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Born in St. Louis 1925, Tjader was first heard in Dave Brubeck's trio and later in George Shearing' hugely popular quintet. Tjader kicked off his own recording legacy at Fantasy Records and switched to the high-profile Verve Records label in 1961, yielding such classics as BAMBOLEATE (also avalable from Vampisoul). This Vampisoul 2-in-1 set (two complete albums on CD, a selection from them on LP) catches Tjader mid-career in the first two of his three albums on Skye Recordings, the label he owned with fellow musicians Gary McFarland and Gabor Szabo. SOLAR HEAT was recorded in January 1968. Tjader is beautifully framed here by Gary McFarland's crystalline arrangements and João Donato's gorgeously understated organ. Tjader and McFarland are ideally matched here, particularly on the pop covers of "Never My Love" and "La Bamba" and McFarland's own "Fried Bananas" and the entrancing "Eye Of The Devil". Recorded eight months later, CAL TJADER SOUNDS OUT BURT BACHARACH is a curious collection that continued Skye's reputation for putting a pretty polish on pop perennials. Tjader sounds out an offbeat set of Burt Bacharach originals with a rhythm section of L.A. studio musicians and an ever-subtle sprinkling of overdubbed horns and strings. What's most interesting here is that Bacharach's harmonic and rhythmic complexity is nearly absent -although "Moneypenny Goes For Broke" (from the James Bond score CASINO ROYALE) hints at it- forcing the listener to consider the composer's gift for melodic writing and Tjader's melodic approach to playing. This is particularly evident in the way Tjader handles the tunes made popular by Bacharach's most cogent muse, Dionne Warwick: "I Say A Little Prayer," "You'll Never Get To Heaven" and the hymn-like "Message To Michael."
