Mambo Happy: Perez Prado

Performer: Pérez Prado
Distributor: BMG Special Products

Notes: This BMG reissue of Perez Prado's 1958 album MAMBO HAPPY! (complete with retro-classic cover art) walks a giddy, irresistible median between technically accomplished Latin jazz and kitschy showmanship. The cartoon-like horn charts and choral grunts and shouts of "Go!" on the opener, "Go, Go Mambo," or the romantic, swoon-inducing vocals on "Wild Mambo" speak volumes for Prado's commercial footing in the mainstream mambo craze of the time. But the music overflows with syncopated glee, reveling in irresistible grooves churned up by complex, tight-knit percussion, circular piano and bass motifs, and a blazing frontline of dynamic brass. So while the call-and-response screeches, growls, and yelps on "Broadway Mambo" may give serious Latin jazz fans pause, there is no denying the chops of Prado's orchestra, or the tremendous fun they generate.

D�maso P�rez Prado, the original Mambo King, served time as an arranger and pianist in several Havana-based bands in the 1930s. By the '40s, the traditional Cuban danzon style was evolving into newer, African-inspired sounds like the cha-cha and the mambo. With an irresistible syncopated rhythm and sensual, brass-heavy melodies, mambo dovetailed nicely with the popular swing music of the day. Prado began to plant the mambo seeds farther away from home, and by the '50s, the mambo craze had taken hold in the U.S. While Prado was not the first musician to play this music, he wrote and/or recorded some of the biggest mambo hits of the era. Though the craze eventually faded, Prado performed and recorded until his death in 1989.

Click Here for Shipping Options and Policies

Shipping or Dimension weight in pounds: 0.5