Cal Tjader's Modern Mambo Quintet (1954)

Photos by N.R. Farbman for Life magazine, 1954

I recently stumbled upon this wonderful set of photos from the Life magazine archives, taken some time in late 1954. They originally appeared in the December 20th issue of the magazine that year as part of the profile of the Mambo craze which was near it's zenith. The venue was The Macumba on Grant Street (between Bush and Sutter Streets) in downtown San Francisco, right on the border of Chinatown. It was an upstairs dancehall opened in the Summer of '54 that featured popular Latin orchestras such as Tito Puente as well as bandleaders like Duke Ellington and Stan Kenton. For San Francisco Latin Jazz musicians of a certain age, it is well remembered as a hub of sorts for a scene whose influence is still felt today in the Bay Area. For more information on this era, I highly recommended reading this excellent interview with Tjader sideman Benny Velarde.

Tjader at the time of these photos was in his ascension. He had left the George Shearing Quintet in the Spring of the year and quickly set about forming his Modern Mambo Quintet, deeply influenced by the music he had experienced in New York City while working with Shearing over the previous year. In San Francisco, he surrounded himself with a roster of excellent musicians and cut his first Mambo discs for Fantasy Records. As a live attraction he was quite popular in both dance halls such as The Macumba as well as jazz clubs such as The Black Hawk. It is interesting to note on how well put together the Quintet was even after just a few short months together at the time of these photos. Ivy Leaguers will most certainly notice the 3/2 flannel blazers, button-down shirts, and Repp ties that make up the band uniform! Horn-rims look to be optional though...

Turk & Hyde (Yesterday & Today)

What I love about the JazzWax blog is the way the author manages to convey his enthusiasm about his subject matter. I nearly almost "walk" away from the blog with the desire to download the tracks he mentions, be it a known quantity like Charlie Parker with Lennie Tristano or someone who I never thought to be up my street like Helen Merrill or Joe Mooney. Marc also does a great job illustrating his posts. Take this post for example. Sure, I like Shelly Manne. In fact, nearly every time I hear him play I think, "Man, is this guy under appreciated and sadly forgotten." Well, Marc addresses exactly that and does so quite well. If you are a fan of the jazz music, I strongly recommend you make this blog a habit.

I nabbed one of Marc's photos (apologies to the copyright holder, but there is a purpose to all of this)
Thanks to miracle products over at Google we can see just exactly what the same spot looks like today. What a shame.

The Tenderloin (as that particular neighborhood is known) has been San Francisco's skid row certainly ever since I have been in the City (1989). There's always been a few good bars and nite spots to attract the likes of me, but overall it's pretty rough going and a pretty grim reminder of the cost of urban living.