Eddie Gomez – Caribbean Rendezvous
This album would be a perfectly OK record of mambos & cha chas but for one thing. It was released on Crown, yuck. As is reasonably common knowledge, most of Crown’s records sounded G+ to VG- even before they had been played, their pressings are that low quality. This album is no different unfortunately, looks VG+, plays to a solid G. Also Crown covers were horrible too & almost always came apart at the seams for some (if not the whole) way around. Musically this LP isn’t all bad, a good mix of vocal & instrumental mambos, cha chas & calypsos at a range of tempos. I haven’t bothered looking into Eddie Gomez at all, the liner notes state that he was Puerto Rican & had sung with Noro Morales & appeared in theatres all over the world. So either he was moderately famous or someone has employed some choice hyperbole. Crown had something to do with the Bihari’s (Modern), but was definitely the budget label of that family. Production credits on this go to Lorette Bihari. Hopefully you may find a copy of this that doesn’t play like someone took to it with a belt sander.
5 Comments
There’s a good version of Cuban Mist on this LP, unless I’m confusing albums… Dig that perv peeking down the girls décolté !
Two highly recommended Crown albums are Jazz Heat Bongo Beat by the Latin All Stars (Buddy Collette) and Don Ralke’s Bongo Madness (also with Collette). Excellent West Coast beatnik jazz all round.
I don’t know about this lp, but Crown started out as a reissue label for Modern/RPM etc. tracks. Typical of the 50s and early 60s the albums are really just compilations of 78 and 45 tracks with occassional leftovers from the masters.
Black label Crowns (5000 series) are always worth checking out some killer jump blues, doo wop and R&B shakers. A lot of good jazz titles on the gray labels (300+) but the sound is always horrible with recycled vinyl and the cheapest fillers they could come up with.
I like the crown record with the Tarzan tunes. A friend of mine had the above one on the wall in his toilet, framed with the record inside, so I never heard it.
Yep, this has Cuban Mist on it, but I uploaded the shortest of the good tracks so my dial up wouldn’t freak out. The LP is now sitting by the bin ready to go when I take the trash out next.
I like Crown. The blues, r+b, jazz stuff is all cool and I don’t care about the pressings. I just cue ’em up on a suitcase-style Motorola after a few drinks and it sounds good to me. Someone should do a feature on the Crown artwork by Fazio, its definitely worthy. Crown favorites: Ike Turner, John Lee Hooker, Scramblers, Etta James, Elmore James, Buddy Colette, tons more. Great label.