Bert Kaempfert & His Orchestra - Good Life Music - That Latin Feeling Vol. 6

1. O Cangaciero (The Bandit)
2. Sweet and Gentle
3. Maria Elena
4. Mambo Mania
5. Say Si Si (Para Vigo Me Voy)
6. Poinciana
7. The Breeze and I
8. Cha Cha Brasilia
9. Besame Mucho
10. Trumpet Fiesta
11. Bert's Bossa Nova
12. Chicken Talk
13. Mambossa
14. Latin Strings
15. Sucu Sucu
16. Yellow Bird
17. Catalania

That Latin Feeling

Bert Kaempfert and Helmut Brüsewitz shared making the arrangements for THAT LATIN FEELING; the recordings took place in the Polydor Studio in Hamburg-Rahlstedt. In order to achieve a true Latin-American sound, the wind and string sections of Kaempfert’s orchestra were augmented by an exotic range of percussion instruments - bongos, cabasa, congas, cowbell, güiro (rumba gourd), maracas, sandpaper, timbales, triangle, marimba and xylophone - played by Bert Kaempfert's drummer Rolf Ahrens together with percussionists Hans Bekker, Günther Platzek, Max Raths and Manfred Sperling.

Ladi Geisler not only guaranteed a snappy bass guitar but also took the guitar solo in Maria Elena, The Breeze And I and Bésame Mucho; the trumpet solows were allotted to Werner Gutterer (Poinciana), Heinz Habermann together with Werner Gutterer (Trumpet Fiesta), and Manfred Moch (Bert's Bossa Nova); Emil Wurster's tenor saxophone is to be heard in Bert's Bossa Nova and Say Sí Sí (together with Karl-Hermann Lühr on the flute in the latter), while Willi Surmann's bass clarinet vividly brings the clucking of chickens to life in Chicken Talk.

The present CD includes three novelties as an added bonus - Mambossa, Latin Strings and Sucu Sucu, all of which were contained in the original recording tape of THAT LATIN FEELING; of these, only Mambossa was released in the USA on the LP entitled THE MAGIC MUSIC OF FAR AWAY PLACES. Add into the bargain Yellow Bird and Catalania will certainly delight every listener.

Surely no musician on earth can resist the timeless attraction of Latin-American melodies and rhythms - and Bert Kaempfert was no exception. As early as 1958 he proved his "Latin feeling" with the composition of, for example, Catalania and again in 1962 with his arrangement of the traditional melody Yellow Bird. In 1964 he produced a whole LP dedicated to Latin-American tempi.

Alongside stylish original Kaempfert compositions we find "all-time standards": O Cangaceiro came to fame in 1953 through the film "The Bandit"; Maria Elena was a smash hit in 1963 for the guitar duo Los Indios Tabajras; then we have the melancholic love song Bésame Mucho, or Sweet And Gentle, and Poinciana, and last but not least The Breeze And I. Latin-American rhythm in all its variety is represented - the cha-cha, rumba-bolero, merengue and of course the Brazilian bossa nova, which sparked off a craze in the USA in its day, and is heard here in Say Sí Sí and Bert's Bossa Nova.

(Bert Kaempfert Music, Hamburg)