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Seq - Artist - Song Title - Album - Country - Label - Cat no
1 - Perez Prado - Patricia - Our Man in Havana - Cuba - RCA Camden - 74321 588102
2 - Mongo Santamaria - Watermelon Man - Rock Instrumentals - USA/Cuba - Rhino - R271604
3 - Hugh Masekela - Grazing in the Grass - Still Grazing - South Africa/USA - Blue Thumb - no number
4 - Ray Barretto - El Watusi - Rock Instrumentals - USA/Puerto Rico - Rhino - R271604
5 - Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa - African Soul: Best of Manu Dibango - Cameroon - Mercury - 534766-2
6 - Cymande - The Message - The Message - UK/Guyana/Jamaica - Castle - CMEDD1106
7 - Tabou Combo - New York City - Eighth Sacrement - Haiti - Decca - SKL 5227
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As the range of what fits into this series widens, the hits get bigger.
Perez Prado
Who can now imagine a single by a Cuban bandleader selling millions
around the world, as ‘Patricia’ by Perez Prado did back in 1959? And
that was not a one-hit wonder situation - Perez did the trick again
with ‘Guaglione’. At the time, Cuban music was marketed as mambo, and
people really did dance the mambo, long before somebody came up with
the less specific marketing term, ‘salsa’. There never was a particular
dance called ‘Salsa’ but listen to Patricia and imagine those sensuous
bottoms weaving slinkily around the dance floor.
Mongo Santamaria
Among the many Cuban musicians who became session musicians in New York
in the early 1960s, percussionist Mongo Santamaria was soon recognised
as being top dog, often playing for Atlantic artists including Ray
Charles. But surely nobody could have expected him to have a huge hit
in his own right, when his version of Herbie Hancock’s ‘Watermelon Man’
was picked out from his debut album and widely played first on juke
boxes and then on a few radio stations, especially but not exclusively
on those stations aimed at the Hispanic market.
Hugh Masekela
‘Grazing in the Grass’ by Hugh Masekela must be one of the most
surprising number one hits in the history of the American charts, an
instrumental version of a tune that had been first released in Zambia
(does anybody know the original?), recorded in Los Angles by South
African trumpeter Masekela with local session musicians doing a very
good job of sounding South African under the production supervision of
Stewart Levine.
Ray Barretto
Remarkably, in the same year as ‘Watermelon Man’ was a hit (1963),
another New York session percussionist also made the national charts in
the USA, as ‘El Watusi’ by Ray Barretto crept onto pop radio where it
was heard and treated as a novelty record rather than the tip of the
huge wealth of Latin American music, much of it recorded for the same
label, Tico.
Manu Dibango
‘Soul Makossa’ by Manu Dibango is widely credited as being of the
first American hits to surface primarily through exposure in dance
clubs, rather than through the usual routes of juke boxes and radio.
Actually, radio did play a big part once it had surfaced via the clubs,
but in any case it was a remarkable, path-breaking record and set Manu
up on a career that has flourished ever since, especially in France
where he had his own TV show for many years.
Cymande
Although it may have sounded like a studio session group, Cymande
was a real band that played live in London clubs before producer John
Schroeder discovered them and guided their records into the right
hands, enabling the group to have American chart success and to play as
the opening act on an Al Green tour. Most of the musicians were
Jamaican, but leader Patrick Patterson was from Guyana. Was? He still
is from Guyana. Not really given proper attention in the UK at the
time, Cymande’s records have become familiar via the wide use of their
grooves in rap and hip hop records. The keyboard riff from ‘The
Messsage’ was at the heart of M C Solaar’s biggest hit, ‘Bouge de Lá’.
Tabou Combo
Finally, ‘New York City’ by the Tabou Combo, which was not as
universally well known as everything else in this programme, but helped
to bring the Haitian group to wider attention. Unusually, the group’s
first album was recorded live, produced by Fred Paul and released on
his label, Mini Records of Brooklyn (now relocated to Miami).
5:18 PM
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