Howdy Folks! Check out my Atomic Age Vinyl Finds! If there are copyright issues or a problem with any post, just contact me and I will make corrections. I'm here to have fun and hope you will share in my process of discovery!
Great Swinging Sounds
The Gramercy Six
Edison International SDP 502
1959
From the back cover: Al Hendrickson on guitar, Nick Fatool on drums and the bass of Jud DeNaut comprise the original (Artie) Shaw group. Add the tremendous talents of Ray Sherman on harpsichord, Shorty Sherock on trumpet and a gentleman of music you may not know yet, but one who'll be 'large' with you after this introduction – Eddie Rosa on clarinet – and the result is GREAT SWINGIN' SOUNDS!
What stood out to me on this album was the early use of the harpsichord to give the sound a light pop vibe. I have to wonder where the 60s "harpsichord trend" originated from?
Special Delivery Stomp
Cross Your Heart
Mullholland Drive
Keepin' Myself For You
Frensi
Steppin' Out
Summit Ridge Drive
My Blue Heaven
Pyramid
Board Meeting
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Launching Pad
Kasongo!
Modern Music Of The Belgian Congo
Capitol T10005
1956
From the back cover: POPULAR MUSIC of the Belgian Congo no longer is restricted to the monotony of thumping conga drums. The contemporary trend is to more and more "civilized" instruments, including the string bass, guitars, the violin-and these recent innovations are now combined with ages- old, traditional and simple instruments such as the likembe to give the modern "sound" an odd combination of old and new.
From the Capital, Leopoldville, in the west, to the lively city of Kasongo to the east, the Belgian Congo is home for 13 million persons – and they all adore music. Even in the most remote rural areas the visitor finds phonographs; old hand-wound, non-electric models of French and British manufacture. The records they play are, obviously, 78 r.p.m. shellacs of various vintages dat- ing back to early Cab Calloway, Maurice Chevalier and – go see for yourself – Guy and Carmen Lombardo. There are, most certainly, more recent discings to be found in the natives" collections. One of the most popular entries of the 1950-56 period was the Italian-made "Anna,' a brisk baion which the Kasongoans called "Number Three" when ordering it in Lingala, their native tongue.
The big holidays in the Congo are the King's birthday, the annual July 1 fete commemorating the declaration of the Congo as a colony of Belgium (and governed by a Governor General who reports directly to the King); June 21, Belgium's Independence Day, and all Catholic holidays. On festive occasions like these an artist like Boniface Koufoudila is top man on the pole. As one of the Belgian Congo's most famed musicians and bandleaders, he is in great demand. His talents are heard, along with other favorites of the broad Kasongo to Leopoldville area, in this collection of contemporary representative popular music of the Congo.
Easily discernible in this album is the likembe, a truly native instrument found only in Africa, and made of a flat wooden sound-box on which are attached thin bamboo or metal keys. The player holds the instrument in both hands, palming the keys with his thumbs. Among the Bantu tribes the likembe is referred to as a mbira or kalimba. In French it is known as a sansa. It is made in various sizes, and with as few as eight keys to as many as 36. It is difficult to play "in tune""
The native language, Lingala, is the principal tongue of the Central River Congo and is common along the Belgian and French banks of the river for several hun- dred miles into the interior. The vocal "style" heard on most of the album selections here, in Lingala-ese, is in parallel thirds and is, the experts say, also found commonly in French Guinea and the northern part of Madagascar. The singing gourd heard here is not unlike the kazoo – or a comb wrapped in tissue paper-except that it is made in various parts of Africa with a small hole cut in the end. The larger the gourd, the deeper the tone.
The embonga and the sebene are rhythm patterns, extremely popular in this twentieth century with the dance- loving natives in and near Kasongo. But similarly popular are the biguine (beguine) and the rumba. The waltz, however, apparently is yet to find favor.
So much for the music... The listener will learn to discover new sounds with every playing, new and fresh rhythm patterns, charming and subtle vocal nuances never discernible in European and North American music of the hour. One may also envision the gigantic Watusi tribal members of the Congo, or lovely Lake Kivu, or the Ruwenzori mountains, or the pygmies of the Ituri Forest or – and this is reaching – the mighty, hidden forces deep inside still – active Nyamalagira Volcano. For these are the places, people, and the music which may make the Belgian Congo of the 1950s one of the world's great tourist attractions of the 1980s. Kasongo!
Ntango N'Akomi Likolo (Embonga)
Bino Botuna Bosele (Sebene)
Marie (Biguine)
Tika Koseka (Rumba)
Keba Mama, Keba! (Enbonga)
Eyebo (Rumba)
Etoiles Des Neiges (Rumba)
Helene (Rhumba)
Kobota Malamu (Rumba)
Tembele Tembele (Sebene)
Maboka Marie (Rumba)
Moni Moni Non Dey (Sebene)
From the back cover: Maybe it takes a fancy cook and a prize-winning architect to concoct something as creative as this. Maybe that is the least likely combination that you would look for in a musician who is both imaginative and terrifically alive, but Al Nevins is that kind of a person. He has about him an irrepressible touch of Lewis Carroll, Peter Pan, Oscar of the Waldorf, and Frank Lloyd Wright. What is most important at this moment is that he has built an album of music that is colorful, spirited, delicious and unique.
The colorful versatility of Nevins' talent is reflected in his music, and it sounds fine. Once upon a time, to begin the story with a truly historic phrase, Nevins studied architecture. He did it so well that he won prizes. Today that reservoir of talent is expressed generally in interior decorating for his friends and what's more – when they ask him what to do about dressing up the living room, they are probably devouring a meal that he has cooked on his own stove in his own fabulous place in his own palatable way. The guy is a whiz with Lobster Bisque.
But more than that he is a whiz with music. These are no idle words tossed blithely to the four winds. They are backed by something as snow- capped as Mount Washington. That something is this album. Escapade in Sound is all that its name implies, and a great deal more too. It will tickle your tweeter and wow your woofer, for the fi is as hi as an elephant's eye (Oscar Hammerstein will just have to forgive me for that one). Here is sound in cascades, not sound in calisthenics or sound from the bottom and top of the leaning Tower of Pisa. But sound that is true and kaleidoscopic and wonderfully right. Nor is it sound for effect. This is sound with a preconceived continuity of purpose, sound with the deft, Hemingway touch of striking simplicity.
All too often an album is little more than a collection of songs, banded together with no rhyme or reason, and all seemingly pulled from the same ball of yarn. When Al Nevins-he started out in Washington in classical music and has hence learned to play every stringed instrument well put aside his guitar and his famous role as one of the original members of The Three Suns to turn producer and musical director for this stunning album, he thought immediately in terms of an over-all production. Escapade in Sound was to be no rambling trip down the cobblestones of Tin Pan Alley. This initial big enterprise was to have a theme – it was to tell a story in music. So it does. Here is a night of romance and high adventure. Here the fellow dudes up in top hat, white tie and tails, and she in a gorgeous gown of icy blue, to sip cocktails for two in the moonlight; to watch and wonder as that old devil moon plays its incomparable tricks; to be mad about the boy and to admit that she's driving him crazy; to get away from it all and rub elbows with the low-brows of the evening who cry "love for sale"; to wander into that certain chillness, stillness of the dawn's early light where anything goes; and finally, home and tired, to find two dreamy people turning out the lights to go to sleep.
These superb songs, composed by such distinguished gentlemen as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Noel Coward, somehow blend together into a marvelous whole, and to each listener it will tell the same story in a different, exciting way. That is something upon which Al Nevins holds no patent, but you must agree that he has a remarkable affinity for music- making with taste and discretion. The tonal effects are those of a true artist and it is Al Nevins who is the painter, for this masterpiece is entirely his creation: it is his idea, his continuity, his music, and it is yours to enjoy over and over again. – FRED REYNOLDS Music Editor, Hi-Fi Music at Home Magazine
Top Hat, White Tie And Tails
Moonlight Cocktail
Cocktails From Two
Old Devil Moon
Mad About The Boy
Let's Get Away From It All
Love For Sale
Escapade
You're Driving Me Crazy
In The Still Of The Night
Anything Goes
Let's Put On The Lights
West Meets East - Dig?
The Seven Players
Arranged and Conducted by Irv Spice
Executive Producer: Herman D. Gimbel
Produced by Eddie Newmark
Engineering: William Hamilton
Art Director: Charles Blodgett
Cover Photo: Gai Terrell
Audio Fidelity AFLP 2166
1966
From the back cover: I interviewed my son about how he came to write the instrumentals for this album, "West Digs East -Dig?"... with the help of Irv Spice, the well known arranger and conductor.
It wasn't very hard to interview my son. He was home on a furlough from basic training at Fort Dix and I only had to step from my office into the living room where he was at the piano.
Actually, I could remember the beginning. . . .
He and Nai Bonet, the beautiful little Oriental dancer, had been collaborating on creating a new dance and a song that went with it, "Jelly Belly" which was sort of a Belly Rock.
During this collaboration, my son became tre- mendously impressed with the Eastern music which he'd never before given much ear to.
Suddenly he saw the possibilities, and he went to work quite furiously.
But let him tell it...
"This music is an attempt to join together two distinctively different styles. . . the subtle, melodious qualities of the East and the strong, rock rhythms of the West. The result is, hopefully, a new and excit- ing sound. "THE CAREFREE CAMEL" and "SPHINXETTE" explore the possibilities of a light hearted approach to the task, while "MIRAGE", "NOMAD", "ASIA MINOR", "BAZAAR", and "SHISHKABOB" represent a more serious approach.
The idea for this album was originally suggested by Eddie Newmark, A&R man for Audio Fidelity, when he and I were working on Jelly Belly. Jelly Belly was a dance with lyrics explaining how to do the dance. It seemed that an album of instrumental music in the same vein might be a successful under- taking. So... I wrote seven tunes, Eddie called in Irv Spice to do the arrangements, and got a group of instrumentalists together, "The Seven Players", and we cut the album. The album includes two beautiful pieces by Irv Spice, "THE SULTAN'S DREAM", and "SAHARA SUNRISE". Also on the album is "ZORBA THE GREEK"."
"So," he says, "I wrote seven tunes."
What he doesn't say is that he wrote the seven tunes in a week.
Well, I love this album, my Beautiful Wife adores it, and my Gorgeous Mother-in-Law, my son's grand- mother, is absolutely nuts about it. – Earl Wilson
The Carefree Camel
Sphinxette
Zobra The Greek
The Mirage
The Nomad
Asia Minor
The Bazaar
The Sultan's Dream
Sahara Sunrise
Shishkabob
Love Country
Hypnotic Harps
Soloist - Gayle Levant
Produced by Allan Capps & Martin Cooper
GRT Records GRT-10001
One treat in life for me is to find light pop albums that feature covers of popular artists released in the 60s or 70s. You never know to what lengths the label will go to produce their knock-off "hits of the day".
The last idea on the idea pile must have been to cover songs arranged for the harp. OK... the last idea may have been to use a kazoo.
The harpist struggles with some of the arrangements because... well... she is playing the harp.
Time For Us
Hey Jude
Little Green Apples
Will You Be Staying After Sunday
Cycles
Love Country
Windmills Of Your Mind
By The Time I Get To Phoenix
Born To Be With You
Wichita Lineman
More Today Than Yesterday
Love Country Reprise
Love Songs Mexico / S.A. Tony Mottola Arrangements by Lew Davis and Tony Mottola Originated and Produced By Enoch Light Associate Producers: Julie Klages and Robert Byrne Recording Chief: Fred Christie Mastering George Piros (Stereo) & John Johnson (Monaural) Art Director" Charles E. Murphy Command Records SMAS-90605 1965
From the inside cover: And it's the instrument that sets the pace for the dance that goes with that invitation whether it is the informality of a wild and hectic folk dance or the grace and formality of a tango, a waltz or the paso doble.
For all of this music, the guitar is the heart instrument, the pulse, the center, the source. It sets the mood and the tone. It tells the story.
To capture the full essence of this tradition, Tony Mottola has played all of this album on gut-string guitars, those classic instruments which have been largely displaced in recent years by the ubiquitous electric guitar.
The electric guitar has its reasons for exist- ence-and Tony does the bulk of his perform- ances on it, as a rule. It is a uniquely flexible instrument which, because of its amplification attachments, can cut through a huge ensemble and make its presence felt in almost any situation. Today's electric guitars, in the hands of such an expert as Tony Mottola, can even take on the character and sound of the classic, unamplified gut-string guitar with such realism that few people would know the difference.
However, one of those who would know is Tony Mottola. And when the music calls for the soft, sensuous warmth of the gut-string guitar, even the close approximation of this sound that he can get on an electric guitar does not satisfy his perfectionist demands. He wants a real gut-string sound – and so that is what you hear in these glowing performances.
You not only hear a real gut-string sound- you hear it reproduced with total reality by Command's world-famous engineering techniques.
To hear the true quality of a gut-string guitar is a rare and enlightening experience in these days when the electric guitar has proved to be such a completely versatile and useful instrument. So Tony Mottola has taken this occasion to give this fascinating instrument a full panoply of settings and moods.
On songs that call for a warm and intimate feeling, he frames his guitar in a simple framework, backed only by the rhythm guitar of Gene Bertoncinni, Dom Cortese on accordion, Bob Haggart on bass and Bob Rosengarden on drums.
Where excitement and glitter are called for and for rich contrasts of ensemble sounds and piquant accents, he has made significant addi- tions to this basic unit in order to create a formidable ensemble – two dashing trumpets played by Doc Severinsen and Mel Davis; an array of woodwinds under the control of those masters of virtuosity, Phil Bodner and Stanley Webb; a full team of guitars manned by Tommy Kay, Bucky Pizzarelli and either Allen Hanlon or Al Casamenti; Dick Hyman playing organ or piano; and an incomparable percussion section with Phil Kraus and Ed Shaughnessy joining forces with Bob Rosengarden.
From Billboard - November 13, 1965: Command Records will attempt to cash in on the selection of Tony Mottola's "Love Songs Mexico / S. A." album as the feature album of the week on the Jim Ameche Organization's syndicated radio show for the week of Nov. 29. The show reportedly reaches some 300 million listeners throughout the world. Command has ordered several thousand extra streamers, dividers and easel backs to promote the album, and the label has rushed a single from the album to disk jockeys for air play. Loren Becker, Command general manager said the Mottola album will probably be the label's best seller of 1965.
Theme From Black Orpheus
Guadalajara
Sabor
Mexican Hat Dance
The Girl From Ipanema
Mexica Medley
Besame Mucho
Brasilia
Maria Elena
Curacao
Piel Canela
La Bamba
Lonely Harpsichord Rainy Night In Shangri-la
Jonathan Knight
Produced and Arranged by Al Capps
Cover Design & Photo: Studio Five, Inc.
Plants by Geller Originals
A Snuff Garrett Production
Distributed Nationally by Dot Records
VIVA V36011
1968
Shangri-La
Stranger On The Shore
Cast Your Fate To The Wind
Pagan Love Song
Yellow Bird
Quite Village
Flamingo
Bali Ha'i
Tiki Waterfall
Dream Theme
Midnight Hideaway
Soft Sands
Let's Rhumba
Besos Ardiente
Rhumba Rhapsody
Rhumba Serenade
Chira-Cha
Ay-Ay-Ay
Let's Rhumba
False Love
Cielito Lindo
Bongo Man
La Paloma
Mi Passion
Blue Rhumba
