Mongo At The Village Gate - Mongo Santamaria

 

Introduction & El Torro

Mongo At The Village Gate

Mongo Santamaria and His Band

Recorded "live" at The Village Gate, New York City; Sept. 2, 1963

Produced by Orrin Keepnews

Recording Engineers: Ray Fowler and Dave Jones

Album Design: Ken Deardoff

Battle Records are produced by Bill Grauer Productions, Inc.

BATTLE BM 6129

MONGO SANTAMARIA - Conga Drums

MARTY SHELLER - Trumpet

PAT PATRICK & BOBBY CAPERS - Flutes & Saxes

RODGERS GRANT - Piano

VICTOR VENEGAS - Bass

FRANK HERNANDEZ - Drums

"CHIHUAHUA" MARTINEZ and JULIAN CABRERA - Latin percussion

From the back cover: There is probably no group of people who toss adjectives around more freely than the writers of album-liner notes. (It's not always easy to fill up these 12-inch cardboard squares, and it can be very helpful to let the fancy descriptive language pour out.) But every once in a while one has to wish he could take back a few of the adjectives squandered in the past, so they could seem a lot fresher and more forceful when they are really called for.

This is one of those times. Right now I wish the word exciting had been used a few hundred times less on liners, that it was a truly rare word that could jump off the page at you with tremendous impact. For it's about the only word I can think of that comes close to conveying the effect of this remarkable album. So let me suggest that you do yourself a favor and forget that you ever read a set of notes before this one.

Under those special circumstances, I could feel free to call this one of the most exciting, and stimulating, and enjoyable LPs you're ever likely to hear. Since I happen also to be the producer of this LP, I might accurately be suspected of being a little prejudiced on this subject. But fortunately you don't have to take my word for it. This is an in-person, with-audience performance, which among other things means that there are lots of witnesses on hand to back up my claims. They're all here, on the record: a standing-room crowd obviously having a ball listening to Mongo Santamaria and his band and the musicians just as obviously having just as much of a ball playing for them!

There is a perfectly good theory that, if everything works out exactly right, a "live" recording can be the most satisfying of all. But it takes recorded sound good enough to keep you from missing the control and perfection of a studio date and the acoustically helpful, Village Gate, plus first- rate engineers, provided that. It also takes an audience that is not only large, but aware, attentive and enthusiastic and this crowd, which came prepared to love Mongo and outdid even its own expectations, provided that. And it takes musicians capable of thriving on such an atmosphere, of not only spurring and stimulating an audience, but of being spurred by it. And Santamaria and his associates certainly do that I don't think I have ever heard the always-fiery Mongo sound quite as consistently exciting (that word again!) and imaginative as he does in the face of the warmth and exuberance of these spectators. So this, without a doubt, was one of those happily right nights. And, from the opening introduction of Mongo by the noted New York disc jockey, "Symphony Sid" (serving as master of cere- monies for the evening) through the crowd's final reluctance to let the band stop playing, it makes a happily right album.

Mongo Santamaria, after gaining considerable success in a primarily Latin vein, first grabbed the attention of a really vast public with the strikingly new sound of Watermelon Man, a hit single that then became a hit album. But whenever a performer scores a bullseye like that one, his next effort is bound to be awaited with more than a little skepticism. Was that first hit a fluke, a one-time gimmick? Will he give us another dose of the same, or something less? To me, therefore, one of the happiest aspects of the present album is the way it demonstrates the continuing growth and validity of Mongo's new music. Retaining the unique combination of American and Latin rhythms that was the most notable feature of Watermelon Man, he has gone on to apply that personal style to a richly varied collection of material.

Fatback, for example, carries on in the earthy, happy "watermelon" tradition, while Creole adds a marching-band feeling, and Mongo's Groove offers a noted jazz composer's impression of what it's all about. But probably the most musically interesting numbers are those that open and close the proceedings. El Toro combines a melody based on Spanish flamenco music with a typically Venezuelan 3/4-time rhythm called joropo. The horn solos add a jazz feeling, while drum and conga drum solos are played with a pure joropo beat. Nothing for Nothing is basically a blues, but Mongo draws on his knowledge of Afro-Cuban religious music to give it a fascinating new twist: played in 6/8, it utilizes a rhythm called "Yeza" (which originated in the Cuban district of Matanza, near Havana) to build its hypnotically driving pulse.

As all this might suggest, Mongo's music is a brilliantly inimitable fusing of many elements: the big beat of rhythm-and-blues, plus Latin and Afro rhythmic patterns, plus a healthy dose of jazz and blues feeling – all adding up to an irresistibly vivid and exciting (again!) album. I think you'll agree with me that "Mongo at The Village Gate" is a "live" recording in every sense of the word. – ORRIN KEEPNEWS

Introduction by "Symphony Sid"

El Toro

Fatback

Mongo's Groove

Creole

The Jungle Bit

My Sound (conga drum solo)

The Morning After

Nothing For Money