The Revisiting series features albums from the past that played a significant role in Latin Jazz history. The purpose of this series is to introduce new Latin Jazz listeners to important albums and look back at these albums in historical perspective. Each entry will jump to a different point in Latin Jazz history - this week we jump back to 1974.

Every artist hopes for longevity in their music career - yet the ability to remain in music requires a challenging aesthetic decision. When most professional musicians begin their music career, they find success in a certain musical genre. They establish an adoring audience that pays for their new albums and attends their concerts. Eventually this audience ages with the artist and a new younger listening audience takes control of the music scene. Their listening preferences often differ from their elders and they buy different recordings and support alternate performances. The artist that found success with a previous generation can either remain true to their original musical vision and hope that they fall into favor with the new listeners, or they can modernize their music. Maintaining their original sound may mean a smaller paycheck while altering it runs the risk of loosing their credibility. At the same time, they might capture the new audience and revitalize their career. It’s an important choice that either makes or breaks an artist’s hopes for longevity.

Rafael Cortijo traveled through many rocky roads during his career, but his creativity, the strength of his vision, and his pure musicality helped him survive through many eras. As a musically inclined young man in Puerto Rico, he became deeply interested in his country’s traditional music, bomba and plena. After befriending some true pleneros, he learned how to build his own traditional drums and began forming plena groups that added trumpets and saxophones to the tipical instrumentation. Cortijo worked as a percussionist with vocalists Daniel Santos and Miguelito Valdes, touring and learning the realities of the music business. In the mid-1950s, he again formed his own group, which combined both Puerto Rican and Cuban rhythm in a popular dance format, this time with vocalist Ismael Rivera fronting the band. The band found success on Puerto Rican television and in New York dance circles, but their good fortune ended when Rivera got arrested for drug possession in 1962. Following Rivera’s imprisonment, Cortijo’s band left to form El Gran Combo, and Cortijo struggled without a band. He recorded twice after Rivera’s release, and then formed another band, Bonche. After bouncing between New York and Puerto Rico, he attempted a variety of new musical directions to sustain his now rocky career.

The 1974 album Cortijo & His Time Machine attempted to attract a younger audience by blending a mixture of Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Brazilian sounds with jazz improvisation and rock attitude. Sustained horn chords give way to a funk groove combined with a bomba rhythm on “Baila Y Goza,” eventually segueing into an open jazz-bomba blowing session. Jose Nogueras’ heartfelt vocals float over the bolero “La Lluvia” until the drum kit and guitar enter to imply a Tower of Power soul-ballad setting. Inventive horn writing and enthusiastic coros frame a funky bomba groove on “De Coco Y Anis,” leaving room for a distorted guitar solo and lead vocals from Fe Cortijo. A repetitive bass line rides over a plena rhythm while a Brazilian cuica cuts through the rhythm section on “Carnaval,” which funkifies for guitarist Edgardo Miranda’s solo then thins for a call and response between Cortijo and the coro. “Gumbo” features an intensive groove that combines Puerto Rican drumming, funky drum kit work, a walking bass line, and frenetic guitar comping; this all serves as the basis for extensive solo distorted guitar, synthesizer solos, and fast horn melodies. The album signified a significant step away from Cortijo’s past recordings, exposed an experimental side to his music, and successfully brought rock and funk elements into Latin Jazz.

Ultimately, Cortijo & His Time Machine would not prove to be the career rejuvenating album expected, and other directions proved more fruitful. Commercially, the album missed any financial rewards; Cortijo’s established audience wanted dance music, and the recording’s complex mixture of Latin styles never captured the rock crowd. The forward thinking album did influence Latin Jazz musicians, including a young Chucho Valdes, who soon delved into Latin Jazz fusion with Irakere. At the same time, any positive attention that the album found was quickly overshadowed by another huge Cortijo event that same year- a reunion of his original band with Rivera on vocals and El Gran Combo members. The performance was recorded and released as Juntos Otra Vez. Cortijo also worked with Puerto Rican bandleader Kako and composer Catalino “Tite” Curet Alonso, continuing his dedication to his country’s music. In 1982, Cortijo contracted Pancreatic Cancer and soon died, leaving a legacy of dance music that emphasized Puerto Rican culture. While Cortijo & His Time Machine exists as a mere footnote in the history of one of Puerto Rico’s great popular entertainers, it remains a historically important album in the development of Latin Jazz fusion.

Revisit more classic recordings:
Cuban Roots, Mark Weinstein
40 Years of Cuban Jam Session, Paquito D’Rivera
Paunetto’s Point, Bobby Vince Paunetto

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