Cal Tjader: "A Certain, Smooth Elegance"

Steven A. Cerra

“The vibraphone invites overplaying almost by its very nature. … Unlike a horn player, the vibraphonist is unable to sustain notes for very long, even with the help of vibrato and pedal. The vibes invite overplaying to compensate for such limitations. Added to these difficulties is the fact that … [they are played with] a hitting motion powered by the wrists. With the mastery of a steady drum roll, the aspiring vibraphonist is already capable of flinging out a flurry of notes and, given the repetitive motions used to build up drum technique, the vibes player is tempted to lock into a ‘steady stream’… [of notes].

Tjader’s playing, however, was nothing like this. Although he was a drummer and percussionist by background, he seemed to draw on the instincts of a horn player in shaping his improvised lines. They did breathe.”

“The disparate strains in his playing [influences ranging from Lionel Hampton to Milt Jackson; one a banger the other a bopper] came out most clearly in his Jazz work. Where Tjader melded them into a melodic, often introspective style that was very much his own. Even when playing more high-energy Latin numbers Tjader kept a low-key demeanor, building off the intensity of the rhythm section rather than trying to supplant it. For the most part, he came across as an introvert on an instrument meant for extroverts.” - Ted Gioia, West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960, pp.103-104].

"No matter how extensive the ear's training or experience," … "there is in Tjader's art a kind of hypnotic sophistication rare in any music. For those who can experience it, he is 'Tjader le Grand.' - Heuwell Tircuit, Music Critic, 1973

“Cal was a very sophisticated musician, a real jazz player. He had a lot of feeling. There are a lot of vibe players out there that aren't really playing on that level. There are very few of them that can play a ballad the way that Cal did. By the time I met Cal, there were certainly [lots] of guys who could do unheard of things with the instrument technically. But there were not very many people that were interested in just expressing themselves in an artistic fashion."

- Scott Hamilton, Jazz tenor saxophonist

"[Cal had] a wonderful sense of rhythm, harmony and time.... He was 100 percent into the music.... His musical ideas flowed so effortlessly.... [Following the early pioneers], Cal set the standard by which all vibe players would be measured.... He was a great teacher, but not of the classroom type. He taught by example and I think that's probably the greatest way to teach.... I believe I would have been much the greater musician if I had worked more with Cal." - Hank Jones, Jazz pianist

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The Cal Tjader - Stan Getz Sextet

by Steven Cerra.
Although the title of this feature is very formal, in reality, the Cal Tjader - Stan Getz quartet was never a working group.

 It was a “one off” that came together to produce a February 1958 Fantasy LP with the same title as this piece [Fantasy F-3266/OJCCD-275-2].

 In today’s terms, the sextet on The Cal Tjader-Stan Getz Sextet was a hybrid made up of two players from vibraphonist Cal Tjader’s regular working group at the time - pianist Vince Guaraldi and guitarist Eddie Duran - and two musicians from the quartet then on tour with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz - bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Billy Higgins.

 Ralph J. Gleason offers this background as to how the LP came about in his insert notes to the recording:

 “WHEN STAN GETZ played the Black Hawk in San Francisco ..., the time was ripe for the recording of an album that had been under discussion for a long, long time.

 Cal Tjader had been an admirer of Stan Getz ever since the latter first shot to national jazz fame as the tenor saxophone star of the Woody Herman band and Stan had heard Cal and played with him at various sessions since Cal first went out as a member of the Dave Brubeck Trio. However, recording Stan with the Tjader group wasn't easy. They never seemed to be in the same part of the country at the same time. It wasn't until Stan came to the Black Hawk to fulfill a short engagement, during a period when Cal was laying off prior to reforming his group, that it was possible to work it out.

 Getz' group at the Black Hawk featured two young jazz players who were totally unknown then: bassist Scotty LaFaro and drummer Billy Higgins. But they gassed Tjader as they had gassed everyone who heard them in the club. And it was decided to use them on the date along with Vince Guaraldi, Tjader's regular pianist, and Eddie Duran, the wonderful young guitarist who has been growing in stature in recent years for his in-person appearances and his work on his Fantasy albums.
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Cal Tjader: Breeze From the East

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

It's somewhat unfair to peg Cal Tjader's 1960s albums as "lounge" or "space-age pop." Artists who most often come to mind when these contempo-retro terms are used today are Les Baxter, Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman. Tjader's vibes and the types of albums he recorded in the '60s were more sophisticated and jazzy than the typical umbrella-drink albums that exotica artists cranked-out.

Yet Tjader's output during this period certainly belongs in the pop camp—perhaps jazz-pop would be closer to the mark. One album that is a perfect antidote to the recent heat here on the East Coast of the U.S. is Breeze From the East. Recorded for Verve in November 1963, three days after the assassination of President Kennedy, the album featured Jerry Dodgion (fl), Cal Tjader (vib), Dick Hyman (org), Lonnie Hewitt (p), Stan Applebaum (celeste,arr,dir), two unknown guitarists, George Duvivier (b) and an unknown drummer and timbales player. 

What places this album a cut above the standard bachelor-pad fare is the merging of hip go-go beats with smart jazz instrumentation. The date's arranger was Stanley Applebaum, who orchestrated many of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's hits with the Drifters and Ben E. King in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including There Goes My Baby, Spanish Harlem and Stand By Me.

But the charts on Breeze From the East are quite unlike Applebaum's earlier R&B frames. Here, he takes artistic risks by building sly and playful instrumental textures, such as teaming Tjader's vibes with Dick Hyman's groovy organ. Or placing the vibes against gong cymbals and Hewitt's cool and funky block-chord piano attack that includes a Sidewinder-y riff. Interestingly,The Sidewinder would be recorded in the same studio just weeks later by Lee Morgan.

Every tune on this album has a South-Seas-meets-Birdland feel, leveraging a complex cocktail of dreamy adult pop and sophisticated cinematic and discotheque touches. Standards likeStar Dust, Poinciana and East of the Sun are given this treatment. So are smart originals by Applebaum including Sake and Greens, Cha and Shoji.

Which brings us to the album's appealing twist: The tracks all were arranged with bossa, go-go beats ornamented by Asian scales and percussion. Given the Far East premise, the album's results are as savvy as they are fascinating. What you hear are the types of songs that were written into James Bond movies when Double-0 Seven is pulled into doing the Watusi with a stunner at a Tokyo or Shanghai disco. [Pictured above and below: Cal Tjader]

Highly sophisticated stuff? Well, it's not exactly Gary McFarland or Oliver Nelson. But it's extremely dynamic and an ideal way to offset excessive humidity. I also can tell you that Breeze From the East goes great with air conditioning and a tall iced tea filled with square cubes and crushed mint.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Cal Tjader's Breeze From the Eastteamed with Tjader's Several Shades of Jade, arranged by Lalo Schifrin, on a two-fer that's available as a CD or download at Amazon here. Breeze From the East starts with track #10.

JazzWax clip: Here's Cha from Breeze From the East...
Used with permission by Marc Myers

Cal Tjader crafted one the sleekest and most distinctive sounds in Latin jazz

Born: July 16, 1925
Died: May 5, 1982

Cal Tjader crafted one the sleekest and most distinctive sounds in Latin jazz. His cool, shimmering, jazz vibes, gliding fluidly atop fiery, hot Afro-Cuban rhythms, made for a sonic signature that helped introduce the genre into a mainstream audience.

Cal Tjader's mother was a concert pianist, his father a vaudeville performer. He grew up with them on the road, tap-dancing his way through early childhood. Later, the family settled down in San Mateo on the San Francisco Peninsula, and his father opened a dancing school. After high school and a stint in the Navy, Cal ended up at San Francisco State College, where he first met up with Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond.

Tjader graduated in 1950 with a B.A. in education and a minor in music. With Brubeck, Tjader hit the big time and he liked it. The years between 1949 and 1951 were spent with Brubeck. Then, after a short stint as leader of his own group, Cal joined George Shearing's Quintet as featured vibraphonist and percussionist. While with Shearing Cal made frequent trips to New York and began listening to the Latin New York bands of Tito Puente and Machito.

When Tjader left Shearing, he formed his own group again and began to record prolifically for Fantasy. Between 1954 and 1962, Tjader cut a series of over 20 albums for Fantasy. The list of people who recorded with him during that time is truly impressive. Some are Eddie Palmieri, (on whom he had a major influence) Vince Guaraldi, Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, Stan Getz, Al McKibbon, Armando Peraza, Latin percussionist Johnnie Rae, and saxophonist Paul Horn. Many of those albums are still in the Fantasy catalog. He then signed on with Verve in 1963, and continued on a roll.

Tjader's biggest-selling record was "Soul Sauce." Cal recalls, "I recorded that for MGM/ Verve in 1964. And it's very strange, in a way, because I first started playing that tune in San Francisco clubs ten years earlier, in 1954. Then ten years later, it's a hit in New York. You tell me! Willie Bobo played jawbone on that one, and Al McKibbon played congas. It was originally called 'Guachi Guara' but we knew that name wouldn't make it, so we just called it Soul Sauce."

Tjader re-signed with Fantasy Records in 1970. Some of his varied recordings for Fantasy include a collaborative effort with Charlie Byrd "Tambu," ('73) and an exciting live performance "Puttin' It Together." ('75) His much-acclaimed "Amazonas," ('75) was produced by Airto, with arrangements from keyboard wizard George Duke.

He signed with Concord Picante in '79, and his first album for them "La Onda Va Bien," won a Grammy award in 1979. Concord released "The Best of the Concord Years, 1979-1982," in 2004, as a compilation of his last recordings. There are several reviews on this set here at 'all about jazz.' Cal Tjader also worked with a great variety of groups and formats, as with Carmen Mcrae, Mary Stallings, Modern Mambo Quintet, and his Quartet, with which he opted for a more straight ahead jazz direction. His recorded output was immense, and many are readily available as his popularity has remained unabated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK9nefsYxeU