COKE ESCOVEDO

• Comin’ at ya!
• Mercury
• 1976
• USA

Thomas “Coke” Escovedo was an Oakland born percussionist who became known playing in Carlos Santana’s band. Later he went on his own and formed the latin rock group Azteca with his brother Pete Escovedo. Coke started his solo career in 1975 and released three albums. This second one, Comin’ at ya! was propably the best result. It was meant to be an attempt to please the ever-growing disco demand, and he succeeded pretty well. Glenn Symmonds on drums, Frank Mercurio on keyboards and synthesizers, Abel Zarate on guitar, Mark Phillips on bass and Coke himself on percussion form a tight combination. There’s also featuring artists Gabor Szabo playing guitar on one song and Joe Henderson playing tenor sax on three songs.

The songs on this albums are a mix between latin percussion driven mid 1970s uptempo disco and latin jazzrock fusion. “Diamond Dust / Vida” with Gabor Szabo’s guitar work is a good example of that latin fusion with a lot of percussion while “The breeze and I” instead is a cool disco track. “Runaway” is a midtempo track that starts with a nice break and continues as a vocal discofunk number. Best track no doubt is the uptempo dancefloor filler “I wouldn’t change a thing” that starts with a tight bboy break and goes on and on with really nice percussion driven beat and catchy vocals. Both “Runaway” and “I wouldn’t change a thing” were featured on the notorious Ultimate Breaks & Beats series.

The breeze and I

Runaway

I wouldn’t change a thing