The Cal Tjader Quintet, Live at Club Macumba San Francisco 1956

(Cal Tjader on vibes, Vince Guaraldi on piano, Eugene Wright on bass and Al Torre on drums. Sunset School Auditorium, Carmel, CA, 1957. Photograph by Peter Breinig, Vern Fisher's Monterey Herald collection.)

Club Macumba taped some of Tjader’s sets in September and/or October 1956. More than 50 years later, Trapeze Music and Entertainment Ltd., based in England, unearthed these tracks––not originally intended for an album––and issued a two-CD set on their Acrobat label in December 2012. Live at Club Macumba San Francisco 1956 both gives one a seat in this close-quartered, convivial environment and an opportunity to hear the fairly new configuration test their ideas, and at the same time, embrace the cohesive Tjader sound. 

The following is a preview from the second edition of my Cal Tjader biography:

The unit’s songbook was limited, so several tunes are played twice over the course of these separate shows. For instance, Tjader’s straight-ahead swinger “Bill B.,” which like Luis Kant’s “Mambo at the ‘M’,” is presented here before it was officially recorded, and “Philadelphia Mambo.” The first version of “Bill B.” contains an elongated preamble and inventive improvisations by the composition’s author that would be the highlight of any all-star jam session. When he reprises the tune, the introduction is excised, Vince Guaraldi is given more solo space and the running time, while still not compact, is shorter. As for “Philadelphia Mambo,” the initial arrangement doesn’t just feature Tjader’s vibes but a burst of creativity from the leader on timbales as well. During the second go-round, he switches the spotlight over to the congas of Kant.

Drummer Al Torre, under the tutelage of Tjader and Kant, keeps good time on timbales. And even though he doesn't remember it, does a little solo stretch on the remarkably sophisticated and entertaining “Mambo at the ‘M’.” Torre also plays bongos on both versions of the ballad "For Heaven's Sake." 

The rapport Tjader has with the audience and his sidemen, which is audible throughout theses sets, is a bonus in this wonderful listening experience.

Finally, the booklet notes by Paul Watts are very informative. Michael Weil, the man with whom I collaborated on Cal Tjader's discography, and I made significant and properly acknowledged contributions. Moreover, I let Paul use two photos from my collection; the one on the back cover of the booklet is not featured in either edition of my biography. All in all, I am grateful to him for being included in this valuable musical package.

Progress on the Second Edition of Cal Tjader

I finished adding new material to "Tap Dancing with Bojangles to Playing with Brubeck" and "Tjader Plays Mambo and Tjazz," the first and second chapters of the expanded Tjader biography, respectively, in early August 2017.

Tjader's best friend Philip Smith contributed a great deal––his memories of their growing up together in San Mateo, CA.––to "Tap Dancing." Also featured are excerpts of, to my knowledge, Tjader's first full length interview in print; he was 24 years old at the time. Lastly, some new information regarding his gigs with Dave Brubeck have come to light.

Regarding "Mambo and Tjazz," most of the new material is from the San Francisco Chronicle and Downbeat, but Smith contributed two revealing anecdotes about the Cal Tjader Trio; both concern Tjader's relationship with Vince Guaraldi. Moreover, said print sources reveal additional details about Tjader's association with Brew Moore, as well as concert and club dates throughout the 1950s. Finally, Terry-Ann Torre, longtime wife of ex-Tjader drummer Al Torre, reminisced about a few of Tjader's favorite southern California jazz venues, namely the Interlude, Crescendo and Zucca's Cottage. For his part, Al offered a story about Moore.

Ever since taking a pause on the Tjader book, I have been at work on a novella featuring the same private detective from my as yet unpublished short story collection set in 1970s Eugene, Oregon. He listens to jazz––Tjader is high on his list––and frequents a jazz club in town called the Right Vibe. The house bandleader there is a vibraphonist who admires Cal Tjader. In fact, Tjader makes a cameo appearance in one of the stories.

I will be devoting my time to the novella for approximately the next half year. Then I will return to incorporate new material to "Reaching for the Skye," the third chapter of expanded Tjader. Highlights will be forthcoming.

Signed Contract for Second Edition of Cal Tjader

On January 25, 2017, I signed a contract with McFarland & Company, Inc. for the second edition of my biography of Cal Tjader. I had been initially informed by David Alff that a "few years" would separate the publication of the first and second editions. This time period has since changed to six plus years; the deadline is officailly October 15, 2019. Add to that the preparation time on McFarland's end coupled with my review of the proofs, and the book will be available early in 2020.

Periodic updates will be posted along the way––the first chapter is nearly completed as of this writing. Moreover, there will be more details––there is a jazz connection–– about my upcoming fiction. My agent, Elisa Celli, has been circulating a collection of short stories to prospective publishers and I will continue to create more adventures featuring a private detective for future books.

Expanded Edition: Adding to the Cal Tjader Saga

I will always be proud of how the first edition of my Cal Tjader biography turned out. However, when reading Derrick Bang's Vince Guaraldi at the Piano during the first half of 2014, I instantly realized that the Tjader book could be improved upon and decided that a revised and expanded edition would rectify the issue. David Alff, my editor at McFarland, was open to the idea as long as I met two important stipulations: One, a healthy amount of new material must be provided and two, publication would be a few years away. Following a year of work on a collection of mystery short stories, I brainstormed about what could be included and the excitement increased.


For a variety of reasons, there were people I hadn't interviewed the first time around, Second, more questions came to mind for the former Tjader colleagues I mention in the next paragraph. Third, even though a tremendous amount of research had been completed by December 2012, I, along with an assist from Derrick Bang, discovered a few print sources that yielded additional information.


All in all, the expanded edition will contain fresh anecdotes from bassist Eddie Coleman and Bob Redfield, excerpts of my lengthy interview with Tjader's lifelong friend Philip Smith, as well as revelations from former sidemen Carl Burnett and Stan Gilbert and one-time Concord Records producer Frank Dorritie. Moreover, my new research revealed more Tjader interviews, including, to my knowledge, the earliest one in his career; more of San Francisco Chronicle music critic Ralph J. Gleason's early coverage of Tjader and ultimate disinterest in the progression of his career, additional gigs––many with background information and or other specific details––and bonus photos.

Bringing the First Cal Tjader Biography to the Public

When the above biography was published on August 23, 2013, I knew that it would not be available in general interest bookstores. McFarland's primary business model is to invest in good production values, price their books high and sell to universities and libraries. Generating publicity for the online market largely falls on their authors.

I started word-of-mouth with Cal Tjader's family, friends and former associates before making an appearance at San Francisco's Bird & Beckett Books on October 25, 2013. The owner, Eric Whittington, is a jazz buff with a small wooden stage inside his store. He regularly presents writers and poets reading from their work and musical performances, especially those featuring jazz. I was given a five-minute spot during an intermission to promote my book. Initially nervous, I relaxed once I looked out over the small audience of 25 or so; I realized that making eye contact made all the difference, whether the person seemed interested in the subject matter or not.

During the following two months, I made excerpts of my book available online. JazzWest published an excerpt from chapter two on November 28, 2013. Unfortunately, Wayne Saroyan, the website's originator, no longer has an archive section. However, the second excerpt, from chapter 3, was published by Michael Ricci at allaboutjazz.com on December 16, 2013 and is archived: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=46100

Next, in 2005, Derrick Bang, author of Vince Guaraldi at the Piano (McFarland 2012), as well as books about the Peanuts comic strip, and I became acquainted via his Peanuts website while I was researching the Tjader bio. At first, I just fed him information about Guaraldi's years with Tjader, but by January 2010, our correspondence expanded when Derrick decided to write a biography about the pianist. Over the subsequent two years, we shared research and upon publication of his book, we discussed how to best get the word out.

For his part, Derrick informed Don Shor at KDRT, a radio station in Davis, CA, about my biography. Schor, host of Jazz After Dark, planned to do a special tribute to Tjader in honor of the publication. Instead of an interview, the deejay asked me if I could recommend any music. I gave him twelve tunes that spanned the course of the vibraphonist's career. He was able to acquire eleven of those and then picked three of his own for the one hour show. Although the station's website removes podcasts of its shows after two weeks, Shor graciously gave me a link to the show from his server:

http://davisgardenshow.com/Jazz_After_Dark/2014_playlists/JazzAfterDarkApril082014CalTjader.mp3 The show takes about twenty seconds or so to load. Also, a playlist is available on this link:

https://kdrt.org/program-playlist/jazz-after-dark-playlist-04082014

Second, Derrick referred me to Richard A. "Doc" Stull, a jazz historian based in Humboldt County, CA. In his spare time, Stull reviews two or three jazz books each year and posts them online with in-depth author interviews at New Books in Jazz. Well prepared and affable, he interviewed me on May  22, 2014, and the resulting podcast was made available on December 18 of the same year. The review and one hour interview are accessible on this link: http://newbooksnetwork.com/s-duncan-reid-cal-tjader-the-life-and-recordings-of-the-man-who-revolutionized-latin-jazz-mcfarland-2013-2/

Third, Derrick brought a half-dozen or so radio stations to my attention. In the end, Insight with Beth Ruyak, a current affairs program on Capitol Public Radio's station in Sacramento, CA, booked me for an interview to celebrate Tjader's ninetieth birthday. Ruyak, who asked me to pick several tunes, taped the eighteen-minute interview a few days ahead of the air date––July 16, 2015. Like Stull, she had done her homework. The show went very well and can be accessed on this link:

www.capradio.org/52613

 More coverage: James Harrod, a jazz historian whom I mentioned in my first post, pointed Steven Cerra, a veteran jazz musician with a blog, in my direction. Mr. Cerra had read my book, posted––on July 5, 2014––many excerpts of it, and added some of his own positive commentary. (http://www.jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2014/07/cal-tjader-certain-smooth-elegance-la.html). Also in July 2014, Mojo: The Music Magazine, an internationally distributed publication based in London, England, gave my labor of love a glowing review. Like the Cerra blog, this was a pleasant surprise, as Charles Waring, the critic, had not been prompted by me. Instead, he must have acquired a copy from McFarland's London office.

Finally, there was an important event that occurred before the book came out. Allen Thayer, a freelance writer who occasionally is published in Wax Poetics, a nationally distributed magazine based in Brooklyn, NY, said that his editor wanted me to write a long piece that focused on Tjader's achievements as a Latin jazz bandleader and vibraphonist. I was happy to do it, since Cal is best remembered for his pioneering work in the field. One thing to keep in mind when clicking on the following link (http://www.waxpoetics.com/features/articles/vibraphonist-cal-tjader-one-first-american-jazz-musicians-embrace-latin-music), however; I did not write the preface to the article, published in November 2011. Here is the conclusion of the preface: "Throughout his career, Cal Tjader would coat that salsa on everything he played." This statement is absurd. As documented in my biography, Tjader embraced Cuban and Puerto Rican dance music, for which the catch-all term "salsa" applies. He was not only a master at blending the aforementioned musical forms with jazz but also incorporated popular Brazilian styles and European classical. But his first and greatest love was straight-ahead jazz, which is an amalgam of influences itself, and part of his substantial recorded output reflects that. Cal Tjader/Stan Getz Sextet, San Francisco Moods and Breathe Easy are just a few of examples of this.

"Big Eyes" Gives Nod to Cal Tjader

Big Eyes, directed by Tim Burton and released on Christmas Day in 2014, is the tragic but ultimately triumphant story of Margaret Keane, whose cloying paintings of children with abnormally large eyes initially gained popularity in 1958 when she met a successful real estate salesman named Walter Keane. She had recently left her first husband in an unnamed part of northern California and settled in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood with one daughter. Following a brief courtship, the couple married. Concurrently, Keane enjoyed visiting Enrico Banducci's hungry i nightclub and was able to talk the outgoing owner into displaying Margaret's work.

On the plus side, the hungry i is featured prominently in the early going and Cal Tjader's band does appear on stage a few times. In addition, during the film's first musical sequence, Banducci exhorts the club audience to express their appreciation for Tjader. However, none of the band members are shown clearly in that scene or in subsequent shots; one could think of them as jazzy apparitions. Timothy Van Cleave wears Tjader's trademark horn-rimmed glasses; the other men go uncredited.

The following are minor caveats. To my knowledge, Tjader never played at the hungry i, his local mainstay during this period being the Blackhawk, located at the corner of Turk and Hyde in the Tenderloin district. That being said, Tjader was a strong presence in North Beach at El Matador, sited at 492 Broadway, from December 1964 to 1976. As a result, one can overlook the harmless artistic license here and elsewhere. For a second example, the marquee announces "The Cal Tjader Quartet" and "The Vince Guaraldi Trio." In reality, Tjader fronted a quintet, though the group did shrink to a quartet when playing straight-ahead tunes. In fact, the late Oakland Tribune jazz critic Russ Wilson coined the term "quantet" to describe the vibraphonist's unique format. Third, Vince Guaraldi's trio did play at the hungry i, but the diminutive pianist––excluded from the movie––was a regular with Tjader's band in 1958.

The soundtrack to Big Eyes contains three selections from Tjader's repertoire: "Bludan" (Eddie Cano), "Tropicville" (Cal Tjader) and "A Minor Goof" (Brew Moore). "Bludan" and "Tropicville" are cover versions by the musicians in the cast––Cal probably would have enjoyed their work––and "Goof" is from Tjader's 1956 LP Cal Tjader Quintet. The first two originally appeared on the LPs Demasiado Caliente (1960) and Latin Kick (1956), respectively.

For those new to Tjader who would like to delve further than the soundtrack, Cal Tjader Quintet is paired with Tjader Goes Latin (1959) on the CD Black Orchid, Demasiado Caliente is paired with Latino! (1960) on Latino! and Latin Kick stands alone. On a straight-ahead note, "A Minor Goof" was first taped by Tjader in 1955 for the LP/CD Tjader Plays Tjazz; Brew Moore is featured on tenor sax.

In sum, the tragedy of Margaret Keane was that she let Walter take credit for her paintings. Although his gift for marketing made the couple a fortune during the early 1960s, the deceit took its toll on the marriage. His seductive charm gave way to verbal abuse and menacing behavior, particularly after a huge Keane painting was given a scathing review by the New York Times in 1964. Shortly thereafter, Margaret took her child and moved to Honolulu. Once the divorce was legal, she finally mustered up the strength to take Walter to court and prove that she was the real artist. That was her triumph.

For the record, Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, who play Margaret and Walter Keane, were both justly nominated for Golden Globe awards. Adams won as Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy. This is odd, because Big Eyes does not fit in either category. Maybe the voters couldn't bear to trim another actress from the Drama category and yet did not want to overlook Adams.

Tjader's Main Guitar Man: Bob Redfield

Early in January, his wife of 22 years, Shirley, phoned me and said Bobby had died of liver cancer on December 20, 2014 at the age of 77. Redfield preferred that his friends call him Bobby but didn't mind when I shortened it. Shirley and I talked for about fifteen-twenty minutes; she was in a mood to reminisce. I told her that in the course of researching my Tjader biography, Bob and I became fairly well acquainted. Since Bob lived in southern California (Laguna Hills) and neither of us traveled to meet in person, our periodic conversations were on the phone, beginning in September 2006.

Shirley confided that her marriage was a happy one. Bob was close to his grown children and had an equally remarkable rapport with his grandchildren. As she continued to carry out the mundane tasks of daily life, little things around the house reminded her of Bob, such as his address book, toothbrush and where he liked to sit. He enjoyed golf and spending time at the beach, especially following his retirement. In both his musical and personal life, his integrity was ever present. Tenderness and humor was balanced with toughness; he did not tolerate obnoxious behavior.

In March 2009, Redfield let me know that he had been through chemotherapy for colon cancer and that the disease was in remission. He described what a toll the treatment took on his body but maintained a positive attitude about his future. Unfortunately, several years later, the cancer reemerged in his liver. Still and all, his outlook, unlike many in his position, was hopeful.

Redfield's initial association with Cal Tjader began when he sat in with the vibist's quintet for three days (October 31-November 2, 1972) at the Dry Dock, a club in Newport Beach, CA. The guitarist was quickly upgraded to featured guest status during Tjader's subsequent southern California tours. For the better part of 1973, he joined the combo, most often at former bassist Howard Rumsey's Concerts by the Sea in Redondo Beach, CA. But it was not until mid-1976 that Redfield became a steady member of the fold. Over the next year and a half, he was on stage for most of Tjader's gigs, including the Concord and Monterey Jazz Festivals and a brief tour of Japan.

The fact that the guitar had rarely been used in Latin jazz bands up through the 1970s did not faze Cal Tjader; he had a history of breaking new ground. Bob Redfield (Robert Peter Leyva was his birth name) was proud of being the only guitarist to be showcased regularly in a Tjader band. Having learned from West Coast jazz greats such as Frank Rosolino and played for the Righteous Brothers early in his career, Redfield's sound was a mixture of rock and jazz-blues. In this quote from my biography, the guitarist described the influence Tjader, his roommate on the road, had on his life: "I feel very honored to have played with Cal. It's the highlight of my life. Cal was a mentor to me.... I didn't know anything about [Cuban] music when I started playing with Cal; I could play bossa novas, but I really didn't understand mambos.... Cal and Poncho [Sanchez] taught me how.... Cal and I became real good friends. Even after I left the band, we continued to [stay in touch]."

Addendum: A day or two after Shirley contacted me, I received a phone call from Antonie Boessenkool, a reporter for the Orange County Register. She was writing an obituary on Redfield and had been referred to me by Shirley. The interview lasted roughly fifteen minutes and the resulting final goodbye can be accessed on this link: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/jazz-647567-redfield-guitar.html

The tribute turned out well, but, in one instance, she misquoted me:

"[Redfield] was the only regular guitar player in any of Cal's Latin jazz bands. He was very proud of that," Reid said. "He really brought the guitar into that sound, and it wasn't really something you would hear in most Latin jazz bands. He was unique, different. He innovated in a lot of ways." 

The first two sentences are accurate, of course. However, the "He" I referenced at the start of the third sentence was Cal Tjader. I had made that clear to her. Later, my request for a correction went unanswered.

I will end with an editorial on the Boessenkool article's quotes from Poncho Sanchez, Tjader's conguero or conga player during Redfield's tenure in the band. First, when I spoke to Sanchez about Redfield, he was decidedly underwhelmed by his former bandmate's guitar playing. In fact, he even went so far as to say, erroneously, that Redfield had not been a true member of the group, that Tjader had only let him sit in. Second, the idea that Redfield loved Cuban jazz because it was "in his blood" is ridiculous. Leyva being a Spanish surname does not necessarily signify a connection to said music. For example, Sanchez is an American who first heard Cuban jazz on the records that his brother collected. The music––Mexican folklorico from two separate regions––that his parents played at home was very different. Ultimately, whatever culture Redfield was exposed to by his father, it had nothing to do with the Cuban musical experience. As the late guitarist noted in a quote I highlighted earlier in this post, he initially learned the concepts of Cuban jazz while in Tjader's ensemble.

  
Bob Redfield can be heard on the following Cal Tjader records:

Puttin' it Together (CD is not available as of this writing)

Guarabe (CD: Here and There)

Here (CD: Same as above)

Tokyo Debut (Art Pepper's LP and subsequent CD features the Cal Tjader Sextet)

Cuban Fantasy (Posthumously issued CD)