Billboard : 09/01/1956
Score of 79

A re-issue of all the material on Prestige 10-inch LP 188 plus two previously unrecorded selections: A boppish Taylor original Declivity with some nice work by Cándido on conga – and an Afro-Cuban swinger called Hearing Bells. Sound is much improved. This has been a good seller and should continue to be so.

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Pittsburgh Courier – 09/15/1956
Harold L. Keith : 3 stars

The Prestige Album’s Billy Taylor is ably supported by Cándido on conga and bongo drums; Percy Brice on drums; and Earl May, bass. This foursome provides the catalytics for the great sounds of Mambo Inn, Bit of Bedlam, A Live One, Love for Sale, Different Bells and Declivity.

Cándido is the greatest thing to come along since the death of the late Chano Pozo who was slashed fatally on a New York street some dozen moons or so ago.

This Cuban virtuoso makes his skins talk with a resonance that is well-complemented by Mr. Taylor’s flying fingers.

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Liner Notes by Billy Taylor and Ira Gitler

The purpose of this album is to present a great new jazz artist. His name is Cándido, and we think that he is the most exciting jazz conga and bongo player in the business.

There are, of course many Latin-American drummers who play well with jazz groups but I have not heard anyone who even approaches the wonderful balance between the jazz and Cuban rhythmic elements that Cándido so vividly demonstrates, and his technical facility is, to say the least, astounding.

Born in Regale, Cuba, Cándido began his musical career at the age of fourteen. He started off playing the bass and guitar. However, in 1946 he switched to the bongos and the conga drum, and it was on these instruments that he soon created a sensation.

In addition to playing in all the major night clubs in Cuba, Cándido was a mainstay at the Club Tropicana in Havana and was featured on radio station CMQ for six years. He was also featured in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba.

Most of his experience was with Latin-American groups until one night Dizzy Gillespie brought him into Le Downbeat Club in New York, and asked him if I would let him play a tune with the trio. ! agreed, and his performance was so impressive the he was hired on the spot. He worked with us as a featured soloist for six months and when we left to go into the Copacabana he stayed on and demonstrated his versatility by working with the great jazz groups which followed us there.

Though he has appeared in concert with Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and has recorded with Woody Herman, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Loco, George Shearing, Stan Getz, Bennie Green and the wonderful Machito band, this is his first recording as a jazz soloist.

We added Cándido to the trio in the same manner in which we would add a guitar, as another solo voice as well as an extension of the rhythm section. We made no attempt to make the melodies “conform to the clave.” We merely wanted to have some fun swinging off of two rhythms instead of one.

In Love For Sale Cándido builds unique solo in 6/8 time against the swinging 4 beat drumming of Percy Brice, and even though the treatment of the piece is based on the mambo feeling, we tried to improvise on the theme, first in the traditional jazz manner (piano solo), then in the traditional Cuban manner (drum solo) and by combining the two we attempt to point up the rhythmic contrasts.

Mambo Inn, which was written by Grace Sampson, daughter of Edgar Sampson, the composer of Stomping At The Savoy,Don’t Be That Way, etc., was originally written as a mambo. Here we picked the tempo up, and just tried to find a swinging groove in the jazz sense, while maintaining just a suggestion of the Cuban rhythm in the bass line.

In Bit Of Bedlam, notice how, after the piano solo, Cándido builds up rhythmic intensity on his solo, and pay particular attention to his controlled roll. (In places he gives the effect of two drummers playing at once). Cándido’s ability to use Percy’s beat as a rhythmic base clearly shows how much of the jazz feeling he has absorbed.

A Live One is the up tempo original that we play in clubs from time to time, and in this tune with both Earl May and Percy Brice laying down a swinging base, we tried to point up the melodic quality of Cándido’s drumming by playing solos of four bars alternately.

In case you are wondering why I have not elaborated on what I was attempting to do on the piano solos, I would like to reiterate that the purpose of this album is to present a great new artist – Cándido. Wo sincerely hope you enjoy listening to the music half as much as we enjoyed making it.

– Billy Taylor

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Billy Taylor is one of the practicing jazzmen who, because of his experience in the Latin American musical forms, has been able to successfully weld jazz with Afro-Cuban rhythms. In reissuing the tracks which Billy discusses above, Prestige has added two heretofore unreleased numbers by the same group.

Different Bells has an Afro-Cuban beat closer to a bolero than anything else. Billy plays rich minor chords as the rhythm insinuates in back of him. After Billy’s solo, Cándido comes in for an unaccompanied bongo solo. In the last section he doubles up and when Billy returns for his second stint, the tempo holds there, returning to its original pace for the final chorus.

A boppish Taylor original is Declivity which is in straight jazz time with Cándido accenting Percy’s beat with the conga. After Billy solos, Cándido works out with the group backing. Conversation between B.T. and Cándido follows for a chorus before the downward slope is traversed again.

– Ira Gitler