forward for me. The melody almost seems to try to hold back the tense and increasingly furious rhythm elements further back, and finally the rhythm ebbs to a quieter period only to surge forward with everything in full force.
12.) La Negra> ends like a party track in front of a live audience where all the musicians are introduced once again.
Prarararating:
