🌵 Sessions 2.0: Record Store Day (Black Friday 2022) – Gary Saracho – En Medio

This is exactly what Record Store Day should do: introduce your ears to a lost classic. When issued in 1973 the jazz magazine Down Beat gave Gary Saracho’s En Medio their crown of excellence: a five star review. For a variety of reasons the album fell into obscurity.

This album defies categorization. It is clearly jazz with Latin flavoring, but it is also kind of funky. The closest connection would be Chic Corea’s Return To Forever. But it is not derivative, it is its own unique thing.

I had not heard of any of the musicians on this album. Per some googling, I learned most we’re affiliated with the Union of God’s Musicians and Artist Ascension (UGMAA), a network of largely African American jazz musicians organized by Horace Tapscott that acted as a community resource, linking musicians together and helping them find work.

I didn’t know anything about this album beyond what I read in the Record Store Day list. I took the $30 gamble and it paid off. This is a totally hip lost jazz/funk/Latin classic.

Musicians:

Gary Saracho – Composer, Keyboards, Piano, Primary Artist

Carmelo Garcia – Congas

Bahir Hassan – Drums

Lawrence Higgins – Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor)

Owen Marshall – Percussion, Synthesizer

Roberto Miguel Miranda – Bass (Electric)

Bruce Morgenthaler – Keyboards

Marvin Pallat – Violin

This album is not on streaming services, but it is on YouTube: