A decidely uninspiring high school showcase record from the late sixties/early seventies. This record was pressed by the Universal Audio Corporation, 2541 Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis, Minn. 55404. It features the Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble, Mixed Chorus, Owl Singers & Combined Chorus & band. The two best cuts are the Jazz Ensemble’s out of tune & […]
This record looks to be from the early sixties and was released on Columbia’s budget Harmony subsidiary. It provides rhythm accompaniment for dancers, singers, musicians, instructors and children. Essentially it is a record of drumbeats in a number of different styles. You get fox trots, rock and roll, polka and waltzes on side one.
Presented by the UK’s National Jazz Federation, this is a live recording of three sets by some of the UK’s up & coming jazz modernists. Recorded in concert on October 30, 1954 at the Royal Festival Hall in London, the night was unprecendented in holding a festival of jazz in one of London’s Royal Festival […]
A live recording on Vanguard of a night of performances from the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. It sounds as though it is from the early-mid 50s. I don’t remember where I got this LP from, but it is a UK press. Liner notes are by Langston Hughes. The artists featured are the Apollo Band Of […]
This was another one of those book fair “the records are only 10 cents & this looks interesting even though I have never heard of it before, so why not” purchases (actually the same fair as the Pete Seeger instructional LP I posted here previously). I assume it is a local white label promo or […]
Snap your fingers, slap your bass, blow your horn, Odean’s in the place. Recorded in 1982 in (cold war) West Germany. “Mwalimu” is the tune out of this eighty-ish sort of hard bop delivery. Odean Pope – Mwalimu.mp3
In France, France Gall is what you call a superstar of “la variete” (i.e. pop music). This nice little jazz number dates from back in the days when she was working (or was made to work) with Serge Gainsbourg. Side 1 here was penned by Serge: “Poupee De Cire, Poupee De Son” got France Gall […]
I don’t know all that much about these guys or this record (so I hope it’s not super common in the US) but I do know that it is friggin’ cool. It’s essentially a musical comedy routine captured live performing versions of a number of pop hits of the day as well as some more […]
Regency Line were a small library label based in Brighton, England (home of Fatboy Slim and Brad Pitt designed architecture) who issued a run of 30 LPs before disappearing into the ether. Their albums are some of the lesser known and tougher to find UK library LPs and were often issues of obscure mainland European […]
I forget where I got this record from, but I have probably had it for around 3 years & have listened to it about 3 times (two of those times were in preparation for this review). I do know that it was one of the records I “discovered” in my shelves when I had to […]
I was pretty totally unprepared for an avant jazz freak-out on an Educational Activities Inc. record, but that is exactly what a couple tracks on here are. Prepared piano with bass and percussion that reminds me of something you might hear on an ESP-Disk lp. The rest is quite good too but it’s more of […]
Banda Unitas ’78 – Simiiar to the “Port Authority” group in concept & execution but they try harder. Released for Puerto Rican recruitement, it was not distributed as widely as other US armed forces groups. Groovy song selection includes Negro Jose, Opener (Hand Clappin’ Music), Oye Mama, synthed out Theme From Rocky and Star Wars […]
Local NorCal High School jazz lp. Half of this is pretty standard school kid cheese. IE: horrible selection of covers (the Flinstones theme) sloppily executed – but without the reckless abandon that would make it interesting. The second side it better. An original side-long jazz suite with tinges of exotica. Based on the short clip […]
This release came out in 1972 on Otic records. It’s one of those records I always revisit and hear something new and fresh everytime. The album is split into half originals and half Carla Bley songs. Naughton gets down on the vibes, piano and clavinet, Mario Pavone is on bass and nice clarinet interplay by […]
I have no clue what Russ was aiming for when he put this out. A majority of this record is tepid jazz, the track “zippy’s night out” gets pretty funky but then goes downhill. Here’s a soundclip of one of the spacy electronic tracks on the record – “Gemini 1”
Here’s one of my favorite private press albums to emerge out of Seattle. Vibist Milton Simons composed this album which consists of 3 long tracks, the two songs on the A side are 13+ minutes long and the B side is just shy of 27 minutes long. The tracks range from mellow and brooding and […]
New York spiritual jazz with trippy flute backed by Cecil McBee, Dom Salvador, Brian Brake, Ray Armando & Portinho. 1975 recording on Baobob, the known & sampled parts are hard but all 4 tunes move with the strong players, it’s growing on me, give a listen to Griot
1978 Baobob pressing of “spiritual” jazz flute with a dash of latin percussions. Featuring Buster Williams on bass, Dom Salvador on piano, Victor Lewis, Dom Um Romao & Nana Vasconceios on rhythm. Acquired on the high recommendation of a mr hipster know it all, he may be on to something. Not too free, but flowing […]
I picked this 7″ up mainly because it has a Frank Zappa cover on it, but it actually turned out to be a solid record all the way through. I have no idea what the Muirlands Jazz/Rock Ensemble was (probably a High School Stage Band I am guessing) and from what the label tells me, […]
Jeremie was a Quebecois ballet scored by Lee Gagnon. It is a known and sought-after jazz-funk album with plenty of wha-wha and breaks (nobody ever seems to mention the nice mellow folk parts on the album though). However, I’m not here to talk about this record (even though it is, in itself, kind of interesting). […]
Picked this one up based on the fact that I noticed Bob Dorough was the vocalist and Steve Swallow arranged, produced, and played bass and keyboards on this. The Peter Max styled cover was another draw. A fairly strong 45 EP of covers including: Let’s Get Together, Atlantis, Runaway Child, and Blackbird. I’ve always been […]
Here’s a recording of an 11th annual concert hosted by the Hollywood Bowl to showcase teenage musicians and singers. The participants are either independent or associated with high schools. There’s your standard horn heavy stage band numbers from Montebello, Dorsey and Pico Rivera High Schools, as well as contributions from folk duos, such as Two […]
This is a Los Angeles based jazz quartet from 1976, which consists of drums, upright bass, alto sax and piano. This one’s pretty straight forward except a creative version of Art Blakey’s “Moanin’”, which features a beaty intro and refrain that sounds like “Dead”.
To continue in the Xian section, here is a french one: The Pax quartet, not really famous but quite prolific. It’s not just Church songs it’s also very jazzy, the orchestra is conducted by Christian Chevallier who was also known for his works with library labels. In fact the voices are similar to “Les Compagnons […]
This record was released in 1977 on the small private label Min records. Pat Moriarty plays the alto sax and Phil Hey holds down the percussion. They have an undeniable chemistry, this is one of my favorite free jazz duo records for sure. Definitely worth seeking out in my opinion. My favorite part of the […]