1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 11. Sabu – Palo Congo (1957)



Something a little different here – Louis “Sabu” Martinez and some Puerto Rican ... samba? Perhaps? I can find little about this album and so I can’t give much accurate information about the genre, nor much about Sabu apart from the fact that he did play with Dizzy Gillespie and seems to have made his way through the big band scene. Sabu himself is the congo player, and band leader, and really drives this album. 

Lots of Afro-Latin stylings, with each track essentially being a groove around a congo beat with other instruments moving around it, spiralling in and out of the track. Some are deliciously tribal, such as the driving Simba, or Billumba Palo-Congo which is a series of call and response (more shouted than sung) over a relentless congo beat. 

I note that both The Incredible Bongo Band and Buena Vista Social Club make this list later on, and I think this belongs in the set of “if you like that you’ll like this”.  

I really liked it. I imagine it made more musically (and socially) conservative heads explode when it came out. 

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