Three different Latin jazz combos this week. They sprang from the fascinating Latin jazz world of ’50s and ’60s California (the Bay Area and Los Angeles, in this case).

These were diffuse scenes. They drew their devotees from the Mexican-American and African-American communities, from the jazz musicians who’d already themselves established in California (the Cal Tjaders, Al McKibbons, Clare Fischers, et al.), and from a handful of Cubans and Puerto Ricans.

Due in part to its smaller scale, it was the versatile five- or six-piece jazz combos – rather than larger orquestas like New York City’s – which reigned on the West Coast. And it was the vibraphone, with its capacity to fill a room with shimmering, exotic sound, that was accorded such a predominant place in some of California’s more popular working jazz groups of the era, quintets like Bobby Montez’s and Cal Tjader’s, and, later, the Harold Johnson Sextet and the Afro Blues Quintet.

1. Manny Duran and His Sextet, Johnny Comes Marching Home Mambo (Cavalier)
It’s lovely to hear Duran and company deconstructing a patriotic warhorse like “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” with such wild inventiveness.

Manny Duran was pianist who played in the 1950s Bay Area with other simpatico Latin jazzbos like Cal Tjader and Armando Peraza. He’s heard here along with his brothers Carlos (bass) and Eddie (guitar), percussionist Benny Velarde (see next selection), and Cliff Anderson and Bevan Brahms on vibes and percussion.

This was likely recorded around 1959 or 1960. Cavalier was small California label with a odd discography of ’50s and early ’60s pop, country and teenage-type rock ‘n’ roll 45s.

2. Cool Benny (Velarde) and His Stone Swingers, Wobble Cha (Virgo)
Benny Velarde was one of the cadre of great West Coast Latin percussionists which included Francisco Aguabella, Moises Oblagacion, Armando Peraza, and, briefly, Mongo Santamaria – a cadre which dominated their Pacific corner of the jazz universe in the ’50s and ’60s (albeit mostly in a supporting role).

The wobble was one of about a million dance crazes in the early to mid-’60s. The wobble could tenuously claim some Latin forbears, too, with some ’60s New York City Latin groups – Joe Cuba’s and Joe Quijano’s come to mind – performing twist-cum-chas in a style known as “wobble.” No word on whether that’s actually Velarde heard here enthusiastically offering his encouragement with those exhortations, though.

3. Tony Martinez Quintet, Ican (RCA)
Tony Martinez was a bandleader and vibraphonist whose names pops up occasionally in the context of Los Angeles Latin music.

On this early Latin jazz recording (ca. ‘54), Martinez leads his razor-sharp quintet through a classic Eddie Cano composition, with the great Cano himself handling piano duties. “Ican” is the template for the dark, exotic strain of Latin jazz that found favor in post-War California nightclubs (see also Roscoe Weathers) – both Cano and Martinez whip through their parts with the kind of crazed, infernal energy that must have spooked the bourbon ‘n’ pineapple crew down at PJ’s.

“Ican” was later covered with characteristic elan by conguero Poncho Sanchez (who’s kept the spirit of West Coast Latin jazz alive in recent decades) on his Bien Sabroso album.

The Bossa Nova had already been maturing in Brazil for several years when, in 1959, the movie Black Orpheus first broke the sounds of Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim to a larger American and European audience. The wheels were set in motion, though it took Stan Getz and João and Astrud Gilberto with 1963’s “Girl From Ipanema” to truly charge the American popular consciousness.

Its commercial potential immediately obvious, jazz musicians from coast to coast were soon adding “Mas Que Nada” and “One Note Samba” to their repertoires – or were, for better or for worse, being goaded by managers and record executives into making Bossa Nova-themed albums. This was mostly for the better. It just meant that, in the typical American fashion, Bossa Nova became a fairly loose concept, something any jazz record could invoke with the right breezy rhythm section and the promise of South American latitudes.

1. Dan Yessian Quintet, Basadelic (Sound Patterns)
Imagine my disappointment when it turns out that this wasn’t “basadelic.”

Nominally the most Brazilian of this week’s selections, this nifty jazz instrumental from the hip Michigan label Sound Patterns has a lovely, confident swing. Dan Yessian, a Detroit-area saxophonist, was later the founder and head honcho of the Yessian music production house.

I’d guess that this released around 1968.

2. The Cals, Amazon Bossa Nova (Loadstone)
Even by most the liberal standards, “Amazon Bossa Nova” is not a Bossa Nova.

It’s got an unfamiliar time signature, though, and the rattle of maracas. And though it isn’t music that seeks to startle, or to move us the brink of tears, it’s tropical – or tropical-ish – an organ jazz cocktail with no overriding motive beyond a certain loose sophistication. There’s your Bossa Nova right there.

The Cals – a hip young teen jazz and pop trio who played the lounges and clubs of the Bay Area and nearby San Rafael – were guitarist and bassist Doug Cox, organist John Allair and drummer Pete Lind.  Their “Amazon Bossa Nova,” one of several similar 45s for W.C. Stone’s great R&B label Loadstone, was recorded and released in the mid-’60s. Pete Lind and Doug Cox still play in Bay Area jazz circles today.

3. Mk. III, Mocha Nova (Tigertown)
Just drums, flute, and a reedy-sounding electric organ. “Mocha Nova” is another low-key nightclub jazz charmer, brought to us by this obscure Tampa trio.

“Mocha Nova” has the relaxed sort of cool that would have only been heard long after nightfall, when, with the local populace asleep, it was finally safe for jazz flutes to come creeping out. Great stuff either way. “Mocha Nova” was recorded in 1966.