What was the first Latin-inspired jazz standard?

[Neil Foxlee]

was 'Caravan' the very first Latin-inspired jazz standard? Another worldmusic first??

Although Caravan (co-composed by Juan Tizol) is considered by some to be the first real Latin jazz tune, it's more a piece of vaguely Middle Eastern melodic exoticism (think camels and desert - and Santana's later Caravanserai).

Space Age Pop Music comments
http://www.spaceagepop.com/tizosong.htm :

"Although Juan Tizol wrote a number of songs during his years with Duke Ellington and Harry James, only two have had any real popular success. But "Caravan" alone puts just about all the other exotica standards to shame. Everybody covered "Caravan." Billy Eckstine had a million-seller with his 1949 cover of the tune, as did Ralph Marterie with his 1952 instrumental version. There are enough recordings of "Caravan" around for KFJC, the legendary Los Altos Hills, California public radio station--home of the "Louie, Louie" marathon--to be considering playing different versions of "Caravan" for 24 hours straight.

"What is it about "Caravan" that makes it so irresistable to perform? Beats me. It's almost like it's an entrance requirement of some sort. Frank Zappa even memorialized it as an adlib in his tribute to playing in bars, "America Drinks and Goes Home": "'Caravan' with a drum solo? You bet, sir!" But given the choice between "Caravan" and "Feelings," I'll take "Caravan" everytime.

"Like "Miserlou," "Caravan" gets played one of two ways: slow and exotically or fast and swinging. Duke Ellington's own recordings are the most faithful to the original spirit of the song, with a loose marching kind of beat, like camels slogging dutifully through the sand. Perez Prado's is probably the most swinging, taking off like a rocket with trumpets on fire and Perez physically throwing the song into the next verse with his trademark grunt. To me, the weirdest version is that by the Castro Brothers in their "Live in Tahoe" album, in which they climax their show with a bravura medley of "Caravan" and "Exodus." I guess it's some kind of show-biz attempt to call for peace between the Arabs and the Israelis."

It's much covered: see

http://www.spaceagepop.com/caravan.htm

[Neil Foxlee]

Another piece of cod-Middle Eastern jazz exoticism (in the title at least) would of course be A Night in Tunisia (written 1942).

Here's Dizzy Gillespie in 1958:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJx-qB8Xjxw

If anyone can claim to be the father of the US flirtation with Afro-Cuban jazz, I'd have thought it would be Dizzy - Manteca (good name for a record label), Tin Tin Deo, Cubano Be Cubano Bop etc.

[Charlie]

Only just noticed this mini-thread within another topic (Mad Men, under TV, etc) so I've moved it here for further discussion, and nominate 'El Manisero', first recorded in 1928, later a jazz standard under its English title 'The Peanut Vendor'.

[davidt]

I found a book remained in Borders on this topic.
Latin Jazz : the perfect combination by Raul Fernandez

There's a chapter on the early influences and first Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians to make an influence in the USA and Europe.

The tunes mentioned above are of course all discussed.

My favourite takes on Caravan are
Duke Ellington. There's a later 1945 recording where several instruments seem to be playing the tune in different keys all at once. I think that's the musical mystery of the piece. No two musicians seem to play the tune the same anymore :-).
Buddy Rich (and his sextet) (1961) starts with a drum solo!! the main tune is handled just by flute and bass.
Dr John on Duke Elegant.

David

[Charlie]

This thread must include a mention of The Latin Tinge by John Storm Roberts, whose main interest was precisely this topic, the intersection of jazz and Latin music.

[Alan Balfour]

This thread must include a mention of The Latin Tinge by John Storm Roberts, whose main interest was precisely this topic, the intersection of jazz and Latin music.

Being mightily impressed with JSR’s 1972 "The Black Music Of Two Worlds", I couldn’t resist purchasing his "The Latin Tinge" in 1979. As Charlie rightly observes it’s an absolute must in regard of this discussion. I guess that both "Tinge" and "World" must have been up dated and revised by now...

[Charlie]

a compilation of old Cuban songs includes the original 1936 version of 'Tabu', written by Margarita Lecuona and first recorded by the Lecuona Cuban Boys, formed by her brother Ernesto.

The first version of the song I ever heard is still my favourite, by the Hawaiian musician, Arthur Lyman, who actually had an American hit in the early 1960s on the High Fidelity label, showcasing atmospheric sound effects of jungle sounds.

Has the tune been played by jazz musicians, to qualify in this thread?

[davidt]

Tabu...

I have it on Johnny Smith's Moonlight in Vermont album with Stan Getz on saxophone, Sanford Gold on piano. recorded 1952.

At the pace they play it I never realized it was Latin!

David

[Charlie]

Not the first in this list, but surely a historic pinnacle - 'Watermelon Man' by Mongo Santamaria (1963).

Curious that the first such landmark song should have been dedicated to one street seller, The Peanut Vendor, and this to another. I have only just absorbed the information that the distinctive screechy female vocal is by La Lupe, a well-known character in the New York/Cuba scene. Reading the sleeve note of Rhino's excellent career retrospective, Skin on Skin, it's interesting to discover how abrasively critical Mongo was of the term 'salsa', which to him was a marketing term promoted by Fania (his label at the time) to remove any Cuban connotations from the music.

[Adam Blake]

I have a few old 78s by Latin bands who were obviously a big influence on Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians... But perhaps that's not what you're after.

I think Dizzy was the first to really absorb Latin music into his jazz but surely we must mention Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz's "Jazz Samba" album of (I think) 1963 which was such a huge hit and which started a craze for Bossa Nova and Brazilian music which lasted for decades. Also, I think, introduced Astrud Gilberto to the mainstream.

[Nigel w]

it's interesting to discover how abrasively critical Mongo was of the term 'salsa', which to him was a marketing term promoted by Fania (his label at the time) to remove any Cuban connotations from the music.

That is interesting , Charlie, and wonder if it explains why when talking to Cuban musicians they seldom, if ever, use the 's' word - indeed, to them the 's' word is not salsa, but son.

I'd never considered that political element - I'd always assumed it was simply that the word had Puerto Rican connotations and had simply never found much usage in Cuba because they already had their own terms. But may be one of the reasons they don't use it is because they're fully aware it was a US word deliberately coined to write music from a communist country out of the picture...

While we're on terminology, it's also interesting that when you talk to Brazilian musicians, they all insist that Brazilian music is not part of the umbrella term 'Latin music' but is a quite distinct and seperate entity !

[Charlie]

While we're on terminology, it's also interesting that when you talk to Brazilian musicians, they all insist that Brazilian music is not part of the umbrella term 'Latin music' but is a quite distinct and separate entity !

Surely they are right to protest.

A bit like how Smokey Robinson did'nt like being classified as a soul singer, which I unwittingly used as a positive term at the time. I think Smokey thought those rough country boys from the south were soul singers, Otis, Joe Tex, etc.

Smokey himself was simply a singer.... it's all music....