A Swingin’ Affair — one of the lesser albums Frank Sinatra made for Capitol in the 1950s, which is to say, one of the greatest masterpieces of American popular culture.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Tito Puente’s big-band Latin music in the 50s was always jazz-inflected, and big-band jazz in general in the 50s was getting influenced by Latin rhythms.

Someone got the idea to splice the two traditions together — not mix but splice, with Tito’s band sharing a recording studio with  Buddy Morrow’s jazz band, performing arrangements in which the two bands alternated with each other, within the numbers, on a series of standards.

The result, Revolving Bandstand, is, improbably, magical — primarily because the arrangers stuck to music that was danceable.  The dance rhythms unite it all into a complex and exhilarating whole.

A pop masterpiece from start to finish.  When it came out in December of 1965 I thought of it as a personal Christmas present from The Beatles to me.  It’s still one of the best Christmas presents I ever got.

Click on the image to enlarge.