It was on this date, 23 November, in 1964 that Cal Tjader completed the recording of his most successful album, ‘Soul Sauce’. Its title track, a Dizzy Gillespie cover Tjader had been toying with for over a decade, was a radio hit (hitting the top 20 on New York’s influential pop music station WMCA in May 1965), and landed the album on Billboard’s Top 50 Albums of 1965. Originally titled “Guachi Guaro” (a nonsensical phrase in Spanish), Tjader transformed the Gillespie/Chano Pozo composition into something new. (The name “Soul Sauce” was deemed a catchier title and also came from Willie Bobo’s observation that Tjader’s version was spicier than the original.) The song’s identifiable sound is a combination of the call-outs made by Bobo (“Salsa ahi na ma … sabor, sabor!”) and Tjader’s crisp vibes work. The album sold over 100,000 copies and popularized the word salsa in describing Latin dance music.