Jerry Gonzalez & the Fort Apache Band
Earthdance (1990)

review by: Stephan Finch
Date: 6/1/03

Who the hell is Jerry Gonzalez? Call him Jerry from the block – a Bronx-born conga and trumpet player. He and his brother, bassist Andy Gonzalez, were discovered by pianist Lew Matthews, who heard them jamming behind their housing project. The Gonzalez brothers formed the Fort Apache band in the early 1980s.

Don’t listen to much jazz? Doesn’t matter. This album kicks. There’s a groove these guys get into: bass and drums play real low and dark for a minute or two, like a couple of black cats padding around a quiet apartment, then—BADADADA-DAP—a half dozen horns kick in loud and tight, like Mexican Folkloriko dancers jumping off the dining room table. Jerry’s cover of the song "81" by Ron Carter, a song Miles Davis used to play in the 1950s, scared the daylights out of me when I first heard it in Avignon, France twelve years ago. I bought the album when I got back to the U.S., I listen to it a couple of times a month, and it still makes me jump.

Also, you’d be surprised at how many times Jerry Gonzalez has saved my butt when I’m hanging with a serious jazz listener. See, in the jazz world, Latin Jazz is viewed as a bit of a stepchild and Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band don’t have the name recognition that, say, Tito Puente had. But here’s the case where a hint of obscurity is regarded as something of a badge of honor; jazz aficionados don’t want to know that the only jazz album you own is Kind of Blue.

So I just whip out Jerry and Fort Apache boys. Pretty soon the whole place is jumping.