Verve
1967
Goin' Latin
About This Album
In 1966, Ramsey Lewis changed up his winning live piano trio format at Cadet to include a big band. Produced by Esmond Edwards and conducted and arranged by Richard Evans, Wade in the Water was a surprise hit; it's title track reached number 19 on the pop chart (ahhhhh, the days of great AM radio when such a thing was possible). So Lewis had no need to rock the boat all that much on this follow-up, and used the same team for Goin' Latin. The boogaloo craze was taking over the East Coast at the time, and while Lewis was still rooted in Chicago, he got around on tour. Edwards and Evans brought Lewis' great trio (with Cleveland Eaton on bass and Maurice White on drums) again, and augmented the proceedings with horns, percussion, electric guitar, and even strings. The result is an album that is every bit as strong as its predecessor. Evans' arrangements and bottom-heavy soulful sound mix well with Lewis' indulgence in bossa nova, discotheque boogaloo, and Latin soul-lite on this set. The set's opener, "Hey Mrs. Jones," is a I-IV-V blues progression layered with wild bongos and congas in tight boogaloo fashion; there is also a small string section playing the changes and the horns playing the vamp.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,5,6 and 10)

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