Steve Berrios

A veteran mainstay with Mongo Santamaria, M'Boom, and the Fort Apache Band, Steve Berrios' first solo album finds the then-49-year-old drummer-percussionist trying to make up lost ground with a vengeance, throwing a bewildering variety of idioms at the listener and proving to be a master of all of 'em. "Mafranbingo" throws Berrios' listeners a misleading curve at the outset with some straight-ahead hard bop, but the very next track "La Buena Noche Mi Ngo" -- Spanish vocals over African percussion -- sets the Afro-Latin direction for much of the recording. Berrios isn't too shy about taking the spotlight himself, for "Talkin' to Myself" he has a spectacular rolling percussion solo with tympani and gongs along with the usual drums, and "Brushin' It" finds him performing a brief yet most inventive solo with brushes on three snare drums spread across the stereo spectrum. He even plays some noteworthy muted trumpet on "Wild Is the Wind." The sole sidetrip to Brazil, Jobim's "Once I Loved," features singer Freddy Cole sounding and phrasing very much like an aged Nat King Cole might have -- as well as Grover Washington's pretty soprano sax obligatos. "Iremowire" and "Alamofije" are pure bedrock Afro-Cuban call and response numbers with Cuban singer Julito Collazo making what was apparently his first commercial recorded appearance in two decades. Trumpeter Eddie Henderson, tenor saxophonist Peter Brainin, and alto player Joe Ford can be heard on "Uranus" and a densely-textured, lost-sounding fusion of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman," and an ancient Yoruban prayer, "Acolona." Quite an order, but the experienced Berrios makes it come together. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide