Latin Jazz

Latin jazz on vinyl: Cal Tjader, bossa nova and Afro-Cuban jazz

In short: Latin jazz combines jazz improvisation with the rhythms of Cuba and Brazil: congas, bongos, clave and bossa nova. Dizzy Gillespie, Machito, Cal Tjader and Stan Getz shaped it. The Vinyl Room currently has 139 Latin jazz records, many of them from the sixties and seventies.

What is Latin jazz?

In the forties Dizzy Gillespie brought the Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo into his big band, and Machito and Mario Bauzá combined Cuban rhythms with jazz in New York – Afro-Cuban jazz was born. On the West Coast, the vibraphonist Cal Tjader turned it into a distinctive, elegant sound in the fifties. In the early sixties bossa nova arrived from Brazil: Stan Getz and João Gilberto scored a worldwide success with “Getz/Gilberto” (1964). Gato Barbieri and Willie Bobo carried Latin jazz into the seventies.

What to look for

Many Latin jazz originals are US pressings from the fifties to the seventies, for example on Fantasy, Verve or Impulse!. Label, catalogue number and runout together tell you whether you have a first pressing.

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First pressings

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FAQ

What is Latin jazz? Jazz with Cuban and Brazilian rhythms – from Afro-Cuban jazz to bossa nova.

Who invented Afro-Cuban jazz? In the forties mainly Dizzy Gillespie with Chano Pozo, and Machito and Mario Bauzá in New York.

What is “Getz/Gilberto”? The 1964 album by Stan Getz and João Gilberto that made bossa nova known worldwide.