Several Shades of Jade is a 1963 album by Cal Tjader arranged by Lalo Schifrin. It peaked at 79 on the Billboard 200.
Reception
Stewart Mason reviewed the album for Allmusic and wrote that of Tjader and Schifrin's collaboration that it was "...no more traditional Asian music than Tjader's similar albums from this period are traditional Latin American music, but the pair wisely avoids the standard clichés of Asian music (no smashing gongs after every musical phrase or melodies that sound like rejects from The Mikado). Instead, Schifrin frames Tjader's meditative vibraphone solos in arrangements that strike a cool balance between western kitsch and eastern exotica, never tipping too far in either direction. ...Several Shades of Jade is actually an interesting experiment that succeeds more often than it fails."
Track listing "The Fakir" (Lalo Schifrin) "Cherry Blossom" (Ronnell Bright) "Borneo" (Schifrin) "Tokyo Blues" (Horace Silver) "Song of the Yellow River" (Schifrin) "Sahib" (Stan Applebaum) "China Nights (Shina No Yoru)" (Yaso Saijo, Nobuyki Takeoka) "Almond Tree" (Schifrin) "Hot Sake" (Quincy Jones)
Personnel Cal Tjader – vibraphone Lalo Schifrin – arranger, piano (track 3) George Duvivier – bass George Berg – bass clarinet, bassoon Charles McCracken – cello (tracks 1, 2) Jack Del Rio – congas, tambourine Ed Shaughnessy – drums Walt Levinsky – flute, woodwind Robert Northern – French horn (tracks 3–9) Jim Raney – guitar Robert Maxwell – harp Irving Horowitz, Leon Cohen – oboe Johnny Rae – timbales, percussion Urbie Green – trombone (tracks 3–9) Clark Terry, Ernie Royal – trumpet (tracks 3–9) Don Butterfield – tuba Arnold Eidus, Emanuel Vardi, Leo Kruczek – violin (tracks 1, 2) Phil Bodner, Stan Webb – woodwinds Phil Kraus – xylophone (miscredited as a woodwind player on CD reissue) Production John Murello – cover design Irv Bahrt – cover photo Chuck Stewart – liner photography Bob Simpson – engineer Val Valentin – director of engineering Jack Maher – liner notes Creed Taylor – producer
References