'Afro-Cuban Jazz' Bands // p 1 of 1

Har-You Percussion Group

The 101 Strangest Records on Spotify: Har-You Percussion Group - Har-You Percussion Group

Forming after the Harlem Riots of 1964, Har-You make Afro-Cuban sounds with furious and hip-shakingly groovesome rhythms

If you've ever wondered whether the world has changed a bit since the late summer of 1969, or whether it's basically the same, your answer will lie in this record and one of its contemporary reviews. "Here is a young, unknown group of musicians from Harlem," US music industry bible Billboard wrote in the last August of the 1960's. "[They've] pooled their talents to prove to the world that ghettos can produce more than shiftless undesirables." Wow, well there's a phrase to conjure with. Of course, it's hard to tell whether the unnamed writer was going for humour, but - either way - there's nothing funny about this LP. Funky, yes. Furious, yes. Hip-shakingly groovesome, yes. Awesomely enthusiastic, yes. Funny? Not so much.

Produced by legendary Jamaican jazz percussionist and drummer Roger "Montego Joe" Sanders and released by ESP Disk, this is a fantastically dynamic blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms with richly melodic jazz overtones, capturing the sound of people on the cusp of becoming great players. The horn-section in Tico is together and on the beat, but not quite confident enough to stretch out, while the gloriously full-steam-ahead attack of Santa Cruz threatens to derail itself but never does. Har-You began life as Harlem Youth Unlimited, a community group put together by Sanders after the Harlem Riots of 1964. On the audio track that accompanies this edition of the LP he described the group as "emotionally unstable young men with no inspiration and no place to go" and the record was meant to show those who held the city's purse strings that many people who had been written off and ignored would be much better listened to and appreciated. You have to hope that, after a showing like this, they were. Of course, despite the goodwill, the stinging Latin percussion and the powerful R&B horn riffs, no one really bought it, but the track Welcome To The Party - thanks to its ebullient brilliance and insane rarity - grew into a huge rare-groove club hit, one big enough to ensure this wonderful album was never forgotten. An original will cost you £500, by the way. So up yours, anonymous critic.

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Orchestra Baobab

Orchestra Baobab is a Senegalese band established in 1970 as the house band of the Baobab Club in Dakar. Many of the band's original members had previously played with Star Band de Dakar in the 1960s. Directed by timbalero and vocalist Balla Sidibe, the group features saxophonists Issa Cissoko and Thierno Koité, two singers, two guitarists and a rhythm section with drums, congas and bass guitar. Since their formation, the band has predominantly played a mix of son cubano, Wolof music, and to a lesser extent Mande musical traditions.

Orchestra Baobab became one of the dominant African bands of the 1970s, recording 20 albums before their breakup in 1987, which occurred as a result of the increase in popularity of mbalax, a more contemporary genre of Senegalese music. In the years following their disbandment, World Circuit released several of their albums on CD, making the band very popular among world music fans in the UK and the rest of Europe. This prompted their reformation in 2001, which was followed by the recording of a new album, Specialist in All Styles. The group continues to tour extensively and has released two more studio albums, Made in Dakar (2007) and Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng (2017).

Many of the original members were veterans of the famous Star Band, whose alumni later included the Étoile de Dakar, El Hadji Faye and Youssou N’Dour. Star Band were the resident band of the upscale Dakar Miami Club. When the Baobab Club opened in Dakar in 1970, six musicians, led by saxophonist Baro N'Diaye, were lured from Star Band and the Orchestra Baobab was born. The club, in turn, is named for the baobab tree (Adansonia).

The original frontmen of the band were the Casamance singers Balla Sidibe and Rudy Gomis, who came from the melting pot of Casamance musical styles, and most famously Laye M'Boup, who provided vocals in the Wolof griot style. His Wolof language lyrics and his soaring, nasal voice defined the sound of Baobab's early hits. Togolese guitarist and arranger Barthélémy Attisso was a law student in Dakar, and a self-taught musician, whose arpeggiated runs became instantly recognizable. With the saxophone of N'Diaye, this was the first core of the band. After touring Cameroon in 1971, N'Diaye was replaced by tenor saxophonist Issa Cissoko, who became leader of the band, and was joined by clarinettist Peter Udo. Both Cissoko and drummer Mountaga Koité were from Maninka griot families, from Mali and eastern Senegal, respectively. The group's lineup was rounded out by the slow groove Latin styles of Latfi Benjeloum (rhythm guitar), who came from a Moroccan family exiled to Saint-Louis, Senegal, and Charlie N'Diaye (bass) from Casamance.

The group's first recodings were released as Orchestre Saf Mounadem on a split album with Orchestre Laye Thiam, another band of ex-Star Band musicians. Attisso is credited as musical director, and singers Balla Sidibe and Medoune Diallo (who had stayed with the Star Band a bit longer than the others), along with Issa Cissoko are also credited on the cover. Like most of the recordings by Star Band, the album was produced by Ibrahim Kassé, and was later reissued in France under the title Star Band de Dakar Vol. 7.

Their first two albums under the name Orchestra Baobab, were recorded at the Baobab Club between 1970 and 1972, and self-produced by the band. Both bear the title Orchestre du Baobab.

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Ray Barretto

Ray Barretto (April 29, 1929 – February 17, 2006) was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican ancestry. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Latin jazz. His first hit, "El Watusi", was recorded by his Charanga Moderna in 1962, becoming the most successful pachanga song in the United States. In the late 1960s, Barretto became one of the leading exponents of boogaloo and what would later be known as salsa. Nonetheless, many of Barretto's recordings would remain rooted in more traditional genres such as son cubano. A master of the descarga (improvised jam session), Barretto was a long-time member of the Fania All-Stars. His success continued into the 1970s with songs such as "Cocinando" and "Indestructible." His last album for Fania Records, Soy dichoso, was released in 1990. He then formed the New World Spirit jazz ensemble and continued to tour and record until his death in 2006.

Life and career

Early years

Barretto (his real name, "Barreto", was misspelled on his birth certificate) was born on April 29, 1929, in New York City. His parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico in the early 1920s, looking for a better life. His father left their family when Barretto was four, and his mother Delores moved the family to the Bronx, and from a young age he was influenced by his mother's love of music and by the jazz of Duke Ellington and Count Basie.

In 1946, when Barretto was 17 years old, he joined the Army. While stationed in Germany, he met Belgian vibraphonist Fats Sadi. However, it was when he heard Dizzy Gillespie's "Manteca" with Gil Fuller and Chano Pozo that he realized his calling.

Beginnings as a sideman

In 1949, when Barretto returned home from military service, he started to visit clubs and participated in jam sessions, where he perfected his conga playing. On one occasion Charlie Parker heard Barretto play and invited him to play in his band. Later, he was asked to play for José Curbelo and Tito Puente, for whom he played for four years. It was in 1958, while playing for Puente, that Barretto received his first recoding credit. Barretto developed a unique style of playing the conga and soon he was sought by other jazz band leaders. Latin percussionists started to appear in jazz groups with frequency as a consequence of Barretto's musical influence.

Charanga Moderna and rise to fame

In 1960, Barretto was a house musician for the Prestige, Blue Note, and Riverside labels. He also recorded on Columbia Records with Jazz flautist Herbie Mann. New York had become the center of Latin music in the United States and a musical genre called pachanga was the Latin music craze of the early 1960s. In 1962, Barretto formed his first group, Charanga La Moderna, and recorded his first hit, "El Watusi" for Tico Records. He was quite successful with the song and the genre, to the point of being typecast (something that he disliked).

Boogaloo and early salsa

In 1965, Barretto signed with the Latin division of United Artists, UA Latino, and began recording a series of albums in the boogaloo genre, which merges rhythm and blues with Latin music. On his album El Ray Criollo, Barretto explored the modern Latin sounds of New York, combining features of charanga and conjunto to birth a new style which would later be known as salsa. After recording four albums for the United Artists label, Barretto joined the Fania record label in 1967, and his first recording for the new label was the 1968 album Acid, which is often cited as one of the most enduring boogaloo albums, with songs such as "A Deeper Shade of Soul" and the title track was included in the soundtrack of the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories on the fictitious Latin music radio station "Radio Espantoso". During this period, Adalberto Santiago was the band's lead vocalist.

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Willie Bobo

William Correa (February 28, 1934 – September 15, 1983), better known by his stage name Willie Bobo, a Latin and jazz percussionist of Puerto Rican ancestry.

Career

Correa became a noted timbales performer in Latin Jazz, specifically Afro-Cuban jazz, in the 1960s and 1970s. He met Mongo Santamaría shortly after his arrival in New York and studied with him while acting as his translator, and later at the age of 19 joined Tito Puente for four years.

The nickname Bobo is said to have been originated by the jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams in the early 1950s.

Correa joined George Shearing's band on the album The Shearing Spell. After leaving Shearing, Cal Tjader asked Bobo and Santamaría to become part of the Cal Tjader Modern Mambo Quintet, who released several albums as the mambo craze reached fever pitch in the late 1950s. Reuniting with his mentor Santamaría in 1960, the pair released the album Sabroso! for the Fantasy label. Bobo later formed his own group, releasing Do That Thing/Guajira with Tico and Bobo's Beat and Let's Go Bobo for Roulette, without achieving huge penetration.

After the success of Tjader's Soul Sauce, in which he was heavily involved, Correa formed a new band with the backing of Verve Records, releasing Spanish Grease, the title track being perhaps his most well known tune. Highly successful at this attempt, Correa released a further six albums with Verve.

In the early 1970s, he moved to Los Angeles. He again met up with his longtime friend Richard Sanchez Sr. and his son Richard Jr. and began recording in the studio. Bobo then worked as a session musician for Carlos Santana among others, as well as being a regular in the band for Bill Cosby's variety show Cos. Santana covered Willie Bobo's Latin song "Evil Ways" in 1969 on their debut album. In the late 1970s, Bobo recorded albums for Blue Note and Columbia Records.

Personal life

His youngest son, Eric Bobo (Eric Correa), is a percussionist with crew Cypress Hill. He also performed on the Beastie Boys' 1994 album Ill Communication,. His grandson, William Valen Correa, is co-founder of the music-based non-profit organization HNDP Los Angeles.

After a period of ill health, he died at the age of 49, succumbing to cancer.

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