A rare and odd 10" LP,
Here's Cugat is surprising for several reasons. First, it is probably
Cugat's first long-playing Mercury album, which makes his association with the label concurrent with, not just subsequent to, his Columbia and RCA recordings. No liner notes, but the jacket has the same type of border Capitol employed when it was discovered that the same artwork could be printed for both 10" LP and 7" EP formats. While the tunes are mostly
Cugat standards, the performances are far livelier and more exciting than their Columbia and RCA equivalents. By far the best reason to hunt this one down is "Jungle Flute," however. Described on the label as a "novelty-rhumba," it is a raucous, campy Afro-Cuban with the imitated growls of big cats (even a domestic feline), monkeys, and bird shrieks. Probably no later than 1954, it may even be the first "exotica" LP track to feature jungle animal and bird sounds.