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Saturday, July 25, 2020

Big Hits Of The Seventies Vol. 2 - Enoch Light

Sexy
What A Difference A Day Makes
Enoch Light And Many Of The World's Greatest Musicians Play The
Big Hits Of The Seventies
Vol. 2
Produced by Enoch Light
Music Arranged by Jeff Hest except: Dick Lieb (Feel Like Making Love)
Tony Mottla ( Where Is The Love)
Phil Bodner (Beautiful, Sweet Seasons)
Engineer: Steve Friedman
Mastering: Al Brown (Stereo) & Cass Mondello (SQ)
Project 3 Total Sound PR2-6015/ 16 SD
1975

The Hustle
Hijack
Satin Soul
Sexy
Where Is The Love
Fly, Robin, Fly
Ease On Down The Road
To Each His Own
T.S.O.P. ("Soul Train")
Sweet Seasong

Love Theme
What A Difference A Day Make
Pick Up The Pieces
Beautiful
Feel Like Making Love
Brazil
Lady Marmalade
Summer Of '42
Love Theme From "The Godfather" (Speak Softly Love)

Thursday, July 23, 2020

The Liveliest - Vic Damone

You And The Night And The Music & When Your Lover Has Gone
Vic Damone
The Liveliest
At Basin Street East
Produced by Voyle Gilmore
Photo by Ken Veeder
Capitol Records ST 1944
1963

From Billboard - August 3, 1963: Damone pours out plenty of excitement in this live performance cut at New York's Basin Street East. Pacing is fine and arrangements go right along with the top-notch Damone performances. Well-selected program includes "San Francisco," "What Kind Of Fool Am I," "You And The Night And The Music," "A Lot Of Livin' To Do" and his own big hit of a few seasons back, "Street Where You Live."

You And The Night And The Music
When Your Lover Has Gone
What Kind Of Fool Am I?
At Long Last Love
Fascinating Rhythm
They Can't Take That Away From Me
The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
Adios
I Left My Heart In San Francisco
A Lot Of Livin' To Do
You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You
On The Street Where You Live

Tchaikovsky - Herbert Williams

Scene (Swan Theme) & Waltz in A Major, Act I
Tchaikovsky
Suite From Swan Lake & Nutcracker Suite
Conducted by Herbert Williams
Photograph of Margot Fonteyn by Baron, Courtesy of S. Huron - Sadler's Wells Ballet
Westminster XWN 18223
1956

Scene (Swan Theme)
Waltz in A Major, Act I
Dance of the Little Sisters, Act II
Introduction to Scene and Second Dance of the Queen of the Swans, Act II
Hungarian Dance (Czardas), Act II
Scene, Act IV

Miniature Overture
Six Characteristic Dances
Waltz of the Flowers

Quiet Music Volume 9

Salut d'amour
Quiet Music
Volume 9
Easy Listening For Your Relaxation
Al Goodman and His Orchestra
Marek Weber and His Orchestra
Oscar Straus conducting The Columbia Salon Orchestra
Columbia Records CL 519
1952

Roses Of Picardy
Beautiful Ohio
Salut d'amour
There Are Things One Must Forget
One Kiss
Funiculi Funicula
Humoresque
Cavatina
Celebrated Minuet
Till We Meet Again
In A Monastery Garden
My Hero

Dance And Stay Young - David Carroll

Follow The Leader
Dance And Stay Young
David Carroll and His Orchestra
Mercury Records MG 20351
1958

From Billboard - May 12, 1958: Great stuff for the over-40 buyers. This platter serves up a nice, suave helping of maestro Carroll's gently bouncy beat on 15 pleasant standards like "Elmer's Tune," "My Man," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," and others. It's the kind of thing you'll hear in any high-priced hotel nitery between stageshows.

Elmer's Tune
Somebody Else Is Taking My Place
Follow The Leader
Louise
Love Letters In The Sand
Sleepy Sunday Afternoon
Tumblin' Down
My Man
I Can Dream, Can't I?
Lullaby Of Broadway
Hey Rube!
No Other Love
Delicado
Don't Get Around Much Any More
It's All Right With Me

King Of Swing - Count Basie

Slow But Sure
Count Basie
The King Of Swing
Supervised by Norman Granz
Cover Photo by Herman Leonard
Verve Records
Clef Series MGV-8104
Hi-Fi Recording
1957

Cherry Point
Bubbles
Right On
The Blues Done Come Back
Plymouth Rock
I Feel Like A New Man
You For Me
Soft Drink
Two For The Blues
Slow But Sure

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Indiscretion - Patti Page

Autumn Leaves
Indiscretion
Patti Page
Mercury Records MG 20405
1959

Autumn Leaves
Indiscretion
It All Depends On You
Everything Happens To Me
I'll Walk Alone
You Call Everybody Darling
We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye
In Love In Vain
Smiles
Lover Come Back To Me
For You
'Tis Autumn

Four Freshmen And Five Saxes

East Of The Sun
Four Freshmen and Five Saxes
Capitol Records T844
1957

The Five Saxes (Count 'em – nine; but only five were used at a time)
George Auld
Gus Bivona
Bob Cooper
Chuck Gentry
Skeets Herfurt
Ted Nash
Dave Pell
Willie Schwartz
Bud Shank

From the back cover: This album is the third in a fabulous series. The memorable forays of the Four Freshmen with trombones and then trumpets are living history for the satisfied owners of those albums. In the present one, the reed section comes in for a splendid workout. The group swings with neatness and enthusiasm, and the arrangements keep pace all the way.

Pete Rugolo was arranger for the first of the albums, Four Freshmen and Five Trombones and Dick Reynolds arranged the second one with Five Trumpets. For this album they split the score chores, each taking a side. The listener will enjoy comparing the arrangers' individual styles. Whereas Rugolo, on side one, lights out in all directions, sometimes playing hilarious hob with the melody lines, Reynolds, on the other side, takes a straight-on approach, scoring the tunes in an attractively modern groove.

In albums like these where a lot of the spotlight falls on the instrumentalists, it is necessary to choose the men with solid musical personalities who have it in them to produce something more than pleasant, anonymous background support. Accordingly, the saxophonists were conscripted from among the West Coast's finest. The solos are by Bob Cooper (on "Liza"), Dave Pell (on "I May Be Wrong"), and Bud Shank (whose shapely solo on "East Of The Sun" is one of the high points in this album).


Liza
You've Got Me Crying' Again
This Can't Be Love
The Very Thought Of You
East Of The Sun
I May Be Wrong
There's No One But You
Sometimes I'm Happy
For All We Know
Lullaby In Rhythm
This Love Of Mine
I Get Along Without You Very Well

Shorty Rogers Plays Richard Rodgers

It's Got To Be Love 
Shorty Rogers Plays Richard Rodgers
Shorty Rogers and His Giants
RCA Victor LPM-1428
1957

From the back cover: It was inevitable that Shorty Rogers, a dean of modern West Coast jazz musicians, should get around to doing an album of the songs of Richard Rodgers. For Shorty has long appreciated the good things in life, just as he has always shown a marked preference for the tasteful and artistic. Mr. Rodgers' songs not only are generally better than good, but they also show their composer to be an artist and a man of genuine taste. Hence the inevitable...

Because Rodgers' superb melodies are so varied, Shorty Rogers, who naturally does all of his own arranging, did not choose to present all of the songs in the same manner. Mountain Greenery, On A Desert Island With Thee, I've Got Five Dollars and I Could Write A Book are performed by a large band including trumpeters Conte Candoli and Pete Candoli; trombonists Milt Bernhart and Frank Rosolino; Sam Rice on tuba; saxophonists Jack Montrose, Pepper Adams and Bill Holman; Red Mitchell on bass; Pete Jolly on piano, and Stan Levey on drums. The other numbers Shorty felt were more suitable to the ninetet, especially when such musicians as Pepper Adams, Bill Holman, Pete Jolly, Stan Levy and Conte Candoli were available for the music making.


I've Got Five Dollars
Ten Cents A Dance
Mountain Greenery
Ship Without A Sail
Mimi
It's Got To Be Love
I Could Write A Book
The Girl Friend
On A Desert Island With Thee
Thou Swell

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Did Someone Say "A Party?" - Artie Shaw

Funny Valentine
Did Someone Say "A Party?"
Music For The Girl Friend
Artie Shaw and His Orchestra
The Petty Girl as featured in Esquire
Decca Records DL 8309
1956

From the back cover: The Petty Girl as featured in Esquire

In his portraits of enticing young ladies for Esquire Magazine, Artist George Petty has performed a truly epochal marriage of the physics of the curved line and the intangibles of glamor.

The alluring image of the Petty Girl multiplied across the nation during the years of the famous Esquire Calendar, and soon spread across the world as the wartime international pin-up favorite. The Petty Girl took her place once again in Esquire's peace-time calendar, and a whole new generation of admirers proclaims his smiling girl with the the direct gaze and the indirect curves.

She has incited poets to untold numbers of quatrains, young men to derring do (and to an occasional don't) and now, with Orpheus sending her surreptitious grace notes, the Petty Girl sweetly and easily turns the key to musical enjoyment. Like the maiden in the nursery rhyme, "she makes music wherever she goes..."


They Can't Take That Away From Me
My Funny Valentine
September Song
I'll Be Seeing You
Long Ago (And Far Away)
All The Things You Are
It Could Happen To You
These Foolish Things
I Remember You
That Old Black Magic
More Than You Know
In The Still Of The Night

Discotheque - The Regents

Comin' Home Baby
The Regents "Live" At The A.M. - P.M.
Discotheque
Produced by David Axelrod
Cover Photo: Ken Milburn
Capitol Records KAO 2153
1964

From the cover: In Paris the place to go is New Jimmy's in Montparnasse. In London it's the Crazy Elephant in Jermyn Street. New Yorkers shoehorn into Shepheard's in the Drake Hotel. And Hollywoodites stand in line up to three hours to get into Jack Martin's A.M. - P.M. on La Cienega Boulevard or Whisky a Go-Go on Sunset Strip.

Delano Soul Beat / Searchin'
Hully Gully
Linda Lu
Comin' Home Baby
Mojo Workout
Peanut Butter
Sugaree
Blue Suede Shoes
Gonzo
Poison Ivy / Theme And Close

Monday, July 20, 2020

Melodies Of Love - Richard Hayman

Serenade To A Lost Love
Melodies Of Love
Richard Hayman
His Orchestra & Chorus
Artist and Repertorie: Bob Shad
Original Recording Engineer: Joseph Mastroianni
Mastering: Gene Thompson
Cover Art and Design: Jack Lonshein
Liner Notes: Maury Apatow
Production Coordinator: Mavis Barton
Album Coordination: Elena Picone
Typography: The Composing Room, Inc.
Printing and Fabrication: Globe Albums, Inc.
Mainstream T-91092
1967

Greensleeves
Melody Of Love
Dear Heart
I Love You Truly
Devotion
Serenade To A Lost Love
Clair De Lune
Because
Rapsodie

Pickin' On New Grass - Walter Hensley

Baby I'll Never Let You Go
Walter Hensley
Pickin' On New Grass
Produced by Charles R. Freeland
Audio Engineer: George Bassenburg
Cover Photo: Richard Stacks
Recorded by Recording Inc. Baltimore, MD
Rebel SLP 1488
1969

America
Baby I'll Never Let You Go
Edsel Breakdown
Running Bear
Ghost Riders
East Virginia Blues
It's Over
Foggy Mountain Chimes
Sugar Creek
Swannee River
Shaggy Mountain Rakedown
When The Saints Go Marching In

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Bouquet Of Blues - Dinah Shore

Bouquet Of Blues
Bouquet Of Blues
Dinah Shore
Orchestras: Harry Zimmerman, Henri Rene and Frank DeVol
RCA Victor LPM 1214
1956

From the back cover: She (Dinah Shore) was born in Winchester, Tennessee, and went to college in Nashville (she has a degree in sociology), which meant that she spent her formative years in a section of the country where the strains of the blues are a part of the background. The song with which she first made her local reputation around Nashville and which provided her with her stage name (back in Winchester she had been Frances Rose Shore) was Dinah. The origins of the latter, professional Shore style can be found in the way she sang Dinah then – her model was the great blues singer who first introduced the song, Ethel Waters.

Her first big hit on records, Yes, My Darling Daughter, provided an exhibition of Dinah's swinging facility with a rhythm novelty, but it was her subsequent and ever greater hit, Blues In The Night, which settled her in her most rewarding groove – richly expressed but relaxed renditions of songs with a minor, slightly mournful air. She has sung them all as they have come along – from Duke Ellington's plaintive I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good, the colorful Johnny Mercer-Harold Arlen contribution to "St. Louis Woman," Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home, and Mel Torme's haunting Born To Be Blue, right up to the more recent Bouquet Of Blues. She dig back for the older ones, too – the two great blues by W. C. Handy, the sweet and sour blend of beat and content in What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry, and the earthy strains of Moanin' Low which can still light up the memories of an aging generation of theatergoers with tingling recollections of Libby Holman in a tight red gown and the sinus dancing of Clifton Webb.

It is one of the great charms of Dinah Shore that her sad songs are somehow more soothing than sad, more alive and vital than depressing. But it is only natural that they should come out like this. Her vitality cannot be turned off or covered up. Her well-adjusted existence, capped by her long and happy marriage to George Montgomery, comes shining irresistibly through. Her blues are artful blues – soft, pastel vignettes to be gathered into this appealing bouquet. – John S. Wilson


From Billboard - December 1, 1956: RCA Victor has selected this second Shore LP of the year as its November Save-on-Records special, a fact which should assure a lot of retail activity. Aside from that, it could make the grade on its own superior merits. The thrush is at her very best with these moody minor key blues efforts with distinctive and high quality backings in turn by Harry Zimmerman, Henri Rene and Frank DeVol. This one could go a long way to getting the gal back into the disk scene prominently with the likely strong jockey reaction. Tunes include "Bouquet Of Blues," Born To Be Blue," "Blues In The Night," etc.

Bouquet Of Blues
Good-For-Nothin' Joe
Born To Be Blue
Blues In The Night
Lonesome Gal
Moanin' Low
Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home
St. Louis Blues
I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
Warm Hearted Woman
Memphis Blues
What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry

This Old House - Rep Boyett

A Merlin Sleep
This Old House
More Than Just These Memories
Rep Boyett
Arrangements: Rep Boyett
Photography: Phillip Merkel
Recording Engineer: Junior Bennett
Artist's Records - Artist's Recording, Co., Inc. - Cincinnati, Ohio
STEREO 750414
1975

Drums: Rick Flynn
Bass: Chuck Rich
Steel: Chuck Rich
12 String Guitar: Rep Boyett
Organ & Background Vocals: Mike McGuire
Album Producer: Mike McGuire

A Merlin Sleep
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
Come Along Jenny
Maybe Someday
Gold N' Money
From Here To Tucson
Like A Bird In Spring
This Old House

Woody Herman At Carnegie Hall

Panacea
Woody Herman And The Herd At Carnegie Hall
Cover Photograph: From Shostall
Full Fidelity Lion L70059
1958

From the back cover: It was on a chill Monday evening in March, 1946 that Woody Herman and his "Herd" filled onto a stage at staid Carnegie Hall in New York City to "blow up a storm" and make a bit of jazz history. Their forces number no less than fourteen saxes, trumpets and trombones – plus four rhythm instruments. Woody himself doubled between clarinet and alto sax and, of course, held forth on vocals. The group that night was truly of all-star caliber: Sam Marowitz and John PaPorta, alto saxes; Joe "Flip" Phillips and Mickey Folus, tenor saxes; Sam Runbinwitch, baritone sax; Conrad Gozzo, Pete Candoli, Irving Markowitz, Shorty Rogers, and Sonny Herman, trumpets; Ralph Pfiffner, Ed Kiefer, and Bill Harris, trombone; Tony Aless, piano; Billy Bauer, guitar; Don Lamond, drums; Chubby Jackson, bass; Red Norvo, vibraharp; and Woody himself. This was just about the greatest "Herd" Herman ever assembled. The date was March 25m 1946 – and for the jazz-lover lucky enough to be in attendance it was a memorable one.

On the music stands that night lay some of the most fabulous arrangements ever penned in the field of big band jazz. Most of them were the work of a phenomenally talented twenty-three-year-old who was to pass on from trump to trump in later years: Ralph Burns. Burns was matched in his originality and daring that night, however, by another remarkable arranging talent, Neal Hefts, was was responsible for the scoring of three top Herman favorites: Wildroot, Everywhere and The Good Earth. And, those Burns and Hefit arrangements were probably played that night with more skill and fire than they ever had or have been since. The late Sonny Berman took most of the trumpet solos, with Pete Candoli soaring forth on Superman With A Horn.

Woody gave with some fine clarinet passages, "Flip" Phillips held forth on the solo tenor, and Bill Harris shone on spotlighted trombone. Between the big band bits, there was some flashy display form that smaller aggregation: "The Woodchoppers" – and here gleamed the vibes of Red Norvo.


Red Top
Superman With A Horn
Bijou
Wild Root
Four Men On A Horse
The Good Earth
Panacea
Blowin' Up A Storm
Everywhere
Heads Up
Your Father's Mustache