Monthly Archives: November 2004

The last two weekends I’ve found jumble sales and bought about 40 records for 25p each! Some pretty good ones too… I’ve also been dipping into records I bought the first year I lived in America, at which time I was excitedly picking up everything I could consume.

Compilation: 'This is Stereo' (LP; Polydor; 1968)
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This common Polydor UK sampler has a stunningly designed cover. Dreamy! I haven't got around to listening to all the music yet, although Augusto Alguero's 'Gran premio' is a bit disappointing. There are also tracks by Hans Schachtner, Kurt Edelhagen, Roberto Delgado and Kai Warner.

Compilation: 'Black Music' (LP; Arcade; 1973-1974)
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I haven't listened yet, but this looks like a nice collection. Arcade Records - As seen on TV!

Alan Caddy: 'England's Top 12 Hits' (LP; Avenue; 1972)
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I bought this because I've heard some other stuff produced by Alan Caddy that I liked. But this didn't do much for me. The 'hits' being covered mean nothing to me (other than 'My sweet lord'), but some of them are probably quite famous.

Alan Tew: 'Let's Fly' (LP; CBS; 1970)
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After some recent successes, I've started picking up every Alan Tew LP I see. This one doesn't seem so great on first listen. There's a flying theme, with 'up up and away', 'canadian sunset' etc.

Annie Ross: 'Annie by Candlelight' (LP; Pye Golden Guinea; 1965)
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A bit of a find for 25p... This is a really cool set. Annie sings with a small combo consisting of Tony Crombie on piano, Bob Burns on clarinet, Roy Plummer on guitar and Lennie Bush on bass.

The entire record sounds great; a particular highlight for me was Annie's version of 'I've told every little star', which was a hit for Linda Scott (whose version was featured in the Mulholland Drive soundtrack).

Arthur Murray’s Music for Dancing: 'Cha Cha' (LP; RCA; 1960)
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A fantastic record. This really doesn't look like it will be anything special, but the arrangements, by Johnnie Camacho (who if I recall correctly worked on several Esquivel records), are sensational and the whole record is a lot of fun. There are occasional vocals and a lot of latin percussion. The real standout track is 'cha cha cha at the harem', which is extremely hip. But they're all pretty cool.

Buddy Merrill: 'Latin Festival' (LP; Accent; 1965)
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An interesting album. There are some stellar tracks (notably 'Out of this World', which is just fantastic). But on some tracks the various types of multitracked guitar get to me a bit. Still, I could put together a killer Buddy compilation one day!

Compilation - Carl Kress, Tony Mottola, Dick McDonough and George Van Eps: 'Fun on the Frets - Early Jazz Guitar' (LP; Yazoo; 1934-1949)
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Another nice purchase from that thrift store in NJ. This is an 80s compilation of early chordal jazz guitar work. It's all very enjoyable. Sad to think that by the time I listened to this last week, Tony Mottola had checked out. My favorite cuts are those by George Van Eps. I get the impression from the liner notes that he went a bit schlocky later in his career, but it sounds great here.

Chris Montez: 'The More I See You' (LP; A&M; 1968)
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Great stuff. My first UK-issue Chris LP. It's not clear to me whether or not this is a compilation. It probably is - it certainly contains stuff from more than one US issue LP ('foolin' around', the title track of an LP in the US, is included here in the same recording). Some nice stuff here - all the early classics really, including 'call me', 'sunny', spooky' etc...

Colin Blunstone: 'Journey' (LP; CBS; 1974)
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Don Carlos Brass: 'Down Tijuana Way' (LP; Avenue; 1969)
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Surprisingly, this isn't so bad. In fact the version of 'Je t'aime' is rather good - bouncy and solid. It's a budget late 60s hits album, but not a bad one. I wonder who 'Don Carlos' really was, other than someone trying to cash in on Herb Alpert.

Duncan Lamont: 'Summer Sambas' (LP; MFP; 1973)
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In my mind this was not a particularly common record. I'd never seen one before anyway. I was browsing through a single box of 25p records a week after I bought this for a pound, and saw two copies!

It's quite a nice plain easy listening album with bossa novas on it. Nothing dead exciting, but some good playing by session men like Denis Lopez and Ike Isaacs.

Emilio: 'Hits, hits, hits' (LP; Maller; 1976)
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This seems like a cheaply produced record made for tourists to buy in Mallorca. Mine is signed 'All the best - Emilio'. Emilio, if you're reading this, I'm sorry, but your record's a bit rubbish. I was hoping you were going to do something cool with 'Only You', and I was *really* hoping that the 'Sunday Morning' song you sing was the one by Margo Guryan, but you didn't and it's not. so this record isn't worth much to me I'm afraid.

Jack Jones: 'Jack Jones sings Michel Legrand' (LP; RCA; 1971)
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Jack Parnell and his Orchestra: 'Braziliana' (LP; MFP; 1977)
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A surprisingly nice album, considering that it was recorded in 1977. The arrangements and track choices are pretty excellent, with an interesting take on 'girl from ipanema' and a nice 'waters of march'.

Oh, and there's a ridiculous disco funk version of the classic 'deixa isso pra la', which has to be heard to be believed. Very cool stuff!

Jerzy Polomski: 'Spiewa' (LP; Muza; 1966)
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Kana Kapiolani and his Hawaiians: 'Beyond the Reef' (LP; Rediffusion; 1967)
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Louis Prima and Keely Smith: 'Louis and Keely' (LP; Dot; 1962)
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Great album; cool cover too. Nice peppy brassy arrangements of standards with the two of them duetting slightly goofily.

Mantovani: 'Mantovani Today' (LP; Decca; 1970)
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Very cool cover, and not a bad record at all. The string arrangements are often beautiful at first; they just become a bit much... Here he tackles classic pop hits of the day, with some pretty cool production on the hits from Hair.

Martin Denny: 'Quiet Village' (LP; Liberty; 1959)
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A lovely LP; oddly this is one of the few exotica Denny LPs in my collection. I guess I'm too mean to shell out the big bucks for the ones with the busty dames on the covers (although looking at the cover of Primitiva, that's one I'd like to own - see about half way down the page here: http://members.lycos.co.uk/spaceagepopagogo/sld082.htm.

The standout cut here is probably 'Martinique', but it's all pretty nice stuff.

Norrie Paramor: 'Music from the Big Screen' (LP; Contour; 1971)
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Produced by Nick Ingman. Tasteful, but not really very interesting (on first listen, at least).

Perez Prado: 'Big Hits by Prado' (LP; RCA; 1961)
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Very cool RCA album of rerecordings of his classic hits. Novel arrangements, grunting etc.

Roy Smeck: 'The Haunting Hawaiian Guitar' (LP; ABC-Paramount; 1961)
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A very nice LP that I bought in 1997. It's gentle stuff; nothing too crazy, but very nicely done. The version of 'Over the Rainbow' is particularly good; other standouts are 'Blue moon' and 'Wabash Blues'.

Sarah Vaughan: 'Sarah Vaughan Sings the Mancini Songbook' (LP; Mercury; 1965)
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A lovely record. Contains Sarah's legendary vocal version of 'Peter Gunn', as well as lots of other interesting vocalisations. These include 'Mr Lucky' and 'Dreamsville'. My favorite track is the sultry bossa of 'Slow Hot Wind', which has a beautiful mood very similar to the Astrud Gilberto cut 'Who needs forever' from Quincy Jones's Deadly Affair soundtrack. Since I bought it, this has become available on CD, and I recommend checking it out.

Slawa Prezybylska: 'Ballady i Piosenki 2' (LP; Muza; 1966)
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Stanley Thompson: 'Plays for Strict Tempo Latin Dancing' (LP; Sydney Thompson Dance Records; 1977)
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I bought this both because it contains a samba version of Match of the Day and because I've found most of the dancing records in my collection to be surprisingly rewarding. I think Stanley was the UK's answer to Arthur Murray. This record didn't do much for me though. Some uninteresting arrangements and dodgy vocals dominate proceedings.

Star Wars Original Cast: 'The Story of Star Wars' (LP; 20th Century Records; 1977)
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Audio book /record plus little brochure. Not bad for 25p, but pointless really...

The Arthur Murray TV Dance Orchestra: 'Arthur Murray's Music for Dancing' (LP; RCA; 1958)
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Not a bad one, but far less interesting than my other Arthur Murray Cha Cha record.

The Eddie Cano Quartet: 'Cano Plays Mancini' (LP; Reprise; 1963)
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Bought at the time when I just had to have any record that mentioned Henry Mancini's name! Very cool tracks though - piano led quartet interpretations. 'Mr Lucky' is particularly exquisite, but it's all great stuff.

The Platters: 'Encore of Golden Hits' (LP; Mercury; 1955-1959)
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An incredibly enjoyable LP. Just great performances and great pop records.

And one of them was called David Lynch!

The World of Tijuana: 'The Mexicans' (LP; Decca; 1968)
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Studio knockoff of Tijana brass. Quite good stuff! 'A taste of honey' in this version was featured on the This is Easy! compilation in 1996.

Walter Wanderley: 'Samba So' (LP; World Pacific; 1963)
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I bought this record in early 1998 in the Salvation Army thrift store in Newport NJ. I remember because I had somehow become locked out all night and was at the entrance to the store right on 9 am when it opened! I was rewarded with this, and also as I recall with a nice copy of Henry Mancini's Mr Lucky.

It's a nice record. I think the recordings are Brazilian ones reissued in the light of the success of Rain Forest.

Xavier Cugat: 'Cugat Plays Continental Hits' (LP; Mercury; 1961)
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A great favorite. I used to enjoy playing the version of 'Apache' out, but overall this is just one of those really nicely recorded and produced late 50s/early 60s dance records, with lots of lovely bongos and congas. Other tracks include a cool 'Mack the knife' and a very good 'Petite Fleur' (including a 'throbbing bongo').

I’m creating a more healthy morning routine. This involves not turning on my computer before going to the office, and instead listening to records while I drink my coffee and eat my toast. This seemed to be a hit. This morning we enjoyed side 1 of Encore of Golden Hits by The Platters, and most of side 2 of Sarah Vaughan sings the Mancini Songbook. These are both records I bought back in 1997 when I was first living in NYC. Great stuff. The beautiful moody/cinematic/bossa sound of Vaughan’s recording of ‘Slow hot wind’ inspired me to quickly bring out Quincy Jones’s Deadly Affair soundtrack, featuring Astrud Gilberto’s version of ‘Who Needs Forever’ (recommended in two different versions on Musical Taste).

Continuing what has turned out to be a very musical day, my shipment of CDs from Rev-Ola arrived. Some very nice stuff was included.

Joe & Bing (aka Best of Friends): 'Daybreak' (CD; Rev-Ola; 1970)
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I had wondered about this LP for years, ever since a Musical Taste contributor recommended its title track and mentioned a connection to Eumir Deodato. It finally came out just recently in this excellent reissue from Rev-Ola, including 7 bonus tracks. It's brilliant. I'm not crazy about the remade cover art, but the reissue conveniently includes the original design as well (as well as snippets of the alternative issue covers), so it doesn't matter!

The whole thing is a rather magical blend of soft pop vocals, intricate acoustic guitar, lively percussion and deep string arrangements. There’s also a bluesy/folky edge that comes out strongly on some tracks.

The title track, ‘daybreak’ (which was later recorded by Astrud Gilberto) is magical, a wonderful mix of gentle vocals, nicely picked acoustic guitar, full arrangements and nice drum sounds. The strings are rich and textbook Deodato style. Some very Eumiresque piano is also added in the break. ‘I'm not forgetting your name’ is another fantastic track. The arrangement has a nice trumpet part and opens up beautifully after about a minute. At around 1:30 there's a slowdown in tempo and a superb use of trumpet hits that recalls some of the pop vocal records being made in Brazil around the same time. The bass playing is superb too. According to the liner notes the arrangment on this cut was by Bingham, without Deodato's involvement, but I can definitely hear some influences from Brazilian pop.

‘It's OK’ is a more upbeat number with an irresistable groove. This catchy track has a very nice sound, although it’s more simple in structure to lots of the others here. ‘Summer Sound’ is perhaps my favorite track of all, an exquisite ballad with an astonishingly brilliant arrangement - a mix of Deodato's thick strings and the fantastic intertwined rhythmic guitar playing of Joe and Bing (Thanks to Joe for the background clarification on the instrumentation!). There's a great stripped-down middle section in which the vocals are joined by some powerful strings. It's just beautiful. ‘Fennario’ is a pretty straight take on a traditional folk song.

‘Love the one you're with’ is quite a nice version of this famous song, but somehow the song is so famous that it jars slightly next to the fresher genius of the other tracks. ‘If love's in season’ has a very Nick Drake-style opening. I wonder if Joe and Bing had a chance to hear Five leaves left and Bryter later. The whole track has a wonderful mix of guitars and strings.

‘Plain livin blues’ is another drum-heavy upbeat track. Pretty cool stuff, although it does less for me than the more meditative numbers. ‘Sail’ is a return to this gentler mood, and ‘Drifting with the time’ has a simple bluesey feel that definitely recalls Chad and Jeremy to me, but also features a nice string swirl that reminds me of the arrangement of ‘You showed me’ by the Zombies

The bonus tracks are interesting, although I imagine they came from non-tape sources, since the sound quality is suspect. There's a nice version of Nilsson's 'Without her' (also featured on another revola reissue, Triste Janero’s Meet Triste Janero).

There are some other exclusive tracks, as well as some interesting pre-orchestration demo versions of album tracks.

To me, the record is a revelation – like a cooler and classier take on the Chad & Jeremy sound, with superior performances, songwriting and arrangements.

I’ve picked up a few records recently, as well as earmarking about a hundred to give away! I found some really nice stuff for very little money ($0.50 to $1.00) when I was in the states, and yesterday I was back in the town where I grew up, which is now lined with charity shops. I bought 5 or 6 LPs, most of which I haven’t yet auditioned. The one I did play last night was Jack Jones sings Michel Legrand. These early 70s Legrand-related albums seem to be superb.

While I enjoyed the Jack Jones (which I had been on the lookout for since I heard about his mean Scott Walker impression), it reminded me of the fantastic Nelson Riddle album I bought on my last american trip, Vive Legrand!, which I then got out and listened to until late into the night. Riddle’s superb 70s albums on MPS, Changing Colors and Communication, have recently been reissued on CD in Germany, and seem to be much more widely appreciated, perhaps due to the involvement of Claus Ogerman. But this relatively unknown album is brilliant as well. It was recorded around the same time as the German ones, but in California. It’s wonderful to hear how he updated his style from the big band arrangements of the 1950s to the easy listening/rock hybrid he presents here. There’s very prominent bass and percussion, as well as superb piano and strings. It sits very well with contemporary work by Les Baxter, as well as British arrangers like John Schroeder and John Gregory.

Other than Nelson Riddle (I realized I also have several LPs of his from the 60s, some of which are excellent), current flavours of the month are Dudley Moore (his piano jazz trio stuff is astoundingly good to my ears) and Anita Kerr. I have a feeling Anita is now a homophobic Floridian republican, which is unfortunate given what day it is today, but I can’t help enjoying her music, especially the sublime Reflect on the hits of Burt Bacharach album.