Roughly twenty years ago on a rainy Saturday morning I was digging in a warehouse turned flea market called Super Flea. Upon walking in mildew and incense took over my sense of smell. Past the booths filled with car stereo equipment, bootleg clothes, martial arts weapons, dubbed VHS tapes and a tattoo cubicle surrounded in cardboard was an entire corner full of records spanning a good 600 square feet. The older bearded man who ran the booth, John, priced his records at $1 for LP’s, three for $1 45’s and a premium section where all selections were marked $3. Little did I know at the time these records I was buying under $5 would be some of the best, most rare finds of my digging ventures. On this day I ended my search in the premium section. Flipping through I pulled out a promo copy of Les DeMerle’s Spectrum. Something about the cover just caught me. When I got home it was the first album I put on. The intro track, also the title track, grips you immediately. Les is a DRUMMER. The opening solo is jazz gold, dipped in platinum and rolled in diamonds. From soft snare strokes and hard symbols to deep purposeful kicks followed by Apollo Creed punches back up top. Snare hits came in the form of drum rolls like I’ve never heard before or since. All this excitement strolls into a walking jazz standard, A Taste of Honey, where the horns stride along the beat like musical soldiers marching on a battlefield comprised of Les’ wildly precise drumming. Skip forward to track four, Underground, and the opening ascending horns sweep your soul up for a ride on a jazz-soul fusion masterpiece. The remainder of the album doesn’t slouch off in the least. The record is so good I started researching Les’ history and found he’s a Cuban drummer who was heralded as one of, if not the, best by other jazz artists in the seventies. Surprisingly his career never grew to the status of so many of his peers but I did learn he’s currently playing the Royal Caribbean cruise line. I’ve been meaning to book my cruise since the day I found out his sticks are still swinging, but life happens. In short, if you ever see this album buy it.
• Released 1969 on United Artists Records
Review by: Def Wax
Def Wax 