Bad ass
vibraphone player credited with bridging mainstream and
Latin jazz. That's odd because bad ass Latin vibraphonists aren't easy to find -- especially in Sweden, where Tjader was born in 1925.
After getting his start with Dave Brubeck in 1950, Tjader joined the George Shearing Quintet, where he first started playing the Latin stuff. Tjader started his own jazz combo in 1953. He released albums for Fantasy throughout the 50's, and then switched labels to Verve in 1961. His song Soul Sauce, a modern reworking of the Latin classic Guacho Guara, scored him a minor dance hit in 1965.
Tjader moved back to the Fantasy label in 1970 and recorded several more albums for the label before his death in 1982.