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Sunday, 15 December 2024

The 50 Guitars Of Tommy Garrett

Another one from the 50 Guitars Of TG....OR is there only 1 and a little man at the controls twisting the knobs and sliding the slides !!!...Guess we will never know unless the little man comes forward to tell us...OR maybe an avalanche of guitar players complaining !!

1. Baia
2. A Day In The Life Of A Fool (Manha De Carnaval)
3. Delicado
4. Lo Mucho Que Te
5. On The Old Spanish Trail
6. My Adobe Hacienda

1. The Moon was Yellow
2. How Insensitive
3. Mexican Standoff
4. Mi Casa Su casa
5. El Jaribe
6. Mexican Leather And Spanish Lace

          2. A Day In The Life Of A Fool ( Manha De Carnaval )

Collector's Choice..VA

We are now in the land of "Chocky's" (Belgium) at the moment rummaging through Bob's collection to see what comes up above and below post's...so thanks Bob for that!!....I will have to have a good listen to this one and see if i can tell which track is an original one and which are the re-recordings !!...make a comment and see if our minds are one !!..and we agree !!

           12. Chanson D' Amour

Saturday, 14 December 2024

Fats Waller

You can't beat a bit of thumping piano and the distinctive voice of Mr FW !!..


         6. Sweet Sue

Quincy Jones---The Italian Job

I've just clicked my "Red" trainers !!...and Lo' and behold guess where I have ended up !!..
Yep !! browsing through Johns record store in New York !!! and this one caught my eye !
Great score by Quincy Jones that includes The hit song by Matt Monroe...and the incidental music to the film does not gets boring like some other Film Music soundtracks !!!....I would say it's one of the best Film Soundtracks I have heard !!.....(Non Musical) of course !!!
            4. Britannia & Mrs Bridger

The Beverley Sisters

The Beverley Sisters were a British female vocal and light entertainment trio, most popular during the 1950s and 1960s.
I was very surprised with this one !!....Didn't know the "Bev's could do "Standards" as good as they do in this one !!...Thanks "John" for the surprise !!


           12. I Thought Of You Last Night

The Ronettes

The Ronettes.were an American girl group from New York City. One of the most popular groups of the 1960s, consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. 
The girls had sung together since they were teenagers, then known as "The Darling Sisters". Signed first by Colpix Records in 1961, they moved to Phil Spector's Philles Records in March 1963 and changed their name to "The Ronettes". 
Among the Ronettes' most famous songs are "Be My Baby", "Baby, I Love You", "(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up", and "Walking in the Rain", all of which charted on the Billboard Hot 100.  ( Info Edited From Wikipedia )

The Ronettes began recording with Colpix Records in 1961 and recorded eleven songs for Colpix........And here they are !!

1. He Did It
2. Silhouettes
3. Good Girls
4. The Memory
5. You Bet I Would
6. I'm Gonna Quit While I'm Ahead

1. I'm On The Wagon
2. Recipe For Love
3. My Guiding Angel
4. I Want A Boy
5. What's So Sweet About Sixteen

          4. The Memory

Enoch Light And The Light Brigade

Percussion Galore !!...by the master of "Stereo" Recording's.... Command Records and of course not forgetting "Enoch Light & The Light Brigade !!!.....
Enoch Henry Light (18 August 1905, in Canton, Ohio – 31 July 1978, in Redding, Connecticut) was an American classically trained violinist, danceband leader, and recording engineer. As the leader of various dance bands that recorded as early as March 1927 and continuing through at least 1940, Light and his band primarily worked in various hotels in New York. For a time in 1928 he also led a band in Paris. 
At some point his band was tagged "The Light Brigade" and they often broadcast over radio live from the Hotel Taft in New York where they had a long residency. Through 1940, Light and his band recorded for various labels including Brunswick, ARC, Vocalion and Bluebird. Later on, as A&R (Artists and Repertoire) chief and vice-president of Grand Award Records, he founded his own label, Command Records, in 1959. Light's name was prominent on many albums both as musician and producer.
Light is credited with being one of the first musicians to go to extreme lengths to create high-quality recordings that took full advantage of the technical capabilities of home audio equipment of the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly stereo effects that bounced the sounds between the right and left channels (often described as "Ping-pong recording"), which had huge influence on the whole concept of multi-track recording that would become commonplace in the ensuing years. Doing so, he arranged his musicians in ways to produce the kinds of recorded sounds he wished to achieve, even completely isolating various groups of them from each other in the recording studio. The first of the albums produced on his record label, Command Records, Persuasive Percussion, became one of the first big-hit LP discs based solely on retail sales. His music received little or no airplay on the radio, because AM radio, the standard of the day, was monaural and had very poor fidelity. Light went on to release several albums in the Persuasive Percussion series, as well as a Command test record.....( Info Edited From Wikipedia )

1.Your The Top
2. Somebody Loves Me
3. Blues In The Night
4. Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps
5. Love For Sale
6. Fascinating Rhythm

1. S'Wonderful
2. Mood Indigo
3. Ain't Misbehavin'
4. The Man I Love
5. Song Of India
6. Mad About The Boy

          4. Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps

Ruth Olay

There is some fine use of Stereo in some of the tracks on this fine singer !!...she swaps from left to right speaker during the songs !
Ruth Olay (born San Francisco 1924-) is a jazz singer with Hungarian ancestry who was born in San Francisco, the daughter of a Rabbi and a professional chorister mother. Moving to Los Angeles while still an infant, Olay became a fixture in Hollywood's nightclub scene in the late 1940s and through the 1950s and early 1960s.....The daughter of a lapsed rabbi and an opera singer, Ruth Olay is quite an idiosyncratic vocalist. There is definitely an operatic quality to her voice (and she also had classical piano training), yet her style is still swinging and jazzy. 
Ruth Olay is one of the many talented jazz vocalists who enjoyed a long and varied career on America's cabaret and night club scene and she made a handful of great recordings during the LP era. Presented here for your listening pleasure are the LPs "Easy Living" which features the arrangements of the renowned Jerry Fielding and his orchestra.

This is a must have for fans of the jazz vocalists.

1. Just a Sitting And A Rocking
2. Hurry Hurry
3. Tess's Torch Song
4. Nocturne For The Blues
5. Undecided
6. Easy Livin'

1. Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans
2. Never Do
3. Now You Know
4. Blue Prelude
5. Sometimes I Feel Like A motherless Child
6. I Wanna Be A Friend Of Yours
         8. Never Do

Cissy Houston.

Now here we have a great singer that was very underestimated in her day...she has two claims to fame first one being that she has made hundreds of hit records as one of the best "Session Singers" since she started singing...she has sung with everybody and if you go onto "Wikipedia"and have a look it will surprise you !!.....The other claim to fame is the best one she is of course the Mother of "Whitney Houston"!!!....so you can now see where "Whitney" gets her voice from !!....This L/P stands out and she should have definitely made more....So if you want to hear a great voice have a listen !!....Her recording of "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" Equals the version of "Dusty's.....That how good she is !!!

1. I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
2. Didn't We
3. I'll Be There
4. Any Guy
5. When Something Is Wrong With My Baby

1. Be My Baby
2. This Empty Place
3. The Long And Winding Road
4. He / I Believe

          1. I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

Friday, 13 December 2024

Caterina Valente.

 Another Valente L/P on the "Decca" label...this time she is doing the "South American Rhythms of the "Bossa Nova"all of the tracks are done in that style...She does play the guitar on most of her records I wonder if she does on this one !!...no mention of it on the sleeve notes !

1. Moon River
2. The Boy from Ipanema
3. People
4. My Melancholy Baby
5. You And I
6. Diexa

1. Just One Of Those Things
2. Estrada Do Sol
3. Over The Rainbow
4. Sugar Can Breeze
5. O Ganso
6. Watch What Happens


          7. Just One of Those Things

Helmut Zacharias & Orchestra

One from "Bob" now for the "Easy listening Folk"......violins galore !!



          2. La Paloma

Swingle Singers.

Love the "Swingles"...Thanks "John" for the reminder of what a great concept "Voices As Instruments " is !!!!

Swingle II - Baroque  (1976)
Originally a French vocal band, founded in 1962 by Ward Swingle, specialized in singing classical songs with a capella/jazz arrangement. They were very popular in the USA, they won 3 Grammy Awards in 1964 and 1965. 

1. The Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba
2. Air on A G String
3. Water Music
4. Largo
5. Brandenburg Concerto No 4
6. Brandenburg Concerto No 5
7. Concerto Grosso Op 6 No 1
8. Jesu Joy Of Mans Desiring 
9. Organ Fugue
         3. Water Music

Don Partridge

Row Row Row!! that boat now across the big pond !! for a couple more !!....Yep I remember this singer he won a few times on one of the "Talent Shows" that was doing the rounds in the 60's....This L/P shows that he could hold his own with some of the top singers of that time !!

Don Partridge - Don Partridge   (1968)
Was an English singer and songwriter, known as the "king of the buskers". He performed from the early 1960's as a busker and one-man band, and achieved unexpected commercial success in the UK in the late 1960's with the songs "Rosie" and "Blue Eyes"

1. Following Your Fancy
2. Keep Your Hands Off Her
3. 7 Days Chokey
4. The Wayward Boy
5. St james Infimary
6. I'm Going Away
7. Blue Eyes
8. Dock Of The Bay
9. Old Girl Joe
10. First Girl I Loved 
11. Candy Man
12. Black Brown And White Blues
13. Monans Song
14. Rosie
          8. Dock Of The Bay

Francis Bay & Orchestra

Over the channel now via "Bob" for this contribution !!...so get your dancing shoes on and "shassy" around the room but be careful of the furniture !!...Or maybe just have a seat and listen !!!.....Didn't realise that "Louis Armstrong" co wrote "You Made Me Love You"...great you learn something new every day !!!!


         7. Charmaine

Thursday, 12 December 2024

Lena Horne.

 
This is a beautiful set of standard songs by Lena recorded in 1976 in London..featuring "Phil Woods" on saxophone on most of the tracks...best track by far is "Someone To Watch Over Me" also featuring "David Snell" on Harp at the beginning and a  great solo sax by Phil...boy!! it does'nt get any better than that...and as I've said many times they don't make em' like that anymore !!

P.S. After listening to this again the track "I've Got The World On A String" is in my view the best version EVER even beating "Sinatra's and "Boy" that says it all !!!

1. I've Grown Accustomed To His Face
2. Someone To Watch Over Me
3. My Funny Valentine
4. Someday My Prince Will Come
5. I've Got The World On A String

1. Softly As I Leave You
2.  I Have Dreamed
3. A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing
4. I've Got To Have You
5. My Ship


           5. I've Got The World On A String

Wednesday, 11 December 2024

Barbra Streisand

Going over now across the channel to "Belgium" and a selection of "Bob's" Contributions....Ok its a bit early for Xmas but may as well get it in early...Just like the lights in "Oxford Street" they get earlier each year !!!

This was first posted in June 2016 !!
       Merry Xmas to everybody this year 2024 !!.......only 14 days to go !!


           2. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Eydie Gorme.

 Another great selection of Songs from the great "Eydie".....The Video below shows just how great she realy was.....and quote from You Tube....
 Note there was only one... ONE... camera dissolve in the entire three minutes. This is how you shoot music when you want the performer to connect to the audience!
 
 1. I Don't Care
2. You're Just In Love
3. My Funny Valentine
4. You Can't Get A Man With A Gun
5. Always True To You In My Fashion
6. Guys And Dolls

1. I Cain't Say No
2. Hello Young Lovers
3. Thou Swell
4. I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair
5. Baubles Bangles And Beads
6. Johnny One Note
 
 
           3. My Funny Valentine

Eydie Gorme As Long As He Needs Me 1969

Cleo Laine.

 I wonder if this one is going to upset the "Shakespeare" purists....like the film that is out "Anonymous".....I don't think the "Jazz" purists will be bothered !!..This was released in 1964 so it has had over 40 years for people to think about it !!....Getting back to "Cleo" she does a great job and if you are like me ...likes Shakespeare and Jazz its Cooooooool !!

 1. If Music Be The Food Of Love
2. O Mistress Mine
3. Duet Of Sonnets
4. Winter
5.My Love Is As A Fever
6. It Was A Lover And His Lass
7. Dunsinae Blues

1. Take All My Loves
2. Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind
3. Shall I Compare Thee
4. Witches Fair And Foul
5. Fear No More
6. Sigh No More
7. The Compleat Works


              6. It Was A Lover And His Lass

Cleo Laine & Johnny Dankworth - Oh Lady Be Good



Tuesday, 10 December 2024

Bert Kaempfert & Orchestra.

The relaxing sound is what its called and thats wht you get !!....so don't fall asleep !!!

1. Strangers In The Night
2. Bye Bye Blues
3. But Not Today
4. Red Roses For A Blue Lady
5. Melina
6. Nothing New
7. Danke Shone

1. Moon Over Naples 
2. Remember When
3. The Moon Is Making Eyes 
4. Rose Of Washigton Square
5. Take My Heart
6. That Happy Feeling
7. Wiederseh'n


          3. The Moon Is Making Eyes