Esperanto Organic Grooves 3 Items

Favorite Recordings proudly presents a reissue of the first and eponymous LP by Esperanto, a Venezuelan JazzFusion masterpiece originally released in 1980. This rare and sought-after album recorded in Caracas by talented musicians could be likened to the best of the South American scene with strong Funk & Latin influences. Following the recent reissue of Sacbé, this one is a little wonder and a must-have for anyone interested in Latin Jazz-Funk & Fusion. Fully remastered and available as Gatefold Tip-On Vinyl LP and CD. Like most bands, the story first started as a series of jam sessions. Multi-instrumentist Jorge Aguilar and his drummer Pablo Matarazzo were playing in a band, covering a various number of Latin genres from Merengue to Salsa and playing at parties, even though they were mostly influenced by Jazz or Funk, but also British Rock or Brazilian music. Still, they were dreaming about a real band. Thus, while some of their friends were on vacations in Venezuela during their studies at Music school in Boston and New York, they immediately organized jam sessions. First impros luickly became songs and Pablo and Jorge were finally joined by Roldan Peña, Gustavo Arranguren, Ezequiel Serrano, Marcus Vinicius and Nenè Quintero. With the help of a friend, they recorded songs and brought those tracks to radio stations. Without realizing it, the group gained a certain notoriety in Caracas and began to give shows that became quite famous. Sometimes, they had to play two times in the same night with people still waiting outside! With the money earned, they kept recording their songs but now in a quite better studio. The album was taking its final shape, with an exciting blend of Funk, Fusion and Jazz-Rock elements, all mixed with Latin music influences. With an extensive use of synthesizers, the tracks sounded like a fresh wind blowing over the city of Caracas. After bringing a few friends to record their parts, the album was then offered to CBS for distribution – some of their executives had just become fans after experiencing one of their amazing gigs! But in exchange, they also had to record two more commercial songs, a cover of "Ticket To Ride" by The Beatles, and “Vereda Tropical", a classic in the Latin market. Jorge reminds: "The rest of the songs were compositions by myself and by other members of the band. The album was recorded in its entirety almost live, that is, all of us playing together and without many overdubs because we did not have many tracks nor money to pay studio time. Certainly, we were one of the bands that started the Fusion jazz movement in Venezuela and the most recognized because we managed to be played a lot on the radios and we filled the largest number of concerts as well as obtained the largest number of sales". The band kept recording other albums, notably with Warner Bros after the label was again really impressed by their opening show for Peter Frampton Comes Alive Tour one night in Caracas. Jorge adds: "Today if you ask people around 60 years old in Venezuela about a Fusion group, they will tell you that Esperanto is the band they remember! I think the most significant thing about the Esperanto band is that it was quite naïve since we were all in our early 20s and we did everything just for the pleasure of playing without thinking about the conomic aspects of the industry".

After the recent reissue of their first eponymous album, Favorite Recordings proudly presents Vegas, the second LP from Venezuelan band Esperanto. Rare and sought-after for many collectors, it was recorded in between Las Vegas and Caracas and originally released in 1981. Following bandleader Jorge Aguilar in his musical trip to the infamous American city bathing into flashing lights and vivid colors, we're invited to an excursion in Disco, Boogie and Jazz-Funk territories. Finally reissued, fully remastered, Vegas will be available as Gatefold Tip-On Vinyl LP. With great care and attention to details, Esperanto managed to create a very convincing sequel to their JazzFunk debuts. Vegas keeps indeed a perfect balance between various influences. Through energic disco beats with intense funky solos, catchy AOR-influenced songs, where Jorge delivers convincing vocal performance, or sunny jazz-funk slow jams, the album still reveals something quite authentic. And this feeling echoes surely the one that could have been felt by Jorge Aguilar while discovering USA on a trip - where it all started for the music he loves. Like sometimes a foreigner's enriching view on some local specialty, he surely brought with the band all his authenticity and young but vibrant experience while convincing at the same time major labels for distribution. With certain notoriety coming with the release of their first album, Jorge Aguilar and his drummer Pablo Matarazzo planned to go to Los Angeles for a few gigs. But once there, they realized their contact had to leave for Tina Turner's tour in Europe. Before that, he invited them to come along to Las Vegas and eventually meet musicians there. Luckily, the plan worked perfectly: Jorge came back to Los Angeles with a lot of contacts then moved to Boston and NYC before finally coming back to Caracas. He told: "I was so impressed with this trip that I told myself that one day I would return to Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The first tracks I did them in Los Angeles with Kenny More, James Gadson and other session musicians from that city. Later, I took the tracks to Caracas where the musicians of the band recorded overdubs. After that, I returned to Los Angeles to master with Bernie Grundman who was still working in his small studio at A & M records studios in Hollywood. As can be seen in the title of some of the songs like "Hollywood", "Vegas", "Kenny's Place", were only the translation of my experiences at the time."