Various - Manteca! The Roots Of Afro-Cuban Jazz

Tracklist

1	–Woody Herman And His Orchestra	Bijou
2	–Stan Kenton And His Orchestra	Machito
3	–Dizzy Gillespie And His Orchestra	Cubana Be Cubana Bop (live)
4	–Stan Kenton And His Orchestra	Cuban Carnival
5	–Stan Kenton And His Orchestra	Journey to Brazil
6	–Stan Kenton And His Orchestra	The Peanut Vendor
7	–Dizzy Gillespie And His Orchestra	Algo Bueno
8	–Dizzy Gillespie And His Orchestra	Cool Breeze
9	–Dizzy Gillespie And His Orchestra	Cubana Be
10	–Dizzy Gillespie And His Orchestra	Cubana Bop
11	–Dizzy Gillespie And His Orchestra	Manteca
12	–Dizzy Gillespie And His Orchestra	Guarachi Guaro
13	–Dizzy Gillespie And His Orchestra	Taboo (live)
14	–Dizzy Gillespie And His Orchestra	Manteca
15	–James Moody And His Modernists	Cu-Ba
16	–James Moody And His Modernists	Tin Tin Deo
17	–Tadd Dameron And His Orchestra	Jahbero
18	–Howard McGhee And His Afro-Cuboppers	Cubop Pt 1 & 2 City
19	–The Milt Jackson Quartet	Baggy Blues
20	–Machito And His Afro-Cuban Orchestra*	Gone City

Notes

This set from Giant Steps really gets it and lays down some of the hottest of the early Afro-Cuban jazz sounds that came down the pipe during and just after the bebop era. The first disc assembles 20 tracks by American jazz bands deeply influenced by the roots sounds of Cuban music, from the likes of Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Tadd Dameron and James Moody and revealing how deeply Latin music influenced the big band sounds in America. That said, there's a slew of Dizzy Gillespie cuts in the middle that reveal how that crossover was made as Diz -- and Charlie Parker -- actually played with Machito and took in the music's jumpin' rhythmic attack and harmonic modalities and brought them into bebop as it evolved. The second disc, however, is the authentic article. Here is a boatload of cuts from Machito, Chico O'Farrill, Noro Morales, Pérez Prado and Tito Puente to offer what American jazz offered back. This is a creative exchange like few others, but the Cubans gave us far more in helping to broaden the colors, textures and polyrhythms that made the early '50s such a compelling time in the music. Check out the way Kenton stretches both jazz and Afro-Cuban music to the boundaries and takes it all one step further, or the way Machito used Ellingtonian harmonics to reach out of the folk forms of Cuban orchestra music. This is a killer set from start to stop with only one dog track in the batch, and you'll have to figure out which one it is (the hint is that it's on disc two and by a blind British pianist).