The Seventies witnessed daring experimentation within the jazz world, the place groundbreaking musicians like Miles Davis and his acolytes John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea, jettisoned bebop for a extra progressive type of music that fused electrical jazz with rock and funk parts. Although fusion, because it grew to become identified, offended hardline jazz purists, it attracted a younger, hungry viewers and put jazz again within the higher echelons of the album charts. One of many unlikeliest and most shocking fusion bands was a Uruguayan trio referred to as Opa, whose 1976 debut album Goldenwings, marked the excessive level of their all-too-short profession.
The masterminds behind Opa – whose identify is Uruguayan slang for “Hi” – have been keyboardist/singer Hugo Fatturuso, and his brother Osvaldo, a drummer, each from Montevideo. That they had tasted fame in South America because the co-founders of Los Shakers, a mop-topped Latino equal of The Beatles, who bought hundreds of data throughout the continent in addition to inflicting wild teen hysteria with their fake Merseybeat sound.
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After Los Shakers dissolved in 1969, the Fatturuso brothers moved to the US, the place, bitten by the fusion bug, they radically modified their musical path and recruited bassist Hugo “Ringo” Thielmann to type Opa within the early 70s. Injecting a particular Latin sensibility into their fusion palette, the band appeared on the radar of producer Larry Rosen (the “R” in GRP Data) in 1975 after he heard them carry out in a membership. Impressed by what he heard, Rosen funded recording periods which resulted in 9 tracks. Although recorded on a primary four-track tape machine and supposed as a demo, Rosen was sufficiently excited by the band’s music to think about releasing the recordings as Opa’s debut album. However for unknown causes, Rosen’s ardor cooled and the challenge was canned, main Opa to lick their wounds and transfer on. (The album was finally launched in 1996 as Again Dwelling).
Although dissatisfied by dropping Rosen’s curiosity, in 1976 Opa signed a take care of jazz producer Orrin Keepnews’ Milestone label, then dwelling to Brazilian singer Flora Purim, in addition to heavyweight American jazz musicians comparable to saxophonist Joe Henderson and pianist McCoy Tyner.
Keepnews put Opa within the studio with Purim’s husband, percussion maestro Airto Moreira, who had arrived within the US from his native Brazil in 1967 and rapidly made a reputation for himself by showing on albums by Miles Davis, Return To Perpetually, and Cannonball Adderley earlier than launching a profitable solo profession. Airto in all probability persuaded Keepnews to signal the band having featured them on Fingers, his 1973 album for CTI Data, which additionally included cameos from famous Brazilian flutist Hermeto Pascoal and guitarist David Amaro, who each contributed to Goldenwings.
A showcase for Opa’s bi-continental fusion aesthetic, the place spacey synths have been underpinned by lush Fender Rhodes textures and percussion rhythms that drew on a mode of Afro-Uruguayan music referred to as Candombe, Goldenwings resurrected three of the tracks from their demo recording: The title observe, with its horn-like synth motif over a effervescent fusion groove; a pulsating cowl of Uruguayan percussionist Ruben Rada’s “African Bird”; and “Corre Niña,” an exhilarating samba-esque piece with hovering vocals. (The observe was lined by Flora Purim on her 1978 album Nothing Will Be As It Was … Tomorrow).
Different highlights included “Butterflies,” a bucolic soundscape distinguished by Hermeto Pascoal’s mellifluous flute and a few distinctly Beatles-esque concord vocals, reviving recollections of Los Shakers. In sharp distinction, the propulsive nearer “Groove” reverberated with echoes of Herbie Hancock’s iconic funk band, The Headhunters.
Though Goldenwings wasn’t an enormous industrial success, Milestone’s religion within the group resulted in a second Airto-produced LP, 1977’s Magic Time, however sadly, that proved to be the band’s swansong earlier than they pale into obscurity.
Now thought of a cult traditional, Goldenwings stays the go-to entry in Opa’s transient discography. As maiden flights went, it proved a powerful debut, showcasing a compelling Latin fusion type that in latest occasions has impressed hip-hop producers like Madlib and Captain Murphy – an alias of Flying Lotus – to maintain the band’s reminiscence alive by sampling tracks from Opa’s again catalog.
Order Opa’s Goldenwings on vinyl now.
