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Friday, May 20, 2022

Together Again! - The Blue Sky Boys

 

Don't Trade

From Nashville, Tennessee
The Musical Heart Of America
Presents
Together Again!
The Blue Sky Boys
Bill and Earl Bolick
Starday SLP 257
1963

From the back cover: After an absence of 12 years from the Country Music scene, Bill and Earl Bolick, internationally famous as the Blue Sky Boys are "Together Again" as they made this great new album of country songs.

The Blue Sky Boys have a vast following resulting from their many hit recordings on the Bluebird and RCA Victor labels. They have a unique style of country harmony singing as they pick the mandolin and guitar together.

It was due to the consistent demand for Blue Sky Boys records that Starday issued an album from some old recordings during 1962, The response from Country Music fans was very enthusiastic and Bill and Earl were prevailed upon to spend part of their vacations in Nashville so that these new recordings could be made, in high fidelity sounds, at the Starday Studios, under the direction of Tommy Hill with "Hoss" Linneman assisting with the engineering.

Many of the most popular old songs that the Blue Sky Boys made famous several years ago are included in this album along with some newer songs that are suited for the Blue Sky Boys type of Country harmony. No effort was made to add any gimmicks to the original and authentic sound of the Blue Sky Boys.

The high fidelity sound equipment brings out the pure country sound in all its glory. Accompanying musicians were Tommy Vaden on fiddle, Pete Drake on steel guitar, Vic Williams on piano and Billy Linneman on Bass. Jerry Shook played electric lead and Harold Weekly played Drums.

Bill and Earl Bolick, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Garland H. Bolick, were reared in and around Hickory, North Carolina. They started their entertainment careers on radio station WWNC, at Asheville, North Carolina, back in 1935. Later they moved on to radio stations in Atlanta, Georgia; Raleigh, North Carolina and Greenville, South Carolina. When World War II came along Bill Bolick saw action in the Philippines and Okinawa. Earl Bolick participated in the invasion of Normandy, the jump across the Rhine, and The Battle of The Bulge, as a paratrooper.

After the war, the Blue Sky Boys continued their entertainment career in Atlanta, Georgia, Raleigh, N.C., Bristol, Virginia, and on the Louisiana Hayride at Shriveport, Louisiana.

In 1951 the boys left the field of entertainment. Earl now lives with his wife and two children in Tucker, Georgia, while Bill and his wife live in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Are You From Dixie
In The Pines
Don't Trade
The Little Paper Boy
Why Not Confess
The Wednesday Night Waltz
Kentucky
Just Because
Your Brand Will Remain On My Heart
Mommie, Will My Doggie Understand?
Sweetheart Mountain Rose
A Satisfied Mind

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Swinging On Broadway - Louie Prima & Keely Smith

 

O Babe

Swinging On Broadway
Louis Prima & Keely Smith
Celebrity Records UTS-170
A Division Of Premier Albums Inc.

O Babe
Pizza And Beer
Brooklyn Boogie
Piccolina Lena
Bring Forth The Light
This Evening
Angelina
C'Mon A My House
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Dig That Crazy Chick

George Feyer & His Orchestra Play Cole Porter

 

Side One

George Feyer & His Orchestra Play Cole Porter
Photo: Gerard Oppenheimer
Vox Productions, Inc. VX 25.510
1958

Easy to Love
I Get A Kick Out Of You
Why Can't You Behave
In The Still Of The Night
True Love
Begin The Beguine 
So In Love
It's Delovely
Night And Day
Anything Goes
My Heart Belongs To Daddy
It's All Right With Me
You Do Something To Me
Wunderbar

Anita O'Day

 

The Man I Love

Anita O'Day
Cover Photo Courtesy of Melvin Levine
Dobre Records 1014
Distributed by Ray Lawrence, Ltd., Studio City, California

From the back cover: Anita O'Day has experienced a very long, incredible career as a song stylist, starting in walkathons of the '30's and currently touring several times a year worldwide. As this album goes to press she has just returned from a month tour of Europe in concerts and jazz clubs to appear in New York City the month of September 1977.

Her recordings total the equivalent of about 60 LP albums. This includes all the early single recordings from the Gene Krupa and Stan Kenton bands which have been re-issued on LPs plus the Verve series currently re-issued in Japan, South America, Europe, etc.

In 1975 and 1976 she recorded four albums in Japan during two highly successful tours there. This album is a collection of tunes recorded in Tokyo, June 30, 1976 at the famous Mouri Studios produced by Tokao Ishizuka and released in Japan on the TRIO label. It is the first of the Japanese albums to be made available in the U.S.A. There will be more forthcoming.

Featured on piano is Merrill Hoover from San Francisco, the great George Morrow of Clifford Brown/Max Roach fame on bass and Anita's longtime associate John Poole on drums.

There is no need to elaborate on Anita's vocal style or phrasing or influence over dozens of other singers; it is obvious to the long-time listeners and to the many music critics the world over.  – John Poole, August 23, 1977 - Studio City, California

Our Love Is Here To Stay
Come Rain Or Come Shine
The Man I Love
After You've Gone
Body And Soul
Day Of Wine And Roses
The Nightingale Sand In Barkley Square
Why Shouldn't I

Night Of The Four Moons / Voice Of The Whale - George Crumb

 

Voice Of The Whale

Modern American Music Series
First Recording
George Crumb
Produced by Jay David Saks
Engineering: Edward T. Graham, Raymond Moore & Arthur Kendy
Cover Design: Katherine Polladini
Cover Illustration: Don Ivan Punchatz
Columbia M 32739
1974

Voice Of The Whale (Vox Balaenae)
For Three Masked Players
Aeolian Chamber Players
Erich Graf, Flute
Walter Ponce, Piano
Jerry Grossman, Cello and Antique Cymbals
   Vocalise (...for the beginning of time)
      Sea-Theme
      Archeozoic (Var. I)
      Proterozonic (Var. II)
      Palenzoic (Var. III)
      Mesozoic (Var. IV)
      Cenozois (Var. V)
Recorded under the supervision of the composer

Night Of The Four Moons
(Based on fragments from Federico Garcia Lorca)
Jan DeGaetoni, Mezzo-Soprano
Aeolian Chamber Players
Lewis Kaplan, Piano
Erich Graf, Alto Flute and Piccolo
Paul Tobias, Cello 
with Raymond DesRoches, Percussion
I – La Luna esta muerta, muerta... (The Moon Is Dead, Dead...)
II – Cuando sale la luna... (When The Moon Rises...)
III – Otro Adan oscuro esta sonando... (Another Obscure Adam Dreams...)
IV – Huje luna, luna, luna!... (Run Away Moon, Moon, Moon...)
Recorded under the supervision of the composer

From the back cover: Notes by the Composer

Voice Of The Whale (Vox Balaenae), composed in 1971 for the  New York Camerata, is scored for flute, cello, and piano (all amplified in concert performance). The work was inspired by the singing of the humpback whale, a tape recording of which I had heard two or three years perviously. Each of the three performers is required to wear a black half-mask (or visor-mask). The mask, by effacing the sense of human projection, are intended to represent, symbolically, the powerful impersonal forces of nature (i.e. nature dehumanized). I have also suggested that the work be performed under a deep-blue stage lighting.

The form of Voice Of The Whale is a simple three-part design, consisting of a prologue, a set of variations named after the geological eras, and an epilogue.

Night Of The Four Moons, commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Players, was composed in 1969 during the Apollo 11 flight (July 16 - 24). The work is scored for alto (or mezzo-soprano), alto flute (doubling piccolo), mango, electric cello, and percussion. The percussion includes Tibetan prayer stones, Japanese Kabuki blocks, alto African thumb piano (mbira), and Chinese temple gong in addition to the more usual vibraphone, crotales, tambourine, bongo drums, suspended cymbal and tam-tam. The singer is also required to play finger cymbals, castanets, glockenspiel and tam-tam.

I suppose that Night Of The Moons is really an "occasional" work, since its inception was an artistic response to an external event. The text – extracts drawn from the poems of Frederico Garcia Lorca – symbolize my own rather ambivalent feelings vis-a-vis Apollo 11. The texts of the third and fourth songs seemed strikingly prophetic!

Also from the back cover: George Crumb was born in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1929. Mr. Crumb's Echoes Of Time and The River: Four Processionals For Orchestra, Premiered by the Chicago Symphony, was awarded the 1968 Pulitzer Prize in Music. In 1971, his Ancient Voices Of Children received both the international Rostrum of Composers Award (UNESCO), Paris and the Koussevitzky International Recording Award. Mr. Crumb's most recent compositions include Lux Aeterna for soprano and instruments (1971) and Makrokosmos, Volumes I and II (24 Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac) for amplified piano (1972-73). Mr. Crumb currently teaches composition at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Aeolian Chamber Players was founded in the Spring of 1961 by Director Lewis Kaplan from the purpose of presenting unusual works with a variety of timbre and musical thought. Performing in various combinations of their instruments, the group offers a vast and varied repertory ranging from the Baroque through music of the avant grade.

Since 1962, the Aeolian Chamber Players have toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Among their appearances have been concerts in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, Ottawa, London, Amsterdam and Hamburg, and at the three of the major music centers in the United States – the Juilliard School, the New England Conservatory and the Oberlin Conservatory. In addition to their frequent concert tours, the Aeolians have appeared on a number of programs for N.E.T Television. Each summer since 1964 the Aeolian Chamber Players have been in residence at Bowdoin College.

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Country And Western - Rex Trailer

 

Big Rock Candy Mountain

Country And Western
Rex Trailer And The Playboys
Cover Art: Hobco Arts
Crown Records CST 186

Brahma Bull
Blue Tail Fly
Golden Slippers
Big Rock Candy Mountain
Wagon Master
Ridin' Down The Canyon
Red River Valley
Big Corral And Railroad Corral
Sweet Betsy From Pike
Home On The Range

Golden Hits Live - Jerry Butler

 

I Dig You Baby

Jerry Butler's
Golden Hits Live
Produced by Dick Corby
Recorded by Ed Green - Edgewood Studios
Engineering Supervision & Remix: Roy Cicala
Mercury SR 61151
1968

From the back cover: As one walks across the campus of Morgan State College, he is immediately impressed by the quiet dignity of the green and spacious grounds. The student body and faculty of this institution are noted for their respective and appreciative attitude towards art, and particularly, towards artistic performances in the field of music. The auditorium at Morgan State is a dignified monument to music, since it is well known as being acoustically outstanding.

In late September, 1967, Jerry Butler was still enjoying the quiet dignity of the campus as he entered the auditorium to give one of a series of concerts to raise money for scholarships for deserving students. He had no idea that when he concluded his concert that night, he would become, as he has at many colleges, something of a campus hero, along with those who would be remembered for athletic and scholastic achievements. Jerry Butler would also long remember this night at Morgan State because he was, for the first time anywhere, cutting an LP of all of his greatest hit records, "live", before an audience.

Jerry Butler walked from the wings to an exceptionally genuine and warm reception which is reserved for those who are held in very special esteem. The auditorium was brimming with expectant enthusiasm and it was at this point that you became aware of the fact that Jerry Butler carried a very special and unique kind of weight with these young men and women. They knew him for the compliments he pays to the taste of every audience by the excellent and fine selection of material he brilliantly performs for them. It is obvious that there is a spontaneous and reciprocal identification between Jerry Butler and collegians. – Brooks Johnson

From Billboard - January 27, 1968: The excellent of Jerry Butler's singing and of a college concert audience's enthusiasm is excellently captured here. Butler's fiery style has lit up such hits as "I Dig  You Baby" and "Your Precious Love," included in this top-notch roundup, but he also gets a lot of mileage out of songs like "Make It Easy On Yourself" and "Moon River."

Introduction
Make It Easy On Yourself
Moon River
I Stand Accused
Cause I Love You So
For Your Precious Love
I Dig You Baby
Let It Be Me
He Will Break Your Heart
Amen

Monday, May 16, 2022

The Golden Hits With The Mexicali Brass

 

A Taste Of Honey

The Golden Hits Of
The Mexicali Brass
Modern Records 101/1001

The Shadow Of Your Smile
A Taste Of Honey
The Work Song
Tijuana Taxi
Winter Wonderland
The Lonely Bull
Whipped Cream
Spanish Flea
Zorba The Greek
Mame
Hello Dolly
What Now My Love

Esso Steel Band - Hubert Smith Junior

 

Back To Back

Esso Steel Band
Featuring Hubert Smith Junior
A Mastertone Recording, Vol. 3
Recorded at The Rosebank Theater In Bermuda

From the back cover: The rhythm and beat of the Islands is in the Esso Steel Band! This talented group have carried their fascinating music all over the West Indies and North and South America, to be acclaimed wherever they went, always with return engagements. Originating with the 'poor people' of Trinidad who wanted sound and rhythm for their Cane Festivals and had only dust-bins, brake drums and bamboo stalks, the Esso Steel Band now use the specially-tempered steel oil drums the have been carefully cut, measured and hammered for correct tone and pitch. Each drum is now an instrument that has its own part to play and has its own name; there's the Ping-Pong which is the melody; the Kettle Drum which is the harmony; and the Tune-Booms which are the "strings".

The leader of Bermuda's Esso Steel Band is Rudolph Commissiong, with Herbert Smith Jr. who is wise in the ways of entertaining holiday-markers and honeymooners who come to the Island for something different that will leave wonderful memories to be treasured always.

Land Of Sea And Sun
Juanita
Island Woman
Sloop John B
Limbo Like Me
Sailor Man
Kingston Market
Cuban Love Song
Sorrento
Shake Señora
Back To Back
Capulito De Aleli

Slow Freight - Ray Bryant

 

Satin Doll

Slow Freight 
Ray Bryant
Recorded: December, 1966 at RCA Studios in New York City
Recording Engineer: Ray Hall
Album Production & Supervision: Esmond Edwards
Cadet Records LP 781
1967

Personnel: 
Ray Bryant - Piano
Richard Davis - Bass
Freddie Waits - Drums
Art Farmer & Snookie Young - Trumpet & Flugelhorn 

From the back cover: Ray Bryant started something with the sound of piano trio with brass that he used on the very successful Cadet album Gotta Travel On. Then he followed this with another winner titled Lonesome Traveler utilizing the same dual flugelhorns of Clark Terry and Snookie Young. 

Ray was so pleased with the musical results of the two initial albums and so gratified  by their public acceptance that he decided to continue recording with the sound of mellow brass augmented his pianists. At the time Slow Freight was recorded, Clark Terry was touring Europe and unavailable for the session, but the great trumpeter and flugelhorn player Art Farmer teamed with Snookie to produce the soulful brass sounds heard here.

It is again obvious that Ray has come up with a sound that lifts his albums out of the usual piano trio category and adds a bright new dimension to his performance. He used the horns sparingly, brining them forward at just the proper moments to emphasize his playing. This is a most satisfying album on many counts. In addition to the bright, beautiful sound, there is the tremendous artistry of Ray Bryant, undoubtedly one of the foremost jazz pianists currently active. Much has been said about Ray's great ability to swing and his powerful left hand that often beats out the same line as the bass player, thus giving a gutsy kind of bottom to his performance.

Another feature of Ray Bryant piano mystique is his close affinity to the roots of jazz. Although a young modernist, he knows and digs the blues and his treatment of Slow Freight is a fine example of Ray's attachment to the form. An additional plus on Slow Freight is the ad lib vocal comments of Paul Serrano.

If You Go Away, popularized by Damita Jo, is somewhat similar in treatment to Ray's It Was A Very Good Year on the previously-mentioned Travel On album. Ray's beautifully conceived arrangement shows every sign of being as popular as Good Year was.

Satin Doll is a fine example of Ray's Straightforward jazz cooking. In the Duke Ellington standard he ranges the entire keyboard and takes a backseat to no one in the creative or groove department.

Freddie Waits has been the drummer on all three of Ray's Cadet albums. This young man loves to play and it is evident in his relentless drive and lilting swing. He never lets things get bogged down and is certainly an asset to the Ray Bryant sound.

We have mentioned everyone but bassist Richard Davis, but really what can you say about this phenomenal musician that doesn't sound like exaggeration. His intonation is flawless, his technique marvelous, his sound clear as a bell and his time like a metronome. Listen to Richard's beautiful bowed accompaniment to Ray on When The World Was Young and his solo on Satin Doll and you'll hear what I mean. Out of sight!

Ray Bryant always surrounds himself with pros; he's one and he wants nothing but the finest with him. The end product justifies the means. This is an excellent album. – E. Herbert

Slow Freight 
Amen
Satin Doll
If You Go Away
Ah, The Apple Tree (When The World Was Young)
The Return Of The Prodigal Son
The Fox Stalker