I, for one, had never heard the Olympics 1966 original version of “Good Lovin’”. Chalk that up to that old maxim ‘you learn something every day.’ Everybody’s got some holes in their education. But what intrigued me is that the Top 40 AM radio hit of that tune by The Young Rascals, recorded less than a year later, was arranged and performed note for note, almost verbatim to its predecessor. It reached #1 on Billboard’s Pop Singles chart while the Olympics’ version got to #81. The “race records” concept was still in effect...and counteracted by Otis Redding recording The Rolling Stones’ classic composition “Satisfaction”, both coming out in 1965.  You get to enjoy these historical notables on this week’s Al compás del mundo playlist, along with plenty of other major and minor R&B successes of the times. Lots of other familiar and rewarding musical statements found herein: Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly”, Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight (Everything's Alright)”, The Temptations’ “Ain't T...

 I’m labelling this week’s playlist as “Nuyorican” music, the lion’s share of the players from Puerto Rico or of Puerto Rican ancestry.  Two notable exceptions are Joe Bataan, a Filipino-African American, and Mongo Santamaria born in Cuba. What they all have in common, however, was centered around the music scene of New York City where African American and Latino musicians forged a common ground in creating “boogaloo” dance music, mixing elements of R&B, Soul, and Latin dance rhythms. The boogaloo genre was fairly short-lived, enjoying popularity during the 1960’s before giving way to salsa, in what was largely an East Coast and Caribbean impulse. “Watermelon Man” and ”El Watusi” were early and major boogaloo hits, but truly, most of the titles included in the program were popular recordings in their day, whether cha-cha-chas like Tito Puente’s “Oye Como Va”, or GFyEN’s guajira. I’ve gathered them here for an hour’s worth of revelation for those too young to have heard thi...

I’m usually no fan of jazz with strings but Plas Johnson’s bluesy lead-off in this week’s Al compás del mundo stays true to the school of Sidney Bechet meets…umm…Plas Johnson. In fact, big bands have not filled my cup of tea as a rule either, but then Duke Ellington shows me wrong with an adventuresome tune from The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse album. This recording, plus Duke’s New Orleans Suite and Anatomy of a Murder come strongly recommended for those who may have a similar aversion to polite jazz as practiced by a group of 20 musicians. Herbie Hancock dabbles in an Eastern mode and Joe Henderson, a long-time favorite, shows intelligent and beautiful writing while following the same-old, same-old recipe for jazz compositions: a chorus, repeated a second time, followed by solos for all (or most), finale same as the entrance. Still, he does it with verve and the playing never lacks a tense urgency that maintains interest. Saucy, lilting, cascading horns – descriptives that come to mind whil...