Feb

28

1965’s ‘Caramba’, suitably subtitled ‘Hot Rhythms From South America’, was a huge break-through record for Roberto Delgado and his ensemble, selling millions of copies world-wide and establishing them as a force in the marketplace. Neither as passionate as Prado or sweet as Cugat, ‘Caramba’ and its hot rhythms stake out a happy middle ground, where beautiful couples dance on the beach in front of a blazing fire, before retiring, aroused and happy, to their air-conditioned hotel rooms.

It still sounds fresh today, a superbly-produced collection of rhumba-inspired melodies that can still fill a dancefloor. Wende uses all his musicians terrifically on this one; the horn section is bright and articulate, while drummer Rolf Ahrens steps up repeatedly to provide suitable polyrhythmic support. Most noticeable is the brilliant guitar work of quiet superstar session man Ladi Geisler, who repeatedly steps in with impeccable leads and perfect timing. Geisler also plays the bass, his distinctive ‘knackbass’ style giving all the songs a real feel of immediacy, guaranteeing listeners will feel an impulsive thrill in the urge to jump up and dance. Still in print, ‘Caramba’ is a perfect party platter and a great start for anyone curious as to why Delgado remains an iconic figure in the world of schlager and world music.

Feb

28

Jorge Ben’s Brasilian classic ‘Mas Que Nada’ opens ‘Latino Dancing’ in a flurry of lively piano, drums, hammond organ and marimbas; it is obvious right away that this is going to be an excellent Delgado recording. The album is as more a melange of music done in upbeat Latin style than a collection of Latin tunes; included are a pair of Bacharach-David standards in ‘This Guy’s in Love with You’ and ‘The Look of Love’, a stomping arrangement of the Booker T. classic ‘Soul Limbo’, and Julius Wechter’s ‘Up Cherry Street’. The sole Delgado composition is ‘Peru’, an unusual composition using cowbell, flute, and fat trumpets over busy marimbas and drums, not as melodic as frenetic, setting the stage for the lovely closing ‘Summer Samba’. Horns and hammond, vibes and marimbas are used effectively throughout; overall the record is a percussive pleasure, abandoning the steady simplicity of other Delgado records for a more aggressive rhythmic underpinning to the songs. Alternatively brassy and bold or laid-back and groovy, played with enthusiasm and certainty, ‘Latino Dancing’ is recommended for all Delgado fans.

Feb

28

By 1980 the Delgado team was experienced enough to play any style they wanted, without covering original source materials. All the songs on ‘Dancing Under Tropical Skies’ are written by Europeans, with Wende himself credited on 8 of the 12 tracks; what results is a reggae-based album of well-produced easy listening pop. What sets it apart from other similar Delgado records is the accompaniment of the Original Trinidad Steel & Show-Band, who provide steady rhythmic support, and the ‘Birds of Paradise’, sweet female backing vocalists in a whitebread approximation of the I-Threes. The result isn’t half-bad; while the album certainly won’t be confused with any of Lee Scratch Perry’s recordings, the essential riddim is well-approximated, and the vibe is, for the most part, good. There are some duff songs though - the unfortunate ‘Do You Voodoo’ is a funky attempt at a disco hit, while the Delgado-penned ‘Plenty Plenty of Money’ features an uncredited lead vocalist singing faux-patois. While it is obvious Delgado and his crew still had considerable talent in the studio, and his arranging ability is still top-notch, the inspiration is obviously evaporating as quickly as their fanbase, leaving ‘Dancing Under Tropical Skies’ as a faded postcard from a long-forgotten beachside discotheque.

Feb

28

When Max Bygraves recorded ‘The Cowpuncher’s Cantata’ in 1952, he invented a formula that would remove the need for artistic creativity to sell records to a hit-happy public; for the rest of his career he was successful by covering popular hit songs strung together in a seamless medley. Ever since, that same formula has been reworked with solid sales results - the Stars on 45 series in the disco era, for example, or the Elvis mashups of the late 90s. In 1971, Roberto Delgado decided to take a stab at the formula; and ‘Samba Caramba South America Ole’ is the result. The album is a steady stream of popular Latin-American melodies, from the vintage ‘Amopola’ and ‘Rum and Coca Cola’, through to such constant staples as ‘La Bamba’ and ‘El Condor Pasa’. All the players turn in their choruses with equal skill; Geisler on guitar, Wende on marimbas, Geller on flute; 28 songs played with proficiency and skill, blandly upbeat without any attempt to jazz things up or step out of the formula. It sold well - in 1971 all his records sold well - but has not been reissued on CD, now relegated to oblivion as an unexciting and unessential part of the Delgado catalogue.

Feb

27

While volume one of ‘Along Mexican Highways’ was a tribute to the popular mariachi brought to pop prominence by Herb Alpert and Julius Wechter, ‘Vol. 2′ finds Horst Wende and his top-notch crew successfully exploring a wider range of Mexican folk banda, incorporating grupera, bolero, and marimba, while continuing to explore mariachi and other ranchera styles. The results are terrific - this is a bold, expressive record, with top-notch arrangements played with spirited proficiency and warm understanding. The horns are confident and sassy, harmonizing voices and strings in perfect balance alongside impeccable guitar and bass, while ringing trumpets, cheerful marimbas and impeccable guitar leads swirl around the melodies. Horst Wende never visited the new world, so his understanding of all this was second-hand at best; that this record feels so happily authentic is direct testament to just how talented and flexible the Hamburg hit machine was, and is highly recommended to easy listening fans looking for a little soulful Mexican schlager.

Feb

27

One might be forgiven thinking there is a vocalist on ‘Roberto Delgado Meets Kalinka’; the title would suggest so, and the cover, featuring a beautiful barefoot woman asprawl in a rowboat would appear to support this assumption. Unfortunately the truth is a little more banal - ‘Meets Kalinka’ is a Delgado disco album based principally on traditional Russian folk songs, re-arranged by Delgado, with a few nods to Russian influence in pop music - ‘Midnight in Moscow’, ‘Nadja’s Theme’, and of course the syrupy ‘Lara’s Theme’ from ‘Dr. Zhivago’. It is Maurice Jarre’s populist melody that is the defining influence on Wende’s arrangements, albeit not the stunning melancholic theme of the film, rather the pretty stylings of the Ray Conniff Singers - sweet strings and a sanitized chorus conjuring visions of of a romantic Russia untouched by Cold War fears, Russian winter, or any other nastiness; pleasant, uplifting, bland.

There are no production credits on the album, but it is impossible to believe that Wende’s long-time collaborator Udo Bowien had anything to do with it - this record lacks the snap and immediacy of their work together. Delgado had fallen out of public favor by 1979, and was trying hard to ingratiate himself with a new audience. The back cover has a rare photo of the group, all decked out in white suits like a vanilla Bee Gees backup band, while the production is perfunctory - the drums thud and plod mechanically, the horns lazily charted, only the choir seems reasonably interested in what is going on. The moog-enhanced Midnight in Moscow’ is a minor highlight (and even the weakest Delgado albums have minor highlights), but otherwise this is a sorry entry in the Delgado catalogue. That it only was released in a few territories, and has never been reissued on CD, is the only reason it will continue to have some value for Delgado completists; casual fans should look elsewhere to find why the recordings of Roberto Delgado are in such high regard by fans of the German Schlager wave.

Feb

27

African music was not completely new to western audiences in 1971; August Musarurwa’s ‘Skokiaan’ had been a big hit for Louis Armstrong, among others, back in 1955, and ‘Wimoweh’, retitled ‘Lion Sleeps Tonight’, had been a hit record on 3 separate occasions, by The Weavers, Kingston Trio, and finally the Tokens in 1961. But in 1971 African music was definitely having a popular resurgence in the US and Europe - highly-regarded jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela had a huge hit with ‘Grazing in the Grass’, and Harry Belafonte’s introduction of the stunning Miriam Makeba to television audiences had whet the public appetite. It was obviously a good time for Horst Wende and producer Udo Bowien to tackle the theme, and so they did, with predictable good cheer and attention to detail.

African music is defined by exotic percussion, and it is served up here - tom-toms, drums, kabassas, gurken, tambourines, cow-bells and chains all add beat and backbeat to an engaging overview of the African contribution to pop music up until that date. The band tackles much of the material with exuberance, particularly ‘Patatalo’, Makeba’s ‘Pata Pata’ and the Masekela hit; also nice are a shuffling version of ‘Skokiaan’ and a perky ‘Tara Din Din’. The album, as most of Delgado’s, has weak moments; the one original - ‘African Call’ - is a riff in search of a melody, and the band sleepwalks through the tired ‘Wimoweh’. Still those are quibbles, easy to overlook given the overall quality of the work and the expectations of his audience, which makes ‘African Dancing’ a reasonably pleasant addition to the a Delgado collection.

Feb

26

Acapulco Holiday’ gives Delgado (Horst Wende) and his Orchestra the opportunity to work their exotica magic on Mexican repertoire, mostly traditional material in a feel-good mariachi style. As usual his soloists are in capable form, playfully riffing on the familiar themes while drummer Rolf Ahrens, in typically understated fashion, keeps things moving forward. There are nice reworkings of Perez Prado’s ‘Suby Universitario’ and Jose Morales maudlin ‘Ahora Y Siempre’; some of the other chestnuts - Amopola, Cielito Lindo, Estrellita, La Malaguena, La Bamba - are performed competently, but not con gusto by any means. Wende steps up with a couple of excellent new arrangements - ‘El Rascapetate’ ends side one in a flurry of marimbas and vibraphone, and the album finishes with a sprightly version ‘El Jarabe Tapatiom’, showing guitar wizard Ladi Geisler swapping choruses with Herb Geller on flute and Wende’s typically perky xylophone and piano. A reasonable entry in the Delgado catalogue.

Feb

26

Roberto Delgado was an alias of the multi-talented Horst Wende, a German musician, composer, arranger, producer and bandleader, who is rightly attributed as a pioneer for bringing multi-ethnic music themes into western homes, albeit in arrangements far removed from the original source material.

Wende had already had considerable success within Germany, recording ‘Schlager’ - a particularly northern European style combining waltz, polka, and similar traditional structures with catchy melodies to create upbeat ‘party pop’. Fascinated by world rhythms, Wende released several albums of non-European melodies in a Schlager context in Germany to limited success; whereupon Polydor Records decided to release similar future works under the nom de plume of Roberto Delgado. Polydor simultaneously marketed and promoted the Delgado records internationally alongside those of Kai Warner, James Last and Bert Kaempfert to resounding success during the Beat 60’s, establishing major markets in both the UK and United States as well as Europe.

Warner, Last, Kaempfert and Delgado/Wende were all major players in the prolific Hamburg music community. All signed to Polydor Records, they combined energies and talent, recruiting many of the top musicians available in Germany and throughout Europe, as well as sharing producers, studios, and engineers, thereby ensuring conistent quality of recording. Each were prolific, individually releasing as many as six albums in a year, with every title being snapped up by middle-aged consumers enthralled with the happy new sounds emerging from Germany. The musician pool was as talented as Motown’s recently-celebrated Funk Brothers, including such top talent as trumpeters Charly Tabor, Werner Gutterer, Manfred Moch and Ack van Rooyen, trombonists Ake Persson and Jiggs Whigham, sax/flute player Herb Geller, and drummer Rolf Ahrens. Perhaps most important of all was the guitar and bass work of Ladi Geisler, who invented his own ‘crackling bass’ sound, referred to as ‘knackbass’, in which the bass string is plucked with a pick and then immediately supressed, killing any sustain and giving dancers a perfect audio impulse to lead their happy gyrations. ‘Delgado’ himself was an excellent musician, often playing the lead melody on piano, vibraphone, xylophone, or marimba.

Teamed up with producer Uwe Bowien, Delgado brought many international sounds and styles to the ears of his listeners, ranging from Latin American sambas to Greek Bouzouki, soulful Reggae to percussion-driven African pop. Not all of his experiments were successful, and most of his albums are burdened with some average dreck; more often than not though each album would contain a few gems, a jazzed-up pop song or a full-blown piece of exotica, or maybe even a subtle homage to Django Reinhardt or Booker T.

Wende died in 1996, his music seemingly out of fashion, just before the Lounge/Exotica surge led to the rediscovery of his work by younger audiences. Many of his titles have been reissued on CD, and those that have not are quickly snapped up on eBay and other record-selling websites. Roberto Delgado’s upbeat happy interpretations of folk and ethnic material has helped open western doors to the thrilling range of world music, and for that alone Horst Wende deserves a great big Ole! from all of us.

Feb

26

The party scene on the front cover of Horst Wende’s ‘Bei Pfeiffers ist Ball’ album anticipates the many later releases Wende would be involved in as producer, performer, and arranger - Non Stop Dancing is right around the corner! All of these arrangements are polished by countless performances in the clubs and military base dance halls throughout Germany, and Wende’s production is bright and sprightly throughout. From the opening note, this is a party record, with bouncing accordion, gang vocals, trumpet, banjo, trombone, xylophone, guitar, and a perfect rhythm section forcing the action. You can almost hear drunken soldiers bellowing ‘Roll Out The Barrel’ over the exuberant organ in ‘Rosamunde’, and this record’s arrangement of ‘Sportpalast-Walzer’ can still be counted on to lift fans out of their seats in hockey arenas around the world. Wende even manages to avoid the inherent uber-kaas in a handful of Will Glahe covers, keeping the tempo rollicking with slick, interesting arrangements and true stereo production. It is easy to see why Wende changed his name to release his world music, for his mastery of Germany’s beloved polkas, marches, and waltzes is so complete that his name doubtless was synonomous with those sounds. This record deserves to stay alive, and has been reissued on CD, deservedly still a steady seller, 45 years after its release.

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