Willie Bobo

Today I'm bringing you three tracks from two different albums by Willie Bobo. Willie is one of those artist whose albums I pick up whenever I find them for a reasonable price. I have about 6 different Willie Bobo albums and enjoy every one of them. His records aren't considered rare and they turn up often so don't pay too much for them. Most people are familiar with his songs "Fried Neck Bones and Some Home Fries" and "Evil Ways" which were both covered by Santana. Actually, Willie doesn't have writing credits for "Evil Ways" so there may be an even more original version that I've never heard of.

According to my exhaustive research which included reading the back of my six album covers, Willie started off playing percussion for Herbie Mann, Mongo Santamaria, Cal Tjader, and Dizzie Gillespie before going off on his own. The first track I'm sharing with you today, "Sham Time", is a nice quick latin burner from the album "A New Dimension" which includes Chuck Rainey on bass who always seems to be popping up on funky albums. Also from "A New Dimension" is "Psychedelic Blues" which doesn't quite seem psychedelic to me, but does have some great percussion going on as is usual with Willie's work. Finally, we've got "Soul Cookin'" from the album "Spanish Blues Band." This one has vocals, but they only consist of Willie yelling out types of soul food and a chorus of women shouting "Soul Cookin!" behind him. I think he may have been trying to capitalize on the soul food theme that he was so succesful with on "Fried Neck Bones..."

Sham time by Willie Bobo from A New Dimension
Psychedelic Blues by Willie Bobo from A New Dimension
Soul Cookin' by Willie Bobo from Spanish Blues Band