Grupo Irakere is the eponymous, second album by the iconic Cuban jazz-funk/fusion ensemble founded by keyboardist
Chucho Valdés. Released in 1975, it's a follow-up to
Teatro Amadeo Roldan Recital, a collection of demos that actually saw release. The original lineup consisted of vocalist/percussionist
Oscar Valdés Campos,
Chucho on keys, bassist/conguero
Jorge Alfonso, trumpeter
Arturo Sandoval, saxophonists
Paquito De Rivera and
Carlos Averhoff, drummer
Enrique Plá, guitarists
Carlos Barbón and
Carlos Emilio Morales, bassist
Carlos Puerto, and bata drummer/conguero
Jorge Alfonso.
Chucho Valdés composed five of these eight songs, while
De Rivera and
Sandoval wrote one each. The band also covered
Tania Castellanos' classic, "En Nosotros." While the rigorous jazz-funk of their 1979 eponymous
Columbia debut marks the band's mature sound,
Grupo Irakere is rawer, more elaborate and dynamic. Its juxtaposition of Cuban music -- son, descarga, rhumba, bolero, merengue, etc. -- with rock, funk and jazz is seamless, and more kinetic than anything coming out of the U.S. or Europe at the time.
One need go no further than the opener, the legendary dancefloor anthem "Chequere Son." Layered polyrhythms from shakers, drum kit, claves, guiro, shekere, congas, and bongos deliver a chunky syncopated vamp underscored by a funky bassline. (It recalls
Miroslav Vitous' on
Weather Report's
Sweetnighter. Vocalist
Oscar Valdés Campos enters and trades fours in call-and response with chants from the band atop bubbling beats, edgy electric guitar breaks, and burning horns. "38 1/2" (BASF re-released this album in Japan with that title) swings with rippling bongos, congas, and bass under fluid saxes and trumpets that would be right at home on
Frank Zappa's
Waka/Jawaka. "Moja el Pane" commences with a rockist electric guitar that quickly shifts to Cuban carnival style.
Valdés Campos moves up front, displaying his considerable gifts as a salsero. Using a beat architecture that straddles R&B and descarga, the chanted vocal interplay between the band chorus and lead singer is as furiously danceable as it is celebratory.
Chucho's Rhodes piano solo joins smoking bebop to edgy rock. While instrumental "Este Camino Largo" is as close to straight-ahead jazz as
Irakere ever got, "Xiomara Mayoral-Xiomara" is a salsa ballad with a punchy brass and reeds. Closer "Iya" is another dance track that bookends "Chequere Son" perfectly. While easily as intense, it's more jazz-centric with the horns delivering a scripted group solo in the middle eight. After that, vocalists chant together as bata, congas, and bongos roil and ripple.
Chucho takes a massively funky break on a synth before horns join him in a salsa orgy.
Grupo Irakere is a startling portrait of a young band that arrived on the Cuban scene seemingly fully formed. Their infectious, attractive sound proved influential just a few years later. Music fans even remotely interested in Cuban music and Afro-Cuban jazz should snag these before they disappear. [
Grupo Irakere and
Teatro Amadeo Roldan Recital were licensed, remastered, and re-released by
Mr. Bongo.] ~ Thom Jurek
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