New York, NY (Top40 Charts) "Malo was pretty much a jam,"
Jorge Santana laughs. "Just a lot of natural energy. But it had to be structured to an arrangement."
The legendary and pioneering Bay Area band Malo found inspiration in its Latin roots while mixing them with rock, blues, funk and jazz, creating a musical stew. Malo joined other California bands such as War and Tower of Power, in adding a brass section. At the time, horn sections were popular in rock acts like Chicago, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Blood, Sweat & Tears.
"The new band had elements of the Latin rock sound thriving a few hundred miles south in Los Angeles, but Malo had something that set it apart from established groups like El Chicano. We had Latin percussion and we had a horn section,"
Santana notes.
Drawn from their four long players, a series of singles were issued for radio airplay, the first of which, "Suavecito," was to be their biggest hit and has been called "the Chicano national anthem." It had been written by the band's timbale player, Richard Bean, as a poem to a girl in his high school algebra class
All 14 A- and B-sides are gathered here on Latin Bugaloo: The Warner Bros. Singles (Omnivore Recordings, street date May 25, 2018) for the first time, including one that was previously reported as having been assembled but never issued. That single, including the songs "Pana (Single Version)" backed with "Just Say Goodbye (Single Version)," was in fact released, but only in Turkey.
Because the length of Malo's album cuts could at times stretch to the near 10-minute mark, all the tracks selected for 7" release were edited for the format. Those edits appear here so Malo fans can hear the songs the way they originally heard them on the radio.
Track listing:
1. Suavecito
2. Nena
3. Cafe
4. Peace
5. Just Say Goodbye
6. Pana
7. I'm For Real
8. Oye Mamá
9. Latin Bugaloo
10. Midnight Thoughts
11. I Don't Know
12. Merengue
13. Love Will Survive
14. Think About Love
