Richard Carpenter Trio

[Nemily]

Please forgive me if I missed a similar open topic that specifically addresses RC Trio instrumental jazz recordings with RCA. The RC Trio period I am wondering about is from 1965 to when Wes Jacobs leaves to study classical Tuba at Juilliard and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1967. Richard tells us that he first started making tape recordings of the Trio in the Summer of 1965. I read somewhere that there is an entire unreleased album (or two) on the RCA label. Has anyone ever heard these albums? If there are any master recordings that exist, does Richard have access to them or is there a licensing issue? I am also wondering if Richard has any personally taped recordings safely in a vault.

My Carpenters collection is mostly lacking the instrumental jazz period. Songs from this period would be a valued extension to what we have on the Carpenters early years. I would definitely both purchase and treasure a collection of the Trio (I think I am in good company here). I made a list of songs for a dream album, albeit I am sure there are many I not aware of. I would love to hear more. Am I missing any obvious ones? It seems likely that there are more songs if in fact there are one or two unreleased albums. They were also doing a lot of weddings, parties and dances so who knows what tunes were on these set lists.

Early version of ‘Iced Tea’, an RC original recorded September 1966 and released while under contract with RCA, available on the boxed sets ‘From The Top’ and ‘The Essential Collection’

‘The Girl from Ipanema’, available on YouTube, recorded September 1966 and unreleased by RCA

‘Every Little Thing’, available on YouTube, recorded September 1966 and unreleased by RCA

‘Strangers in the Night’, available on YouTube, recorded September 1966 and unreleased by RCA

According to ‘LGB’ they recorded ‘I’ve Never Been in Love Before’, from the musical ‘Guys and Dolls’, unknown availability.

‘The Musical Legacy’ shows a photo referencing that the Trio recorded “I’ve Never Had a Love”, an RC original, unknown availability.

‘Caravan’, Fidler house living room recording 1965 on Richard’s personal reel-to-reel, available on the boxed sets ‘From The Top’ and ‘The Essential Collection’

Early version of ‘Flat Baroque’, an RC original later recorded at A&M Studio B in March 1972, available on the Studio Album ‘A Song For You’ and numerous other compilations,

Notes: With KC Vocals

Looking for Love and I’ll Be Yours the 45 was backed by the RC Trio and recorded in Joe Osborn’s garage in 1966 under the Magic Lamp Label, however Karen was signed as the Artist so this does not count as inclusion of the bands recordings.

Richard, Karen and Wes also taped Parting of Our Ways that summer in Joe Osborn’s garage with Joe joining in on Electric bass.

After Jacobs departure and Spectrum disbanded, ‘Dancing in the Street’ was performed at Your All American College Show in 1968 with bassist Bill Sissoyev, famously available on YouTube, and was later recorded at A&M Studio D in 1978 for the TV Special Space Encounters), also available on the album version ‘As Time Goes By’

 

[tomswift2002]

The RCA stuff needs to be licensed from RCA (now Sony I believe), and in the booklet for “From The Top/The Essential Collection”, ‘Iced Tea’ was transferred from an acetate reference disc, so it sounds like the only masters for any RCA recordings still in existence are acetate discs. RCA might still have the tapes, but whether didn’t let A&M/Polygram/Universal use them is unknown.

And with RCA, only eleven sides were cut, so there’s no way that there could be two albums sitting in RCA’s vaults, unless they were planning two EP’s.

As for the Joe Osborn stuff, aside from the masters used in 1969 for “Offering” and “California Dreaming”, the rest of the masters were destroyed in a house fire in 1974, so all those releases have been sourced from acetates, 45’s and 1/4-inch audio tape. Although the Summerchimes masters from United Audio still exist and are owned by Richard.

Also there was the UCLA album from that period that included “Goodnight” and I think “The Girl From Ipanema” was from that album. But it was a private release so the masters were probably re-recorded over decades ago.

 

[Nemily]

Thanks for all of this, @tomswift2002. It's all a pity some of this wonderful discography will not again see the light of day. I hadn’t associated ‘Goodnight’ with the RC Trio. Uh, this song gets me every time. I actually purchased the box set ‘From the Top’ specifically because this song and ‘Canta’ were so elusive.

Richard said that the record that was privately released with the CSULB choir performance on 5/9/69 (recording by independent ‘Radio Recorders’ out of Hollywood) was transferred from that vinyl LP for the box set. It sounds great and it just seems like if he was able to do that in 1991, in theory other songs from that vinyl LP could be transferred as well.

 

[tomswift2002]

Thanks for all of this, @tomswift2002. It's all a pity some of this wonderful discography will not again see the light of day. I hadn’t associated ‘Goodnight’ with the RC Trio. Uh, this song gets me every time. I actually purchased the box set ‘From the Top’ specifically because this song and ‘Canta’ were so elusive.

Richard said that the record that was privately released with the CSULB choir performance on 5/9/69 (recording by independent ‘Radio Recorders’ out of Hollywood) was transferred from that vinyl LP for the box set. It sounds great and it just seems like if he was able to do that in 1991, in theory other songs from that vinyl LP could be transferred as well.

I don’t recall if the Trio was playing on it, but it’s from that time period. However the problem with other tracks from that album is that there are other performers from the university on the tracks. I’ve heard “And When I Die” which is a duet between Karen and another university student. Again, the other student gave permission for that LP release, but they would need to get their permission to release it on a global scale.

 

[Nemily]

I had forgotten about AWID. Boy, that was another terrific performance . Anyway, much obliged for the wealth of information. I have always wondered why someone didn’t put these out there.

 

[Walkinat9]

The RC Trio was not on the CSULB choir LP, but Richard did the piano accompaniment on 2 albums, while Karen had a few solo vocals on the LP from '69 only.
Links are in this old post.

"The Girl from Ipanema" has applause at the end, so that has to be from the Hollywood Bowl Battle of the Bands LP from '66. I so wish that the videotape of that event (coverage in color) would still exist in some LA TV vault...

@Nemily , I guess you already knew about Richard's pre-RC Trio recordings ?


Greg

 

[Nemily]

Greg, spot on. I was trying to get it together in my head what music had survived and could/would be available to us from the RC Trio years, and wondering why no one was able to get as close to the master sources as possible so that they could be released in some fashion.

After I found out here on this thread that there is very little chance of anything surviving, I created my own playlist from what is available through YouTube which will have to be enough (credited as RC Trio-Garota de Ipanema, Strangers In The Night, Every Little Thing, Iced Tea, Dancing In Street, Caravan, All of My Life).

I completely forgot about the Barries! This is smashing. I got such a thrill listening to these. The audio is great considering this is from 60 or so years ago (oh boy). Thanks so much. I knew about the New Haven group and Jim Squeglia/Jim Anthony, however I had no idea that these recording existed. Love this.

Back to the choir, I knew that Karen's soloist numbers and duet with Wanda Freeman at the CSULB was in May 1969 after the RC Trio. I vehemently agree with you in your old post and I also would love to hear the 1968 and 1969 LPs from both choir performances. ‘Tema’ in 1968 is a new one to me. Thanks for that.