Voices In Motion

Ebb Tide

Voices In Motion
Conducted By Simon Rady
Columbia CS 8465
1961

Recorded May 3rd, May 11th, May 14 and May 17th, 1961, in Columbia Record's new Hollywood, California studios. Recording set-up included the use of four condenser microphones. Custom recording console designed and built by Columbia Records Engineering and Development Department.

From the back cover: Before the recent invention and development of modern stereophonic recording equipment, the concept of Voices In Motion would have been impossible to produce on records. Voices In Motion, as developed for this Columbia album, utilizes the human voice in much the same way as Percy Faith uses string instruments. Four choirs comprising twenty-six voices and covering four octaves of voice production blend and move in, out, toward and aways from each other and swirl serenely through the mind of the listener creating the illusion of vast space and soothing movement. Sopranos are treated as violins, altos as violas, tenors as cellos and bassos as contrabasses with one important difference. In the conventional orchestral setup, the individual instruments remain stationary, blending into sections. In Voices In Motion, everything moves. A soprano will be heard moving into and out of juxtaposition with a tenor voice and then bassos and altos and more sopranos, then all will be swept together into a sound of tranquil glory, never out of balance.

The Lamp Is Low
Bali Ha'i
Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing
September Song
Ebb Tide
When I Grow Too Old To Dream
Remember
Charmaine
Tenderly
Solitude
Autumn Leaves
Dream

Fantabulous - Bill Thomson At The Organ

The Continental

Fantabulous
Bill Thomson At The Organ
Verve MGV-2080
1957

Milt Holland is credited for percussion on this album.

Electronics

Electronics
Remi Gassman's Music To The Ballet As Produced By The New York City Ballet Company
Under The Direction Of George Balanchine
Electronic Works Created By The Oskar Sala Sound Studios
Westminster WST 14143

1962

Side two: Oskar Sala's Five Improvisations On Magnetic Tape. The brief sample is the first movement from this side.

Side one and two aren't too far apart in tone. The vinyl is good stuff if you are looking for that early, moody science fiction-like vibe.

The Don Elliott Quintet

Everything I Love

The Don Elliott Quintet
RCA Victor LJM-1007
1955

Here's some groovy cover art for a mid-50s album. The music is small combo jazz that reflects the vibe of the cover graphic. Good stuff, but the standout track for me is the inventive Everything I Love.

Elliott is credited with playing the Mellophone, Trumpet, Vibraphone and Bongos. He also does a fine job singing on the one vocal track, I Just Don't Care Anymore.

Angela
Five O'Clock Whistle
Everything I Love
Long Ago And Far Away
Imagination
There Will Never Be Another You
Sugar Stands Pat
I Just Don't Care Anymore
Nettie But Nice
Laura
Bingo, Bango, Bongo
Don's Dilema

Trombone - Bill Pearce

No One Ever Cared For Me Like Jesus

Trombone
Bill Pearce
With The Dick Anthony Orchestra
Word Records W-3060-LP

When does a gospel album sound like an easy listening album? When Bill Pearce and Dick Anthony get ahold of the material.

Those Fantabulous Strings Plays The Supremes Hits

Baby Love (M-554)

Baby Love (MS-554)

Those Fantabulous Strings Plays The Supremes Hits

Produced by Sonny Lester

A&R Coordinator: Irv Stimler

Director of Engineering: Val Valentin

Metro Records M-554 & MS-554
1965

Baby Love
Where Did Our Love Go?
Come See About Me
Stop! In The Name Of Love
I'm In Love Again
Standing At The Crossroads
Whisper You Love Me Boy
When The Love Light Starts Shining Through His Eyes
Nothing But Heartaches
Back In My Arms Again

On The Rocks - Joe Mooney

Joe Mooney
On The Rocks
The Joe Mooney Quartet
Decca Records DL 8468

This one is available online for purchase/download so I will not be posting a sample. But I thought that the cover was pretty hot, so here you have it.

I'm not a big fan of the accordion but this album really worked for me. The recording is a bluesy,  swinging jive blend that is really a showcase for Mooney smokey vocal treatments.

Other members of Mooney's group include Gaetan "Gate" Frega - bass, Andy Fitzgerald - clarinet and Jack Hotop - Guitar.

Here's some info from the back cover that isn't to be found on Mooney's wiki page: Joe Mooney broke into music and radio simultaneously by working after school on a radio station in his native Paterson, New Jersey. Crossing the river to New York, Joe progressed to programs on CBS, NBC and other stations until he migrated to Cincinnati, where he worked on station WLW.

He left radio in 1936 and turned to the business of arranging. After writing for such bands as Buddy Rodgers, Paul Whiteman and Les Brown, he organized his first quartet.

Puff The Magic Dragon

Mr. Shortsleeves Supermarket

Puff The Magic Dragon
Wonderland WLP 149
1980

Here's a pretty decent kids record. Credit goes to The Sandpiper Singers and Mitch Miller, Jim Timmens and Jimmy Carroll for conducting the orchestra. The tracks were probably pulled together from a variety of sources.

Mr. Shortsleeves Supermarket is a curious tune based on the emergence of box stores in the U.S.

Dynamic Dinosaurs

Tyrannosaurus

Ankylosaurus

Diplodocus

Dynamic Dinosaurs
Melody House MH-53

This is an amazing and crazy kid's record that features lounge-styled songs about our long extinct friends, the dinosaurs.

The Pleasures Of Love

The Pleasures Of Love
Life Workshop
Ulysses Music Group Corp.
1974

This has to be the best "sex instruction" record I've found to date. The package is an elaborate, expensive to produce 2 record book-fold which was stuffed with a booklet that features a collection of soft and somewhat dark-looking R-rated porn images that included a photo of the guy inspecting the woman, up close... with a flashlight. I kid you not... The image is a little too racy for posting on this blog.

These recordings have their moments but I about had an orgasm myself when I realized that the record included an actual song, "The Pleasures Of Love". A tune that sounds as if it was created for a 70s spy movie soundtrack.

The spoken passages are fun because they are, as you can tell from the sample, written for 70s soft-core female sensibilities.

Chattanooga Choo Choo - The Lackawanna And Erie Express Band

By The Time I Get To Phoenix

Chattanooga Choo Choo
The Lackawanna And Erie Express Band
Arranged and Conducted by Bob Armstrong
RCA Camden CAS-2227
1968

The art department could have used a little help creating a more exciting cover. I almost left this one in the discount bin...

This is not a train sound effects record, a country album or even a swing album. The vibe is blend of big band, easy listening, jazz/lounge and light pop (very "60s").

It's hard to choose any one track for sample... but I enjoyed the lounge cover of By The Time I Get To Phoenix.

Chattanooga Choo Choo
Detroit City
On The Atchison, Topeka And The Santa Fe
I Say A Little Prayer
Down By The Riverside
You Came A Long Way From St. Louis
By The Time I Get To Phoenix
The North Tonawanda Chowder And Marching Society
Okolona River Bottom Band
Lappland

Exotic Moog - Martin Denny

Enchanted Sea

Exotic Moog
Martin Denny
Liberty Records LST-7621
1969

I finally picked up a copy of this harder to find Denny LP. I expected this set to be an extension of his later "jazz/lounge" approach. The track Was It Really Love is somewhat more like what I expected (his later sound). All the tracks, to my ear, work together although the album doesn't conform to any one "mood". There are funky, spacey and even "light-pop" moments to be enjoyed on the LP.

Quite Village
I Talk To The Trees
Yellow Bird
The Enchanted Sea
Delilah
Let Go
Midnight Cowboy
Cast Your Fate To The Wind
Let It Be Me
A Taste Of Honey
Was It Really Love
Love Me Tonight

Provocative Percussion Vol. III - Enoch Light And The Light Brigade

Far Away Places

Provocative Percussion Vol. III
Enoch Light And The Light Brigade
Command Records
D 293008
1961

This is the third release in the Command Provocative Percussion series and a record that is full of that early 60s "light-pop" sound that Light pioneered. Light blended big band with his invention of "ping-pong percussion" and added a sense of humor that branded his version of "light-pop".

Pagan Love Song is a somewhat "retro-exotica" sound for the album as is another track titled Far Away Places.

Light Brigade members include Doc Severinsen, Urbie Green, Phil Kraus and Tony Mottola

Curiously, on the front and back cover of my copy a sticker was applied to cover the printed catalog number. The record label is marked GEMA BIEM.

Easy To Love
April In Portugal
The Continental
Pagan Love Song
Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive
El Relicario
Far Away Places
Let's Do It
Theme For Exodus
Adios Muchachos
Provocative Percussion
Old Devil Moon

Steel Band Bamboushay

Jocko's Jump-Up

Steel Band Bamboushay
From The Virgin Islands, USA
Featuring The Steel Bandits
Arranged & Conducted By Bill La Motta
Westindy Music Co. ML-1003

From the back cover: The Steel Bandits performing on this album appear nightly at The Gate, popular "ross-a-time" rendezvous in downtown St. Thomas. They are considered one of the best steel bands in the Virgin Islands. Each man has been playing the pans "from when 'e been a 'lil bouay" as their leader Lionel Samuel will tell you.