Customer Reviews

Tambu

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This LP was released in 1973 (the promo, at least), and it was a very strange time for jazz - even cross-over jazz. Listening today to "My Cherie Amour", I don't feel the same way about it as I did then. Then, it was an attempt to popularize the LP for more mass appeal. It didn't work...and yet, I like it now. The one REALLY 5-star tune is their version of Tom Jobim's "Tereza, My Love", a stunningly beautiful tune that Charlie plays really well. Cal eats it alive, cascading perfect rhythmic and melodic runs up and down his instrument. "Tambu", the title cut, is a movin' Afro-Latino train. It's too bad that this one was caught in a kind of 'time warp'. Hopefully it will get its due.

A good album with some sound playing by Charlie Byrd and attempts by Cal Tjader to stay tuned into the mainstream and Brazilian-flavored jazz. Byrd plays acoustic and electric guitars with his usual elegance but quite often lacks inventive, Tjader is definitely not in his best shape, sometimes sounding even dull and bored. Some fine examples of playing by the backing musicians bring the overall rating to an album that is good in playing and sound quality, though stereo separation sometimes is not well expressed, but definitely not a Must-Buy for either of the musicians.

This album is seamless listening pleasure. I began listening to jazz late at night when I was 14 in 1961 because that was the only time the radio stations played avant-garde music and the vibrophone of Cal Tjader could be heard. Prime time was for the pop stuff as it still is. The Tambu Album is my favorite album of Cal's and Charlie Byrd's. This album relaxes yet is stimulative and invigorating. It awakens and opens one. The rhythms are so varied and the musicians are so together. The music is pure joy and after a couple of songs you feel like dancing and laughing with them.

I've enjoyed this one since '75, and still listen to it often. This is not groundbreaking stuff. Just great melodies played by great musicians. Laid back bossa nova, best enjoyed after dinner. For this $6.99 price, you can't go wrong!