The A&M Sound on Rev-Ola

[reechie]

How about Phil Ochs' Greatest Hits, the only one of his A&M albums not currently in print?

The Ochs comp Chords Of Fame would be a good choice as well.

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Any chance for George McCurn's COUNTRY BOY GOES TO TOWN?




Dan

 

[Harry]

Dredging up an old thread, with an update.

The Claudine Longet compilation is ready for release. It's called HELLO, HELLO - THE BEST OF CLAUDINE LONGET.

Claudine Longet, the very model of the breathy, sexy French waif as the US and world audience perceived her... film star, TV star, singer/notsinger, a fey presence in a beautiful forest, where The A&M SOUND enveloped her in an embrace of Bossa Nova and LA reverb while Nick De Caro and Tommy Lipuma, masters of The A&M SOUND took us all on a journey into sound... where being a singer or not a singer didn't matter as long as the languid erotic vibe was there, where A.C. Jobim came and wrote and played, where there was a PARTY and Henry Mancini wrote, as he had done for Audrey Hepburn, the perfect song/notsong, for the ethereal beauty Claudine to sing/notsing as Peter Sellers desperately searched for the bathroom and Blake Edwards collapsed laughing. A magical person in a magical world, in a magical time. "Sleep Safe And Warm" never had a more definitive reading, as Claudine brought her own take on 'vaga' to the non-latino world.

If you know what that all means you'll RUSH out and buy this first time CD collection of Claudine's finest moments! With rare pictures and memorabilia from Claudine and her friends and family! With an EXCLUSIVE letter and quotes from Claudine... a famously reclusive person who has not done an interview for years until now! Beautifully remastered and packaged....! A must for all those who loved Wanda de Sah, Astrud Gilberto, oh you know what I'm getting at, and all fans of the unique A&M SOUND!

Hello Hello / White Horses / Meditation / Am I Blue? / The Look Of Love / Lazy Summer Night / Manha De Carnaval / Small Talk / A Man And A Woman / Both Sides Now / Dindi (Jin-Jee) / Walk In The Park / I Love How You Love Me / Sleep Safe / Creators Of Rain / How Insensitive / Hurry On Down / Everybody's Talkin' / Man In A Raincoat / Love Is Blue / I Think It's Gonna Rain Today / Think Of Rain / It's Hard To Say Goodbye / Snow / I Don't Intend To Spend Christmas Without You

Also of interest at RevOla to we A&M types are the Merry Go Round, Boyce and Hart, and Evie Sands compilations.

Brazilian music fans will be happy that SOFTLY by Wanda de Sah is re-released here at a reasonable price as opposed to the very expensive Japanese versions that have appeared.

Note the cool use of the "drop-down" logo on the Claudine picture above. Even though this isn't a standard A&M cover, it's made to look like one.

Great stuff there, you guys at RevOla. My order's in and on the way!

Harry

 

[Trevor]

I think that it would be great to have the Bossa Rio 2nd album and live album on CD.

The 2nd Album: "Alegria" is on Blue Thumb Records.
The Live Album is A&M Japan: "Bossa Rio: Live at the Expo '70" is the title?

The first Album is already available on Japanese CD import...

The group features: Pery Ribeiro, Gracinha Leporace (of Brasil '66 and '77...) among others...

 

[Harry]

I received my package of Rev-Ola discs in the mail yesterday. I ordered the Caludine Longet, The Merry-Go-Round, Boyce & Hart, and the Wanda de Sah SOFTLY disc (not A&M but one I wanted to own, and a lot cheaper than the Japanese import).

Included in the styling of the discs to look like A&M labels, complete with an ochre color, 'stereo" designator at 3 o'clock, and an RR logo complete with trumpet figure at 9 o'clock, there's also now an A&M sound logo found underneath the tray's clear spine.

It sort of looks like this:

<<<"THEA&MSOUND">>>​

...with the A&M part looking just like the A&M logo. (I was unable above to get the ampersand to be high in between the A and the M, but you get the idea.)

The liner notes to each disc look thorough with good history of each of the artists, how they came to record for A&M and what they did on charts, etc. The Merry Go Round notes for example mention the recording that the group did with Herb Alpert of "California Girls", that it was used in the TV special and never released to disc.

Claudine's liner notes include A Message From Claudine, which was written in September of this year. They're poetic sort-of fragments of her memories of the days of recording. They include a fairly long segment about "Nothing To Lose" which unfortunately does not appear on the disc.

All of the liner notes include pictures from the period, pictures of discs, and pictures of album and single covers. All in all, these seem to be pretty thorough releases for some of these somewhat forgotten artists from the '60s. Think of them as the long-missing members of "Classics" series.

Harry

 

[seashorepiano]

Kindly consider some of these titles for release on CD:

Nat Adderley, You, Baby and Calling Out Loud

Artie Butler, Have You Met Miss Jones?

Baja Marimba Band, Those Were The Days, Fowl Play

J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding, Betwixt & Between


Thank you for letting us know. I only regret not seeing this thread sooner!

 

[AM2Star]

I am new here, so I apologize if this is off topic.

I purchased the Boyce & Hart compilation, and it is really good. Are there plans to release thier original albums, remastered?

Also, from the messages, are the albums of Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66 available from Rev-Ola?

 

[Trevor]

All the Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 albums are available on CD either import or domestic. dustygroove.com has them, although sometimes they run out of stock. Every Sergio album (with the exception of 2 Brasil '77 Live albums) is / was available on CD at one point. It depends on which album you are looking for.

 

[AM2Star]

Is there one source for all of the Sergio Mendes music? Or, one source for all of the Brazil '66 albums? I would hate to get the various albums with different mixes and quality. Just like Shout! Factory has released many of the TJB albums, I would like quality collections from a company that will do it right.

 

[Harry]

Unfortunately, not really. Back around 2002, the Japanese had all of the A&M Brasil '66 + '77 discs all in print at once, and the mastering was good (for the ones I bought). In the US, the Verve label has released three of them in dribs and drabs. In 2000, they gave us LOOK AROUND, nicely remastered and in a folded digipak. Then came EQUINOX in 2002, this time packaged in a mini-LP-style package. Again, the mastering was among the best we've heard for this particular title. In 2004, FOOL ON THE HILL was released, this one again going back to a foldover digipak format, and again the mastering was top-notch.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

What I've noticed is that the sound on the Verve releases is about as good as it gets. The Japan versions are good, but they used compression during mastering, and are louder (not in a good way) than the Verve CDs, on the order of about 4 to 5 dB. They also have, IMHO, a harder digital "glare" to them that I don't hear in the Verves, which seem to be smoother and more natural. The Japan CDs are good, but certainly not great!

Definitely, grab the domestic Verves Look Around and Equinox NOW since there is no guarantee they will remain in print much longer. I'm hoping that the next two Verve releases would be Herb Alpert Presents and Crystal Illusions; after that, with falling popularity and sales potential, I see little reason for Verve to want to reissue them.