The debut solo effort from ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons

Gibbons takes on Afro-Cuban rhythms on unique outing

It’s the debut solo album from Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top guitarist/vocalist and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, who is backed by a handpicked group of musicians dubbed The BFG’s on this unique outing. As the title may suggest, the album takes on a bit of an Afro-Cuban flavour that may come as a surprise to some Gibbons fans and followers.

Even before the blues-rock/hard-rock great’s first recordings back in 1967 with the Moving Sidewalks, his legendary pre-ZZ Top Houston psyche-punk garage band, Gibbons studied Latin percussion in Manhattan with none other than its preeminent virtuoso, “Mambo King” Tito Puente, a friend of Billy’s bandleader dad. Puente taught the young Gibbons the essential Latin rhythms via conga, bongo, maracas and, most importantly, timbales. “Banging away on ‘em came back like riding on a lost bicycle,” Gibbons relates of his return to the genre by way of Perfectamundo.

The concept for Perfectamundo, which was produced by Gibbons and Joe Hardy and recorded in Houston, Los Angeles, Austin and Pontevedra, Spain, originated with Gibbons’ invitation to perform at the 2014 Havana Jazz Festival, delivered by his Argentine-born, Puerto Rico-raised friend and musical collaborator Martin Guigui. While he was unable to make it to Cuba, Billy did commence exploring the potential for an Afro-Cuban inflected album project at his Houston studio. Soon after presenting his engineering crew with a business card from a newly opened Cuban eatery called Sal Y Pimienta (salt and pepper), the first track finished for Perfectamundo took its title from that card.

Gibbons followed this with a “Spanglish” version of Louisiana swamp blues maestro Slim Harpo’s classic “Got Love If You Want It” and an Afro-Cubanized take on the Lightnin’ Hopkins blues staple “Baby Please Don’t Go,” thereby fully merging Gibbons innate Houston blues tradition with Cuban rhythms.

BFG & Co. includes Guigui on piano and B3, B3 player Mike Flanigan (who has joined with Guigui in backing Gibbons on recent solo dates), vocalist/bassist Alex Garza and drummer Greg Morrow, with co-producer Hardy offering additional guitar, keys, bass and vocals, and Gary Moon also supplying additional guitar play. Besides guitar and vocals, Gibbons himself contributes bass guitar, B3 and piano parts as well as Timbales and other percussion instruments.

There’s even some hip-hop courtesy of Houston’s Garza, a/k/a Alx Guitarzza, which surfaces on the title track, “You’re What’s Happenin’, Baby” and “Quiero Mas Dinero.” Other standout cuts include “Pickin’ Up Chicks on Dowling Street,” which is pure Billy Gibbons; the mysterious “Hombre Sin Nombre,” the hard rock “Piedras Negras,” and the smoking B3-stoked, almost instrumental album closer “Q-Vo.” And Gibbons turns to a Houston classic of another sort in his simmering and slyly percussive cover of Roy Head’s horns-fueled 1965 hit “Treat Her Right.” Perfectamundo, indeed.