Mongo Santamaria - "A La Carte" (1978)

ANNIVERSARY
A year ago today I started this blog with a rhodes compilation, and it's been a satisfying journey communicating with all of you folks ever since then. I want to thank all of my buddies - you know who you are - for the contributions, support, help and frequent comments that make it all worthwhile; as well as your own fantastic blogs that have allowed me to hear so much great music.

MORE MONGO
Still catching up to the some of the contributions down in the archives here, many of which don't appear elsewhere in blogland. Xerxes donated this great Mongo Santamaria album to the Mongo discography a while back, and I thought I'd bring it up to the top for your weekend dancing pleasure!


Sometimes thought of as a disco album more in the vein of albums like "Sofrito" and "Red Hot", this one's actually quite a smorgasboard of styles and is thus receiving labels here for latin, african, funk-soul, and disco - just check the range in the three previews here. After the funk efforts of "Afro-Indio" pushed him into some musical fusions, Santamaria was clearly in a period of broadening each of his bases here - in fact, a close look at his 70s work shows an almost constant vacillation between commercial latin-fusion and roots styles.



"A La Carte" is produced by Marty Sheller and William Allen, who are mostly responsible for the funk-latin fusions of his albums in this Vaya Records period. The adaptable Sheller started out as Santamaria's trumpet player, but after 1968 switched to arrangements, going on later to work with many other latin greats. Allen joined Mongo as bass player at the end of the 60s, taking on co-arrangement duties a few years before this album. He was also working a lot with Roy Ayers around this time on albums like "A Tear To A Smile" and "Vibrations", often contributing bass and arrangments, and did some great string arrangements on Sylvia Striplin's "Give Me Your Love" a few years after this.

Allen's compositions and arrangements of "Smiling Brown Eyes" and "Hey You Sexy Thing" fit the disco slots here, the latter being the best, replete with some unison vocals from Peggy Harris and Carol Woods and slap bass from Allen himself.


Flautist/arranger/composer Doug Harris contributes three numbers : "It Feels So Good" has a Mizells-meet-Bobbi-Humphrey feel; "Nada Mas" starts out as latin-jazz before the piano leads it back to latin, with Mongo letting loose on the congas; and the closer "Umbayalo" dives back to acoustic Afro-Cuban roots with an added vocal chorus.

William Allen's "Asika" (see preview at the top of the post) is a latin-jazz stormer that feels like some of the 70s New York-based funk-jazz-latin fusions that I particularly like. Arranger Marty Sheller puts together a great vocal version of Marcelino Guerra's Cuban number "Guajiro"; and finally "Bombora" is a cover of a 1970 Celia Cruz song.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this one. Give thanks to Xerxes and don't forget to check out the other Mongo albums.

TRACKLIST

1. 'Smiling Brown Eyes' - 5:08 - (William Allen)
2. 'Asika' - 3:20 - (William Allen)
3. 'Guajiro' - 5:09 - (Marcelino Guerra)
4. 'Hey, You Sexy Thing' - 4:15 - (William Alllen)
5. 'Bomboro' - 3:22 - (Zamora)
6. 'It Feels So Good' - 4:23 - (Doug Harris)
7. 'Teresa' - 2.32 - (Allen, Santamaria) 
8. 'Nada Masa' - 4:11 - (Doug Harris)
9. 'Umbalayeo' - 2:34 - (Doug Harris)

MUSICIANS (known)

Percussion - Mongo Santamaria

Smiling Brown Eyes
Vocals - Carol Woods, Peggy Harris
Asika
Keyboards - Bill O'Connell
Guajiro
Trumpet - Mike DiMartino
Piano - Eddie Martinez
Lead Vocals - Héctor Aponte
Chorus Vocals - Papaito (Mario Muñoz Salazar)
Hey, You Sexy Thing
Vocals - Peggy Harris
Bass - William Allen
Bomboro
Lead and chorus Vocals - Héctor Aponte
Chorus Vocals - Papaito
Piano - Eddie Martinez
It Feels So Good
Flute - Doug Harris
Nada Masa
Flute - Doug Harris
Umbalayeo
Vocals - Héctor Aponte, Papaito, Olimpia Alfaro, Wilfredo "Moreno" Tejeda

CREDITS

Vaya Records JMVS-74
Released in 1978

POST CREDITS

Album donated by Xerxes.
Other albums linked in this blog are at I Think I See the Mothership Coming, Hasta Luego Baby!, Blak's Lair, Blaxploitation Jive and Funk My Soul. Please thank them if you click through and download.

DOWNLOADS 

WAV - MP3