Born Callen Radcliffe Tjader in St. Louis on July 16th 1925, he was the son of Swedish immigrant vaudeville artists who toured the USA. His parents soon settled in California and opened a dance studio, and the young Cal became a tap-dancing prodigy, as well as learning piano from his mother. He took up drumming as well, and won a gene Krupa drum contest in San Francisco on the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. After serving as an army medic in WWII, he trained to be a schoolteacher, but took timpani lessons while at Sna Francisco State College, where he met Dave Brubeck, also just out of the army. With Paul Desmond, Tjader joined the Dave Brubeck octet on drums, making one album. The outfit found it difficult to get gigs, so disbanded and Brubeck formed a trio including Tjader, and they became a regular feature on the Bay area jazz scene, during which time Tjader taught himself the vibraphone. After Brubeck suffered bad injuries in a diving accident in 1951, Tjader formed a trio and made an album for Fantasy. In 1953, George Shearing invited him to join his band, which developed a Cuban strand of repertoire, with Tjader playing bongos and vibes. Having been exposed to Mongo Santamaria and Tito Puente in New York, Tjader left Shearing and formed the Modern Mambo Quartet, taking advantage of the mambo craze of the late '50s, and soon developed a reputation for hot Latin-flavoured jazz, although he also played "straight" jazz as part of the SF bebop scene. He made a highly-acclaimed appearance at the 1959 Monterey Jazz Festival. After recording for Fantasy for nearly a decade, Tjader moved to the higher profile Verve label, and the '60s were his most prolific years, producing a string of successful albums with a variety of artists, mainly in the Latin vein. The '70s were leaner years for jazz and Tjader moved towards a funkier, Latin rock style, which led to him being regarded as an originator of Acid Jazz and Afro-Cuban jazz. He had moved back towards his smoother Latin style after joining the Concord label in 1979, winning a Grammy in 1980 for his album "La Onda Va Bien", when he died suddenly from a heart attack while playing a concert in Manila in 1982 aged 57. Acrobat has on catalogue an album of material recorded in the late 60s for the Skye label and a 2CD set of previously unreleased live recordings from San Francisco in 1955 - for details click here.