Favorite instrumental music

[happycamper]

I thought it would be interesting to get feedback from TJB fans about other instrumental artists that they enjoy. If you like the TJB, I will tend to trust your judgment about other artists. That could save me some time and money in future music purchases. I know that this topic is a little out-of-bounds, but I think a thread on this could be very interesting.
I enjoy a wide spectrum of music, depending on the mood I am in, but Herb is still number one with me. So if you have a moment, I would appreciate seeing your list. Here is mine. I have excluded all my vocal music favorites.

1. Herb Alpert/TJB
2. Chuck Mangione -- Some of my favorites are -- Memories of Shirocco, Bellavia, Chase the Clouds Away, Children of Sanchez. Chuck has great composing talent.
2. Classical -- I listen to Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Handel, Vivaldi, and others. I tend to stick with the most popular pieces.
3. Doc Severinsen: I ran across an album called Trumpet Spectacular that he did with the Cincinatti Pops. Some excellent pieces.
4. Mannheim Steamroller -- Some excellent music from Chip Davis and a group of talented musicians. Some standouts -- Baroque-a-Nova, Dancin' in the stars, and lots of beautiful Christmas music.
5. John Williams -- I have a few of his CD's with Movie themes and music he wrote for the Olympics
6. Chic Correa: I don't own any of his albums, but I have listened to excerpts from some of his work and I am considering making some investments. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
7. U. S. Air Force Band - I know this seems strange, but I enjoy Bugler's Holiday that I purchased from iTunes.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Chic Correa: I don't own any of his albums, but I have listened to excerpts from some of his work and I am considering making some investments. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Chick Corea has a wide variety of releases throughout his storied career, but these are some of my faves of his:

Crystal Silence - a duet album with vibist Gary Burton, absolutely gorgeous!

Friends - Maybe one of his finer albums, some straight-ahead stuff with Steve Gadd, Eddie Gomez and Joe Farrell.

My Spanish Heart - a double album chock full of different Latin pieces with a variety of guest stars.

Then you need to get some of Return To Forever's albums (these are fusion classics):

Light As A Feather
Where Have I Known You Before
No Mystery
Romantic Warrior

That should get you started.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I guess, outside of the usual major A&M artists (Herb, Julius, Quincy Jones and Burt Bacharach) a lot of my instrumental tastes run to singles and one-off tracks by artists/bands that are usually vocal. Off the top of my head, some of my favorite instrumental songs are:

Quiet Village, Martinique - Martin Denny
Song from M-A-S-H - Al DeLory (I sure wish I could find it on CD, or even a good LP)
Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) - Deodato
Pick Up the Pieces - Average White Band
Sunny Side of Heaven - Fleetwood Mac
Free Wheelin' - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Lordy - Hugo Montenegro
Bongo Rock - Incredible Bongo Band

My current favorite Baja Marimba Band tunes are "Always Something There to Remind Me," "I'll Marimba You," "Cielito Lindo" and "Goin' Out the Side Door." TJB and Bacharach --too many to list. My favorite Herb Alpert songs from his solo era: "Beyond," "Route 101," "Coco Loco" and probably two or three more I can't think of right now.

Sergio Mendes has some cool instrumentals or "scat/chant" vocal songs, like "After Sunrise" or "Mozambique" or "Celebration of the Sunrise" that I like a lot.

I do like a lot of the Mannheim Steamroller music, but it is starting to sound seriously dated, what with the electronic drum sound and all those synths. My favorite song of theirs is "Return to the Earth" from FRESH AIRE V.

Every album by The Alan Parsons Project has at least one good instrumental, too.

There are probably others I'm not thinking of at the moment.

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Lessee...there's Fleetwood Mac's ALBATROSS, Lawrence Welk's CALCUTTA, just about anything from Chet Atkins and Wes Montgomery, anything from Duane Eddy...especially REBEL ROUSER and 40 MILES OF BAD ROAD,The Champs's TEQUILA, Gershon Kingsley's SUMMERTIME, Edgar Winter's FRANKENSTEIN, the Allman Brothers' JESSICA, Anton Karas' THIRD MAN THEME, John Barry's JAMES BOND THEME, Laurie Bond's THEME FROM "THE AVENGERS", Henry Mancini's NEWHART THEME, and the THEME FROM SILVER STREAK, the THEME FROM IT TAKES A THIEF, BURKE'S LAW[I also dig Sy Zentner's version of UP A LAZY RIVER...], anything from the Ry Cooder/Manuel Galban album, the Surfaris' WIPEOUT and PIPELINE, Dick Dale's MISERLOU, Bill Justus' RAUNCHY...the list could go on and on...

Was it the T-Bones who did NO MATTER WHAT SHAPE[your stomach's in...]?



Dan

 

[Captaindave]

Yes, it was the T-Bones.

I also like The Avengers version mentioned above and It Takes A Thief from the late 1960s TV show. Also, the themes from The Saint (the 1960s TV show - not the more recent movie) and the Man From Uncle.

I like Soulful Strut by Young Holt Unlimited, Soul Coaxin' by Raymond Lefevre, and Hungry For Love by San Remo Golden Strings, I like Classical Gas by Mason Williams.

I like the Brass Ring; especially the Love Theme from The Flight of the Phoenix. I like Music To Watch Girls By, by the Bob Crewe Generation.

I like Chris Botti and Rick Braun - contemporary "smooth jazz" trumpet players. Others in that genre that have some songs I like are Paul Brown, Jay Soto, Wayman Tisdale, and Down To The Bone.

There's some more, but I can't bring them up from memory right now...

 

[Moondog]

Instrumental groups...I'll have to do some thinking on that. Just hope I don't hurt myself. A couple that quickly come to mind are the Gordon Goodwin Band and Maynard Ferguson.

Others: Dave Brubeck Quartet, Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Phil Woods and, as a single, Stanley Jordan and, of course, the BMB.

Probably back later with others.

Take care...

George

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Off the top of my head (and I know I'll leave some out):

Les Baxter: The Poor People Of Paris
Count Basie: April In Paris
Jimmy Dorsey: So Rare
Henry Mancini: Mr. Lucky
Count Basie: Cute
Bill Pursell: Our Winter Love
Roy Meriwether Trio: Secret Love (and would I love to find THAT on CD!)
Horst Jankowski: A Walk In The Black Forest
Paul Mauriat: Love Is Blue
Raymond Lefevre: Ame Caline (Soul Coaxing)
Young-Holt Unlimited: Soulful Strut
Wes Montgomery: Road Song
Mason Williams: Baroque-A-Nova (single version)
Booker T. & The MGs: Time Is Tight
Burt Bacharach: Knowing When To Leave
Quincy Jones: Walking In Space
Mason Williams: Greensleeves
Assembled Multitude: Overture From Tommy
Al DeLory: Song From M*A*S*H
Freddie Hubbard: Red Clay (entire album)
Burt Bacharach: Wives & Lovers (from SP-3501)
Isaac Hayes: Cafe Regio's (from the Shaft soundtrack)
Antonio Carlos Jobim: Stone Flower (entire album)
Hubert Laws: The Rite Of Spring (entire album)
Deodato: Also Sprach Zarathustra
Deodato: Rhapsody In Blue
Deodato: Moonlight Serenade
Claus Ogerman: Gate of Dreams (entire album)
Claus Ogerman & Michael Brecker: Cityscape (entire album)

I know I'm forgetting some, but those are the ones that I think I would have been poorer for never having heard them.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[seashorepiano]

Michael: I also like Red Clay, but I usually listen just to "Red Clay" and "Delphia." Could never really get into the rest of the album. The live take of "Red Clay" is pretty good, though.

 

[Captaindave]

I forgot Love Is Blue by Paul Mauriat. Our Winter Love by Pursell mentioned above is a great one. And, A Walk In The Black Forest by Horst Jankowski.

Cast Your Fate To The Wind by Sounds Orchestral; The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly by Hugo Montenegro, Watermelon Man by Mongo Santamaria, and Wonderland By Night by Bert Kaempfert.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I forgot "Conference of the Birds" by Mystic Moods, when they took a brief (three-album) foray from e-z listening into progressive orchestrated rock -- sort of like the Moody Blues, but with less guitar and more orchestra. They had some really good instrumentals in that period - the albums were CLEAR LIGHT, EROGENOUS and AWAKENING.

 

[JOv2]

Cast Your Fate To The Wind by Sounds Orchestral

You should really consider the original here, by Vince Guaraldi. (As I recall, the Sounds Orchestral version is direct rip-off of Vince's original trio arrangement -- just watered down with strings.)

OK, here're some of my fave pop instrumental artists from the '50s-'60s

Chet Atkins
Sid Bass
John Berry
Les Baxter
Esquivel

Norman Luboff (choral singing, actually -- but fits better here to me)
Harpo Marx (yup, THAT Harpo -- two fine LPs on Mercury)
Billy May
Mitch Miller (before the "sing-along Mitch" and "I-hate-rock-'n-roll-and-Jazz Mitch")
Andre Popp

Nelson Riddle
Dick Schory
Paul Weston
Henry Mancini
The Baja Marimba Band

Burt Bacharach (except when he sings, then he's non-listenable!!!)
Booker T. and the MGs
John Fahey
Davy Graham (except when he sings, at least he CAN sing though...)
Tony Hatch

Qunicy Jones (too "pop" for the jazz list)
Herbie Mann (same here as with other "jazz" cats listed here)
The Markettes
Gary McFarland
Wes Montgomery

Gabor Szabo
Cal Tjader
The Ventures

 

[Mike]

The Brass Ring!

Mike

 

[nightcat]

Favorite jazz artists would include...

Kenny Burrell
Wes Montgomery
Herbie Mann
Cal Tjader
Kenny Dorham
Miles Davis
Gary Burton
Yusef Lateef
Stan Getz
Bill Evans

Pop instrumental groups and artists would include....

Brass Ring
Trombones Unlimited
King Richard's Fluegel Knights
Mariachi Brass
Henry Mancini
Lalo Schifrin
Steve Allen

Bossa Nova artists include...

A. C. Jobim
Baden Powell
Luiz Bonfa
Zimbo Trio
Tamba 4
Joao Donato

 

[Moondog]

More instrumentalists/groups I like:

George Shearing(trio)
Marian McPartland
Chet Atkins(forgot all about him)
Joe Pass(trio)
Chuck Mangione
Dick Hyman
Paquito D'Rivera(quintet)
Stan Getz
Erroll Garner
Horace Silver
Johnny Smith
Cannonball Adderly
Denis DiBlasio
George Rabbai

Plenty more, but it could get tedious...maybe...

Take care...

George

 

[Larry]

Here are a few of mine:

The Hollyridge Strings (Most of) The Beatles Songbooks
Gene Page -Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Dominic Troiano -Lonely Girl
George Martin - And I Love Her from A Hard Day's Night Soundtrack
Henry Mancini - Lujon and Mystery Movie Theme
David Foster - Love Theme From St. Elmo's Fire also his Rechordings CD
Al Caiola- The Magnificent Seven and Bonanza
Percy Faith - Theme From A Summer Place
The Bob Crewe Generation - Music To Watch Girls By
The T-Bones - Shangri-la and the majority of tunes on the LP it's from
(Everyone's Gone To The Moon(And Other Trips))
The Ventures - LPs Play Telstar/ The Lonely Bull -- Ventures In Space
also their version of Blue Star (The Theme From "Medic")
Walk Don't Run
Dave Grusin- Theme From St. Elsewhere
The Brass Ring - The Poenix Love Theme and The Disadvantages of You
Walter Wanderly - Summer Samba
Al Delory - Song From M*A*S*H which I do happen to have on CD,
Mike.
Hugo Montengro- The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Nelson Riddle- Route 66 Theme
Waldo De Los Rios- Je T'Aime
Love Unlimited Ochestra- Love's Theme
Young-Holt Unlimited - Soulful Strut
Lawrence Welk - Calcutta
Morton Gould - My Cup Runneth Over


Favorite TV Instrumental Theme Songs:
Burke's Law
Leave It To Beaver
Dennis The Menace
My Three Sons
Star Trek
The Avengers Theme


An awfully "too long" to list of smooth jazz artists.

 

[Moondog]

I liked the theme from "The Rockford Files," too.

Take care...

George

 

[TonyCurrie]

Difficult to condense, since my lifelong passion is indeed instrumentals; but my favourites (and those most reflected on the shelves) are:

Tony Hatch (close chum, so I really have to put him first)
Johnny Harris (who was Tony's arranger - now based in LA. Catch his album 'Movements' for a real thrill)
Sounds Orchestral (pianist/arranger Johnny Pearson also a close pal)
Mason Williams (who now releases his wonderful music on his own Skookum label)
Percy Faith (especially the album Bim! Bam!! Boom!!!, although I have some 30 odd of his albums)
Syd Dale (UK arranger-composer with fantastic taste)
James Last (sometimes)
Bert Kaempfert
John Schroeder (producer of Sounds Orchestral, but also Status Quo and fronted his own orchestra as well as the 'City of Westminster String Band')
Michael Park (well that's what the Japanese call him. He's really my old friend Callum Kenmuir)
Keith Mansfield
Alan Hawkshaw
The Hollyridge Strings
Les Baxter
Horst Jankowski
Al Caiola
and
of course
H.A.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

I knew I zoned some...

Nelson Riddle: Route 66 Theme
Sounds Orchestral: Cast Your Fate To The Wind
Jack Neitzche: The Lonely Surfer
Mike Post: Theme From The Rockford Files
Mike Post: Theme From Hill Street Blues

And I don't know if they were ever on records, but the themes from St. Elsewhere and L.A. Law are pretty neat, too.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[Mike]

If we’re going to include TV themes, I’ll add Henry Mancini’s:
Peter Gunn and the Mystery Movie Theme.

Mike

 

[Captaindave]

Yes...the Brass Ring. Phoenix Love Theme is my favorite of those recordings.

 

[Moondog]

Dunno how I forgot, but yet another occurred to me:

Ted Heath(almost anything his band did)

Take care...

George

 

[Rudy]

If we’re going to include TV themes, I’ll add Henry Mancini’s:
Peter Gunn and the Mystery Movie Theme.

Along with A&M artists, I grew up listening to Mancini's albums. We didn't have that many, maybe between one and two dozen. He recorded more than 80 in his career...so yeah, what my folks owned was a drop in the bucket. In his albums alone, I liked both the Peter Gunn albums, Combo!, Blues & The Beat, Uniquely Mancini, and soundtracks for Pink Panther, Charade, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Arabesque, and just about any he recorded in the 50s and 60s.

While on "instrumental" music per se, I have a lot of jazz and fusion favorites. One of my favorite albums of all time is Pat Metheny's "Secret Story". He does do some jazz playing on here, but this almost seems like the soundtrack to a lost film or something--there are a lot of deep, moving melodies and themes on here that will linger long after you've played them. I like a lot of his other recordings, but this one works on a lot of levels for me. I even own it on vinyl.

Herbie Hancock's albums Head Hunters and Thrust are two recent favorites I've played to death. Not everyone's cup of tea, though.

I guess one could count big band music as instrumental, and I have many favorites there as well: Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton, Shorty Rogers & His Giants, Perez Prado, etc. etc.

Even a good Stevie Ray Vaughan instrumental will make me sit up and take notice. "Scuttle Buttin'", anyone?

 

[TonyCurrie]

........And I don't know if they were ever on records, but the themes from St. Elsewhere and L.A. Law are pretty neat, too.

---Michael Hagerty

The St Elsewhere theme is on a vinyl album titled "Cagney & Lacey" from the Daniel Caine Orchestra and you'll it on You Tube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Hr0MrxMak&feature=related

LA Law is on a CD titled NYPD Blus: The Best of Mike Post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf0MPwb-gD8&feature=related

 

[Mike]

If vinyl is an option (refering to the first post) then I recommend these LPs:

By Peter Nero:
Wives and Lovers
Plays a Salute to Herb Alpert & the TJB
Xochimilco (So-chee-meel-co)

By Pete Jolly
Herb Alpert Presents, Pete Jolly
Give A Damn

Mike

 

[DAN BOLTON]

who did SHANGRI-LA?


Dan