Grupo X’s second album Food For Your Latin Soul is a must-have soulful Latin jazz album. Period. And when temperatures will (hopefully) rise soon in Europe it will sound even better. If things work out, there will also be a vinyl EP with remixes by Rich Medina and Bobbito Garcia to be released this summer as Jonny Enright, head of Grupo X, mentions in his jazz-not-jazz interview. Read on to learn more about the group’s name, their influences, how they teamed up with Lisa Millett and much more.
Q: It’s been almost six years since Grupo X released their debut album. What happened in the six years and why did it take you so long to come up with a second album?
Jonny Enright: The last few years seem like a blur, with one thing and another. When X-Posure came out were really working hard as a band, touring and promoting the album and EPs. In the summer of 2001 we started recording the follow up album at a studio in Hoxton, North London, and things were going really well; in fact we just about finished five tunes. Then I became a father for the first time and, not surprisingly, the project stopped for a while. After a while we got back into recording, but it was a bit more of slow process, due to lack of money and time and the guys in the band being busy with other projects.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, at the end of 2003, brimming with ideas, Jimmy and myself had a writing session up in Yorkshire, where my family now lives. We got most of the remaining tunes done and booked ’60s analogue-based Toe Rag studio in East London to record the band. It was like stepping back in time. Even the ‘phone was from the ’60s (and I don’t think the toilets had been cleaned since the ’60s). Aside from the conditions, we had a few really good sessions with engineer Ed Deegan and I think we really captured the live sound of the band.
By the end of 2004, Simon Edwards (our bass player) had taken the project by the scruff of its neck and remixed the tunes in his studio and given the tunes a veneer and punch that had been a bit lacking. We felt we just needed a couple more songs to get the album right, so we went into Ed’s studio (Gizzard) in East London and finished off the recording, apart from a few overdubs, which we did at mine and Simon’s as well as some flute at Finn’s.
So that’s the story. Although it’s been a long, drawn-out process at times, we’re really pleased with the final result. And we promise to be quicker with the next one!
Q: Please tell me something about the group’s history. How you’ve met the group members, how you came to be called Grupo X and what’s your motivation and the musical vision you share.
Jonny Enright: Grupo X came out of Jimmy Le Messurier’s successful UK 11-piece salsa band La Clave, formed in the mid ’80s. I joined the band in 1991, whilst still at music college. We were really busy, playing three or four times a week in the UK and making regular trips around Europe. We used to get asked to do weddings and parties from time to time, so Jimmy started a cut-down version of the band called Hijos De La Clave (Sons of La Clave). We got together a good repertoire of classic salsa; tunes by Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto (RIP), Mon Rivera and the gigs went down well. Jimmy had his hands full with La Clave, so I offered to run the band.
We got asked to do a gig in Richmond Town Hall (this was in 1996). The booking agent didn’t like the name we had (she was a bit fussy) and asked me to find another, so I said “Grupo X.” It was a bit tongue-in-cheek; the idea was that we were this new mysterious band, when in fact we were all from La Clave. So that’s how we became Grupo X.
After we’d done a few gigs as Grupo X, I started to take the band a bit more seriously and began writing for it. We’d been playing together for so long (in one shape or form) that we had a really good natural groove and understanding. We were all into the same kind of music, Latin and non-Latin and we were really good mates. Not a bad basis to start from!
By about 1998 we were starting to get club gigs up and down the country in clubs like the Underground in Leeds and the Toucan in Cardiff. The scene was quite new and fresh and people wanted to hear good live bands. We found we were going down really well with our audiences. They liked our groove and found us good to dance to. We were still essentially a salsa band, but we’d started to get into boogaloo and Latin Jazz. It was a matter of finding what style suited us as a band and what went down the best with the crowds.
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