Latin Jazz, Afro-Cuban Jazz

While the notion of "Latin jazz" seems natural enough today, the union of Afro-Cuban rhythm and American jazz melody has not always been a happy one. Many attempts at fusing the two have sounded either forced or just the opposite: jazz horns soloing blithely over Latin dance rhythms.

The greats of jazz were the most successful at both incorporating Afro-Cuban rhythms and creating new sounds reflecting the spirit of various Latin American countries. In January, 1947 Machito's Afro-Cubans shared a ground-breaking bill in New York with the Stan Kenton Orchestra. While Kenton eventually recorded Cuban Fire, it was Machito's outfit that produced the talent and legacy.

Prior to 1947, trumpeter Mario Bauza had persuaded Machito to hire Dizzy Gillespie. Gillespie credited Bauza, Machito's chief arranger, for teaching him Afro-Cuban rhythms. By the end of 1947 Gillespie was writing the book of Latin jazz. The monsters "Manteca" and "Guarachi Guaro" were compositions of Gillespie and Chano Pozo, the incendiary, short-lived percussionist who was mentor to Sabu and a generation of Latin-jazz drummers.

While dance orchestras were scrambling to capitalize on the mambo craze, Afro-Cuban jazz had its golden age. Sessions with such superstars as Gillespie, Parker, Hank Mobley, and Flip Phillips, were recorded under the supervision of Norman Granz. From 1948 on, Chico O'Farrill dominated the writing for Machito, Kenton, Gillespie, and others. He arranged "Manteca Suite" for 1954's Afro lp, the culmination of the Granz-Gillespie years.

Sabu's records of 1957 and 1960 are milestones of the next generation of Latin jazz. In this period of high-fidelity recording, nearly everyone tried rhythms from Afro-Cuban to bossa nova, with varying degrees of success. One of the biggest hits in the 1960s for Cal Tjader, incidentally, was the bossa nova, "Soul Sauce," a revival of "Guarachi Guaro." Finally, Duke Ellington's later Latin American Suite reaffirmed that impressionism is stronger than percussionism.

Latin jazz in the slick age of early stereo tried to outgrow the horn-solos-with-bongos baggage, and odd suites or short "mambo jazz" pieces occassionally succeeded. Cubans went jazz (returning the tribute) while most of the "mod" acts of the second half of the 1960s either revived the Pozo-era classics or adapted contemporary jazz and Latin tunes. While California placed a distant second to New York jazz generally, in Latin jazz it held its own, thanks largely to Cal Tjader and Bobby Montez.