Favorite instrumental music

[DAN BOLTON]

My favorite instrumental track OF ALL TIME (and that is going back to around 1966 or so) is Woody Herman's version of the great Brazilian composer Edu Lobo's tune "Ponteio" off his 1968 "Light My Fire" album for Cadet. I have listened to this track literally thousands of times over the years and I never tire of it. It is the single most exciting, powerful, uplifting piece of instrumental music I have heard in all these years, and that is saying a LOT. The arrangement was by Richard Evans. The band was one of Woody's most fiery. The cut is incandescent.

That whole album is one of my favorites...first time I ever heard PONTEIO. HUSH and HARD TO KEEP MY MIND ON YOU are great cuts, too...in fact, LMF was the first exposure to HUSH I'd ever had, and I did a double take when I found out it was a Deep Purple song, much later...


Dan

 

[Mike]

This is a fun listen: Blooming Hits, Paul Mauriat and his orchestra

Regards,
Mike

 

[Mike]

Here is another instrumental that I seem to never tire of:

Richard Carpenter
Pianist - Arranger – Composer – Conductor

I found this in a bargain bin in a record shop and picked it up because it seemed like a shame to see Richard languishing in a bin amongst a bunch of loser CDs. I’m glad I did because this is a really enjoyable listen.

~Mike

 

[Mark-T]

Very partial to John Williams' Sabrina movie soundtrack.
As far as Richard Carpenter, I really like the instrumental Time, and I just listened to it this morning.

 

[alpertfan]

My favorite instrumental music is mostly limited to jazz, but I have a few early rock n' roll favorites. The ones that come to mind are two songs by Booker T and The MGs: "Green Onions" and "Time Is Tight", two by The Ventures: "Walk, Don't Run" (the original from 1960) and "Theme From Hawaii Five-O" and Mason Williams' "Classical Gas" (I guess you wouldn't really call that rock n' roll, but it is a favorite of mine).

 

[Dave]

I've found the Mangione's, both Chuck and Gap, to also have instrumental catalogs worth exploring...

Some real hidden gems can be found on their albums recorded for Mercury, though Chuck made a couple double-LP's, which at times got a lil' overblown, while Gap simply needed to make more records if his latest discs at A&M tended to be selling out to the EZ List'nin'/Disco crowd...



Dave

 

[Mr Bill]

What? No one's recommended Kenny G yet?

--Mr Bill
standing by for a beating after being absent for over a month!

 

[Dave]

I enjoy the progressive Dutch rock band, Focus... Though some of their songs have vocals (though in the form of wordless yodeling) most of their stuff has been instrumental...

I also like The Instrumental Works of Alan Parsons Project, too... (Though for them a lot of their stuff with the various singers used, always had more of a "summary"...)



Dave