MC Zoolor's (Viva Cugat!)

MC Zoolor's (Viva Cugat!)

I picked up the Viva Cugat! LP by Xavier Cugat at All That Music.  This record was solely responsible for setting off The Lee Jun Fan Tape, a mixtape project dedicated to Bruce Lee that I put together.  I was looking for a "cha-cha" sound as reference to what I read about Bruce Lee being a really good dancer.  I read somewhere that he taught people how to cha-cha as he made his way over the Pacific to the \/\/est side of America.  Whether or not that is true, what's special about this record is the sound of certain instruments similar to sounds I've heard in some of Bruce Lee's films.  On the Cugat record, certain breaks sounded like someone was hitting two ends of nunchuck together in a hallow room.  It's real amazing.

I decided to Audio Scribe this record.  The Audio Scribe process pertains to records I've identified in my stash that hold a lot of weight or purpose to my life.  As I was going through the transcription process I had my little brother recreate the cover art.  I thought the name he signed below at the time was hilarious.  He go by MC Zoo.  On the piece its signed MC Zoolor's.  

Our nephew gets down with the artwork too.  We'll see if he's interested in hooking us up with some LP recreations some day.   

Here's a quote from the LP cover about Xavier Cugat...

"Cugat's long and fabulous musical journey had its beginnings in a cafe in Barcelona, Spain.  There, in the twenties, he was found playing the violin by the great Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso.  So impressed was the world-famous opera star by what he heard that he retained the young fiddler and took him on a tour to America.

In the course of their joint travels, Caruso discovered that young Cugat's talents reached into areas other than music.  The youngster handled a drawing pen as skillfully as the violin bow.  Since Caruso was himself an amateur artist, the two amused themselves on their journeys by drawing caricatures.  Cugat's caricatures have since appeared in many of the country's large circulation magazines, among them Life."