1966 Jorge López Ruiz Quintet “De Boite En Boite” on Record

Best label name ever? Hey, let’s hear it for Argentinan minimalism! Ultra-early JLR that’s a few years behind the American curve/transition from big band swing to pre-Bop, delightful and charming but feeling a bit anachronistic in the face of, say, what Steve Lacy or Ornette had going. Which in a way makes it even cooler. It’s patio cocktails music for sure, the kind your great-grandma probably lost her virginity to, although back then it just meant holding hands with a boy for a sweaty instant when no one was looking. In the same way that some of the best Ra sounds simultaneously futuristic and like it was recorded two centuries ago, this one has a bit of the Victorian to it as well.

So, it’s interesting that the title is “De Boite En Boite” since that, of course, is French for “from box to box”, and as box can be an idiom for nightclub on any given Parisian night, is Ruiz commenting on a string of gigs and hitting the long road on the South America circuit, or is he saying “from the Swing Box into the Be Bop Receptacle?” Description or metaphorical allusion? Hey, hard to say, and discerning between the two is a lifetime’s job with no pay or benefits. In any case, I am a HUGE fan of all things Jorge Lopez Ruiz, basically the Mingus of Argentina, if he were a little more slick Ron Carter and a little less hulking Charlie. This record is especially fascinating given how experimental Ruiz’s music would become in less than a decade, avant, funky, pure Veijas Raices. Dude is a hero in the Castle Wax Book Of Heroes no question, first ballot all the way.