Pearl Bailey - Come On Let's Play...

This is one heck of a FUN LP! PEarl Bailey, queen of the racy burlesque and double-entendre songs, did this set with a kicking band, led by her husband, drummer Louis Bellson. It tries to pull off what she would have done in her night club routine, not just the songs, but the patter in-between as well. Sure, she talks through some of the solos, but hey, it's just like having your own private show!

I have an earlier Pearl Bailey LP that I'm trying to find and put up, but I think this one is a little better because of the fun she's having in this session. If you listen closely to the lyrics, it gets even better.

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

Come On Let's Play with Pearly Mae.

Administratia... and announcing a new blog!

Well, I have done it, I created ANOTHER audio sharity blog... The Reel Deal. I have populated it with the reel-to-reel posts from here (except for the Buddy Rich one because that album is still in-print), and will be adding it to the link lists here shortly...

I'll leave the reel posts up here, but from now on, anything on reel will go there, and vynil and cassette stuff will go here. That includes any 8-tracks I get and can dub off. Yes, I have a GOOD 8-track deck, one that will even do discrete quad... except I don't know how to make an audio file that will PLAY BACK in discrete quad.... if anyone has any suggestions on how to get CoolEdit to do that, or the Nero SOund Suite to do it, let me know in the comments section, PLEASE.

Also, I have had to do the PayPal donation thing, but I won't be TOO obnoxious about it, just remember, if the coffers are more than empty, I can go scour eBay for more cool things like the American Airlines tapes! THOSE AIN'T CHEAP!!! :)

So, I'll be posting to all four blogs, thanks for your consideration and support, and let's have some fun!

- the Impaler

Si Zentner - Desafinado

Bossa Nova & Si Zentner, an explosive combination. On the back of the box, the liner notes say that "bossa nove" translates into "new wrinkle", which has a bad connotation when dealing with tapes (or the faces of pretty women, but that's another matter entirely!)...

This is a Liberty stereo tape that has SIZZLING audio, nice charts, and other really good stuff. Si knows how to swing it, definately. I think the tape is from around 1965 or 66, again I'm not sure...

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

Without further ado, I present for you some definately UN-WRINKLED bossa nova in the form of Desafinado.

Now, a note on further postings...

I have had some requests for more tapes, including those that would fall outside of the scope of the otherwise loosely defined genre of this blog... should I start another share site that is exclusively reel tapes? I have a BUNCH of classical material, including some WFMT airchecks that are absolutely WONDERFUL as far as audio quality goes... those would be easy to put up as a bunch of them (there are 80 reels in all) are already encoded.

Now for the other shoe... if I do start up a new tape share site, I will be putting up a PayPal donation link, as I will need to subsidize server space as well as media acquisition cost... what say you, faithful fans... post comments & let me know.

Rest assured, I have a bunch of material on LP for moodietoonz, so there would stil be postings here either way, it is just that I am reluctant to put full classical stuff on a lounge/tiki/jazz site...

Lionel Hampton - Here's Gates!

Here is an LP of Lionel Hampton transcriptions of (I believe) airchecks that I had started when I uncovered the boxes of reels... not wanting to leave anything half-finished, I decided to do this up and get it posted so it is in the 'completed' shelf, instead of sitting on the pile somewhere in the studio. Yes, I need to organize stuff. I also need to build a bunch of shelves for the reels, now that I'm actively doing encoding off of them again...

The releasing company was a company called Camay (not the soap, I hope), click here for a full size scan of the label... I do however have some personnel info for this disc, compliments of 78-L member Julian Vein:

[H1089-4] Lionel Hampton
Here's Gates:
Quincy Jones (tp,arr) Benny Bailey, Ed Mullens, Leo Shepherd, Walter Williams (tp) Jimmy Cleveland, Al Grey, Paul Lee, Benny Powell (tb) Bobby Plater, Jerome Richardson (as) Gil Bernal, Johnny Board, Curtis Lowe (ts) Ben Kynard (bar) Lionel Hampton (vib,vcl) Milt Buckner (org) Billy Mackel (g) Roy Johnson (b) Ellis Bartee (d) Similar pers unknown female (scat vcl-1), poss Betty Carter (vcl)

Los Angeles, c. September 1951

T.V. special Camay CA3019, New World (E)NW5019
Midnight sun - -
Cobb's idea (1) - -
Vibe boogie - -
Beulah's boogie - -
Who cares ? [So long as you care for me] - -
Bongo interlude - -
Air mail special - -

The sessions are swinging, to be sure, and note that QUINCY JONES is in there with 'em!

Cover scan is here... the back cover contains adverts for more Camay LPs...

Here's Gates!

You asked for it: Sheer Stereo Delight!

You asked for more, so here is more!

This one is earlier in the string, this is Popular Program number 10 (W-10 to be exact), with the 'sponsor' being 20th Century Fox Records. Someone posted in the comments section that there may be some Art Tatum, but, alas, no Art is to be had here. There ARE some nice performances by Andre Previn and Lena Horne, along with some good crooning by Tony Martin and Al Martino, and some very surprising jazz vocals by Joya Sherrill. You also get a couple of things from "Zorba the Greek" and "Those Magnificent Young Men In Their Flying Machines"... all in all it is a pretty good set, just right for that extra-dry martini as you cruise across the plains in your comfy seat (remember those?) with the legroom (remember that?) as you are pampered with smiling service by your flight attendant (remember THAT??).

I would probably put this tape at around 1964 or 1965 (there's no date anywhere on the thing, so I'm guessing), "...exactly as heard on American Airlines Astrovision." These are showing up occasionally on eBay, which leads to my next little bit... if you want more of these, I may have to set up a PayPal donation thingy, as these are NOT cheap... I was fortunate to snag these in the thrift shop, but any more of the popular ones are gonna cost me some serious buck-age :(

This tape runs out at about 92 minutes per side, I split out all 65 tunes on this and put them into three archives, each running about an hour.

Here are the three archives:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

This will be the last one of these, the Command/Westminster tape is a Classical programme, so I won't post it, unless there is a HUGE demand for it... I have a huge stack of reels to do up so that'll keep you occupied for a little while....

Coffee, tea, or milk?

A tribute to Loronix

As a tribute to one of the coolest sites for Brasilian music, loronix (see sidebar for the link), I found this Bola Sete set in the pile-o-reels that I'm doing up for your listening pleasure.

Recorded at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966, Bola cuts loose with a great, albeit WAY too short, musical adventure into sonido Brasilero. His sidemen, Sebastian Neto on bass and Paulinho on drums, I can't say enough! Herb Wong, on the liner notes, says "This is a MAGNIFICENT album!" and I heartily agree with him.

Bola had been playing a lot of gigs with a lot of different combinations of players in the San Francisco Bay area, and had been with Vince Guaraldi for some time before this appearance. The current personnel, he had been with for about a year before the appearance at Monterey.

This was released in 1966 on Verve, and was produced by Creed Taylor (and thankfully, NOT overproduced!)... heck, I'm gonna shut up, now, RACK THE TAPE!!!

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

What else can I say? enjoy Bola Sete at the Monterey Jazz Festival!

Music with a Touch of Heaven

Up now is something of a sub-culture colletor's thing... starting in the early 1960s, American Airlines began to make available recordings of their in-flight audio program to the public. I don't know if these were sold via retail, or if you had to buy them from American, but they are pretty sought-after tapes. Each side runs 92-3 minutes, so you have a little over three hours of music to soothe the savage frightened flyer. Each program was 'sponsored' by a particular record company, this one being Kapp records. Even though they were recorded at 3 3/4 ips, the audio quality on these was really really good, even if the music wasn't 'cutting edge' for the times.

Since Kapp was the 'sponsor', we have a mixture of late Louis Armstrong, some early Burt Bacharach, some Jack Jones, some Hugo Winterhalter, and a LOT of Roger Williams (as he was a Kapp 'feature artist'). The mixture is pretty darn good, thouth, and somewhat harkens back to the day of the mid 1960s 'Beautiful Music' format one would hear on FM stereo broadcast stations in the USA at the time.

This tape, from 1966, is Popular Program No. 16 in the series, "...exactly as heard on American Airlines Astrovision."

I am going to admit something right here and now... I am a lazy sod. This tape runs over 93 minutes per side, and there's no way I am going to break out all the tracks... all 67 of them!
(ADDENDUM)
I changed my mind... I went ahead and split out all 67 tunes, tagged them using my bulk tagger, and now they're in three archives of 30-some songs each. So, no complainin' outta any youse! You can split them up however you want to, make CDs or just chucnk it on to one big MP3 CDR with the other stuff (like I do for commuting).

Here are the three archives:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

I have a couple more of these, let me know if there is an interest and I'll post them... one I know of has Command and Westminster as the 'feature labels', so you KNOW there's gonna be some Enoch Light and Dick Hyman on THAT one!

Martini and a pillow, sir?

Louis Armstrong - I Love Jazz

Next up is a tape that kind of scares me... as you can see from the rear scan, it says "enhanced for Stereotape..." YIPE!

What we have are some recordings taken between 1950 and 1958 of Louis playing with several different groups... the personnel are on the back scan, along with recording session dates and locations.

What scares me is that I am looking at the waveforms and this is NOT mono, so someone has doinked with the recordings... I summed the 2 channels (post-recording) and it really doesn't sound that good in mono, so I did a little tweaking and left them as stereo files. At least these aren't treated like the crummy Capitol DuoPhonic process (BLEAH).

There are some good performances in here, and good sidemen, like Trummy Young, Peanuts Hucko, Barney Bigard, Charlie Shavers, Earl Hines, Cozy Cole, and Jack Teagarden to name a few. Give it a listen and see what you think.

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

See why Satchmo says: I Love Jazz!

Herbie Mann - Today

Ah, the rites of cleaning and the joys of unearthing stuff I forgot I had... I was tasked by She Who Must Be Obeyed to find a certain Rod Stewart album that I thought I had on vinyl. No, sir, no LP there, so I have this bright idea: dig into the rack of boxes covered up by several sleeping bags and about 500 lbs of cables... the boxes that hold the reel-to-reel tapes. I found said Rod Stewart album, dutifully ripped it and burned a CD for her, then went back in and dug out a BUNCH of reels that were in there, undiscovered for well over 2 or 3 years. This will give me some great material for you for the next few postings (interspersed with the usual vynil goodies, of course!).

First one up is a Herbie Mann album from 1966, with arrangements and combo conducted by Oliver Nelson. Why Herbie needs a conductor for a small group, I know not... but it has some good stuff on here. With compositions ranging from David & Bacharach to Duke Ellington to Lennon & McCartney, there is grist for the mill, as it were, and it is handled quite well.

The personnel are listed on the back cover, so I won't re-post that here, as the full size scans are available.

So, off we go, with the first of a bunch of nifty reels for your pleasure... no having to thread up the reel deck, no worries about splicing a broken tape, just enjoyment!

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

Rack up Herbie Mann - Today and press the play button!

Michel Legrand - Vienna Holiay on 45

Well, I hope that I made up for the silliness of the demo record with this little bit of Michel Legrand.... his vignettes are great listening, his innovation (some would call that a nice word for it) with orchestrations are certainly eyebrow-raising, but all in all, Michel Legrand usually cones up with some very very tasty bits, and this is one of them.

Yes, I know, I just DID a Vienna-theme piece, but this is much different in scope, and more towards the mood music genre than the light-classical tone of the earlier RCA posting.

The interesting thing here, is that this set was released on 3 extended-play 45-rpm discs in an album, somewhat like what RCA was trying to do with their box sets. This was definately close to post-78rpm era, becasue if you look inside one of the gatefolds, there is a list of recordings available in the EP format. I didn't scan that, but I did scan the other gatefold, which holds the liner notes, and some other available sets at the time. See it here. If you want a full size view of the front photo, click here.

The music is well recorded, but there are a few noisy places where I had to roll off the top end a little because of the narrow groove pitch (damn Microgroove pressings!), but overall, a nice sonic capture, at least for microgroove 45rpm discs on cheesy polystyrene that Columbia loved to use at the time. Be aware also that M. Legrand takes occasional liberties with the length of the songs... this may be his doing, or it may be that, since this is a 45rpm EP set, Columbia had a nasty habit of making some albums "abridged". I hope that this is not the case here....

Without any further ado, let's go on a Vienna Holiday!

Columbia Stereo Demo LP....

WHY, oh WHY do I DO THIS????

I must be absolutely NUTS to subject you to this disc... but there's really nice liner notes in it (including a primer on how stereophonic LPs are made, including pictures of the process, in the liner notes archive available here.

So, what's so special on this thing? There are some really interesting lounge & mood tracks on here, including a track recorded by Duke Ellington especially for this sampler (if you can get past the train going from one side of the room to the other...), there are some nice little classical excerpts, and there are 2 tracks at the end that are kind of cool... one is a field recording done at an airport in the late 1950s (those ain't jets you hear, bunkie! Twin-engine propellor airliners, and no sign of the TSA Security goonies in sight!), and a speaker balance test track. Nifty, huh.

This set was a demo given out with Columbia stereophonic phonograph systems in the late 1950s (I even have the operating manual, and can scan it if anyone wants), again, for people to have something to play on it and impress all their friends and neighbors.

Actually, it IS pretty cool, considering... and I'm a SUCKER for demo discs of any kind.

So, if you want to experience a stereophonic experience, check out Listening In Depth... and watch out for the train!

Howard Roberts - All-time Great Instrumental Hits

Ahhh, one of my favorite guirat players... Howard Roberts.
This guy just plays so so so tasty, I can't help picking up any of his stuff at the thrift stores. Such a smooth player, and he got so very little recognition... I liken his playing to early George Benson (which I have some and may put up later).

This outing, Howard takes on instrumental hits of the 60s, and takes them on he does! The only complaint I might have is this... if you have a subwoofer, it'll be dancing!

I'm not gonna say too much more, except this: I'll let the music do the talking here... I have a couple more HR LPs, when I dig em up, I'll post 'em. Enjoy!

Fullsize scans of the jacket, front, and back.

All-Time Great Instrumental Hits are there for the taking...

...and I fixed the link, too!

Roland Kirk - Left & Right

Here's some great orchestral and small-group jazz by a great player, Roland Kirk (now known as Rashaan Roland Kirk). Released in 1969, Left & Right shows just how brilliantly this man composed as well as played. I should say plays, as he is still, to my knowledge, with us.

Brilliant reed work, and his cutting humour shows from the very first track!

If you want fullsize scans of the jacket, here's the front, and here's the back.

And so, without further ado, enjoy Left & Right!

A Quick Commercial Message...

I know, keeping up (kind of) three shares blogs is a lot of work, and I think I get a couple of you that check out one or two of the other blogs, but please take a moment and check out my other two sharesites, you may find something you like!!

The Shellac Shanty site has lots of pre-vynil-era 78rpm goodness, mostly jazz and swing, but sometimes some classical and other fun stuff, and the AudiOddities site has.... well.... stuff that doesn't fint any real genre. I usually put up strange stuff there, and occasionally, some home recordings on disc. It is different!

As usual, comments are always welcome, and if you link to any one of the blogs, your link will show up in all three of the audioshare blogs.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programme....

Jackie Gleason scans

I promised that I would get the scans up for Lovers Portfolio.... and here they are!

These are the full size scans, so they're in an archive, which you can download here...

In case you didn't get the original post, here's the 2 discs:

Disc 1
Disc 2

Big surprise coming up! 5 discs' worth!

George Russell Sextet - Strasusphunk

OK, here's one I have already encoded some time ago, so it's a blast from the past, I guess... so much of a blast I don't even have the jacket for it!

This is a bit more bop-ish than what I usually groove to, but I liked it when I got it, and still don't know much about the group or any personnel. All I do know is this... it swings. It be gome good jazz that Riverside released in 1960... personnel listed on the label are:

• Al Kiger - Trumpet


• Dave Baker - Trombone


• Dave Young - Tenor Sax


• George Russell - Piano


• Chuck Israels - Bass


• Joe Hunt - Drums

SO, all youse, it's kind of a grab-bag, I know, but hey, it's Stratusphunk-y.

The Ahmad Jamal Trio

Good keyboard players... how I love 'em! And, how I absolutely love to find their works in decent shape in a thrift store!

This is Ahmad Jamal with Israel Crosby on bass and Ray Crawford on guitar, with the beat being laid down by..... a drum machine! How retro...

But, this was Ahmad's first full LP for Epic, having cut an EP and several singles (I think I have even seen some Ahmad Jamal on 78rpm discs!), so his stylings were great. I think so, anyway.

Note in some of the solos that the players will make sure you're paying attention by dropping in a hook from some unrelated song during their solos...

I think this was done in 1960 or thereabouts, there's no real date on the jacket or the disc, but the catalog number was LN 3212 and no mention of it being available in stereo.

So, for a late night posting, here's nice music for a late evening... performed very adeptly, by The Ahmad Jamal Trio. No oops here :)

The Swinging Sounds of Bill Doggett

Let's switch gears a little... no, a LOT. This is the first of the next stack-o-stuff unearthed in the cleaning of the studio, and we got a winner here!

Bill Doggett is one of the unsung Hammond players out there in the music world. Unsung, because he doesn't feature himself that often! His big hit, "Hony Tonk", didn't feature him! The version here really doesn't either, but there are a couple of his solos on this LP. By the way, the version of "Honky Tonk" is not the original, it is a bit faster, in two parts, and in true stereo. But I digress...

Having worked with Lucky MIllander, the Ink Spots, Louis Jordan, and Ella Fitzgerald, his piano and organ chops, as well as his arranging skills, are on excellent display here. This is a great little LP. 30 minutes of Twistin', house-rockin' fun.

The title of the LP comes from one of the songs on it, where the guitarist, Floyd Smith, did something and said "Oops!"... thus was a title created. This LP is anything BUT Oops, but it says Oops, so...

From 1962, I give you Oops!

Uno, dos, tres a Ros!

Edmundo Ros, boy am I beginning to really dig on this gentleman and his arrangements of standards into a quasi-latin beat.

This one, "Ros on Broadway" kind of wraps up the bunch of european pressings I have been putting up of late, as it keeps the theme of film and stage tunes, only this time, adapted with that Edmundo Ros 'touch'.

While not truly the exotic rthythms of South America, these are just the thing for the evening of dancing, or playing through the iPod as you travel down the road on a sunny afternoon with the windows and/or top down, and that lovely lady in the passenger seat.

A fine Decca stereo disc from 1958, great tunes, great arrangements, kind of makes me want to jump into the Wayback Machine (or the TARDIS, if you so prefer), set the dials to 1958 London, don the dinner and nightclub attire, and spend an evening at Edmundo Ros' Club. I have a feeling that the orchestra would make for a very entertaining evening!

This is the last of the bunch, so I guess I need to rummage through the shelves for more wonderful items for you to listen to... let me know how you like what's been posted so far!

Download and enjoy Ros On Broadway!

By Request: More Decca Chacksfield

This post is by the request of Mel, via the comments on the Love Letters post... I think I may actually have some more pre-Phase 4 Chacksfield on London "blueback", I'll have to dig through the racks to see if any more can be unearthed.

Another Decca Frank Chacksfield Decca LP from 1959 (although on the label it says "originally published in 1958"), this time featuring songs that have won the Motion Picture Academy of America "Best Song" award, from 1934 to 1945. Very nice arrangements of all the songs, which are presented in annual order. There is talk of a second album, with songs from 1946 to 1955, but I don't have it, nor have I seen it.

It is interesting to note that, according to the liner notes, when "The Continental" won the award in 1934 there were only ELEVEN awards given out... 1934 was the first year of the award for Best Song. The liner notes go on to say that at the time of this record's release, the catagories had expanded to "...over two dozen." Now, it is what, three days, if you count all the Technical Awards that are given out the day before the actual awards ceremony? Amazing how some things were simpler in the 50s...

This LP has the usual lush arrangements, but still quite tightly arranged, and wonderfully performed, and the pressing quality is pure UK Decca. Again, this was one of the stereo discs that the doofus collector passed on because it WASN'T a US London release. These are all pretty standard tunes, but the arrangements make them a treat for the light music afficionado.

I'd like to thank the Academy for giving Frank the inspiration to record these Academy Award Songs!

Waltz Time! Hey Walt, what time is it?

Another 1958 Telefunken-Decca West German pressing of an RCA Living Stereo release, this one recorded in the USA... Chicago, to be exact. The always awesome Chicago Symphony Orchestra, this time under the baton on Fritz Reiner, giving us a six-track program of... waltzes!

I know, this is more of a mood music blog, but once in a while, a little light classical is not a bad thing. I promise, no opera (well, maybe a little bit...)...

I see this LP a lot in the thrift stores, usually beat all to poo, so it was a surprise to see the German TelDec pressing that LOOKED to be in pretty good shape. Looked to be, but really wasn't, so you may hear a couple of pops in here, for which I apologize. And, I do NOT know WHY TelDec INSISTED on using their narrow groove pitch... the grooves are deep-cut, so with the correct stylus (different than the usual .07 mil elliptical one sees on most systems today) one SHOULD get a decent playback off of these... but I'd rather spend the USD$100 on things like... food, or the mortgage than on a stylus that I'll use... what... once a month on average?

NOT!

If I knew the specs of the stylus, I would be on the net tomorrow ordering one up for the Stanton.

Does that make me an audio-geek? I guess so :)

These are the usual typical Vienna waltzes, nothing new or exciting, but well performed and well-recorded by the lads at RCA. Nice heavy vynil disc too.

This is good light classical fare, so enjoy this little trip to Vienna!

Chacksfield - Love Letters in the Sand

Here's another one of those Decca Stereo LPs that goomus-the-purist passed over...

Frack Chacksfield's orchestra was one of many 'mood' orcehstras that Decca had in their stable in the late 1950s. This effort from 1958 has Frank returning to more COntinental fare than on his previous effort ("In the Mystic East"). I MUST give you this excerpt from the liner notes on the rear of the jacket, as they are brilliant...

Until recent years, of course, you could not have heard light music played with the immaculate artistry that is displayed on this record. In earlier days it was very much the province of tea-room trios and overworked pit orchestras. Like Frank Chacksfield, they played a very wide range of music, but unlike him, they played it all uniformly badly; they unhesitatingly mangled the Sugar plum fairy and Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road into strikingly similar shapes.

Thank you Mr. Peter Clayton. I couldn't have said it better myself.

It is interesting that the British call this "light music" when the more appropriate listening environment is with a Particular Someone that one would make woo with, in a dimly lit (if lit at all) room!

The market for 'light music' was great during the Eisenhower Era, as I guess it would have been a great way to not worry about the Great Red Menace... unfortunately, when I was beginning to listen to music and radio, this type of thing was relegated to elevators, dental office parlors, and "Beautiful Music" FM radio stations, of which there was all of ONE in the town I grew up in. And this is what they played. Over and over and over.

But, now that I am all 'mature' (suppoedly), I find this music very comforting, the lush strings, the occasional trumpet solo taking the melodic lead, the image of a young damsel in evening gown sitting across from me in a dimly lit room as she slowly takes off her gloves and sips gently upon her martini with the sparkle of expectation of things to come...

Ahh, simpler days... where's my smoking jacket, Jeeves?

Love Letters in the Sand

Edmundo Ros, again! a Hi-Fi-esta!

I did a later Edmundo Ros a few posts ago, but there are these two wonderful Decca stereo LPs I got in this current bunch that are really nice examples of Edmundo's work and arrangements, so I'm gonna post 'em.

An interesting story with these... when I got them in the thrift store about a year ago, there was this other really hyped up collector pawing through the bins looking for London 'blue-back' LPs. London stereo LPs sold in the US in the late 50s and early 60s, and are considered to be some of the best recordings out there for their time, and are quite sought after by audiophiles. The reason they are called 'blue-backs' are that the back side of the LP jacket was not off-white, but a very light, robin's egg blue, on which was printed the usual information.

So this guy was chucking all of these Decca Stereo LPs in his 'reject' pile... not realizing that these would be the EXACT SAME LPs, only they were the ones sold in the UK! He thought that only the London ones were the primo stuff... I quickly snatched up all of his rejects (he had bought a couple of London 'blue-backs' but they were in very very ratty condition...), took them up front to pay for them, and as I was finishing with the cashier, I mentioned that these were exactly the same as the London LPs he so furiously sought out. You should have seen his face go white, then red, then green... he stomped off to his car, enraged.

My point: if it has to be 'just-so', be prepared for some disappointments, especially when you go into the stores not knowing what to look for. This guy hopefully has learned his lesson, that not all things are as USA-centric as he wised, I guess.

Anyway, I got the LPs, and here I share them with all you kind folk out there.

This one, is interesting. Edmundo kind of transposed rhythmic ideas and songs with an interesting result. There are a couple of very hot tangoes in here, and even a popular march done in a samba feel. Edmindo's club in London was still the going thing, even more so when this was recorded (ca. 1958) as opposed to the later Phase 4 that I posted a while back. Personally, I think the arrangements and performances are snappier with this one than with the later one, but I'll leave it for you to decide.

This would be, probably, a good LP to dance off the dinner that you had with the Melachrino Strings, it certainly is peppy enough!

Dance the night away to a Hi-Fi-esta!

A Dinner Date with Melachrino

George Melachrino... a mainstay of the RCA "Living Stereo" series, and a very lush arranger and composer. The music here is very much background dinner type stuff, but is still very very nice to have around when you have that certain lady over for a romantic repast.

What ever happened to casual dinners with good wine, and ladies wearing gloves, and men in suits, and dinner music such as this... the last time I was in an upper-scale dinner restaurant (a VERY nice steak-house for a romantic dinner), there was some cudgel-brain a couple of tables over in short pants and a polo shirt. If I have to wear a suit and tie, then, by golly.....

I guess it is a sign of times gone by, then, maybe that makes me an old poop... but every once in a while, I still like having a REAL dinner with REAL music and REAL manners.

Sigh...

Anyways, this is a 1958 RCA recording, recorded in England, and pressed by Telefunken-Decca GmbH in (at that time) West Germany. THe recording is brilliant, but the TelDec pressings have a VERY close groove pitch, which almost necessitate a different stylus (narrower than the usual stylus used for stereo groove playback) to get the stylus well into the groove. If I stil had my very skinny stylus for US Victor microgroove 45s and EPs, maybe I could have gotten an better encode... this one is good, but there were a few more groove pops than I would have cared for.

On the inner sleeve, which is from the UK, there is an interesting bit, which I'll repeat for you here:

NOTE: When held at certain angles the surface of this Stereophonic record looks different than that of a monaural disc... it may even appear to be worn. Of course, this is only an illusion caused by the unusual way in which the grooves of this record are cut.

It's still good for the dining music though, Music for Dining with your favourite Someone.

The Stars in Stereo

It is football season, which has absolutely NOTHING to do with the topic of discourse on this post.

The reason I mention football season is that it is time to un-bury all the control cables and remotes for the satellite dishes so I can watch my home-area football team, the Seattle Seahawks.

Oh, ok, for those of you not in the US, it's my hometown GRIDIRON team.

In the moving of stuff to get the dishes operating, I found a stack of British-pressing stuff, which I'll encode up and share with you in the coming days.

This one is basically a sampler of Capitol stereo stuff, circa 1957, recorded in the US and pressed and distributed in the UK by EMI. There are some goodies on here, and some blah-ness... but overall, it's an enjoyable little way to sample the buffet of great lounge stuff that Capitol had available in the late 50s. Plus, the pressing of this LP is the usual UK greatness, good high-quality vinyl, and was gotten from the thrift store in pretty pristine shape. Frank Sinatra, Harry James, Les Baxter, Nat Cole, Jackie Gleason, Les Brown, Fred Waring, Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, and Stan Kenton all add their touches to this star-studded stereophonic salute to sonorous sensuality.

Thake THAT, all you wanna-be PR mavens! (grinning wide)

Download Stars in Stereo!

The Billy Vaughn Sound....

Billy Vaughn & His Orchestra, best known for a couple of hits and a distinctive sound in the early 60s, as far as big band goes. So, here I am at the thrift store that NEVER has reel tapes, and I see this one. "Blue Hawaii".... ooo, and it's on BelCanto, too! 'bel canto' is the correct way to note this, that label always put out a brilliant recording, even though some times the material is poop.

So, I get home, finish up a stack of 78s and decide to encode this as I watch the UK 'terror crisis' on CNN-international and Sky News (courtesy of those terror-mongers at CNN and FOx News). The only comment I have to say about that is that the last time in 1995 that this type of deal was 'attempted' it was a joint CIA-MI6-Mossad operation to try and ratchet up the level of fear. If it was the "real deal" as Scotland Yard & the Met are putting it, then you can rest assured that it was concocted by the CIA and MI5.

Nuffa-dat.

I'm encoding away, and I realize that there are seven tracks listed on the back of the box, and only SIX tracks on the first side. oops. THEN I look and see that it is an original Dot recording. double-oops. Sho'nuff, it's that typical Billy Vaughn sound, nothing exotic here, move along....

It's a nice encode of a nice recording of some (my opinion) dreck-y material. But, I'll share it with you as an example of Billy and his sound, so you know what you'll get if you see it in the charity shoppes or boot sales.

Cheers, and remember, the only REAL terrorists are the ones behind the big desks in the ivory towers.

Blah Hawaii

But Where's Tommy Newsome??

Today, I have for you a nice NICE set of big band tunes from none other than Doc Severinsen, leader of the NBC Orchestra, otherwise known as the house band for "The Tonight Show" when hosted by the late Johnny Carson. Recorded for Grand Award/Command in the mid 1960s ("Sunny" and "Up Up and Away" would date this at around 1966 or maybe 1967), this was done right after Doc took control of the Tonight Show band, and many of the players there are here, such as Snooky Young, Sy Berger, Tom Newsom (on WOODWINDS! see, I thought Tommy was another trumpet player... silly me...), and Ed Shaughnessy. Joining DOc are some killer players like Bucky Pizzarelli, Tony Mottola, and Clark Terry, just to name a few. The arrangements by Dick Hyman and Marion Evans are choice (when AREN'T they?), the pressing is typical nice Command (even though this is an ABC effort)... this is just a neat neat record for the summer.

This is another example of just how infouential people like Dick Hyman and Enoch Light were to the music industry... unsung heroes to the mainstream... heck, most people only think of "The Minotaur" when they hear Dick Hyman's name, well, in the musical sense anyway.

Enjoy Doc, as he shows off the Tonight Show band in its' early days. It swung. Always did. Up to the end.

Heyyyy-yoooo!

Persistent Percussion. You read it right.

Well well well, what have we here... looks like a red vynil RIPOFF of the Command "Persuasive Percussion" series! This was recorded in July of 1960, and actually has some names of people one might know on the sessions... people like Curtis Counce on bass, Frank Rosolino on trombone, Richie Kamuka on tenor sax, and a guy credited as "Kess" on guitar. Three guesses as to whom THAT is.

Oh yes, the orchestra is just listed as "All Stars".

This was released on Kent records, the label and pressing looking like a Crown knock-off, but actually recorded pretty well. There's the usual 1960s stereo ping-pong effects, lots of percussion, but there's also some good arrangements in here, and the band swings quite well. The pressing is a little bit noisy, so please excuse the occasional "Frutzz" in the grooves... I got out as much as I could without destroying the audio quality.

This thing I actually picked up at the thrift store today, I wasn't going to buy anything, but I saw this thing, and HAD to get it and encode it. Turns out, I'm glad I did.

Enoch Light, eat yer heart out.

(Seriously, I wonder if this was some kind of lawsuit bait, since the cover is almost an EXACT ripoff of the Command cover....)

Get Persistent!