JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
Rating: 
This collection gathers some of the early material of Machito and His Afro-Cubans, before Machito’s brother-in-law Mario Bauza started bringing in notable jazz performers as guests in the band, so the music has glints of big band jazz circa 1940, but most of the time, it’s pretty much straight up Cuban dance music, not jazz.
Still, you can hear the roots of much of Afro-Cuban jazz right here, and that’s the reason I’m reviewing this CD.
The music contained herein is more charming than explosive, so the question you’ll have to ask yourself is, do you really like traditional Cuban music? If you do, then you really should check out this collection. If what you really like is salsa or Dizzy Gillespie, then you probably won’t dig 1941.
The harmonies are fairly simple and diatonic, but because of the insinuating push and pull rhythms of Cuban music, the melodies are often quite catchy, and there are plenty of instrumental hooks as well. You might find yourself humming these tunes after a while.
Sadly, I couldn’t find any music clips for 1941, so I substituted The Early Years instead. But even this stuff is later than 1941. There’s much more emphasis on the horns, and more jazz influence. A lot of the charm is lost, so you’ll have to use your imagination.