Back on my Horace Silver post, I dropped a (not) subtle hint for my kids that if they ever wanted to take a cue from Silver’s “Song for My Father” and come up with a musical tribute to their dear old dad, they should feel free (only completely voluntarily, of their own volition, of course … ahem). I hope they never find out that Paquito D’Rivera has a song called “Song to My Son”—I would hate for them to get the idea that there’s some kind of even exchange going on here.
Latin/Brazilian
Los Van Van
I’ve heard Los Van Van referred to as “the Rolling Stones of Cuba.” I assume this doesn’t mean they released 10 years’ worth of classic albums, followed by 40 years of crappy ones.
Caetano Veloso
As much as I love the Red Hot organization for having their hearts in the right place (all album proceeds going to AIDS research), the truth is that they have produced some very, very bad albums. For their “medium bad” bossa nova album, they wisely decided to release a companion album containing the original (better) versions. It was that album that introduced me to the wild, wacky Caetano Veloso. So, thanks, Red Hot guys!
Playlist of the Day 