ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons will release his first-ever solo album, "Perfectamundo", on October 23. Inspired by Cuban music, Gibbons is joined by a handpicked group of musicians dubbed The BFG's on the project, which hearkened back to his early days when he studied Latin percussion in Manhattan with 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," says Gibbons.

Produced by Gibbons and Joe Hardy and recorded in Houston, Los Angeles, Austin and Pontevedra, Spain, "Perfectamundo" was sparked by an invitation to perform at the 2014 Havana Jazz Festival, delivered by his Argentine-born, Puerto Rico-raised friend and musical collaborator Martin Guigui. Gibbons was unable to attend, but the concept inspired the ZZ Top guitarist to begin work in his Houston studio.

Three songs in, Gibbons hooked up with Guigui as well as Chino Pons, a Cuban friend who heads his own quartet in New York. "Chino, so to speak, sprinkled holy water on our efforts and expressed confidence that we were headed in the right direction," explains Gibbons, "and that bit of affirmation gave us the impetus for more forward motion."

zztop hasn't made a relevant album for years......why would gibbons do this?

if he is going to write, write for zztop.

This sounds interesting! I'm very curious.

La Futura was fantastic what are you talking about???

And why shouldn't Billy branch out and try something different?

Seems pretty closed-minded Renny, c'mon!

Did you really not like La Futura? It's damn good and the new material fits right in live (I saw the band in March).

laying it out for you since you asked:

first off you should know that i do have all of their albums, and for a band that has been around and toured extensively since 1971 don't you find it odd that they do not have a live album? i attribute this to the old stories about their touring back when they were huge (during the MTV years), and the story goes that over half of the show was taped, guitar notes being played and neither one of them even touching the neck of their guitars, vocals being heard with no one singing, etc.

the five years between 'afterburner' and 'antenna' was when this all supposedly occurred, i did not see themlive myself, but i do vividly recall all of the stories. and it all seemed to go downhill for them after that.

personally, i think everything since 'antenna" has been just terrible.

and the one before that "recycler" was the beginning of the end.

i saw gibbons on 'live at daryl's house' and i thought daryl outshined (outshone?) him without really trying to, daryl hall usually cowtows to all of his guests, so you know he wasn't trying to show gibbons up.

am i the only one who feels this way? i think not, as of their last four albums, only 'la futura' garnered gold status, and that was in germany.

i always tell it here as i truly feel, i have been around for almost 20 years on this site and my honesty has gotten me in a lot of shit over the years, i am not trying to threadcrap, or put anyone down, just saying how i personally feel about a band that has gotten a whole lot of mileage out of a bit of talent, some great videos, and a lot of facial hair

no hard feelings, please.

No hard feelings at all-I think my tone was clear on that simply asking a question.

I really liked Antenna but everything else was hit and miss though each album had great stuff. Rhythmeen was pretty good (and I saw that tour).

XXX was horrendous.

Mescalero was good but had too much filler.

But, La Futura is very good.

They do have two live albums:

Live from Texas (2008)

Live in Germany 1980 (2011) which is official, not a boot.

Fandango was half live. I wish they had a full live album in their 70's heyday.

By the way every time I've seen them-just the three guys and no sampling.

During the Afterburner era (I hate that album) I guarantee programming and a keyboard player were used.

Anyway, there it is.

What's a BFG?

Billy F. Gibbons?

Big Fucking Gun?

Big Friendly Giant?

As in Billy F. Gibbons... according to the press release, the original name for the band was BFG & Co.

It should be interesting to hear another side of Billy Gibbons. But, the same rule applies here as it does for solo projects from individual members of other bands: Don't buy this expecting to hear ZZ Top - that's what ZZ Top is for!

Bump: Added the pre-order link to the first post. The album will be out on November 6th.

Pretty cool and nothing like ZZ Top, so kudos to Billy.

Also, not sure how that girl fit into that dress-yikes!

Has anyone heard this?? Am I hearing that awful Auto Tune on the vocals?!?!

.
It's drenched in auto tune. Its not that he cant sing anymore as he does fine in recent clips on youtube. So the use of auto tune is a mystery to me

Tickets for his show here in San Francisco are not selling well. Goldstar has them for half price. However I am going and I like the afro cuban feel of the songs on the album.

This album is still being promoted nearly a year later. Here's a brand new promo video for the track "Quiero Mas Dinero":