Gino Amato: Latin Crossroads

The urge to take advantage of a successful commercial genre never really dies. Back in the 1960s, a studio orchestra nominally assembled by bandleader Glen Gray released a recording, Sounds of the Great Bands in Latin (Capitol, 1964). It took tunes like "Early Autumn" or "A String of Pearls" and added a "Latin" flavor with jazz enhancements. No doubt, this was an early recognition of the success of Cal Tjader. The vinyl may or may not have done well, but it marked the last of the Sounds of the Great Bands series. The music was on the kitschy side, but the players were top notch Los Angeles studio types and the label was well known. Somewhere, someone must have a copy. That person may occasionally listen to it.

It is a bit in the same vein, is this recording, "a seamless and monumental blend of otherwise diverse Jazz, Pop, American Standard, Latin and Classical genres." There is certainly nothing wrong with hearing an update of "Concierto de Aranjuez" featuring Lew Soloff and Randy Brecker, even if Soloff passed in 2015. Flutist Dave Valentin ("Tonight") died in 2017, so a listener may be excused the slightly unsettling feeling of treading through a garden of graves. It is 2024, and some of this has clearly been in the can for a long time. And the performances, although certainly competent, are, at times, bit quirky. Janis Siegel ("Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered") manages to render her own version of the once-prurient lyrics, although the whole is, well, de gustibus and not exactly her style. Singer Margo Reymundo at least has prior experience in a similar crossover venture with pianist Oscar Hernandez in The Roots of Rey (Origin, 2017) and the material from "West Side Story" ostensibly involved Latinos.

Perhaps, not surprisingly, some of the material works better in this format than others. In an anthology of this size and sheer complexity (a string quartet, a string section, dozens of musicians, multiple studios), it is really too much to expect much consistency of style to emerge, other than in the broadest sense. Aficionados of the genre are probably the most suitable audience.

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