Description
'Mambo Americano' offers us a comprehensive 63-song collection of Mambo-inspired charts stretching from the sax-blasting of Chuck Higgins to the cool harmonies of the Robins and Harptones, from Cal Tjader to Georgia Gibbs.
A wacky Mambo voyage kicking off with Wynonie Harris' suggestive "All She Wants To Do Is Mambo" then weaving through a labyrinth of quirky jazz and bluesy interpretations ending with the close-to-authentic "Leeward Island Mambo" from Big Shell Steel Band of Antigua.
The Mambo craze swept through the U.S. popular music culture during most of 1954 and into 1955, competing (surprisingly enough) with the emerging "Swingin' Saddlemen" - Bill Haley, the endless "Annie" vocal group spin-offs, the widespread smash of the Chords' "Sh-boom" and a welter of cute, flower-bower ballads and novelties crooned by the likes of Eddie Fisher, Perry Como and Teresa Brewer.