What I found most confounding about the reissue of Los Calvos's second LP ...y que Calvos! (courtesy of El Palmas Music) is not that an album from 1968 still sounds vigorous and vital in 2022; it's that none of the songs on it were ever performed live. It's kind of profound when you think about it. Especially when you consider how energizing the rhythms are and that energy flows through savvy little numbers like a current shooting through a strip of copper.
Los Calvos was a testing ground for bandleader Ray Pérez to see how thoroughly he could pattern salsa with the pallets of rock and jazz, even employing a drum kit for percussion (something that was unheard of at the time, and not particularly to the taste of the dummer who was employed to play the instrument). Ray abandoned the project after the release of ...y que Calvos! and moved on to further triumphs. Despite the change in course of its creator though, the album continued to live on as a definitive point in his career as well as a prime example of mid-century Latin dance music.
Just listen to the call and response of the singer (one of two!) Carlos "Carlín" Asicio Rodríguez on "Tiene La Razón" as he rides a full-bodied groove as it is punched up by enormous bassy horn sweeps and chiseled by piano solos, and resist the urge to smile and swivel your hips a little. I bet you can't do it. And I bet that even if you don't speak Spanish, you'll be primed to want to shout the chorus back at Carlín. It would be inhuman not to!
As love these more straightforward samba numbers, they are not the most epic episodes the album has to offer. No, the really juicy bits that are served up by ...y que Calvos! are found on numbers like "EL Moño de María" which manages to contain within itself an inexhaustible level of charisma and mood-altering sense of time. The jangling rattle of the percussion will lash your spine like it was a marimba making you an instrument of its fulfillment as the teetering piano and rich horn flourishes further tug at your marionette strings. The tango of scatting vocals and retorting horn bursts on top of a babbling plunge of a groove on "Suenan Los Cueros" simply feel unstoppable, and the saucer shimmy romance and rambunctious rebound of "EL Marciano" as a scene of interstellar intrigue to the entire affair.
Some have lamented that this was the group's final album. I'm amazed something this magnetic can exist at all without something wacky happening with the Earth's polarity. If it was responsible for the planet rolling off its axis though, it would be worth it though, and I'd happily continue to listen to ...y que Calvos! as we ping-pong around the universe. It's still a shame that no one got to hear these songs played live though...
