Cal Tjader

Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr., [was] born July 16, 1925, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Swedish-American vaudeville performers... His career developed and played out during a truly heroic era in jazz the likes of which will likely never be seen again… while he worked as hard and seriously at his craft as any of his peers, he’s often conspicuously absent from discussions about great players, and his extensive oeuvre tends to exist in the shadows, with many jazz aficionados professing to know little to nothing about him. He is not especially well-served by jazz literature in general. Why is this? It’s certainly not because of his failure to produce quality music that reached healthy numbers of people. But jazz comes with a certain set of “rules” and it’s necessary to examine the ways in which Tjader broke and/or transcended those “rules” enroute to becoming a figure who today is revered by newer generations of listeners outside the notoriously insular jazz world.¹

Playlist

Title (Year) | Artist | Album | Composer

1. Mueve la Cintura (1954) Cal Tjader Ritmo Caliente Cal Tjader

2. Mambo Macumba (1956) Cal Tjader Tjader Plays Mambo Cal Tjader

3. Big Noise from Winnetka (1957) Cal Tjader Más Ritmo Caliente Cal Tjader

4. Choro e Batuque (1962) Cal Tjader Plays the Contemporary Music of Mexico & Brazil Laurindo Almeida

5. Insight (1963) Cal Tjader Soña Libre Bill Fitch

6. Tokyo Blues (1963) Cal Tjader with the Lalo Schifrin Orchestra Several Shades of Jade Horace Silver

7. It Didn't End (Não  Se Acabou) (1966) Cal Tjader Soul Burst João Donato

8. Guajira en Azul (1966) Cal Tjader & Eddie Palmieri El Sonido Nuevo Cal Tjader; Eddie Palmieri

9. Oran (1966) Cal Tjader Soul Burst Chick Corea

10. Serengeti (1979) Cal Tjader La Onda Va Bien Mark Levine

11. Mambo Mindoro (1979) Cal Tjader La Onda Va Bien Cal Tjader

12. Evil Ways (1982) Cal Tjader & Carmen McRae Heat Wave Sonny Henry

13. Reza (1965) Cal Tjader Catch the Groove: Live at the Penthouse (1963-1967) Ruy Guerra; Edu Lobo

14. Fuji (1966) Cal Tjader & Eddie Palmieri El Sonido Nuevo Cal Tjader

1. Greg Casseus, from the album notes for the previously unreleased mid-1960s Seattle recordings of Cal Tjader, Catch the Groove: Live at the Penthouse (1963-1967). Jazz Detective 435395-503676 (released December 1, 2023).