Heat Wave is a 1982 studio album by vibraphonist Cal Tjader and jazz singer Carmen McRae. Tjader died four months after the completion of Heat Wave, it was his final recording.
The album was arranged by pianists Mark Levine and Marshall Otwell. McRae and Tjader did not get on well during the recording, and Tjader later overdubbed his parts without McRae present. McRae chose to sing "Besame Mucho" in its original Spanish language lyrics, and Willie Bobo helped her with the pronunciation.
Heat Wave peaked at 25 on Billboard's Jazz Albums chart.
Reception
AllMusic awarded the album two and a half stars and reviewer Scott Yanow said that "the potentially exciting combination does not really come off that well...The musicians had little to do. McRae sounds OK in the Latin setting, but does not uplift the diverse material...and the effort overall is somewhat forgettable and disappointing".
Track listing "Heat Wave" (Irving Berlin) – 3:07 "All in Love Is Fair" (Stevie Wonder) – 4:27 "Besame Mucho" (Sunny Skylar, Consuelo Velázquez) – 5:26 "Evil Ways" (Sonny Henry) – 5:15 "Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me" (Duke Ellington, Bob Russell) – 3:12 "Love" (Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin) – 3:06 "Upside Down (Flor de Lis)" (Djavan, Regina Wernech) – 4:33 "The Visit" (Ivan Lins, Vítor Martins, Wernech) – 4:13 "Speak Low" (Ogden Nash, Kurt Weill) – 4:51 "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing" (Wonder) – 3:42
Personnel Performance Cal Tjader – vibraphone Carmen McRae – vocals Marshall Otwell – piano, arranger Mark Levine – piano, arranger Rob Fisher – bass Vince Lateano – drums Poncho Sanchez – congas, percussion Ramon Banda – percussion, timbales Al Bent – trombone Mike Heathman – trombone
Production Phil Edwards – engineer Leonard Feather – liner notes Carl Jefferson – producer
References