🎵 AotW Baja Marimba Band AS TIME GOES BY (A&M SP 4298)

Anyway, I think the exploratory and overall "quiet" tone of ATGB has some roots in Fresh Air, where Julius had more vibes work and nontraditional-BMB instrumentation, not to mention just an overall feel of departing from the usual BMB mode in songs like "Cielito Lindo" and "Wave."

This gives me an interesting idea...

What if we substituted these two tunes for "As Time Goes By," "Left Field" and "Spanish Flea?" These three don't fit the album, honestly, and a bit of a rearrangement of "Cielito Lindo" would make it fit perfectly. And I've long felt that this was one of the better of Julius's albums since it's a departure from a formula that had been repeated for several prior albums. Tightening it up with like-minded arrangements would make it that much better.
 
I own a CD by Henry Mancini that has virtually the same arrangement of ATGB, singers and all.
I do have that on an old LP somewhere, but can't remember which one it was. It wasn't from my favorite era of Mancini's records, as the 70s had a lot more of the MOR projects I didn't really care for.
 
Agreed. Like with Burt, by the '70s, the time had passed for Hank. I have only a few of his '70s LPs; they're OK, but don't really capture the unique magical essence that he gave us in the '60s. (Actually, the '60s--'70s slide was not unusual for many '60s artists -- where their '70s LPs paled in comparison to their '60s LPs: several artists come immediately to mind: Dylan, Simon, Steve Stills, John Sebastian, Leonard Cohen, John Lennon, Buck Owens, The Kinks / Ray Davies, The Rolling Stones, Sergio Mendes...)
 
Mancini had a few good ones in the 70s (like The Mancini Generation, Symphonic Soul, etc., both of which touched on jazz) yet there were others like the two with Doc Severinsen that laid their like MOR wet blankets. There were still a few interesting melodies like on the two Pink Panther sequels Return and Strikes Again and like any of those records, you could dig through many of them and find a gem or two. And I think some of that also had to do with the recording quality--the recordings had no "bite" to them and leaned towards a distant perspective, and the bass was weak. Making the sound too mellow didn't help the already mellow music.
 
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Mancini had a few good ones in the 70s (like The Mancini Generation, Symphonic Soul, etc., both of which touched on jazz) yet there were others like the two with Doc Severinsen that laid their like MOR wet blankets. There were still a few interesting melodies like on the two Pink Panther sequels Return and Strikes Again and like any of those records, you could dig through many of them and find a gem or two. And I think some of that also had to do with the recording quality--the recordings had no "bite" to them and leaned towards a distant perspective, and the bass was weak. Making the sound too mellow didn't help the already mellow music.
The Cop Show Themes (clocking in at a generous 25min🥴) was my fave. You're correct: there's something off-the-mark about '70s RCA overall LP sound quality.
 
Cop Show Themes was a companion to Mancini's Angels which was also based around, well, cop show themes. From what I remember, two of the three "angels" behind Hank in the album cover photo were his daughters Felice and Monica. Big Screen, Little Screen had movie and TV themes.
 
Am I correct to assume the master was lost in the fire, along with most/all of the BMB albums?

Sad, would really like to hear/own this album.
 
Am I correct to assume the master was lost in the fire, along with most/all of the BMB albums?

Sad, would really like to hear/own this album.
I don't think anybody knows for sure exactly what was lost, but yes, I'd say that this was probably one of the losses.

If it wasn't so late tonight, I'd upload it to YouTube. I had a version up there but was in a hurry to get out this afternoon, and it had too many problems. The new needle drop is done, but I have to get it into a video editor to make a YouTube-compatible file to upload.
 
This was one of the last BMB albums I found which completed my collection in 2006 which was also needle dropped this one was the hardest one to find the condition is very stellar it hasn't been played much since the needle drop to CD it was truly Different than the previous Albums more focus On Jazz. With just a couple MOR tunes for familiarity but being it was The Last A&M album This was one Heck of an album to go out on. So to speak I still enjoy it completely
 
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