Artist: Machito
Album: Kenya: Afro-Cuban Jazz
Year: 1958
If the word for Miles Davis is "cool," then the word for Machito is "smooth." This album, Machito's Kenya, is full of blaring horns and Latin percussion, and it's a fun time. I can't say I'd ever heard of Machito before, nor listened to an Afro-Cuban jazz album, but I find this to be an admirable collection of instrumental jazz. The opener, "Wild Jungle," sets the tone for the album perfectly, adding layers of trumpets, percussion, and saxophones to build to a big climax. Most of the other tunes in this set follow the same template, and it gets a little stale about halfway through: a few times I felt like the musicians were just like, "screw it, this is getting boring, I'm just gonna blow into this horn REALLY LOUD." "Tin Tin Deo" breaks up the monotony a little bit in the latter half, scaling back for something a little more subdued before launching into yet another virtuoso trumpet solo.
This is the stuff of '50's Hollywood, of seedy Miami nightclubs, of cruise-ship lounges. It's loud, brash, smooth, and seductive. The musicianship is definitely a little lacking when compared with the well-tempered Miles Davis and his compadres. But who cares? When it comes to this music, it's the spirit that counts, and this album's got it in spades.
Rating: Worth a listen
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