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Saturday, February 20, 2010

All-Time Favorites - Tops All-Star Orchestra

Delicado
All-Time Favorites
Tops All-Star Orchestra
Jackets fabricated by Globe Albums, New York, N.Y.
Tops L1514

How High The Moon
Lisbon Antigua
Charmaine
Melody Of Love
Skokian
Blue Tango
Poor People Of Paris
Time On My Hands
Bewitched
Penthouse Serenade
Siboney
April In Portugal

Friday, February 19, 2010

Upper St. Clair High School

Where Is The Love
The Best Of Friends
Sweet Caroline

Upper St. Clair High School
1976 - 1977
This One's For You
Volume 16
Directed by Robert J. Girls
Grubb Associates Recording
1976 - 77

The Eagle
Shower The People
Row, Row
The Best Of Friends
Sweet Caroline
With A Voice Of Singing
Honey! No! No! All I Do!
Nothin' Like A Dame

Guess I'll Miss The Man
Sam
Natalie/We
Where Is The Love/Our Day Will Come
Memories/Walk Through The World
Fa Una Canzone
So You Are A Star/I'll Never Cry

Southern Nights/Sir Duke
You Take My Heart Away
Secret Love
Evergreen/Dreams
Vorspruch 
Love Will Always Stay
Paradise

Someone Will Sing For You
The Drunken Sailor
Glorious Everlasting
Don't Give Up On Us
Nocturnal Serenade
You And I
Barry Manilow Medley

Fantastica Music From Outer Space - Russ Garcia

Into Space & Nova

Fantastica
Music From Outer Space
Russ Garcia
Arranged by Russ Garcia
Electronic Effects & Engineer: Ted Keep
Producer: Simon Jackson
Cover Design: Garrett Howard
Liberty LRP 3084
1958

From Billboard - March 31, 1958: A fine mood set by the orkster. The selections all have outer space titles and are nicely orchestrated with well-controlled instrumental gimmicks. Tempos are nicely varied. A good set for jocks and one that can enjoy good sales.


Fantastica
Music From Outer Space
Russ Garcia
Liberty LST 7005
1958

Into Space
Nova (Exploding Star)
Lost Souls Of Saturn
Monsters Of Jupiter
Water Creatures Of Astra
Venus
Red Sand Of Mars
Goofy Peepl Of Phobos
Volcanoes Of Mercury
Birth Of A Planet
Frozen Neptune
Moon Rise

Hawaii Honeymoon - The Waikikis

Sugar Moon
Hawaii Honeymoon
The Waikikis
Photo Courtesy Of American Airlines
Knapp Records
KAPP KL-1432
1965

Hawaii Honeymoon
Remember Boa-Boa
The 3rd Man Theme
Song Of The Islands
Road To Waikiki
When The Saints Go Marching To Hawaii
Ta-Hu-Wa-Hu-Wai
Palisa
The Shadows
Carnival In Honolulu
Sugar Moon
Happy Hawaii

Martin Denny - Forbidden Island

Forbidden Island


The Exotic Sounds Of Martin Denny
Forbidden Island
Producer: Si Waronker
Engineers: Bob Land and Ted Keep
Cover Illustration and Design: Pate/Francis
Cover Photograph: Garrett-Howard
Liberty Records LRP 3081 & LST 7001
1958

Liberty released this set in multiple printings featuring variations of the front and back jacket designs. One cover design (with two rear jacket designs) for the mono press (top image) and, apparently, two designs for the stereo release.

The stereo cover (bottom image) is printed on foil paper stock.

From the back cover: Who makes the sounds that have captured the imagination of Hawaii and the world? ...Martin Denny – Leader, composer, and gifted arranger; piano and celeste; originator of "exotica" music. August Colon - Latin instruments, special effects, bird calls; a "banging bongo-er." Julius Wechter - Only 22 years old, brilliant on the vibes; also marimbas, xylophone; doubles on percussion instruments. Harvey Ragsdale - Toured with Stan Wilson, who rates him tops on string bass. Big round time and unexcelled moving line.

To enrich this album of "Forbidden Island," Denny called on four guest specialists... Lew Panio - Percussion; Will Brady - Flute and musette; Bud Lee - Guitar and Japanese Samisen; Mike Garcia - Conga drum.


Cobra
Port Au Prince
Exotica
Little China Doll
Bali Hai
Narcissus Queen
Goony Birds
Sim Sim
Primitiva
March Of The Siamese Children
Sukara
Forbidden Island

Thursday, February 18, 2010

I Get A Kick Out Of Porter - Joe Bushkin

I Get A Kick Out Of You

I Get A Kick Out Of You
Joe Bushkin
Cover Photography: Gleb Derujinsky
Design: Bob Cato
Cole Porter Photography: Richard Avedon
Notes: Gilbert Millstien of The New York Times
Capitol ST 1030
1959

From the back cover: The jet plane pictured on the cover of this album, "I Get A Kick Out Of Cole Porter," is the Grumman Navy Cougar (F9F-8T), and the man standing on its cockpit, prepared, like the slender sky chaser, for imminent ascent – is Joe Bushkin, the pianist, composer and arranger. Minutes afterward, he was airborne tens of thousands of feet at a speed exceeding that of sound. There is nothing tangential in the selection of such a photograph for such an album. For Buskin, jet flight synthesizes the meaning of the music of Cole Porter, a selection of whose songs he was, at the time, getting ready to record. That meaning of Porter's remarkable, continuing contemporaneity; his immediacy, as urgent today as decades ago; his melodic and lyric insights, as acute and free of anachronism as they were before rocketry became a commonplace, psychoanalysis a parlor game and sophistication the property of the majority. What moved Bushkin is probably best expressed in a lyric of one of the songs he recorded, "Just One Of Those Things": "It was just one of those nights, /Just one of those fabulous flights... A trip to the moon on gossamer wings.../ Just one of those things."

From Billboard - March 23, 1959: Bushkin steps out in front of a sizable complement of brass and woodwinds to take the lively solos on this collection of Cole Porter evergreens. Some of the best are here, like "Night And Day," "I Get A Kick Out Of You," "Begin The Beguine," etc., and they are all essayed with a danceable beat. Stereo is good but in this case it's the repertoire that's the drawing card. Smart background set also could draw air spins.

I Get A Kick Out Of You
I've Got You Under My Skin
Night And Day
Begin The Beguine 
Get Out Of Town
In The Still Of The Night
So In Love
Love For Sale
Let's Do It
Where Have You Been
What Is This Thing Called Love?
Just One Of Those Things

Johnny Pineapples & His Orchestra


Maui Chant

Hawaiian Holiday With Johnny Pineapple & His Orchestra
Pickwick/33 PC-3018
1960

From the back cover: Johnny Pineapple is a true Hawaiian. He was born David Haonohi in Honolulu and he is in every way as Hawaiian as the name he has taken. The son of a judge, he received his early education at Kamehameha, the birth place of the steel guitar. Later he received his degree from Oregon State University. A student of music from his early youth, he began his climb to the heights of the music world as a vacationing  college freshman in San Francisco. From that time on, his future was cast in making popular the music of his native land. Over 15 years ago he signed with the Sherman Billingsley at the Stork Club and remained on the bill for two years before the demand for his music took him afield for other triumphs. It was our great pleasure to first see his act shortly after he starred at the opening of the exotic Polynesian Room of the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago, an engagement that covered 19 months before his adopted home in New York lured him back. To see and hear Johnny and his South Pacific revue one time is enough to make Pineapple fans of anyone, just as it did us.

Paradise Isle
Hilo March
My Hawaiian Kula La Ni
Na Ka Pueo
I Hear Hawaii Calling
Pretty Mermaid Of The Southern Sea
Maui Chant
Aloha Oe E Kuu Lei
My Tane

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind - The Now Sound Orchestra

Now Sound Orchestra


The Now Sound Orchestra Presents Music From
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Star Wars, 2001 A Space Odyssey
Peter Pan Records 8205
1977

From the back cover: The 1970's have produced three of the biggest, most popular Science Fiction pictures of all time – 2001: Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

And Peter Pan Records, through the brilliant sounds of the Now Sound Orchestra, has captured the thrills and excitement from these pictures in one album.

First there's 2001: A Space Odyssey, the story that puts today's man into tomorrow's spacecraft. Man has successfully manipulated his natural environment and conquered the unknown fears of inter- planetary travel. He prepares for what comes next, in the suspenseful year, 2001.

Then there's Star Wars, where Luke Skywalker, the 21-year old daredevil, challenges the storm troopers of a distant galaxy on a dangerous mission-only to find that the force of life becomes the power of death. Little did Luke know that trying to rescue the beautiful princess, who was held captive, would lead him to a desperate encounter on the enemy battle station known as Death Star. And speaking of Encounters, Close Encounters of the Third Kind could be the biggest, most exciting picture of all time! To all of humanity, Close Encounters meant the beginning of the most dramatic event in the history of the world –  discovery that WE ARE NOT ALONE.

Enjoy the music! Roger E. Flax, Ph.D.

Theme from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
Theme from Star Wars - Part One
Theme from Star Wars - Part Two
Theme from - 2001 A Space Odyssey

Cha Cha Fiesta - Fred Denise


Jivin' Cha Cha
Cha Cha Fiesta
Fred Denise Orchestra
Palace (Buckingham Records) PST-645

La Cucaracha
Condado Cha Cha
Swing Easy
Roseland
Jivin' Cha Cha
Metropole
A Fine Romance
Sweethearts
Wedding Night
Caribbean
Bowery
Fiesta
Cha Cha De Las Flores

The Enchanted Woods - Dennis Farnon

Snowfall
The Enchanted Woods
Dennis Farnon and His Orchestra
Cover Photo: R. M. Jones
RCA LPM-1897
1958

From the back cover: Using his baton like a sorcerer's wand, Farnon weaves these beautiful and distinctive sounds into a spell of many moods. Tenderness and poignancy are to be found in such selections as "You Are Too Beautiful and Right As The Rain, each featuring a stirring saxophone solo by Dennis' brother, Brain Farnon. Moonlike and If You Are But A Dream are deeply and romantically emotional, reflecting the classical origin of their melodies. From Snowfall comes the delicate fragility of a lacy snowflake, sparkling as it floats to earth. The imp of humor makes his appearance in the lighthearted renditions of Winter Wonderland and Cecelia, tickling the funny bone with his unexpected antics. Even careless abandon is represented by the swinging, jazz-inflected rendition of The Lady Is A Tramp.

2/12/11 comment from a collector/researcher: I've been researching a project by Chet Atkins recorded in 1958 -- "Chet Atkins in Hollywood." Dennis was the orchestra leader and arranger for that album. In doing my research (for a writing project), I located Dennis -- still composing and arranging, and living in the Netherlands, at age 87!! It has been amazing to talk to him about that era of music and recording. Besides being an orchestra leader and RCA artist at the time, he was also the west coast pop album A&R director for the label. The bulk of Dennis's composition work is not mainstream pop -- his most notable work was soundtracks for cartoons. He did all the soundtracks for the Mr Magoo film and tv series, and a lot of the incidental sound fx (orchestral sounds) for Rocky & Bullwinkle. He also scored for movies. He's an amazing guy.

Among My Souvenirs
Moonglow
Cecelia
Right As The Rain
Fools Rush In
The Lady Is A Tramp
You Are Too Beautiful
Snowfall
Winter Wonderland
If You Are But A Dream
I Hear A Rhapsody
Day By Day

Baldwin Organ And Bongos Bongos Bongos

Sid's Blues

Baldwin Organ And Bongos Bongos Bongos
Doctored For Super Sound
Musical Arrangements: Eddie Osborn
Production, Artist & Repertoire: Sidney Frey
Recording and Re-recording Engineer: Ernest Oelrich
Editing: William Hamilton
Mastering: Clair Krepps
Cover Art: Irving Sloane
Liner Notes: Eddie Osborn and Richard Strunsky
Audio Fidelity DFM 3004
1960

Eddie Osborn - Baldwin Organ
Bob Rosengarden - Bongos, Drums
George Devens - Percussion
Frank Carroll - Bass

From the inside cover: Eddie Osborn pursues two separate careers with equal success. As an organist, he is much in demand for his happy-go-fun-loving music. No one can listen to the rollicking rhythm and happy lilt of his tunes without getting caught up in his musical magic. He is also a business executive.

From the time he was four years old and pecked out "Oh, Katherina" on an upright piano, keyboards have fascinated him. His parents wanted him to be a violinist. They enrolled him in a violin class and later sent him to composer-arranger, Victor Young for private lessons. Once, in a school band concert, they got a mild shock when they found him beating out wild rhythms on the drums instead of playing the staid violin part they expected to hear.

The lure of the keyboard led him to study piano and organ even while giving most of his time to violin practice and recitals. One of his big moments came when he was ten years old and was given permission to try the pipe organ at the Uptown Conservatory in Chicago. He still remembers his disappointment when he discovered he couldn't reach the pedals! From that time on, his head was filled with organ. Any day he might be found rapping on church doors, asking if he could practice on the organ. He saved scrupulously to practice at Kimball Hall, even repaired organs for the opportunity to play them. By the time he was 17, he was playing the organ in churches and had organized his own small orchestra.

Eddie's inimitable style made him a popular figure on the campus of Michigan State University where he was better known as an organist than a business administration major. While in college, he was featured on the Pontiac "Varsity Show" over the old NBC-Blue Network, with a nationwide hookup. He was selected later by 32 radio editors as one of the outstanding acts of the Pontiac radio series, returned to play for the special "Varsity Show" broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1938.

From college, Eddie went into the Navy as an aviation cadet. He received his wings at Pensacola in 1941, where he also regularly played a specially purchased organ for station personnel.

After a stint as aviation instructor at Glenview Air Station,  he was selected to join the celebrated "Fighting 8" in the Pacific. Some of his most memorable moments at the organ were spent aboard aircraft carriers – moments interspaced with the deadly business of flying his quota of combat missions. In quieter moments between battles, the sound of Eddie's rhythmic music filled the carriers from stern to stern over the inter-communication systems. The morale value of his "music with a life" was so salutary that when Eddie was transferred from the USS Intrepid, upon being dry-docked, the organ donated to that ship was transferred to the USS Bunker Hill.

After his release to Naval Reserve status as a Lieutenant Commander, Eddie was featured on the Chicago Theater stage as the "Flying, Fighting Minstrel". He also appeared professionally in Chicago clubs, at special events and on television programs. For several years he was a familiar figure to many thousands of persons in Chicago's huge Union Station, where he played the organ during Christmas Week.

Eddie traveled extensively in his capacity as Manager of the Home Organ Division of the Organ Department of the Baldwin Piano Company.

El Cumbachero
Barbara Polka
Buttons & Bows
South Of The Border
Frenesi
Saints
Washington Post
Tennessee Waltz
Perfidia
Muskrat Ramble
Sid's Blues
Ma, He's Making Eyes At Me

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Electrodynamics - Dick Hyman

Until We Meet Again
Electrodynamics
Dick Hyman at the Lowrey Organ and His Orchestra
Arrangements by Dick Hyman
Originated and Produced by Enoch Light
Associate Producer: Julie Klages
Recording Chief: Robert Fine
Mastering: George Piros (stereo) & John Johnson (monaural)
Cover Design: Charles E. Murphy
Command Records STEREO RS 856SD
1963

From the inside cover: The group with which he (Hyman) plays this program of what he describes as "swinging pop" material is made up of Tony Mottola or Al Casement, guitar; Bob Haggart, bass; Osie Johnson, drums and the percussion team of Bob Rosengarden and Phil Kraus who work on marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, bongos, conga, bass drum, bells, Brazilian cowbell and tuned cowbell.

Stompin' At The Savoy
The Sweetest Sounds (from "No Strings")
I Left My Heart In San Francisco
Fly Me To The Moon
Paradise
Side By Side
Mack The Knife (from "Three Penny Opera")
Satin Doll
Shadowland
Big Ben Bossa
This Is All I Ask
Till We Meet Again

Temptation - Morton Gould

Temptation

Temptation
Morton Gould
Arranged by Morton Gould
Photo: Murray Laden
Cover: Furs Courtesy Max Vogen and Co.
RCA Victor LM-2128
1957

From the back cover: "When you treat this kind of repertoire instrumentally – the classic pop repertoire – you have to do something." Mr. Gould has asserted. "You can't just keep on playing the melody. As a rule, I start out by stating the original character of the tune. Then I go someplace. Where I go depends on the nature of the tune because I try to take the ornaments and developments out of the tune itself. I use what I think are natural outgrowths – decorations, changes in tempo, color."

Temptation
Besame Mucho
I Get A Kick Out Of You
Speak Low
Body And Soul
What Is This Thing Called Love
I've Got You Under My Skin
That Old Black Magic
The Very Thought Of You
Poinciana
You And The Night And The Music
Night And Day

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Lenny Dee - Dee Most!

China Boy

Lenny Dee
Dee - Most!
Hi-Fi Organ Solos With A Beat!
Decca Records DL 8308
1956

From the back cover: Although Lenny Dee is an expert at the organ, he did not begin as an organist. At seven he played the banjo; a little later he performed on the piano-accordion. It was not until he got out of the Navy that he enrolled at the Conservatory of Chicago. There, on a G.I. Bill, he took his first lessons at the organ. Suddenly he knew that he found his true instrument. He began to appear professionally and soon was booked at some of the most prominent hotels in the South. His reputation spread rapidly. He was heard on the weekly network; he played an engagement at Nashville's Plantation Club; he signed a contract with Decca Records which gave him national publicity.

Jumpin' On The Organ
Avalon
Somebody Stole My Gal
Hot Food Boogie
Josephine
'Way Down Yonder In New Orleans
Oh, You Beautiful Doll
Indian Love Call
Ain't She Sweet
Yodelin' Organ
Let Me Call You Sweetheart (I'm In Love With You)
China Boy (Go Sleep)

Call It Love - The Gunter Kallmann Chorus

Somethin' Stupid
Call It Love
The Gunter Kallmann Chorus
4 Corners Of The World
Producer & Musical Director: Hans Bertram
Associate Producer: Betty Reinman
Arrangements by W. Twardy
Kapp Record
A Polydor Recording
FCA-4242
1967
This Is My Song
Somethin' Stupid
Portrait Of My Love
Release Me
Now I Know
Love Me Forever
Paint Yourself A Rainbow
My Cup Runneth Over
Alfie
They Told Me
Edelweiss
Two For The Road

Sounds In Space - Stereophonic Sound Demonstration Record

Sounds In Space

Sounds In Space
Narrator: Ken Nordine
Produced in cooperation with Robert Oakes Jordan Associates, Inc.
Musica Excerpts from the RCA Victor Stereophonic Library
RCA Victor SP-33-13
1958

The Rite Of Spring (Le Sacre Du Printemps - Stravinsky) - Pierre Monteux conducting the Paris Conservatorie Orchestra. LSC-2085
A Study In Moe's Art - Skitch Henderson and His Orchestra; from "On The Bandstand". LSP-1579
Lieutenant Kije, Op. 60 (Prokofieff) - Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, Conductor. LSC-2150
Rag Mop - Ralph Flanagan and His Orchestra. LSP-1555
Diane - The Melachrino Orchestra; from "Music For Dinning." LSP-1000
Day In – Day Out - Lena Horne, with Nat Brandwynne's Orchestra conducted by Lennie Hayton; from "Lena Horne at The Waldorf Astoria." LSO-1028
Lullaby Of Birdland - The New Glenn Miller Orchestra in Hi-Fi directed by Ray Mckinley. LSP-1522
Little Old Lady - Juice Andrews. LSP-1681
Bless This House - Jerome Hines, with Concert Orchestra conducted by Paul Mickelson; from "The Holy City." LSP-1637
Anchors Aweigh - The Band of The Coldstream Guards. LSP-1480

Stravinsky - The Rites Of Spring - Pierre Monteux conducting the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra. LSC-2085
Franck - Symphony In D Minor: Second Movement - Boston Symphony, Charles Munch, Conductor. LSC-2131
Beethoven - Symphony No. 7 in A: First Movement - Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, Conductor. LSC-1991
Tchaikovsky - Marche Slave - Boston Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, Conductor. LSC-2100