Instrumental, spoken word
International relevance: ***
New York born percussionist Louis
'Sabu' Martinez was something of a wunderkind, making his
professional debut in 1941 at the age of 11. At 18 he was offered a
place in Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra, and he later went on to work
with jazz giants like Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Thelonious
Monk, Art Blakey, and Charles Mingus. His band leader debut came in
1957 with ”Palo Congo” on the Blue Note label. Ten years later he
moved to Sweden and released a couple of albums under his own name of
which ”Afro Temple” is the best known.
The album was recorded in April 1973
with a number of renowned instrumentalists, among them Christer
Boustedt and Bernt Rosengren on saxes and flutes, U.S. born Swedish
bassist Red Mitchell, and drummer Ali Lundbohm (of Vildkaktus).
Needless to say, it's a percussion heavy album with strong Afro-Cuban
influences, not only featuring Martinez himself but also four other
conga players. The title track is fine with Boustedt wailing away on
his alto and the reverb drenched ”Para Ti, Tito Rodriguez” and
funky ”My Christina” are pretty cool too, but I think the album
as a whole is overrated.
The folks at Mellotronen wouldn't agree
with me as they've released a series of previously unreleased
Martinez recordings made for the Swedish Radio 1967-78, ”Winds &
Skins” (with saxophonist/flautist Sahib Shihab), ”Burned Sugar”
and ”Maldito Primivo”.
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