Oct. 30--Thanks to a series of tongue-in-cheek MTV videos in the '80s, Billy Gibbons and his bandmates in ZZ Top rarely get mistaken for serious musicologists. But Gibbons' appreciation of blues, garage rock, psychedelia, surrealist art and now, as it turns out, Latin music, runs pretty deep. Through his bandleader father, young Billy got to hang out and study Latin percussion with Tito Puente in the '60s. Gibbons went on to lead Houston rockers the Moving Sidewalks before forming ZZ Top and developing into a formidable guitarist with one of the most distinctive tones on the planet.
That guitar is still in evidence on "Perfectamundo" (Concord Music Group), but it's not the main focus. Instead, Gibbons devotes his first solo album to fusing his blues chops with the Latin rhythms that were part of his musical apprenticeship. The guitarist growls more than sings, and distortion heightens the illusion that John Lee Hooker's spirit is speaking to the listener from a muddy, underwater grave.
The vocal blurriness is fortunate, because Gibbons doesn't have much to say -- in English, Spanish or Spanglish -- outside of a few sly double entendres. But he succeeds in making his most danceable record, one that adds up to a minor left turn in a career brimming with far more notable music.
The sonic blend works best when seasoned with soul, particularly rich Hammond B-3 organ straight out of a Southern church, and resting on a foundation of Afro-Cuban polyrhythms. A horn-fueled pop-soul hit from the '60s, "Treat Her Right," becomes sultrier and sexier than the original, "Sal Y Pimiento" builds a hypnotic momentum with timbales underpinning piano, and a remake of Slim Harpo's "Got Love if You Want It" evokes Santana's version of Peter Green's "Black Magic Woman."
The rest either tries too hard to be different -- Houston rapper Garza makes a couple of ill-fitting cameos -- or not enough. A number of songs feel underdeveloped, little more than chants fitted with a groove that has neither the fire of first-tier Latin music or the witty blues crunch of prime ZZ Top.
Greg Kot is a Tribune Newspapers critic.
'Perfectamundo'
Billy Gibbons and the BFG's
2 stars (out of 4)
greg@gregkot.com
