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Cal Tjader: Amazonas

By Richard J Salvucci
August 12, 2025
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Multi-instrumentalist

Cal Tjader

vibraphone
1925 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Cal Tjader has been gone for over forty years. Had he lived, he would be in his nineties today. The West Coast scene he entered, first as a drummer, then as a vibraphonist, was a world of clubs, acoustic bands, and enthusiastic promoters who pushed their favorite artists' careers. For Tjader, it was San Francisco, the Blackhawk, and jazz writer Ralph Gleason. Tjader broke in playing with

Dave Brubeck

piano
1920 - 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">Dave Brubeck in 1948. He was continuously employed until his premature death while touring in 1982. While people remember him as a very successful non-Latino exponent of Afro-Cuban music, his career went through various stages.

This recording Amazonas is, in some ways, not typical of Tjader. It was not his greatest commercial success: that was Soul Sauce ( Verve, 1964) Amazonas' roots were in Brazilian music, and Brazilian fusion, or something similar. The major artists were Brazilian:

Hermeto Pascoal

flute
b.1936

" data-original-title="" title="">Hermeto Pascoal;

Egberto Gismonti

guitar
b.1947

" data-original-title="" title="">Egberto Gismonti;

David Amaro

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">David Amaro; and

Raul De Souza

trombone
b.1934

" data-original-title="" title="">Raul De Souza. The producer was

Airto Moreira

percussion
b.1941

" data-original-title="" title="">Airto Moreira. Dawilli Gonga, sounding for all the world like

George Duke

piano
1946 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">George Duke, was a conspicuous exception. So, one asks, why this vinyl reissue?

Technically, it is a very good one, part of the Craft Recordings and Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf Series originally recorded by Wally Heider. But the recording was a real departure for Tjader, who had been uneasily positioned between commercial Latin material and boppish jazz. The critical reception of his prior work, especially on the Fantasy label, was usually mixed. For his fans, at least, there was no ambiguity about Amazonas."Xiba(l)ba" by

Airto Moreira

percussion
b.1941

" data-original-title="" title="">Airto Moreira, starts pensively, but picks up momentum heading, as it were, downstream. "Mindoro" leads off with Tjader on marimbas. If it does not have quite the anthemic quality or heft of some of

Jaco Pastorius

bass, electric
1951 - 1987

" data-original-title="" title="">Jaco Pastorius' work with Weather Report, is still. solidly moving.

David Amaro

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">David Amaro's "Flying" has Tjader contributing an exciting solo and Pascoal with more airy flute brushwork. The same for "Corine," a

George Duke

piano
1946 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">George Duke tune on which Pascoal shines. Perhaps the lasting influence of this phase of Tjader's work on Latin fusion may be its most enduring feature.

And that is the way with historical releases. One hears them not as they were necessarily conceived, but as they were taken up by subsequent bands and players.

Amazonas may not be Weather Report's Heavy Weather (Warner Records, 1977) or Herbie Hancock's Headhunter (Columbia, 1973) but nevertheless, a very different style of jazz was emerging, and Tjader lived long enough to be a part of it.

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Track Listing

Amazonas; Xiba(l)ba; Mindoro; Flying; Corine; Noa Noa; Tamenco no Samba; Cahuenga.

Personnel

Cal Tjader

vibraphone

David Amaro

guitar

Dawili Gonga

keyboards

Egberto Gismonti

guitar

Luis Alves

bass

Roberto Silva

drums

Hermeto Pascoal

flute

Aloisio Milanez

piano

Album information

Title: Amazonas | Year Released: 2025 | Record Label: Craft Recordings Jazz Dispensary

xray_shapeshifter �� Cal Tjader Amazonas (1976)(youtube :Terminal Passage)

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