On the opening track to the CD, ‘East Walk’ the band is joined by a couple of extra percussionists Snowboy and Bosco de Oliveira on a “Latin boogaloo”. After that, just to surprise us all, ‘Miles Below’ is a tribute to a certain trumpet player in his fusion period with a big Hammond organ. No doubt influenced from playing with JTQ, this track was written by excellent trumpet player Steve Waterman. Not sure about the ‘dance mix’ bonus track at the end but I’m sure it would work is the right setting.
‘Peckham Royalty’ is nothing to do with Del and Rodney and along with ‘Pardon My Poché’, while sounding a little old skool, it certainly has that Latin spirit.
In fact, all the tracks here are as lively as a Latin Jazz sextet should be. No more so than on the title track and their version of the jazz dance classic, ‘Manteca’. Nick Walker writes most of the tunes for the band but he’s sounding at this best on ‘Manteca’; and you get three solos from Snowboy, de Oliveira and Jones (sound like a very odd firm of solicitors to you?). |
