Blue Rondo à la Turk was an early 1980s British musical ensemble, whose music featured elements of salsa, pop and cool jazz.
The group placed two songs on the UK Singles Chart (1981's "Me and Mr. Sanchez", and 1982's "Klactoveesedstein"), but is perhaps better known in retrospect for launching the careers of several players who went on to form the sophisticated jazz/Latin/samba/pop group Matt Bianco.
Blue Rondo à la Turk was a floating collective of jazz and salsa oriented musicians, created by singer/lyricist Chris Sullivan, whose stated goal for the band was "to bring back show biz".
In the band’s first interview, Sullivan said of their sound: “Call it Latin American jazz with funk and African leanings – plus a few others because all of us have adventurous musical tastes.” Sullivan co-wrote most of the band's original material; he also painted the distinctive cubist art that adorned most of the band's releases.
Bees Knees and Chickens Elbows boasts fantastic cover art, a great opening instrumental track, Samba No Pé and, well, some other tracks. Smoking Dynamite is the second-strongest song here, with suggestions of the earlier tarry chaos.
Too much of what remains falls into that best forgotten 1980s groove of cool-jazzy-poppy-nothing-much.
That dancing dazzler of an opening track leads straight to Manifesto, an unremarkable burst of 1980s pop – a song that sets the mood for an album that hasn’t aged well.
Fans of the ‘a la Turk’ version of Chris Sullivan’s band still report feeling disappointed by this second (and last) album. To this listener, who can’t recall buying the album (and we have two copies in our collection) the excitement raised by the opening instrumental slowly fades away.
Side A
A1. Samba No Pé - 6:59
A2. Slipping Into Daylight - 5:18
A3. Manifesto - 3:55
A4. Masked Moods - 4:46
Side B
B1. Smoking Dynamite - 5:13
B2 . And Then The Rain Came - 5:14
B3. Hot Corner - 4:33
B4. Are You Satisfied - 6:36
Companies, etc.
- Copyright © – Virgin Records Ltd.
- Distributed By – Dischi Ricordi S.p.A.
- Published By – CBS Songs Ltd.
- Published By – Copyright Control
- Published By – Heath Levy Music
- Published By – Warner Bros. Music Ltd.
- Published By – Bruce Woolley Music Ltd.
- Published By – Rondor Music (London) Ltd.
- Published By – Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd.
- Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Virgin Records Ltd.
Credits
- Cover – Chris Sullivan
- Engineer – Tony Taverner
- Photography By – Chris Duffy
Notes
Release: 1984
Format: LP
Genre: Latin Jazz, Jazz-Funk
Label: Virgin Records
Catalog# 206 419-320
Vinyl: VG+
Cover: VG+
Prijs: €4,99
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