After breaking his leg as a child, Harlem born Gilberto Miguel Calderon gave up stickball for the congas. He never considered them a profession until he attended a Tito Puente concert in 1950. A chance meeting with Puente after that show led to a lifetime friendship and the motivation for Calderon to leave law for a career in music.
Four years later, and the Joe Cuba Sextet (Calderon was actually of Puerto Rican descent) was born. They would become a landmark act in the Latin music scene, with their two influential hits “El Pito (I'll Never Go Back to Georgia)” and “Bang! Bang!”. “So What?” was recorded and released in 1965 on the Secco record label. It’s a deep track from Joe Cuba’s 14th album Comin’ At You, and is an excellent example of just what his Sextette could do. We lost Calderon in 2009 but his influence on the Latin “boogaloo” sound from New York will never be forgotten.
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Spring is in full swing and perfect timing for this week’s hidden gem.
A Passing Fancy was a Canadian group based in Toronto, Ontario and led by singer-songwriter and guitarist James Telfer and keyboardist Brian Price. After they had a string of singles released by Columbia Records in 1967 with moderate success, Price left the group to pursue a career in dentistry and Telfer was fired by their management team. “I believe In Sunshine” was written by music engineer Greg Hambleton and was their highest charting Canadian single. It was added onto their only full-length album which was released a year later on Boo! Records. We lost James Telfer in 2009, but this wonderful song will hopefully live on as a celebration of all things sunny. I’ve been keeping my eye on Jess Smyth, aka Biig Piig, ever since I heard “Pingu” back in 2019. That song was a somber number, with fantastic lyrics and production that harkened back to the trip hop days of the 90’s, and I loved it.
Bubblegum is Smyth and her talented collective’s latest release and “Picking Up” is the third single from the fantastic mixtape. It features the ever-talented Deb Never, and although the lyrics seem to deal with the loss of a relationship, I think the music is more of a celebration of how we move on from loss and a celebration of these two talented ladies. https://www.biig-piig.com/ http://debnever.com/ When you think of the iconic pop songs from the 1980’s, Romeo Void’s “Never Say Never” has to be on that list. It's sultry, danceable, and catchy as hell. It’s also a song that ended up catering to the nightclub elite, even though it was recorded by what Columbia Record executives considered an “overweight” singer who they wanted removed or blurred from any promotional materials.
Romeo Void was formed in San Francisco in 1979 and quickly signed a contract with 415 Records. They garnered critical attention with their first release, and by 1981 were recording with Rick Ocasek. In between these sessions, they were improvising an instrumental encore at a show in a Boston nightclub. Ocasek loved what he heard and nearly pulled the band off the stage to get them back into the studio. The basic chords from their on stage improvisation became “Never Say Never,” their first top 25 dance hit. It wasn’t long before Romeo Void was signed over from 415 Records to Columbia and even less time before Columbia stopped supporting them. Their reason for this? Romeo Void’s “overweight” singer… In an industry that is based on what is heard and not seen, it always bothered me that a group as talented as Romeo Void, with actual chart success, was still a casualty of vanity and mis-marketing. Before Bob Marley married Rita Anderson and moved to the US in 1966, he produced her, along with two of her childhood friends, as backup singers for the various groups recording at Studio One.
After they returned to Jamaica, she started singing again with the Soulettes, and scored some minor ska hits on the island and in the UK with “Opportunity,” “One More Chance,” and “Friends And Lovers”. “Turn! Turn! Turn!” was recorded in 1966 at Studio One. It’s a raw but kindhearted version of Pete Seeger’s classic plea for world peace. Wherever good music was being created, from The Jazz Messengers or Miles Davis to Joni Mitchell and Carlos Santana, saxophonist Wayne Shorter seemed to be there. He always hit the right note, never got in the way of an arrangement, and tied the music together.
“Three Blind Mice" is the title track from the 1962 album released by United Artists Records. It’s a playful take on the nursey rhyme, arranged by trombonist Curtis Fuller, and showcases the talents of Mr. Shorter and his ability to shine without taking away from others. We lost this brilliant and accomplished musician this past Thursday at the age of 89. He helped guide Jazz from the heights of Hard Bop, through the Avant Garde / Fusion / Psychedelic periods, and even into the near present day. His seventy year career is a testament to the genre and his ability to make each recording that much better. Extreme music, especially metal, typically gets a bad rap. Instruments and vocals are often heavily distorted and the imagery used alerts school psychologists, counselors, and at one point the PMRC. But if each of these groups had just read the lyrics to most of these songs, they would have found them to be antiwar and anti-corporation, with ideals that championed integration, peace, and dare I say it, love.
Unseen Terror was formed in 1986 by Mitch Dickinson and Shane Embury. Pete Giles, Mick Harris, Wayne Aston, and Carl Stokes would each perform with the group, but on their debut album Human Error, it was only the two original members. Named after the radiation from the Chernobyl disaster, Unseen Terror is considered one of the originators of grindcore. “Divisions” is the 3rd song from Human Error. It’s a raw, classic grindcore track that wears its hardcore punk influences with pride. It’s also a song with lyrics that denounce racism and classism. To differentiate themselves from the car and bird-named groups of the era, vocalists James Campbell, Dallas Taylor, Bernard Dixon, Walter Stephenson, and Richard Thomas came up with the Danderliers, a reference to the dandelion flower. After a string of failed auditions from various Chicago recording companies, producer Sam Smith of United Records was allegedly driving through Washington Park when he heard the group singing. He then hauled them into his brother Al’s basement to rehearse. Weeks later, we got “Chop Chop Boom”.
“Chop Chop Boom” was recorded at Universal and released in 1955 on the States record label. What stands out to me on this number is the beautiful musicianship, most likely performed by bassist Al Smith (Sam’s brother), Red Holloway (sax), Lefty Bates (guitar), and drummer Vernel Fournier (who would go on to perform with Ahmad Jamal). I especially love the interplay between the musicians during the guitar solo and how the song fades out into a reverb wash. Like the 1970’s, the 1990’s was a decade filled with musical experimentation. Subgenres of dance and funk, as well as metal and electronic music changed the industry while blaring down college hallways and airwaves.
Not lost among this creativity were a slew of fantastic British rock bands, adding their noisy, “shoegazing” effects. Among this near third invasion was Echobelly, a shimmery, layered pop group, with a stunning front woman and sinfully catchy songs to match. “Dark Therapy” was released in February of 1996 as their third single from their second album On. It’s a downtempo number that takes its time getting to a brilliant chorus. It’s also a single that the record label never believed in, but to this day it’s one of my all-time favorites and should have received much more attention. |
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