Catch the Groove by Cal Tjader
Vibraphone was seldom a prominent instrument in jazz, but its potential for melody and improvisation has been realized by several outstanding artists. Among them, Cal Tjader, whose performances at Seattle’s Penthouse club are documented by these previously unreleased recordings.
Although he wasn’t Latino, Tjader was a Latin jazz pioneer and his love for music from Latin America is heard across this two-CD set, recorded at several dates from 1963-1967. He played simply but sensitively. He wasn’t a fiery player—far from it. Tjader was the Dave Brubeck of vibes. Even his salsa was cool.
Tjader swings across a wide spectrum of jazz on Catch the Groove. “Take the ‘A’ Train” rolls along at an easy pace, and the album stops down the line for melodies by Brubeck (“In Your Own Sweet Way”) and Rodgers and Hart (“It Never Entered My Mind”). His sensibility found ultimate expression in the Brazilian melancholy of Carlos Jobim’s “Morning of the Carnival.”
Catch the Groove includes a booklet containing hearty appreciations from contemporary jazz musicians, as well as an essay by New York writer-DJ Greg Casseus who speculates that Tjader never received his due in jazz history because, after a point, the San Francisco musician seldom ventured to New York and never to Europe. His influence during the ‘60s was largely felt on a generation of Latino players, who looked to him as a model for wrapping Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms around jazz.
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