1978 private press Alex Rodriguez “Busqueda”

There’s probably a reason that a ton of Venezuelan grails are not regularly knocking down your door, although you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a theory while listening to this killer record, which makes it seem like there should be as many floating around as there are of hammered Emerson, Lake, & Palmer records down at your local on a given day. One reason this particular slab could be scarce is that 80% of them are misprints with the same songs on both sides, and that is a very hard capsule of cyanide to dry-swallow when you get it home and lay it on the platter. That was especially true pre-internet, when they only way to know you were screwed was to be once-screwed and learn the hard way. In any case, do you dig funky guitar-driven South American fusion-ish jazz excursions full of fat bass, weird arrangements, super creative changes and guitar figures, hot sax, slapping electric piano, weird time signatures, and not a single ounce of flab on them? Hey, me too!

​Rodriquez, generally a classical guitarist, gets seriously George Benson Of Caracas here, and since this is his only release, you have to figure it nearly drained the life out of him. And we are all the better for it! The lineup for this is truly massive, and it you were thinking it was recorded in some tiny jungle palapa, you are dead wrong (actually cut in NYC). The mighty Ronnie Cuber on tenor, Rolando Briceño on soprano, Jorge Dalto (“Chevere”) on clavinet, Frank Quintero on drums, Carlos Acosta on stand up (Rodriguez plays killer, slamming, double-tracked electric bass as well). Seven Rodriguez originals and a Bach minuet. “El Mercado” is the moneycut for sure, but the entire package is slick as hell. What else could you ask for? TOP action.