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Johnny Mac, Joe and Jaco (in his undies)

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This popped in a Facebook group. It has got a credit embedded but if the Mods have concerns just delete it.
However I wanted the Massive to regret ever seeing this pic, as I now do.

View post on imgur.com

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  4. Sometimes, on the AW, I have to admit I haven’t a clue what’s going on. Usually it’s when threads are about tech stuff. But today it’s strange men in their underpants.

  6. Crikey, in that photo, the hirsute Joe Zawinul is looking strangely reminiscent of the notorious picture of Herbie Mann on the front cover of his “Push Push” album…

  7. Taken in Cuba at a festival where the shortlived Trio Of Doom performed – Tony Williams John McLaughlin and Jaco Pastorius. I understand Jaco was somewhat erratic out there.
    He has a good tan for a guy who forgot his bathers.

  10. Well, @Junior Wells, I can understand that it is easy to get distracted by Jaco’s Y Fronts, but let’s step back and look at the bigger picture here.

    The Havana Jam festival was an enormous game changer in the relationship between Cuba and the USA. For the first time in 20 years, there was contact between the US President, namely Jimmy Carter and Fidel Castro.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_Jam

    Up until this point it had been quite unthinkable that US artists should play in Cuba or that Cubans could play in the USA.

    One band that really benefited from this were the magnificent Irakere.

    “In 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Cuban President Fidel Castro started to loosen the political tension between the two countries and opened Interest Sections both in Havana and Washington, D.C. It was the first time in almost two decades after Castro’s rise to power that there was a real interest in establishing a normalization of diplomatic relations and the lifting of the United States embargo against Cuba.

    In April 1978, CBS Records director Bruce Lundvall, together with a group of the company’s music enthusiasts, made a four-day trip to Havana, where they took great interest to Cuban music, and especially to Afro-Cuban jazz band Irakere.

    After months of discussion, Lundvall managed to sign Irakere and in July the group traveled to New York to perform an unannounced guest set at the famed Newport Jazz Festival-New York. Rave reviews led to an invitation from the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

    A few months later, Irakere won their first Grammy with the album Irakere, recorded at their Montreux Jazz Festival and Newport Jazz Festival performances. Then, in the Fall of 1978, he joined forces with Fania Records director Jerry Masucci and convinced the Cuban cultural authorities to organize a three-day festival in Havana with the participation of Cuban and American musicians. The event would be recorded and televised for the enjoyment of both the Cuban and American people.”

    Irakere’s Bacalao con pan (Saltfish with bread) is quite simply, one of the funkiest tracks ever recorded. I suspect @Alias might agree with me on that. And, Junior, I know you are a man who likes a funky rhythm.

    Here they are live with Bacalao con Pan to give you a feel of the atmosphere at their gigs.

    Of course, by the time Ry Cooder planned his Buena Vista Social Club project in 1996, (originally intended as meeting between Cuban and African musicians until there were visa problems), things had got rather frosty again.

    However in 2001 Fidel turned up when the Manics played Havana and actually met the band before the gig. What a weird encounter that must have been!

    More importantly a lot of young Cubans were allowed to come to the show.

    https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/day-manic-street-preachers-entertained-12233987

    The Havana Jam concerts were not open to the Cuban public! Part members and their families only!

    What a gig that must been! A Welsh band singing to Cubans about Australia!

    • I was wondering if the Havana Jam gig was the one where Irakere were discovered by the Americans. I read that lots of jazz musicians were blown away by their performances in NYC and Montreux.

      Ronnie Scott’s used to run jazz tours to Cuba. and Irakere had annual residencies at the club. I saw Chucho Valdes and his fab band their last month. 38 years since their first shows there. His appearance at the London Jazz Festival in the early 2000s was the best jazz gig I have ever been to,and is the best gig I’ve been to since Talking Heads in 1982.

      Here they are again at their funky finest with Chekere Son.

      • I am extremely envious of you @Alias because you have seen Irakere live.

        According to Wikipedia they had played the Newport and Montreux Jazz Festivals (and gone down a storm) before Havana Jam. This resulted in a live album:

        Here’s a sensational live clip from Montreal, 1978.

        But why, oh why, did they insert a bit of interview???

        • What a lineup that was! Chucho, Pacquito D’Rivera on sax and Arturo Sandoval on trumpet plus amazing percussionists. I wish I had seen them more. I hated Ronnie Scott’s then. Today with their 2 shows a night,I go to the warly show and can be home by 9.00. Perfect for an old man.

    • I have a DVD of Los Van Van live at the Karl Marx Theatre. The tickets for the front 3 rows were all snapped up by some of the most beautiful women in Havana!

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