Black Hawk Nights (1959)

"In the late '50s, Cal Tjader and his bands played lengthy engagements at the Black Hawk jazz club in San Francisco. This CD combines almost everything from two albums he recorded there: the entirety of "A Night At The Blackhawk", and all songs save one from "Live And Direct". This is on the mellow side for Tjader, even by the vibraphonist's standards; if "A Night At The Blackhawk" is low-energy, "Live And Direct" is positively sleepy. "A Night At The Blackhawk" employs an all-star sextet incl. Mongo Santamaria on congas, and Vince Guaraldi on piano. It's only in the Latin-Afro-Cuban mood about half the time. That's heard on the mambo version of "Stompin' at the Savoy," "I Love Paris," and Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia," the last of which is of course a natural for the Latin-jazz treatment. Although "Live And Direct" was billed to the Cal Tjader Quintet, it in fact usually features just a quartet of Tjader, Lonnie Hewitt (p), Victor Venegas (b), and Willie Bobo (d)." (Richie Unterberger, Allmusic)

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