The following is an excerpt from the "Reaching for the Skye" chapter of Cal Tjader: The Life and Recordings of the Man Who Revolutionized Latin Jazz by S. Duncan Reid (McFarland, 2013). Creed Taylor ...

Multi-instrumentalist Cal Tjader has been gone for over forty years. Had he lived, he would be in his nineties today. The West Coast scene he entered, first as a drummer, then as a vibraphonist, was a ...

Cal Tjader was never one to work within strict musical boundaries. He was, after all, a white man who spent his life with African-American jazz musicians and then somehow ended up as one of the ...

Cal Tjader’s 1976 Latin jazz-rock fusion album Amazonas reissued on 180g vinyl offers lush vibes, killer solos, and essential listening. When I first started collecting Cal Tjader records, ...

Add Us On i Make JazzTimes a preferred source and Google will show you more of our stories in Top Stories. How is this such a mixed bag? Let me count the ways: A juxtaposition of idioms, from ...

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When people talk about 1950s West Coast jazz, they’re usually referring to the music of Dave Brubeck and Shelly Manne, Shorty Rogers and Bud Shank. But there’s another California jazz sound from the ...

I have always enjoyed vibraphonist Cal Tjader’s music, and the way he consistently delivered it. I find his work subtle and nuanced, but it always seems to swing whether he’s playing a ballad or an up ...

What explains the relative anonymity of Cal Tjader, likely the only jazz musician to record with Dave Brubeck, Tito Puente and Charlie Palmieri?

This is one of those happily infectious discs that refuses to be put away. It’s a feel-good walk set to a Tjaderized Latin beat. While propelling happy feet and rejuvenating tired souls, it’s music ...

May 1, 2014 • It's hard to imagine a musical career that included musicians as varied as Charlie Parker and Carlos Santana. But such was the resumé of Armando Peraza after almost 70 years of making ...