Junk Box Jury

Taken from the LP “Maria Elena – The 50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett” on (Sunset Records SLS 50258) 1971*

Tommy Garrett | Maria Elena / The 50 Guitars Of |(Sunset) | Probably no other type of music perennially produces such a steady stream of songs which capture the public’s fancy as does Latin American music. It seems that each year, since the tango first became the rage in the twenties, one or more Latin American songs and rhythms have taken the States by storm.

Recently, forty years (and several rhythms) later, it happened again when the beautiful –Maria Elena– enjoyed another period of popularity. The song itself was written by Lorenzo Barcelata in 1933 and was a million-selling hit in the forties for Tommy Dorsey.

This album is a collection of several songs in the Latin American idiom which have been very successful in recent years. But the album is more than just a collection of songs for it marked the return for Tommy Garrett & His 50 Guitars to the scene of-their initial triumph. For it was in the Latin American repertoire that they recorded their first two LPs which brought this unique instrumental ensemble their first success.

This is incidentally, the second Tommy Garrett release on Sunset and we recommend that you also have a listen to “Espana” which is available on SLS 50152.

• originally released on Liberty Records, 1963

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cost of record: £1
from: British Heart Foundation