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| Cheers to Buenos Aires-born keyboardist Carlos Franzetti! Check out tracks from his 1977 Grafitti LP and 1974 "Dedos" single. |
Carlos Franzetti – Grafitti (reissued by Jazz Room Records)
A superb jazz-flavoured Latin funk soul album recorded in 1977 by Grammy Award Winning Carlos Franzetti when he was a struggling musician trying to get his first breaks in a tough New York Jazz scene. With a Top Notch grouping including Percussionist Ray Mantilla, Victor Venegas on Bass and Dick Meza from the Tito Puente Orchestra Carlos played all the Keyboards, wrote the numbers and was also responsible for all the arrangements.
Released by Guiness Records (No relation to the famous Irish brew) and swiftly forgotten Stateside, it was picked up by the DJ's in London's early jazz dance scene where "Cocoa Funk" became a must-have cut, eventually appearing on Soul Jazz Records seminal re-issue series "London Jazz Classics". It also became a hit in Germany after being re-issued on a double vinyl by leading label Sonorama Records.
Now available again in its original single album format and sounding as fresh as if recorded yesterday from the opening bars of the jazz inflected cut "Beatriz" via the Worldwide sounds of "Sweet And Low" to the Funky Latin Jazz of the title track "Graffiti."
Still changing hands for eye watering sums on collectors sites and now available again for a reasonable sum courtesy of Jazz Room Records. Get a copy while you can via Bandcamp right here.
Check out a few tracks from the Grafitti album along with Franzetti's 7" gem "Dedos" recorded in 1974 with composer/percussionist Rubén Rada along with Ricardo Lew on guitar, Emilio Valle on bass and Osvaldo Lopez on drums. It has been reissued by Germany's Sound Essence and available here.
