Cinnamon Flower by Charlie Rouse Band

Cinnamon Flower by Charlie Rouse Band

'Cinnamon Flower' by Charlie Rouse Band

In 1977, tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse was dismayed when he heard Cinnamon Flower . Working with Brazilian ex-pat pianist Dom Salvador, the former Thelonious Monk sideman recorded a fairly straightforward album of Brazilian jazz. Producer Alan Douglas, worried about sales and perhaps pressured by bosses at the disco-driven Casablanca Records, overdubbed horns, strings, backbeat drums, even adding Todd Rundgren’s keyboardist, Roger Powell, on synthesizer. Douglas was the same producer notorious for releasing posthumous Jimi Hendrix LPs with overdubs, so perhaps Rouse shouldn’t have been surprised.

Cinnamon Flower’s new release on Resonance, a premiere label for lost jazz, includes Douglas’ version and the