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Mindoro

Map of Mindoro
Mindoro (Philippines)
Geography
Location	South East Asia
Archipelago	Philippine islands
Major islands	Luzon, Mindanao, Mindoro, Palawan
Area	10,572 km2 (4,081.9 sq mi)
Area rank	74th
Highest elevation	2,582 m (8,471 ft)
Highest point	Halcon
Country
Philippines
Province	Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro
Largest city	Calapan (pop. 105,910)
Demographics
Population	1,062,000 (as of 2000)
Density	100.5 /km2 (260.3 /sq mi)
Ethnic groups	Mangyan, Tagalog

Mindoro (Tagalog pronunciation: [mɪnˈdoɾo]) is the seventh-largest island in the Philippines. It is located off the coast of Luzon, and northeast of Palawan. The southern coast of Mindoro forms the northeastern extremum of the Sulu Sea.^[1]

History[link]

In past times, it has been called Ma-i or Mait by ancient Chinese traders and, by Spaniards, as Mina de Oro (meaning "gold mine") from where the island got its current name. The island was once a single province from 1920 to 1950 when it was divided into its two present-day provinces, Occidental Mindoro and Oriental Mindoro.

According to the late historian William Henry Scott,^[2] an entry in the official history of the Sung Dynasty for the year 972 mentions Ma-i as a trading partner of China. Other Chinese records referring to Ma-i or Mindoro appear in the years that follow.

Prehispanic Source Materials enumerates the products that Mindoro traders exchanged with the Chinese as "beeswax, cotton, true pearls, tortoise shell, medicinal betelnuts and yu-ta [jute?] cloth" for Chinese porcelain, trade gold, iron pots, lead, colored glass beads and iron needles.

Economy[link]

Beach in Northern Mindoro

The economy of Mindoro is largely based on agriculture. Products consist of a wide variety of fruits, such as citrus, bananas, lanzones, rambutan, and coconuts, such cereals as rice and maize, sugar cane, peanuts, fish (catfish, milkfish, tilapia), livestock, and poultry. Logging and the mining of marble and copper also thrive.

Tourism is a lucrative business as well, with locations such as Apo Reef National Park, Lubang Island, Puerto Galera, Sabang Beach, and Mount Halcon. Puerto Galera's beaches are the island's most known tourist attraction and are widely visited.

Culture[link]

The principal language in Mindoro is Tagalog, although in some parts it has been greatly influenced by the native Visayan and Mangyan languages. Mainstream Filipino and Taglish are, indeed, present in and around such areas as Puerto Galera, Pinamalayan, and Calapan City. Visayan and Mangyan languages, too, are spoken on the island, as are Ilokano and some foreign languages — e.g., English, Fukien, and, to a much lesser extent, Spanish.

The common religions on the island fall under Christianity. The religion of the indigenous Mangyan population is animism. Though they are into animism as a religion, the Catholic Church in some of Mindoro's parts is also active.

Other information[link]

Mindoro is also home to the Tamaraw or Mindoro dwarf buffalo (Bubalus mindorensis), which is endemic to the island. The Tamaraw is a bovine related to the water buffalo and is an endangered species.

During World War II, Mindoro Island was where Bill Frederick of the U.S. 17th Army Air Corps piloted a B-25; he and his crew fought a Japanese naval force preparing to attack the joint U.S. and Philippine Commonwealth armed forces there. On the night of December 26, 1944, flying through intense anti-aircraft fire, Frederick's aircraft, the Sticky Kitty, was credited with sinking a lead Japanese Cruiser. The warplane, one of only eight aircraft available to defend the island's garrison and installation, flew repeated sorties during the night, resulting in a successful defense of the island.^[3]

The local Filipino troops and officers under the 4th, 5th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd, 45th, 46th, and 47th Infantry Divisions of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and 4th Infantry Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary were helping the military conduct special operations in the island province of Mindoro from December 1944 to August 1945. They also helped local Mindoro guerrilla fighters and the U.S. and Australian troops defeat the Japanese Imperial forces during the Battle of Mindoro (December 13-16, 1944) and during 1945 until World War II ended.

The Second Battle of Mindoro (January to August 1945) during the Second World War also involved the Philippine Commonwealth and Allied military forces, the local Filipino soldiers of the 4th, 5th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd, 45th, 46th and 47th Infantry Division of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and 4th Infantry Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary, as well as the local guerrilla resistance fighters and the U.S. and Australian troops. Capturing the islands of Mindoro included the province of Occidental Mindoro and Oriental Mindoro in the defeat of the Japanese Imperial forces. The casualties of the second battle of Mindoro in 1945 included 34,000+ Filipino troops and local recognized guerrillas killed and wounded in action, 27,000+ American and Australian troops killed and wounded in action, and over 253,000+ Japanese troops killed, wounded and captured in action.

Bibliography[link]

• C.Michael Hogan. 2011. Sulu Sea. Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. P.Saundry & C.J.Cleveland. Washington DC

References[link]

External links[link]

• "Map of Mindoro" showing towns and major mountain tops
• Mindorenyos - Connecting Mindoro People
• Online Community for Mindorenyos

Videos[link]

• Born to be Wild: Mindoro, 19 June 2008

Coordinates: 12°55′49″N 121°05′41″E / 12.93028°N 121.09472°E / 12.93028; 121.09472

Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader (July 16, 1925–May 5, 1982) was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his death.

Tjader primarily played the vibraphone. He was also accomplished on the drums, bongos, congas, timpani, and the piano. He worked with numerous musicians from several cultures. He is often linked to the development of Latin Rock and Acid Jazz. Although fusing jazz with Latin music is often categorized as "Latin Jazz" (or, earlier, "Afro-Cuban Jazz"), Tjader's output swung freely between both styles.

He won a Grammy in 1980 for his album La Onda Va Bien, capping off a career that spanned over forty years.

Early years (1925–1943)[link]

Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. (last name pronounced "chay-der") was born 16 July 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri to touring Swedish American vaudevillians. His father tap danced and his mother played piano, a husband-wife team going from city to city with their troupe to earn a living. (His grandfather was Dr. Anton William Tjader, a notable Nevada surgeon mentioned in Mark Twain's Early Tales and Sketches.) At the age of two, Tjader's parents settled in San Mateo, California and opened a dance studio. His mother (who dreamed of becoming a concert pianist) instructed him in classical piano and his father taught him to tap dance. He performed around the Bay Area as "Tjader Junior", a tap-dancing wunderkind. He performed a brief non-speaking role dancing alongside Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in the film The White of the Dark Cloud of Joy.

He joined a Dixieland band and played around the Bay Area. At age sixteen, he entered a Gene Krupa drum solo contest, making it to the finals and ultimately winning by playing "Drum Boogie." The win was overshadowed by that morning's event: Japanese planes had bombed Pearl Harbor.

Army and college (1940s)[link]

Tjader entered the United States Army in 1943 and served as a medic until 1946. Upon his return he enrolled at San Jose State College under the G.I. Bill, majoring in education. (He hoped to become a schoolteacher.) Later he transferred to San Francisco State College, still intending to teach. It was there he took timpani lessons, his only formal music training.

At San Francisco State he met Dave Brubeck, a young pianist also fresh from a stint in the Army. Brubeck introduced Tjader to Paul Desmond. The three connected with more players and formed the Dave Brubeck Octet with Tjader on drums. Although the group only recorded one album (and had an abysmal time finding work), the recording is regarded as important due to its early glimpse at these soon-to-be-legendary jazz greats.

After the Octet disbanded, Tjader and Brubeck formed a trio, performing jazz standards in the hope of finding more work. The Dave Brubeck Trio succeeded and became a fixture in the San Francisco jazz scene. Tjader taught himself the vibraphone in this period, alternating between it and the drums depending on the song.

Sideman (1951–1954)[link]

Brubeck suffered major injuries in a diving accident in 1951 in Hawaii and the trio was forced to dissolve. Tjader continued the trio work in California with bassist Jack Weeks from Brubeck's trio and pianists John Marabuto or Vince Guaraldi, recording his first 10" LP as a leader with them for Fantasy, but soon worked with Alvino Rey and completed his degree at San Francisco State.

Jazz pianist George Shearing recruited Tjader in 1953 when Joe Roland left his group. Al McKibbon was a member of Shearing's band at the time and he and Tjader encouraged Shearing to add Cuban percussionists. Tjader played bongos as well as the vibes - "Drum Trouble" was his bongo solo feature. Down Beat's 1953 Critics Poll nominated him as best New Star on the vibes. His next 10" LP as a leader was recorded for Savoy during that time, as well as his first Latin Jazz for a Fantasy 10" LP.

While in New York City, bassist Al McKibbon took Tjader to see the Afro-Cuban big bands led by Machito and Chico O'Farrill, both at the forefront of the nascent Latin jazz sound. In New York he also met Mongo Santamaría and Willie Bobo who were members of Tito Puente's orchestra at the time. Tjader is often credited as the musician who brought the vibraphones to Latin jazz. However, John Storm Roberts points out that Tito Puente deserves the title, as he performed Afro-Cuban tunes on the vibraphone in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Leader (1954–1962)[link]

Tjader soon quit Shearing after a gig at a San Francisco jazz club called The Blackhawk. In April 1954, he formed The Cal Tjader Modern Mambo Quintet. The members were brothers Manuel and Carlos Duran on piano and bass respectively, Bayardo "Benny" Velarde on timbales, bongos, and congas, and Edgard Rosales on congas (Luis Miranda replaced Rosales after the first year). Back in San Francisco and recording for Fantasy Records, the group produced several albums in rapid succession, including Mambo with Tjader.

The Mambo craze reached its pitch in the late 1950s, a boon to Tjader's career. Unlike the exotica of Martin Denny and Les Baxter, music billed as "impressions of" Oceania (and other locales), Tjader's bands featured seasoned Cuban players and top-notch jazz talent conversant in both idioms. Some consider his Modern Mambo Quintet his greatest band, and perhaps the greatest small-combo Latin jazz band ever.

Tjader also cut several notable straight-ahead jazz albums for Fantasy under separate groups, most notably The Cal Tjader Quartet (composed of bassist Gene Wright, drummer Al Torre, and Vince Guaraldi). As such, he is considered a member of San Francisco's flourishing 1950s bebop scene. Tjader is sometimes lumped in as part of the West Coast (or "cool") jazz sound, although his rhythms and tempos (both Latin and bebop) had little in common with the work of Los Angeles jazzmen Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, or Art Pepper. He did team up with legendary jazz saxophonist Stan Getz in 1958, producing a well-received album.

Tjader and his band opened the second Monterey Jazz Festival in 1959 with an acclaimed "preview" concert. The first festival had suffered financially. Tjader is credited with bringing in big ticket sales for the second and saving the landmark festival before it had even really started.

The Modern Mambo Quintet disbanded within a couple of years. Tjader formed several more small-combo bands, playing regularly at such San Francisco jazz clubs as the Blackhawk.

Verve and Skye Records (1960s)[link]

After recording for Fantasy for nearly a decade, Tjader signed with better-known Verve Records, founded originally by Norman Granz but owned by then by MGM. With the luxury of larger budgets and seasoned recording producer Creed Taylor in the control booth, Tjader cut a varied string of albums. During the Verve years Tjader worked with Donald Byrd, Lalo Schifrin, Anita O'Day, Willie Bobo, Armando Peraza, a young Chick Corea, Clare Fischer, Jimmy Heath, Kenny Burrell, and others. Tjader recorded with big band orchestras for the first time, and even made an album based on Asian scales and rhythms.

His biggest success was the album Soul Sauce (1964). Its title track, a Dizzy Gillespie cover Tjader had been toying with for over a decade, was a radio hit (hitting the top 20 on New York's influential pop music station WMCA in May 1965), and landed the album on Billboard's Top 50 Albums of 1965. Originally titled "Guachi Guaro" (a nonsensical phrase in Spanish), Tjader transformed the Gillespie/Chano Pozo composition into something new. (The name "Soul Sauce" came from Taylor's suggestion for a catchier title and Bobo's observation that Tjader's version was spicier than the original.) The song's identifiable sound is a combination of the call-outs made by Bobo ("Salsa ahi na ma ... sabor, sabor!") and Tjader's crisp vibes work. The album sold over 100,000 copies and popularized the word salsa in describing Latin dance music.

The 1960s were Tjader's most prolific period. With the backing of a major record label, he could afford to stretch out and expand his repertoire. The most obvious deviation from his Latin jazz sound was Several Shades of Jade (1963) and the follow-up Breeze From the East (1963). Both albums attempted to combine jazz and Asian music, much as Tjader and others had done with Afro-Cuban. The result was dismissed by the critics, chided as little more than the dated exotica that had come and gone in the prior decade.

Other experiments were not so easily dismissed. Tjader teamed up with New Yorker Eddie Palmieri in 1966 to produce El Sonido Nuevo ("The New Sound"). A companion LP was recorded for Palmieri's contract label, Tico, titled Bamboleate.

While Tjader's prior work was often dismissed as "Latin lounge", here the duo created a darker, more sinister sound. Cal Tjader Plays The Contemporary Music Of Mexico And Brazil (1962), released during the bossa nova craze, actually bucked the trend, instead using more traditional arrangements from the two countries' past.

In the late 1960s Tjader, along with guitarist Gábor Szabó and Gary McFarland, helped to found the short-lived Skye record label. Tjader's work of this period is characterized by a groovier, almost funk-based sound. Solar Heat (1968) and Tjader Plugs In (1968–69) are precursors to acid jazz and remain valued among rare groove fans today.

Lean years (1970s)[link]

During the 1970s Tjader bounced from Verve to Skye and then back to Fantasy, the label he'd started with in 1954. Attempting to stay current and relevant, Tjader added electronic instruments to his lineup and began to employ rock beats behind his arrangements. His most notable album during this period is Amazonas (1975) (produced by Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira). He also played on the soundtrack to the 1972 animated film release Fritz the Cat, most notably on the track entitled "Mamblues".

It was in this period Tjader discovered and groomed conguero Poncho Sanchez. Sanchez has called Tjader his "musical father".

In 1976 Tjader recorded several live shows performed at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Like the Monterey Jazz Festival show, he played a mix of jazz standards and Latin arrangements. Later he toured Japan with saxophonist Art Pepper, the latter recovering from alcohol and drug dependencies. These shows were considered successful in a time when jazz music was increasingly seen as anachronistic.

Final years (1979 to 1982)[link]

Carl Jefferson, president of Concord Records, created a subsidiary label called Concord Picante to market Latin jazz. In reality, Jefferson formed the label specifically to promote and distribute Tjader's work, whom he'd recently signed.

Unlike his excursions in the 1960s and his jazz-rock attempts in the 1970s, Tjader's Concord Picante work was largely straight-ahead Latin jazz. Electronic instruments and rock backbeats were dropped, reverting to a more "classic" sound. During the prior decade he'd built up a top-notch crew of young musicians, his best lineup since his Modern Mambo Quintet of the 1950s, with Mark Levine on piano, Roger Glenn on flute, Vince Lateano on drums, Robb Fisher on the bass, and Poncho Sanchez on the congas.

Tjader cut five albums for Concord Picante, the most successful being La Onda Va Bien (1979) (roughly "The Good Life") which earned a Grammy award in 1980 for Best Latin Recording. That Onda would win an award as best Latin album reveals Tjader's expertise and his ability to cultivate the same in his band. La Onda Va Bien is regarded as a seminal Latin Jazz album.

The A section of Tjader's "Sabor" is a 2-3 onbeat/offbeat guajeo, minus some notes.

A section of "Sabor" by João Donato, as arranged by Mark Levine, and performed by Cal Tjader.

Just as lifelong performer Tjader was born on tour, he also died on tour. On the road with his band in Manila, he collapsed from a heart attack and died on 5 May 1982.

Legacy[link]

Alongside Lionel Hampton and Milt Jackson, many vibraphonists today count Tjader as a vital influence, including Dave Pike, Spyro Gyra's Dave Samuels, and Ruben Estrada. Latin rock guitarist Carlos Santana also named Tjader as a forebearer.

Tjader's legacy is associated with Gábor Szabó and Gary McFarland's, who worked and founded Skye Records together.

The American Hip-Hop Band, "A Tribe Called Quest" sampled songs from Cals', "Aquarius" as an outro to most of the songs off the album, "Midnight Marauders."

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Vibrations (Savoy, 1951)
• Cal Tjader: Vibist (Savoy, 1953)
• Cal Tjader, Vol. 1 (Savoy, 1953)
• The Cal Tjader Trio (Fantasy, 1953)
• Tjader Plays Mambo (Fantasy, 1954)
• Mambo with Tjader (Fantasy, 1954)
• Tjader Plays Tjazz (Fantasy, 1954)
• Plays Afro-Cuban (Fantasy, 1954)
• Cal Tjader Quartet (Fantasy, 1956)
• The Cal Tjader Quartet (Fantasy, 1956)
• Latin Kick (Fantasy, 1956)
• The Cal Tjader Quintet (Fantasy, 1956)
• Jazz at the Blackhawk (Fantasy, 1957)
• Más ritmo caliente (Fantasy, 1957)
• Cal Tjader (Fantasy, 1957)
• The Cal Tjader-Stan Getz Sextet (Fantasy, 1958)
• Cal Tjader's Latin Concert (Fantasy, 1958)
• Latin for Lovers with Strings (Fantasy, 1958)
• San Francisco Moods (Fantasy, 1958)
• Concert by the Sea, Vol. 1 (Fantasy, 1959)
• Concert by the Sea, Vol. 2 (Fantasy, 1959)
• Cal Tjader Goes Latin (Fantasy, 1959)
• Live and Direct (Fantasy, 1959)
• A Night at the Blackhawk (Fantasy, 1959)
• West Side Story (Fantasy, 1960)
• Concert on the Campus (Fantasy, 1960)
• Demasado caliente (Fantasy, 1960)
• Latino (Fantasy, 1960)
• In a Latin Bag (Verve, 1961)
• Cal Tjader Plays Harold Arlen (Fantasy, 1961)
• Cal Tjader Plays, Mary Stallings Sings (Fantasy, 1961)
• The Cal Tjader Quartet (Fantasy, 1961)
• Saturday Night / Sunday Night at the Blackhawk, San Francisco (Verve, 1962)
• Cal Tjader Plays the Contemporary Music of Mexico and Brazil (Verve, 1962)
• Cal Tjader Live and Direct (Fantasy, 1962)
• The Cal Tjader Quartet (Fantasy, 1962)
• Anita O'Day / Cal Tjader: Time for Two (Verve, 1962)
• Sona libre (Verve, 1963)
• Several Shades of Jade (Verve, 1963)
• Breeze from the East (Verve, 1963)
• Warm Wave (Verve, 1964)
• Soul Sauce (Verve, 1965)
• Soul Bird: Whiffenpoof (Verve, 1965)
• Soul Burst (Verve, 1966)
• Cal Tjader and Eddie Palmieri: El sonido nuevo / The New Soul Sound (Verve, 1966)
• Latin for Dancers (Fantasy, 1966)
• Eddie Palmieri / Cal T'jader: Bamboléate (Tico, 1967)
• Along Comes Cal (Verve, 1967)
• Hip Vibrations (Verve, 1967)
• The Prophet (Verve, 1968)
• Solar Heat (Skye, 1968)
• Sounds Out Burt Bacharach (Skye, 1968)
• Plugs In (Skye, 1969)
• Live at the Funky Quarters (Fantasy, 1970)
• Primo (Fantasy, 1970)
• Agua dulce (Fantasy, 1971)
• Descarga (Fantasy, 1971)
• Cal Tjader and Charlie Byrd: Tambu (Fantasy, 1973)
• Puttin' It Together (Fantasy, 1975)
• Amazonas (Fantasy, 1975)
• Grace Cathedral Concert (Fantasy, 1976)
• Guarabe (Fantasy, 1976)
• Here (Fantasy, 1977)
• Breathe Easy (Fantasy, 1977)
• Tjader (Fantasy, 1978)
• La onda va bien (Concord Picante, 1979)
• Gózame! Pero ya (Concord Picante, 1980)
• The Shining Sea (Concord Picante, 1981)
• A fuego vivo (Concord Picante, 1981)
• Cal Tjader and Carmen McRae: Heat Wave (Concord Jazz, 1982)
• Good Vibes (Concord Picante, 1984)
• Latin + Jazz = Cal Tjader (DCC, 1990; recorded 1968)
• Huracán (LaserLight Digital, 1990; recorded 1978)
• Last Night When We Were Young (Fantasy, 1991)
• Concerts in the Sun (Fantasy, 2002; recordings from 1960)
• Cuban Fantasy (Fantasy, 2003; live recordings from 1977)
• Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival 1958-1980 (Concord, 2008)

Tribute albums[link]

• Louie Ramirez: Tribute to Cal Tjader (Caimán, 1986)
• Poncho Sanchez: Soul Sauce: Memories of Cal Tjader (Concord, 1995)
• Dave Samuels: Tjader-ized : A Cal Tjader Tribute (Verve, 1998)
• Gary Burton: For Hamp, Red, Bags, and Cal (Concord Jazz, 2001)
• Paquito D'Rivera and his Latin Jazz Ensemble with Louie Ramírez: A Tribute to Cal Tjader (Yemayá, 2003)

References[link]

• Clemens, Samuel Langhorne (1980). Early Tales & Sketches 1851-1864 (Works of Mark Twain). University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03186-5
• Pepper, Art and Laurie Pepper (1979). Straight Life. New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-306-80558-8
• Roberts, John Storm (1999). Latin Jazz: The First of the Fusions, 1880s to Today. New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-8256-7192-2
• Yanow, Scott (2000). Afro-Cuban Jazz. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-619-X

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Soul Vibrations: The Cal Tjader Website
• The complete Cal Tjader discography from Music City
• Space Age Pop
• Cached history of Dr. Anton William Tjader, by Gary Tjader
• Excerpt from Early Tales and Sketches referring to Dr. Anton Tjader
• Downbeat's 1953 Critics Poll
• Poncho Sanchez: Straight-ahead Jazz With A Little Salsa On The Side