expresso bongo
I’ve always thought this is a great title and when you look into the background it’s even better. It conjures up virtuoso bongo playing but also refers to the coffee bars which were just springing up in London as the original West End musical was written in 1957. The play, written by Wolf Mankowitz and Julian More was a satire on the music industry, set in Soho, London. Music was by David Heneker and Monty Norman, inspired by the work of Noel Coward. By the time it was made into a film in 1959, the plot was made less satirical and the music mostly replaced to make it a vehicle for rising star Cliff Richard. Even so it’s quite racy for his teenage fans, featuring a lot of Soho atmosphere, strippers and Cliff being lusted after by older men and women!
Bongo drums were popularised in 1950s Britain by Edmundo Ros, who I enjoyed as a kid, his weekly radio shows being a favourite of my grandparents. Some of it is a hard listen now - Edmundo was a skilled arranger with a highly professional band but he submerged his jazz and classical music roots (his early career involved playing timps with the Venezualan Symphony Orchestra and recording with Fats Waller) in favour of MOR sensibilities, albeit spiced up with Latin rhythms and witty lyrics which combined West Indian calypso with English music hall.
Lots of great music thrived in 1950s/60s Soho, exemplified by Ronnie Scott and often running the gauntlet of local gangsters and the sex industry. I wrote a tune which seemed slightly evocative of this time and was excited to find that no piece of music existed bearing that title - the film features a rather clunky piece called “Bongo Blues” played by the Shadows before they hit their stride!
My tune is slightly unusual having restless metres of 3/2, 6/4 and 5/4 time and it’s basically a conversation between trumpet, tenor sax, guitar and bongos. I asked trumpeter Steve Waterman if he could add some plunger mute, maybe along the lines of Cootie Williams in Duke Ellington’s “Concerto for Cootie”. His subtle tone colours are a joy and make this piece one my favourites.
