Friday, April 9, 2010

Jean Vincent, Alberto Socarras, Marcelino Guerra, Mongo Santamaria, "Patato" Valdez, Willie Bobo "The Soul Of Haiti" 1957

"The Soul Of Haiti"
1957
Vinyl LP on Vanguard

On these sessions Haitian Jean Vincent brought in the master Alberto Socarras arranger and flute, Marcelino Guerra playing guitar, Ramon "Mongo" Santamaria together with Carlos "Patato" Valdez and William "Willie Bobo" Correa on percussion.

The arrangements by Socarras were meant to be lush, tropical and "exotic" which they are and his flute playing is uniquely "Socarras".
Mongo's drumming in 1957... physically powerful.
Mongo, Patato and Willie not being adept in "authentic Haitian drumming/rhythms", basically applied what they were adept at, which was Cuban derived drumming mostly in 6/8.
A lot of which was "improvisational" for these sessions.

7. Damballa

11. Pésé Café

13. Yanvalou

14. Haiti Cherie
Marcelino Guerra: guitar

1 comment:

  1. The hair, the necklaces, the muscles...is that Mr. T on the cover?

    ReplyDelete