perfidy

Loyal readers will remember that I have extolled the virtues of master conguero Poncho Sanchez before, in reviews of a budget best-of (Instant Party!) and a live DVD; hopefully some of you have enriched your life with one of these by now. But the question still stands: is a Poncho Sanchez album even close to as good as a best-of compilation of the most memorable bits of several albums?

That is not a sure bet either way. I’d rather listen to Strictly Commercial any day than listen to many of the Frank Zappa albums that contributed a song to that compilation (Zoot Allures? Ugh!). On the other hand, Aerosmith’s so-called Greatest Hits package is an embarrassment throughout the entire B side, and the whole production is not as strong as even one of the studio albums it draws from, A Night in the Ruts excepted.

For Do It!, his new studio recording for Concord Picante, Poncho Sanchez returns to his tried-and-true strategy of locking funk and soul in a room with Latin and seeing who emerges alive. Mixing these three genres is a fantastic idea rich with possibilities, the musical equivalent of a red 1968 Impala tricked out with a crushed-velvet interior and a chandelier. It has sustained him for more than twenty years now, and it seems from Do It that the old ride does have a lot of miles left on it. Sanchez and his band offer eleven tracks that for the most part do stand up to the material cherry-picked for his best-of and live sets.

The key to staying fresh is variety, and to keep things lively Sanchez and crew team for two tracks with South African legend Hugh Masekela, and for two tracks with the entire lineup of Tower of Power.

Within the confines of Sanchez’ signature sound, Do It! is satisfyingly diverse. Although they don’t reach the dizzying heights of their live shows, the band are tight and sound especially good on the title song and a burbling take on Duke Ellington’s “African Flower.”

More interesting are the collaborations, which are a study in contrasts. Tower of Power are known for producing precise machine-tooled grooves that some people consider among the funkiest around. I have never cared much for them, finding their shiny perfection somewhat airless and decidedly un-funky. Combining Sanchez’ pulsating, lively conga style with ToP’s up-and-down sound on “Squib Cakes” and “Shotgun Slim” results a combination that lets some air into ToP’s rhythm section and some smoothness into their vamps. Although the results still sound too much like Tower of Power for my taste, these tracks do really cook (my personal biases aside).

Sanchez’ two tracks with African jazz and Afrobeat legend Hugh Masekela are another thing entirely. Masekela has played with everybody – Fela Kuti, Herb Alpert, and Paul Simon are all on his resumé – and he has had careers in bop, R&B, pop, Afrobeat, and African jazz. Such versatility serves him well in his two vocal contributions to the record, the Latin-flavored “Ha Lese Le Di Khanna” and the slightly Afrobeat “Child of the Earth.” Masekela’s sensibility is undeniably African, and he and the band meet in the middle to create an interesting Latin-African hybrid sound that deserves an album or five of its own. It’s only a shame that Masekela doesn’t seem to have brought his flugelhorn to the sessions.

West and South African music styles from the Guinea coast to Capetown rely on different rhythmic sensibilities than do Latin music styles. Whereas Latin sounds tend to subdivide the pulse into tiny, syncopated bits that clatter into each other like ball bearings falling onto a marble floor, African bands tend to sound bouncier. Even when using nearly identical instruments – hand drums, for instance – African players tend to make their grooves rounder, more flowing, than a Latin player would. Granted, this is not universal (rhumba comes to mind as an exception), but a general rule. Another is this: many indigenous styles of African music use melodies that sound to American ears nearly conversational, using different rules of tension-and-release and phrasing than we are used to.

All this is a little surprising, considering that Latin music gets its rhythmic complexity from African traditions, though centuries ago and now changed beyond recognition. Still, if critics can find plenty of common ground between Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure and blues great John Lee Hooker, why is there not as much evident similarity between say, Tito Puente and Fela Kuti’s Africa 70?

While all this might only illustrate my own basic ignorance, I have to say: the sound created by the combination of Poncho Sanchez’ band playing a little “African” and Hugh Masekela responding to the Latin rhythms on “Ha Lese Le Di Khanna” point to a potentially very fruitful (and funky) style of music ripe for exploration. Lafrobeat? Afritan? Soukousalsa?

So, yes: Poncho Sanchez can make an album that stands up to his best-of. That is the mark of a consistent artist. In fact, Do It! is actually more satisfying, leaving aside the wall-to-wall guests-and-gimmickry that Instant Party had in favor of hot charts, good playing, and intriguing collaborations that point at more good things to come. He, um, er, ah... does it.