Mongo Santamaria ”Stone Soul”

Mongo Santamaria

”Stone Soul”
( LP Columbia Records, 1969 )
Catalog # CS 9780

Tracklisting:
A1 See-Saw
A2 Son-Of-A-Preacher Man
A3 Love Child
A4 Where Are We
A5 Hitchcock Railway
B1 Stoned Soul Picnic
B2 Who’s Making Love
B3 The Now Generation
B4 Little Green Apples
B5 Cloud Nine

Personnel & Credits:
Arranged By – Marty Sheller (tracks: A1, A2, A3, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5),
Rodgers Grant (tracks: A4), William Allen (tracks: B3)
Bass – William Allen
Congas, Bongos – Mongo Santamaria
Drums – Bernard Purdie
Engineer – Fred Catero, Roy Segal
Percussion – Julito Collazo, Osualdo Martinez
Piano – Rodgers Grant
Producer – David Rubinson
Saxophone [Alto] – Sonny Fortune
Saxophone [Baritone] – Art Kaplan
Saxophone [Tenor] – Hadley Caliman, Hubert Laws
Timbales – Steve Berrios
Trumpet – Louis Gasca

Notes:
Columbia red 2-eye label
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1969

Review:
By now, Mongo Santamaria was basically tied to the formula of translating pop and soul hits of the day – “See Saw,” “Love Child,” “Little Green Apples” etc. – into his Latin soul jazz idiom, but he and his band perform with so much energy and pizzazz that the music seems anything but routine. Way up front on most of these tunes is featured soloist Sonny Fortune, wailing in a blatantly exciting R&B mode on alto sax. Marty Sheller does most of the hyped-up charts, but the best one may be the sensuous cha-cha treatment of “Where We Are” by pianist Rodgers Grant. Mongo even got a Top 40 hit (No. 32) out of his flaming treatment of the Temptations’ “Cloud Nine” — and he gets to work up a fine sweat on his “Hitchcock Railway” solo. A great match of a hot-tempered Latin band and commercial considerations.
By Richard S. Ginell (AMG)

By Celo