Viva Cugat! - Xavier Cugat

Jungle Concerto

Viva Cugat!

Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra

Photo: Robert Buchbinder

Mercury Records PPS 2003
1961

From the inside cover: What Paul Whiteman was to symphonic jazz, Guy Lombardo to 'sweet corn' and Benny Goodman to swing, Xavier Cugat has been to the Latin Beat in America dance music. For almost three decades, beginning with the appearance of the rumba craze in the very early thirties, interpreter of Latin rhythms. It is a position which has brought him popularity, not only throughout the Americas, but on the Continent as well.

Cugat's long and fabulous musical journey had its beginnings in a cafe in Barcelona, Spain. There, in the twenties, he was found playing the violin by the great Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso. So impressed was the world-famous opera star by what he heard he retained the young fiddler and took him on a tour to America.

In the course of their joint travels, Caruso discovered that young Cugat's talents reached into areas other than music. The youngster handled a drawing pen as skillfully as the violin bow. Since Caruso was himself an amateur artist, the two amused themselves on their journeys by drawing caricatures. Cugat's caricatures have since appeared in many of the country's large circulation magazines, among them Life.

By that time that Caruso died at the peak of his fabulous career, Cugat decided that his own future as a violinist lacked the horizons of greatness he had hoped for. A job as a cartoonist on The Los Angeles Times seemed to open new, exciting vistas. But the magnetism of music was not so easily neutralized. Before long, Cugat was leading a small six-piece combo. It specialized in rumba rhythms and secured bookings in hotel rooms as a "relief" band to the name bands of the day.

In 1934 an NBC program "Let's Dance," now regarded as a radio landmark, helped launch the brassy era of swing. It presented the first big, blasting sound of Benny Goodman, who became the King Of Swing. Bug the "Let's Dance" show also focussed the spotlight of a coast-to-coast program on the music of two other bands. One was Xavier Cugat, who soon was crowned The Rumba King.

It was a well-earned title. The rumba as it was danced in Cuba, its native habitat, was actually too difficult for American dancers, particularly the middle generation that frequented expensive night clubs and hotel rooms. Watching dancers trip over themselves, Cugat worked out a simplified version of the Cuban rumba. He placed the bass conga-drum accent on the fourth beat, giving the Afro-Cuban polyrhythms the simplicity almost of a march step. Now, Americans really took to the rumba. It became the first of a series of Latin dances to sweep the country.

Late in the thirties, the conga became an overnight craze. Associated with Desi Arnaz, the conga was caricatured on stage and screen in the well-known play My Sister Eileen. In the middle forties, the Brazilian Bombshell Carmen Miranda burst on the American entertainment scene, bringing with her a set of crazy, colorful hats – also the Brazilian dance known as the samba. By the middle fifties, American dancers were unable to resist the mambo, introduced by Machito and popularized by Perez Prado. The mambo (grunt) fad was soon overtaken by interest in the cha-cha-cha, whose vogue has continued through the rock 'n roll era in the form of the rock-cha-cha. Neither the conga nor the samba – the same is true of the merengue imported from the Dominican Republic – ever commanded the following of the rumba, mambo and cha-cha, although all of them are still to be heard on dance floors.

Cugat's contribution to Latin-American music goes far beyond the popularization of Cuban dance steps. Always on the look-out for new musical talent, he has brought into this country many of Cuba's outstanding instrumentalists. Some of these, like Desi Arnaz, Luis del Campo and Miguelito Valdes, went on to make their own mark as interpreters of Afro-Cuban music.

Dazzling as these stars have  been in the Latin-American firmament, they have burned themselves out quickly. Only Cugat has remained 'hot' – a pivotal and permanent sun around which Latin music revolves. His musical appeal has, in fact, been as persistent and universal as the appeal of Afro-Cuban rhythms themselves. Today, after three decades of unceasing activity on radio, TV, stage and screen, he still is in unabating demand wherever dancers congregate – whether it is a South American bistro, a Continental cafe, or the glittering Empire Room of New York's Waldorf-Astoria.

Not the least appealing phase of the Cugat magic in recent years has been the vocalizing and dancing of Abbe Lane, in private life, Mrs. Cugat. Widely known to motion picture audiences here and abroad, Abbe Lane has added a large dimension to visual appeal to the aural magnetism of Cugat's music.

The present album is a first for the maestro in many ways. It marks his return to the Mercury label. But it is also his first adventure into the ear-arresting world of stereo. Most significantly, you will hear a group of outstanding Afro-Cuban melodies performed with a rare lyricism and rhythmic drive. To the flavor of many of the selections Cugat has, in fact, added the zing and zest of good jazz, making this album irresistible from the ears down to the feet.

From Billboard - January 30, 1961: The Latin sound of the Xavier Cugat ork here gets an all-out stereo presentation. The songs, for the most part, are familiar Latin melodies done in samba, rhumba and cha-cha styles. The stereo conception adds novel and attractive touches. Included are "Peanut Vendor," "Siboney," "Maria Elena" and "Poinciana." Set is attractively packed with gatefold containing descriptions of tunes, placement of instruments and explanations of effects.

Jungle Concerto
The Peanut Vendor (El Manisero)
Isle Of Capri
Tropical Merengue (Amanecer Tropical)
Nightingale
Perfidia
Siboney
Jungle Drums (Canto Karabali)
Anna (El Negro Zumbon)
Maria Elena
Poinciana (Song Of The Tree)
Sai Si Si (Para Vigo Me Voy)