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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Sizzling Strings - Castanets - Percussion - Don Luis Quintero and the Madrid Festival Orchestra

Solea Canastrea - Soleares
Sizzling Strings - Castanets - Percussion
Don Luis Quintero and the Madrid Festival Orchestra
Plus the Mario Valero Dancers and guitarist Jose Alvarez
Directional Sound DS-5007
Premier Album
1961

Apparently Premier (a budget label) decided to compete with the success of Command Records in this early 60s "percussion" release. The jacket was also styled after Commands' book-fold design.

There is no "percussion" or "ping-pong" on this album. The track titles include great tunes like Granada, Espana and Ravel's Bolero... but they do not deliver the goods as advertised.

And apparently there were not enough "Luis" tracks to fill out the disc so DS threw in a Flamenco dance number and one guitar track they had on the shelf. Those tracks are dramatically different in tone from the rest of the music. However, in my opinion, the Alvarez track is the high point so I'll post that gem as the sample.

From Billboard: March 20, 1961: A "pops" styled approach to music in the Spanish idiom, such as truncated versions of Rimsky-Korsakoff's "Capriccio Espagnol," " Bolero," as well as Chabrier's "Espana Rhapsody" and the Jotas from Larreglas' "Viva Navarra!" Mixed in are a couple of tracks of gypsy-style dancing supported by guitar, clapping, stamping, and castanets. Can serve as an introduction to this type of music.

Granada
Espana
Fiesta Trianera
La Paloma
Viva Navarra
Capriccio Espanol
Ravel's Bolero
Seranata Espanola
Solea Canastera―Soleares
Estudiantina

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