Saturday Matinee – Tito Puente, Mickey Hart & Todd Rundgren

Pure percussion by Tito Puente e Los TropiJazz All Stars. I could listen to this stuff all day.

Decades ago (in college) we attended an off-campus house party that seemed to have a live band. I asked the host about it and he replied, “That’s the Rhythm Section. They’re in the basement.” So I went downstairs and found people taking turns on vinyl trash cans, bottles, cans, buckets, with wooden dowels and spoons, and it all sounded great as it morphed, non-stop. No electronics, just stoners people grooving on impromptu syncopated rhythms.

Micky Hart‘s Planet Drum project got my ear as well. Hard to say what musical instrument came first, the bone flute or the drum. I’d guess the latter, because you can bang on anything to create a tempo, and everything else is secondary. (Vocals don’t count unless you’re talmbout Hollerin.)

Then of course there’s this RetroSka classic:

Have a great weekend, folks. We’ll be back here tomorrow whether you like it or not.

Saturday Matinee – Saving Daylight Trailer, Caifanes, The Iguanas & Tito Puente

Saving Daylight – The Movie.  [via].

The guy that brings our mail and kills the rats in our building showed up today wearing a baseball jersey with Los Caifanes logo on it, so I asked him about it, and he told me. They remind me a bit of these guys:

Although it’s real bad advice, “Oye, Isabel” is one of The Iguanas‘ catchiest tunes. Okay, let’s go for one more, and since we’re on a latino music kick tonight, here’s some addictive Mambo rhythms from Tito Puente.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll see you back here on Sunday.

Saturday Matinee – Buena Vista Social Club; Tito, Poncho & Celia; The Iguanas

“El Cumbanchero.” The Buena Vista Social Club is awesome. Tip o’ the Tarboosh to Rodan for reminding me of them.

Continuing with Afro-Cubano jazz, here’s Tito Puente, Poncho Sanchez y Celia Cruz, with “Quimbara.” No idea what that translates to, but I guess it’s a dance style.

This was one of The Iguanas best songs, and the video doesn’t do it justice. (Here’s the studio version w/o video. As an aside, in the live video, the bass player looks like me in my 20s, but with a better haircut. Heh.) Since The Iguanas were from New Orleans, let’s move in that direction…

New Orleans is gonna be in the news again in a couple of days, but not for the right reasons. I suggest we ignore the msm and enjoy the music instead.

Have a great weekend and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.