Recorded live at two leading California nightspots,
Yoshi
's in Oakland and the Latin-specializing
Conga Room
in Los Angeles (the actual sound in
the Conga Room
is never as good as that on this CD),
Concord
no doubt hoped for an exceptionally hot live session from this tireless defender of the Latin jazz tradition. What they got was merely a decent album, listenable, danceable, yet lacking that extra flash of Latin fire.
Sanchez
leads his usual eight-piece ensemble -- augmented at
's by
Mike Whitman
on baritone sax -- and feeds the percussive polyrhythmic battles with his congas (as well as a turn on the timbales on
"Guaripumpe"
). On the "Latin soul" agenda, there is a dead-on faithful rendition of
"Watermelon Man,"
with a few histrionic things at the close, and a reprise of
Eddie Harris
'
"Cold Duck Time,"
which soon turns into
"Listen Here"
and
"Everything I Play Gonh Be Funky."
There are also some spirited passings of the bop baton from trumpeter
Sal Cracchiolo
to trombonist
Francisco Torres
to tenor saxophonist
Scott Martin
and back again on
"Ican."
It's OK, but not
' best. ~ Richard S. Ginell