Featured In
ALBUMCatch The Groove (Live at The Penthouse 1963-1967)Cal Tjader
Albums by Cal Tjader
ALBUMHuracanCal Tjader
ALBUMSextet (Remastered)Cal Tjader & Stan Getz
ALBUMOur Blues (feat. Vince Guaraldi, Lonnie Hewitt, Eddie Coleman, Willie Bobo, Mongo Santamaria, Gene Wright & a.L. Torres)Cal Tjader
ALBUMCal Tjader Plays Harold Arlen & West Side StoryCal Tjader
ALBUMExtremes (Remastered 2001)Cal Tjader
ALBUMBoth Sides Of The CoinCal Tjader
ALBUMPrimoCal Tjader
ALBUMHeat WaveCal Tjader & Carmen McRae
ALBUMThe Shining Sea (feat. Hank Jones, Scott Hamilton, Vince Lateano & Dean Reilly)Cal Tjader
ALBUMGozame! Pero Ya...Cal Tjader
Artist Playlists
Cal Tjader Essentials
The vibraphonist's love for the Latin beat led to a long-running jazz career.
Artist Biography
A vibraphone master and jazz-fusion trailblazer, Cal Tjader was a composer and prolific percussionist who propelled the lounge music craze of the '50s and '60s with expansive productions dipping into mambo, bossa nova, and music from across Asia, including Japan, China, the Philippines, and more. Tjader's musical path was fated from the start: He was born in 1925 in St. Louis to touring Swedish vaudevillians—his mother an aspiring concert pianist and his father a tap dancer. He grew up in the Bay Area and joined the Navy in 1943, serving in World War II and attending San Francisco State College after his return. There, he studied timpani and met a young pianist named Dave Brubeck; they played together in multiple ensembles before embarking on separate, legendary jazz careers. Tjader was fascinated with Latin American rhythms, most notably Afro-Cuban jazz, while also drawing from Caribbean and Mexican percussion traditions and becoming a precursor of Latin jazz and acid jazz. His 1956 album, Tjader Plays Mambo, is a blueprint for silky, hip-shaking lounge sounds, while 1965's Soul Sauce gave jazz standards by Dizzy Gillespie and Mongo Santamaria a shimmering makeover. He invoked rock beats and electronic instrumentation for 1975's Amazonas, while his 1980 Latin-jazz opus, La Onda Va Bien, earned Tjader a coveted Grammy before his passing two years later.
Hometown
St. Louis, MO, United States
Genre
Jazz