Instrumental, other languages
International relevance: **
Sabu Martinez's 1971 album ”Afro Temple” is
obviously some kind of classic, but I find most of it dull percussion
excesses with some spoken word over and some dashes of Latin jazz. So
I was less than thrilled approaching a full set of four albums
released on Mellotronen, covering Martinez's Swedish years.
Martinez moved here in 1967, and the earliest disc in the Mellotronen lot features recordings from that year, with saxophonist/flautist Sahib Shihad and made for the Swedish Radio. One of '67 tracks is only a spoken word piece on 'the theme of good and bad service'. The other one is an OK but unspectacular five minute jazz piece with Palle Danielsson on bass. The 1978 session, also for the Swedish Radio is slightly better with the half-bizarre ”The Distorted Sioux Indian” being an at least interesting little piece next two boring percussion solos.
Stemming from four different sessions, "The Dalecarlia Recordings" opens with thirteen very long minutes of another percussion workout, "The Latin Percussion People", which isn't a good start, but it picks up the steam soon after that. A selection of tracks from the 1971 album "Aurora Borealis" with Björnbobandet works up a great groove, and although I'm not too keen on big band stuff, these tracks are quite good. My favourite track however is "Puertorican Beans And Rice". The sound is murky but it reeks with so much vitality not even the quesionable fidelity can take anything from the contagious vivacity of the moment.
”Burned Sugar” features another Swedish Radio session, this time fron 1973, with the CD being expanded with three tracks recorded in the Polyvox Studio in Stockholm the following year. Not only the best volume of these four, but also the best Martinez album I've heard! It's an incredibly lively document with sweaty, funky, organic tracks. Clearly moving in the fusion jazz direction, but this is fusion that's meaty, beaty, big and bouncy and pretty damn irresistable. The Polyvox takes detracts a bit (especially the "Education" track which is only a minute and a half of the band working out a beat) but I can live with that.
The title track from ”Maldito Primitivo” picks up where "Burned Sugar" left off and would have fit nicely on that collection, and is by far the best track on this disc.The remainder of the disc is jazzy salsa galore, and while it's pretty good, it isn't nearly on the same level as the tremendous "Burned Sugar".
Taken together, these four volumes are a varied presentation of Sabu Martinez's musicianship. They have their ups and downs, depending on your personal preferences. All in all, they're much better than "Afro Temple", with "Burned Sugar" being my obvious pick of the bunch.
Winds & Skins full album playlist
The Dalecarlia Reordings 1971-72 full album playlist
Burned Sugar full album playlist
Maldito Primitivo full album playlist
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