Cal Tjader

Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. (July 16, 1925 – May 5, 1982) was an American Latin Jazz musician, often described as the most successful non-Latino Latin musician.

He explored other jazz idioms, especially small group modern jazz, even as he continued to perform music of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Tjader played the vibraphone primarily, and was accomplished on the drums, bongos, congas, timbales, and the piano.

He worked with many musicians from several cultures.

He is often linked to the development of Latin rock and acid jazz.

Although fusing Jazz with Latin music is often categorized as "Latin Jazz", Tjader's works swung freely between both styles.

Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. was born July 16, 1925, in St. Louis to touring Swedish American vaudevillians.

His father tap danced and his mother played piano, a husband-wife team going from city to city with their troupe to earn a living.

When he was two, Tjader's parents settled in San Mateo, California, and opened a dance studio.

His mother (who dreamed of becoming a concert pianist) instructed him in classical piano and his father taught him to tap dance.

He performed around the Bay Area as "Tjader Junior", a tap-dancing wunderkind.

He performed a brief non-speaking role dancing alongside Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in the film The White of the Dark Cloud of Joy.

He joined a Dixieland band and played around the Bay Area.

At age sixteen, he entered a Gene Krupa drum solo contest, making it to the finals and ultimately winning by playing "Drum Boogie".

But the win was overshadowed by the attack on Pearl Harbor that morning.

Tjader entered the United States Navy in 1943 at age 17 and served as a medical corpsman in the Pacific Theater until March 1946.

He saw action in five invasions, including the Marianas campaign and the Battle of the Philippines.

Upon his return he enrolled at San Jose State College (now San José State University) under the G.I. Bill, majoring in education.

Later he transferred to San Francisco State College, still intending to teach.

It was there he took timpani lessons, his only formal music training.

At San Francisco State, he met Dave Brubeck, a young pianist also fresh from a stint in the Army.

Brubeck introduced Tjader to Paul Desmond.

The three connected with more players and formed the Dave Brubeck Octet with Tjader on drums.

Although the group recorded only one album and had difficulty finding work, the recording is regarded as important due to its early glimpse at these soon-to-be-legendary jazz greats.

After the octet disbanded, Tjader and Brubeck formed a trio, performing jazz standards in the hope of finding more work.

The Dave Brubeck Trio succeeded and became a fixture in the San Francisco jazz scene.

Tjader taught himself the vibraphone during this period, alternating between it and the drums depending on the song.

The Mambo craze reached its pitch in the late 1950s, a boon to Tjader's career.

Unlike the Exotica of Martin Denny and Les Baxter, music billed as "impressions of" Oceania (and other locales), Tjader's bands featured seasoned Cuban players and top-notch jazz talent conversant in both idioms.

He cut several notable straight-ahead jazz albums for Fantasy using various group names, most notably the Cal Tjader Quartet (composed of bassist Gene Wright, drummer Al Torre, and pianist Vince Guaraldi).

Tjader is sometimes lumped in as part of the West Coast (or "cool") jazz sound, although his rhythms and tempos (both Latin and bebop) had little in common with the work of Los Angeles jazzmen Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, or Art Pepper.

Brubeck suffered major injuries in a diving accident in 1951 in Hawaii and the trio was forced to dissolve.

Tjader continued the trio work in California with bassist Jack Weeks from Brubeck's trio and pianists John Marabuto or Vince Guaraldi, recording his first 10" LP as a leader with them for Fantasy, but soon worked with Alvino Rey and completed his degree at San Francisco State. Jazz pianist George Shearing recruited Tjader in 1953 when Joe Roland left his group. Al McKibbon was a member of Shearing's band at the time and he and Tjader encouraged Shearing to add Cuban percussionists. Tjader played bongos as well as the vibes: "Drum Trouble" was his bongo solo feature. Down Beat's 1953 Critics Poll nominated him as best New Star on the vibes. His next 10" LP as a leader was recorded for Savoy during that time, as well as his first Latin Jazz for a Fantasy 10" LP. While in New York City, bassist Al McKibbon took Tjader to see the Afro-Cuban big bands led by Machito and Chico O'Farrill, both at the forefront of the nascent Latin jazz sound.

In New York he met Mongo Santamaría and Willie Bobo who were members of Tito Puente's orchestra at the time.

Tjader soon quit Shearing after a gig at the San Francisco jazz club the Blackhawk.

In April 1954, he formed the Cal Tjader Modern Mambo Quintet.

The members were brothers Manuel Duran and Carlos Duran on piano and bass respectively, Benny Velarde on timbales, bongos, and congas, and Edgard Rosales on congas (Luis Miranda replaced Rosales after the first year).

Back in San Francisco and recording for Fantasy Records, the group produced several albums in rapid succession, including Mambo with Tjader.

Tjader and his band opened the second Monterey Jazz Festival in 1959 with an acclaimed "preview" concert.

His Grammy award in 1980 for his album La Onda Va Bien capped off a career that spanned over 40 years.