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Friday, July 27, 2012

The Groovy Organ Goes Romantic - Maurice Montez

That Old Black Magic
The Groovy Organ Goes Romantic
Featuring Maurice Montez
Design Records
SLP-265

The word "romantic" in the album title doesn't necessarily mean "boring". This is great small combo organ based lounge jazz record. And the album cover features a very groovy looking organ that is credited as a Panther Jazz Organ Courtesy Of Merson/Unicard.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

The Age Of Electronicus - Dick Hyman

Give It Up Or Turn It Loose

The Age Of Electronicus
Synthesized On The Moog By Dick Hyman
Arranged and Produced by Dick Hyman
Programming by Walter Sear
Mixing: Fred Christie/Fine Recording
Mastering: Lee Hulco/Sterling Sound
Cover/Liner Design: Byron Goto/Henry Epstein
Photos: Roger Pola/Eric Goto
Command ABC - 946-S
1969

From the inside (gatefold) jacket: Working With The Moog Synthesizer by Dick Hyman

It is a lot of work; it is painstaking, repetitive, and even frustrating work. And yet the results, when they come off, are a kind of music, very much worth all that effort. I began working with the Moog Synthesizer when Joe Carlton, the head of Command Records assigned me to produce the album prior to this one. "Electric Eclectics". Walter Sear, the expert programmer with whom I work, initiated me into the electronic intricacies of Synthesizer sound, and gradually I learned some of the things that the Synthesizer can do.

The Moog Synthesizer is a new instrument and, like many new things, it is somewhat misunderstood. I think of it as a super-organ which offers the player vast new possibilities in town production, and which at the same time requires him to organized his thoughts in a serial way, as opposed to creating an entire performance at one sitting. In other words, it is not all done at once. Successive lines of tones are recorded in conjunction with a multi-track recorder. The Synthesizer is not analogous to the player piano, nor will it make up its own arrangements. It is very much a played device, and the programming which is involved relates to the production of individual tones (their timber, duration, attack, decay, etc.) It is the arranger-composer, not the Synthesizer, who groups these tones into the desired musical organization exactly as he would do if her were playing a conventional instrument or writing a score.

Another common misunderstanding about the Synthesizer is the notion that it is a perfect substitute for all instruments and types of orchestras which have preceded it in musical history. The Synthesizer is not about to replace any of these instruments or orchestras. It is not nearly as efficient, although it can do some pretty imitations. An orchestra sounds more like an orchestra than a Synthesizer can, and a lot more quickly and economically too. But when the Synthesizer is used to create its own thing, the new aural events are remarkable for both the payer-arranger and the listener. The new sounds (unlike this which any orchestra instrument can produce) the unexpected alterations of the old sounds, the convenience of being able to play them on a keyboard and have them recorded directly on a multi-track recorder – these are the factors which encouraged an imaginative and programmatic approach to the arrangements in the present album.

From Billboard - August 23, 1969: His initial electronic project "Moog" proved a sales and chart giant. This follow-up package has all of that sales appeal and more. Highlights include the current single "Aquarius," plus a fascinating revival of Booker T's "Green Onions," and an intriguing "Alfie." Brilliant performances and compelling sounds.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Give It Up Or Turn It Loose
Blackbird
Aquarius
Green Onions
Kolumbo
Time Is Tight
Alfie
Both Sides Now

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

American Gold - Henry Jerome

Light My Fire
American Gold
24 Million Sellers In A Two Record Set
Henry Jerome
United Artists UXS 71

Uptight
You've Made Me So Very Happy
Goin' Out Of My Head
Respect
Monday, Monday
Aquarius
The Shadow Of Your Smile
Son-Of-A Preacher Man
Mrs. Robinson
Little Green Apples
Reach Out I'll Be There
What The World Need Now Is Love
Oh, Pretty Woman
Spinning Wheel
For Once In My Life
Scarborough Fair
Moon River
Sunny
Baby Love
By The Time I Get To Phoenix
Light My Fire
Spanish Harlem
Fly Me To The Moon
On The Dock Of The Bay

Holiday In Spain - Lew Raymond Orchestra

Danza
Amapola
Holiday In Spain
Lew Raymond Orchestra
Vocals By Diane Castillo and Nestor Amaral
Tops L1586
1957

From the back cover: On the podium is the gifted conductor-composer, Lew Raymond, who has written especially for this album the composition, Danza. Mr. Raymond is more than ordinarily qualified to organize and conduct an album of Spanish music. Before the war he led the orchestra at the celebrated Benito Collado's El Chico restaurant in New York's Greenwich Village, accompanying such renowned performers as dancers Argentenita and Vicente Escudero; flamenco guitarists Vicente Gomze and Carlos Montoya; and numerous singers in the Spanish tradition.

I bought the album for the bad habits cover, the image of the blue-eyed model smoking. The music is somewhat traditional with period pop touches. The vocal pieces by Diane Castillo are nicely presented.

The sample "Danaz" is from the TOPS mono issue above, and the sample Amapola is from the Mayfair (colored vinyl) issue in stereo (true stereo separation rather than a reprocessed mono application).

El Relicario
Malaguena
Amapola
Inspiration
Granda
La Corrida
Espana Cani
Marta
La Virgen De La Macarena
Danza
Ay, Ay, Ay
Gitanerias

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Cocktails & Belly Dancing

Baalbakiyeh
Cocktails & Belly Dancing
Sahda Pretty Dancing Girl
Naif Agby
Audio Fidelity AFSD 6122

This album was a handout to the folks who attended the 1980 National Tour Brokers Association Convention held in the Key West Room at the Hyatt Convention Center near Bush Gardens.

Belly dancing will be by the Troupe Sahara Belly Dancers from The Dark Continent.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Provocative Electronics

Fanfare & Raga for Bassoon & Tape

Provocative Electronics
Electronic Constructions On Traditional Forms
By Professor Emerson Meyers & Associates
Electronic Music Laboratory
The Catholic University Of America
Art Direction: Peter Wharf
Photography: Fred Moore
Design: Christopher Wharf / See Hear! & How!
Westmenster Gold WGS8129
1970

From the back cover: Rhythmus is receiving its premiere on this disc. Composed in April, 1970, it is a study of perpetual moving rhythmic complexities in toccata form. Its construction is completely electronic; even the occasionally punctuating "bells" are synthesized. None of the other timbres are meant to remind one of orchestral instruments through it would be quite compatible to imagine certain section being performed on them.

Excitement dates from 1968 and is a wry comment upon the futility of becoming excited unless one know what the outcome will be.

In Memoriam for soprano and tape, was composed in 1965 for Katharine Hansel to sing at a concert given in connection with the annual meeting of the American Society for Aesthetics held in January 1966, in Washington, D.C. The soprano sings a poem by Wilfred Owen while (seemingly0, many voices recite the same text. The recitation, as it happens, was recorded entirely by Mrs. Hansel then multiplied, dubbed and treated in an electronic music studio.

Chez Dentiste was composed in Brussels on a portable Moog synthesizer especially constructed for Emerson Meyers to use during his 1967-68 sabbatical year. The piece is written as the narrative of a man who, having a most painful toothache, decides to go to the dentist. Naturally, the closer he gets to that office, the less the tooth aches. In the waiting room he is entered by the nurse and then must listen to the sounds coming from the inner room while awaiting his turn. Only a brief conversation with the dentist precedes the low and high-speed drilling. The ordeal over things end happily with a peaceful – and relieved quiet major chord.

Moonlight Sound Pictures (Excerpts) was composed at the request of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., to provide a background of sound to an exhibition of works produced for the National Aeronautics and Space Agency entitled the Artist In Space. Originally scheduled to be heard only on the opening day of the exhibition, December 6, 1969, the sounds were so successful that arrangements were made to play them throughout the exhibition period with ended January 4, 1970. It is estimated that Moonlight Sound Pictures was played 4176 times during that period. Since then, the Voice of America has broadcast segments of it during 36 different language programs.

Moonlight Sound Pictures begins with electronic simulation of the sounds of a rocket on tis pad, engine ignition, lift-off and fading into space. A peaceful view of earth and the beauty and wonder of the firmament are expressed in sound as are also portrayed the small particles seen through the windows of the command module but one always is aware, in the background, of the string binding the astronauts to earth – communications. This piece is constructed upon a fragment of the requiem mass "Dies Irae." Originally thirty minutes in length, Moonlight Sound Pictures is here present in a capsulized version which preserves its highlights.

Fantasia for Organ and Tape was composed by Haig Mardirosian in 1969. The performance on this disc was recorded at the First Union Methodist Church of Hyattsville, Md. on an M.P. Mooler organ of 68 ranks with the composer at the console. Written as a project in electronic composition at The Catholic University, Haig Mardirosian's Fantasia for Organ and Tape represents an effort to unite both media into a cohesive sonic hole while retaining the unique identities of the electronically generated and organ sounds. Although the overall desired effect was one of a virtuoso piece with massive sound and much motion, the compositional process yielded a fundamental three-part form based upon a handful of motivic units. These units were composed electronically at the outset. From them both tape and organ portions were simultaneously written employing techniques of motivic transformation and elaboration. These units were organized according to timbre, density and energy and used where required., in whatever combinations, to create tension and repose. The primary units are accompanied by broader spectrum of sound, in the tape, "fields" of color or bands of pitches; in the organ, clusters of precisely notated pitches. All notation in the organ score is exact. All registration is exactly specified. The organist is allowed freedom only in the interpretation of the spatial rhythmic motion of the freer section of the Fantasia.

The use of the organ is somewhat unorthodox. Ad the key action has always been considered the "playing mechanism", here the stop action and mechanical registration aids are also considered a way of "playing" the instrument.  Certain timbral effects unique to the organ are exploited: The Messiaen-like polarity of manual 16' pitches against the stations; the subtle color possibilities of sustaining a note and adding or retiring stops; the versatility of the pedal division in providing high as well as low pitches. 

Intervals I received its title from a series of paintings by Claire Ferriter and was constructed to accompany an exhibition of those paintings in June, 1969 in Washington, D.C. Intervals I represents the quieter paintings while Intervals II (not included on this disc) represent the more active ones. Both musical representations explore the vertical and linear relationships of 6 sets of pitched intervals and in various transpositions. The intermodulation electronically (which some might call distortion) of these intervals is purposefully employed. This piece was the classical "alpha and omega" idea of form.

It is subtitled "Hommage á Debussy."

Fanfare and Raga for Bassoon and Tape was composed by Frank Heintz in January, 1970, as a project in tape music composition without using laboratory facilities. Mr. Heintz, deeply interested in ethnomusicology and an expert bassoonist, decided to combine those interests to produce this piece using microphones, tape recorders and the bassoon. All sounds in this piece originated from that instrument. To achieve some of the sounds, a small microphone was lowered inside the bassoon.

The Electronics Music Laboratory of The Catholic University of America had its beginnings in 1961 when Professor H. Emerson Meyers assisted by one of his graduate piano students, Richard Lockhart, used recording equipment of the then Department of Music to experiment with mystique concréte. From these small beginnings and following Meyers' visits to the major electronic music centers on this continent and in Europe, the laboratory has grown to be one of the finest on the East Coast. It revived its first Moog Synthesizer units in 1964 and now has over 40 of them – with more to be added soon.

Teaching in the field of music produced by electronics began in 1964 and now three courses are offered to students including an introductory course open to all students. Facilities of the laboratory are available to established composers and the laboratory has collaborated with television, film and radio producers.

Rhythmus
Excitement
In Memoriam For Soprano and Tape
Chez Dentiste
Moonlight Sound Pictures
Fantasia Of Organ
Intervals
Fanfare and Raga for Bassoon and Tape

A Night At The Boulevard

Just Enough - Teddy Bart
A Night At The Boulevard
Joe Leahy And His Orchestra
Felsted FL7503

From the back cover: The popularity of night clubs in the early twenties reached their zenith in a decade and then proceeded to decline. The score or so of top night clubs throughout the country that have survived are the clubs with the magic – the best in entertainment and the best food. Such a rendezvous is the Boulevard in Rego Park, Queens, just a hop, skip, and a jump from Manhattan.

Teddy Bart is a personable young man from Johnstown, Pa., of whom it is said almost started another flood with the tears from his fans who wept at his leaving Pennsylvania for the big time.


Fun to collect for the cover and local history. The tracks were probably existing material (not recorded live). The songs were processed through reverb and drowned in "crowd noise" to make it seem as though they had been recorded live.

Fabulous Female Singers From Back In The Day

While I was listening to the terrific June Christy album (cover posted below) I thought that it would be fun create a page that features cover examples featuring a few of my top female vocalists from the period of music that I blog here. I realize everyone has their favorites, these are mine. There is something special about the style of these artists that appeals to me over the many others I've listened to. From the smoky hot Julie London to the other worldly Yma Sumac you can't go wrong with these women. The covers featured below are examples I had handy. The artists made many other terrific records that you can search out and enjoy.

June Christy
The Cool School
Capitol Records T1398
1960

Julie London
Julie Is Her Name - Volume Two
Liberty
LRP 3100
1958

Yma Sumac
Mambo!
Capitol Records
L564
1954

Nancy Ames
Spice With Brasil
Epic
LN24238
1967

Like Yesterday
Beverly Kenney
Decca
DL8948
1960