These are three songs I can hear any time and I’ll just stop whatever I’m doing. The first is “Lanza Tus Penas Al Viento”, a gorgeous big band version of Vince Guaraldi’s “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”, from the LP Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus. The artist is Frank “El Pavo” Hernandez, an underappreciated genius and son of Venezuela. El Pavo (‘The Kid”) was already a brilliant percussionist in his teens, when he joined Aldemaro Romero’s Big Band (One of the top 5 big bands in the Antilles, per the older cats I consult)
El Pavo moved to NY in the ’60s and studied with Henry Adler, and was apparently one of the only people Tito Puente would allow to spell him on timbales with Tito’s Orquesta. El Pavo returned to VZ to rejoin Romero on his influential Onda Nueva recordings (marrying Jazz, Bossa Nova and traditional Venezuelan Joropo) of the late ’60s, and also recorded a couple of heavy and rare LPs of his own.
During this entire time, El Pavo was losing his sight until he eventually became completely blind. Here is a photo I took of El Pavo with timbales legend Alfredo Padilla (of Los Dementes, Dimension Latina and Oscar de Leon) in 2005:
The next song is “Ballade” by Charles Fox, from the remarkable Just for Fun LP (1963). Fox, a pianist/arranger/composer of Israelite descent (what, you’d rather I called him a “Jewish pianist?”), studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and was later the composer of the theme from Love Boat (!).
His session charanga (I don’t believe they played live) included the legendary Bobby Rodriguez on bass (The older, Tampa-born Cuban, who played with Machito and who is said to have introduced Hector Lavoe to Heroin) , Frankie Malabe on Congas, Louie Ramirez on Vibes and Guiro and Vocals by Rudy Calzado, Eliot Romero and Manny Roman.
The liners say “Ballade: which is a bolero, introduces a new and extraordinary mood, set by the wanderings of the piano. The release is to a cha cha, the piece returns to the bolero and goes on to 6/8 jazz-like figures growing out of the already established rhythm.” (The 6/8 rhythm is a “Mozambique”, interesting that they did not call it that in the liners or refer to the Carnavales in Oriente from which it originated).
Finally, here is “Juanita Bonita” by Don Marino Barreto Jr., which I first heard on a funky little 10 inch record I traded with a wonderful graphic artist/record collector named Gil Vega (QEPD) in a tough barrio of San Jose, Costa Rica.
Marino Barreto (who confusingly had a half brother of the same name who was also an emigre musician in Europe) was a Cuban (Matanzas) singer and bassist who moved to Italy in 1949 and had a number of pop hits there in the ’60s and ’70s. He must have toured and recorded in France with his half brother in the ’50s or ’60s as I have another 10 inch and LP from them on French labels. Anyone who can clarify here would be appreciated. Disfruten!