LEARNING LATIN PT. 2

Yesterday I listened to Bamboleate, a collaboration between pianist Eddie Palmieri and vibes player Cal Tjader. It's almost entirely instrumental, except for a couple of tracks with vocals on the choruses (the title track, which also opens the disc, and "Mi Montuno"). It's pretty short; eight songs in just over 33 minutes, and frankly I could easily have listened to another half hour of this stuff. Good thing there's a companion volume, El Sonido Nuevo, released on Verve with Tjader's name first (as opposed to this one, which gives Palmieri top billing). I haven't heard that, but I'm definitely gonna check it out based on what I've got here. I think my favorite track is "Resemblance," which is a modal jazz tune somewhere between Dave Brubeck and Coltrane's original studio recording of "My Favorite Things." Most of the album is horn-free, or limits them to accents, keeping the piano and vibes the dominant voices, which I like, though there's some excellent trombone work on a couple of tracks, particularly "Samba do Suenho" and the album closer, "Come An' Get It," which is a hard-swinging, funky tune almost like something off a mid-60s Lee Morgan album. Nice. I'm definitely gonna be keeping this album in my iPod after this little period of self-education is over.