Album review: "Cugi's Cocktails"

One of the coolest concept albums of the era, the album is filled with catchy, upbeat songs. So upbeat, in fact, that it’s difficult deciding whether to take another sip of that martini or grab the wife for a spin around the den.

Xavier Cugat cheekily pairs a musical type with a drink – but it’s not as clichéd as you’d think.

“Blue Champagne” is done not as a beguine, for example, but as a bossa nova. He mixes up a nice rhumba for both “Grasshopper” and “Singapore Sling.”

And although it works for the former (just picture a rosy-cheeked dame getting tipsy on the frothy female tippler), it’s difficult to imagine Trader Vic pouring a Sling to Cugat’s peppy number (even though he makes ample use of the vibraphones: the everpresent instrument of record in tiki bars nationwide).

And one of Your Host’s preferred cocktails – the Manhattan – seems to be anything but the cha-cha of the cocktail world. It’s meaty and manly and requires a full sound and heavy beat to drink to. But who’s gonna argue with a guy who made Charo legitimate?

Your Host can’t resist dimming the lights, pouring a Zombie and playing a bolero version of the drink’s namesake. Moody and mysterious, it’s not to be played after the second tipple (if you even make it that far in the first place) – especially with the dizzying organ riffs that haunt the number throughout.

His bossa nova version of “Daiquiri” is just so enjoyable. It’s a smoky rendition that is firmly anchored by a heavy horn section – muscular and mustachioed. Something that would even get Papa Hemingway’s toes tapping.

It’s a fun, underrated album that is worth a listen or two whether alone in the den or with a few pals during cocktail hour.