The Now Spinning/Recent Purchases Thread

[Rudy]

I wish Silver had recorded more trio dates.



I enjoy hearing him go all out on tunes like "Yeah!," "Ecaroh," and others on this set. The two percussion workouts (with Art Blakey and Sabu Martinez) are nice breaks in the programming. Given this set's 16 tracks on CD, I'd have to see which ones appear on the original album. The cover art is confusing since it is an orange-hued version of a prior album (Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers).

 

[Rudy]

Given this set's 16 tracks on CD, I'd have to see which ones appear on the original album.

This was an early release, and this "album" was actually a compilation of early tracks that predated some of his LP releases. As such, the original Blue Note LP BLP1520 was a twelve-track mono release.

A1	Safari
A2	Ecaroh
A3	Prelude To A Kiss
A4	Message From Kenya
A5	Horoscope
A6	Yeah
B1	How About You
B2	I Remember You
B3	Opus De Funk
B4	Nothing But The Soul
B5	Silverware
B6	Day In Day Out

It was reissued a couple of times, including in Japan, but beware of BST1520, which has the dreaded warning at the top of the LP jacket:



Phake stereo.

Wisely Japan only issued this in mono on vinyl. And I'm more wiserer and avoiding the temptation to get a copy since the price of these is quite hefty.

Just playing this before dinner again. I also forgot to mention above that "Horoscope" resurfaced as "Horace-Scope" on the same-titled album a few years later in full quintet style. Plenty of good tunes here.

 

[JOv2]

It was reissued a couple of times, including in Japan, but beware of BST1520, which has the dreaded warning at the top of the LP jacket:

Phake stereo.

That particular issue also goes by the alternate title, "Horrorscope".

 

[Rudy]

"Stereo-phony."

 

[Rudy]

Not spinning yet, but I dug this out of the record boxes in the basement. I have no clue as to whether I'll recognize the music, but it was a mainstay in the house when I was a kid. I honestly don't know if anyone played it, but it would have been something my mother purchased. Recorded in 1954 for RCA Red Seal, side one is the "Ballet Bonampak," composed and conducted by Luis Sandi, featuring the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico. Side two is a set of Brazilian folks song sung by soprano Sarita Gloria, accompanied by Anthony "Tony" Chanaka on piano, who was later known as an acclaimed piano and voice teacher in the Washington DC area. (As I'm not fond of soprano voices, I will probably skip side two. )





The record and sleeve are, at best, in Fair condition, if not Poor. It needs to go through a cleaning process, then I will run it through some processing to get rid of some of the noise. Torture test in the making.

 

[Rudy]

That poor LP is in sad shape. Our copy looks like this:



I won't reveal the video just yet (as it accompanies an article I'm working on) but this is definitely "torture test" material.

 

[Rudy]

Now that I've unearthed it from Mothball Central...



...I'm finally giving Betwixt & Between a spin, and for the second time today. It got a good cleaning, and seems to be in better condition than I remember it (with some additional "processing" . I think I played through this one only once when I first bought it used, then stuck it on a shelf, pulling it off only to record "Little Drummer Boy" for my expanded Something Festive project.

Playing it today, I'm a bit surprised that it actually has a couple of songs on it that lean towards a rock beat, like the title track and "Stormy," mixed in with a couple of Brazilian cuts "Casa Forte" (Edu Lobo) and "Mojave" (Jobim). After years of my version of Something Festive, it is weird hearing it in another context! I like the variety, and the Bach interludes don't seem all that out of place. Think I'll play the other two J&K albums this evening before I give the turntable a rest.

 

[JOv2]

That poor LP is in sad shape. Our copy looks like this:



I won't reveal the video just yet (as it accompanies an article I'm working on) but this is definitely "torture test" material.

...looks like your typical $15 e-Bay VG to me .

 

[Rudy]

...looks like your typical $15 e-Bay VG to me .

You know it! "One or two scratches that don't affect play."

Translated -- one or two of those scratches might not cause skipping!

One of my pals, "Dr. Bob," once said that his records from the 50s and early 60s had a lot of "love crackles." We'd swapped cassettes back in the day, and that's how he described a few of those he had sent.

 

[Rudy]

Sometimes the minor things annoy me. I hadn't played The Jacksons' Triumph album in a long time, and had come across a promo 12" of the single "Lovely One." Which turned out to be the same as the album mix. So, giving a play of a few of these tracks via the newer 24/192 digital release on Qobuz, I'm seeing yet again the mistake that has existed since the first digital release of this album on CD. The song "Heartbreak Hotel" is still mistakenly listed as "This Place Hotel" or "This Place Hotel (aka Heartbreak Hotel)."

So, some mindless typo from an early CD release has existed for over 35 years. Track #5:




Going back to the original vinyl? Here ya go:



There is no "aka" about it. Negative marks to the original typo that caused this, and even lower marks to the idiots who crowdsourced this metadata that is perpetuating the mistake even more into the digital age. Sure I can easily correct it on my copies (which I did, thanks to Roon Player), but still...such idiocy from music fans who should bloody well know better. (And the real irony is, if I ever found a way to fix that data at MusicBrainless MusicBrainz, some self-righteous idiot would change it right back. Sorry, but if the song was originally released and published under its correct name, that is what needs to be in the metadata.)

Enough rant for today...

 

[jfiedler17]

Rudy, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one here who's always been bothered by that quirk in the Jacksons discography. Apparently, Michael did go on record at one point as saying it was an intentional change to avoid confusion with the Elvis Presley song of the same name (which he'd claimed to have been previously unfamiliar with), but there are several reasons that doesn't much make sense to me - first of all, how could you be familiar with Elvis and not know of that song?; it's not as if the songs had come out at the same time and that record buyers were consequently the least bit likely to confuse one for the other; several years transpired between the time the Jacksons song finished its run on the charts (peaking at #22) and when the title was amended on later pressings, so the song had already become universally known by the original title and changing it was only bound to confuse listeners without access to an original pressing looking for the Jacksons album with "Heartbreak Hotel" listed on the back cover. To change a title that long after the fact just seems like a very odd move; as I heard someone else comment at one point, that'd be like the Beatles retroactively going back and listing "Yellow Submarine" on future reissues as "Unusually-Colored Underwater Transport."

Even more confusing is why they picked that alternate title. The words "this place hotel" are never mentioned anywhere in the song, for one thing (whereas the words "heartbreak hotel" are used over and over), and secondly, the title just doesn't make a lick of sense, either. I can see where you might shorten the original title to just "Hotel," but what gives with the "this place"? It's just so unbelievably awkward-sounding.

I'll forever refer to it myself as "Heartbreak Hotel," no matter how many times they may continue to use the title "This Place Hotel" on future compilations or reissues.

 

[Rudy]

To change a title that long after the fact just seems like a very odd move; as I heard someone else comment at one point, that'd be like the Beatles retroactively going back and listing "Yellow Submarine" on future reissues as "Unusually-Colored Underwater Transport."

True dat!

The lyrics go, "This place is Heartbreak Hotel." The altered title...yeah, it's questionable that it was changed to avoid confusion. Especially, like you say, since the hit and album had run its course. And the typo is so grammatically incorrect that it doesn't past muster that way either.

Yet it wouldn't be the first time revisionist thinking affected a product--Michael used alternate photos on later releases of Off The Wall and, I think, Thriller.

I dug a little further on Discogs. Apparently the first instance of this poorly worded song title appear on a 1981 Epic reissue in the US, with catalog number PE 36424 (the original is FE 36424). An LP release in Spain around the same time also alters the title, and the first CD issue from 1984 in Europe likewise, and all issues to follow. The US didn't get the CD version until 1986.

And...the irony of "Heartbreak Hotel" being confused. Most anyone in soul/R&B/funk back in the day didn't know or care what Elvis did, or think that the songs might ever be confused. And how many other popular (and even hit) song titles out there are the same?

So in my collection, and thankfully with the ability to edit it digitally, I can have the correct title. As originally published by the composers.

 

[Rudy]

2nd copy of Pete Jolly's Little Bird arrived. It's not much better in condition than the first. Frustrating because visually it looks excellent. Yet it's Rice Krispies on the wrecka playa. (That I can deal with.) I am starting to wonder if it's the pressing plant used. Although I've rarely heard 60s vinyl come this noisy out of the sleeve when new. It had two passes through the ultrasonic cleaner, so it's not embedded dirt.

The mastering of the stereo version, I'm convinced, is poor. It's an earlier Äva Records pressing (the older label version), and the sound is again a bit vague and distant. The CD/digital version, remember, is in mono from a needle drop. It has more presence, but it is not the best transfer either. At least this one seems less worn than my first copy.

I don't know whether to cut my losses and stop here, or see if the third time's the charm and get a third copy.

 

[JOv2]

(Formal Western Art Music Survey, 1750-1950: Week XL -- Bruch)

 

[JOv2]

Hampton Hawes. "If you like the 1960s Vince Guaraldi -- you'll like the 1960s Hampton Hawes..." (I tell my friends...) "...albeit with perhaps a bit more oomph". According to Wikipedia, Hampton was self-taught (yeah, he's part of that crowd). Like the finest '60s post-bop pianists, he is fiercely melodic, seemingly never at a loss for memorable ideas. Like Bill Evans and Red Garland, he clearly favoured the piano-double bass-drum kit configuration and to that end his '60s trio dates are enjoyable to a tee.

 

[Rudy]

I discovered this album back in the early 80s, thanks to a Polygram sampler CD that cost me a lot of money. Jazz Like You've Never Heard It Before. Yeah...soooo....I am thinking I probably bought half the CDs the sampler covered. The track "Count 'Em" by the Count Basie Orchestra was on the sampler and of course, it ended up at the checkout counter one particular week at the wrecka stow.



The album's a blast! This is from the Quincy Jones era, and the charts here are a lot of fun. "Boody Rumble" and "Belly Roll" are two especially good standouts, and "Pleasingly Plump" a sumptuous downtempo chart featuring the sax section.

I'm spinning a vinyl copy this evening. It's not a bright as the CD. I picked this one up at the AXPONA audio show a few years ago, 2019 I think, from the Morrow Audio booth. Morrow Audio makes audiophile interconnects (cables), of which I have a few, and they also opened a record store near their shop. This LP and hundreds of others they brought up to the show were from a large library purchase (college library, I believe?), and I netted this one the same year I found the Pete Fountain A Taste of Honey LP I had from my younger years, and a couple of other titles (including another recording of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra on RCA...a later recording than the Fritz Reiner waxing from the 50s).

 

[Rudy]

Here's one I grew up with. I'm going to give it another cleaning tomorrow, but I gave it a spin today. I'm really surprised that Discogs has this one listed, and someone actually shows a copy for sale. Since it was a regional release on a small label from this part of the country (the studio was in Toledo, OH), I hadn't expected to see this listed anywhere.



Frank "Panchito" Lozano was born in Joliet, IL in 1924, one of eight siblings. The family moved to southwest Detroit (home of the area's Latino population, even today). Panchito played trumpet from an early age, with some of his family. He joined the army for WWII and played trumpet, returning to the area to form a dance band. (The record label, Hanf Records, was named after a married couple who were professional dance instructors.) Apparently, Panchito's Orchestra provided the music for the three years that the Arthur Murray Dance Studio was broadcast on television in Detroit.

Once the music fell out of fashion, Panchito went to college, got a degree in music, and worked his way up through the Detroit Public School system. He started as a music teacher in 1975, eventually becoming the principal of the elementary school he and his family attended. He was the first Mexican American to hold the position of principal in the district. Toward the end of his career, he received a PhD in Education from the University of Michigan.

Lozano passed away in 2014. But I remember about 15-20 years prior, I had noticed that he was occasionally playing trumpet in small combos in the metro area (which would have put him in his mid to late 70s). A shame I never got a chance to hear him in person.

This is a typical dance album of the day. 1964 is apparently the date it was released. Typical of dance records, all the songs are first tagged with the dance style, followed by the song title.

Is this an essential record? No, but I grew up playing it, and some of the standards he played here were the first versions I heard of these songs. Brings back a lot of memories. And he ran a tight little orchestra back in the day, very much in the Latin style that was in fashion.

 

[JOv2]

(Formal Western Art Music Survey, 1750-1950: Week XLI -- Bruch)

 

[JOv2]

Andrew Hill. Al Lion referred to Andrew Hill as his last great discovery (his other two great discoveries being Thelonious Monk (1940s) -- of whom everyone knows, and Herbie Nichols (1950s) -- who unfortunately remains obscure). Hill recorded 18 sessions exclusively for Blue Note from 1963-70 -- of which only 8 were release at the time. Like Monk and Nichols, Hill's music was progressive for its time: Post-Bop with a foot solidly in the avant guard, yet with no sacrifice to overall melodic concepts. The above date, Hill's second for Blue Note, is the closest he came to an LP utilizing the classic trio format while at Blue Note albeit with the inclusion of a second double bassist. Like Monk and Nichols, he composed his own unique and challenging music. He clearly preferred arranging for multiple horns as well. So strong and fascinating is his music, that Mosaic years ago compiled and issued all the unreleased sessions (I'd like to think I was first in line for that box set!). Hill is an American treasure who composed and arranged what many call "America's Classical Music"; his music, however, was just too out there to gain acceptance beyond the jazz community.

 

[Rudy]

I'm not much of a Santana fan--in fact, the first album is the one I have played the most out of all of them.



The Mobile Fideilty 2-LP 45 RPM cut is fantastic--it's the only version I've heard that makes me feel like I dropped into the middle of the studio while the band was jamming. And jam is what this album is all about--a good number of the tracks feature the band grooving along and soloing. Which is probably why I prefer it to all the others. Plus, if you figure Carlos has been doing the same guitar solo ever since this album, then...

I have never been so fond of Abraxas (the 2nd Santana album) since local radio overplayed "Black Magic Woman" (I hate that song now), and Santana III was good but wasn't as freewheeling as the debut. I swore I don't recall buying it on vinyl, but I have Santana IV here--that was the reunion of the original band from maybe five or so years ago. It does have some decent tracks on it, but it is a cold-sounding recording. The debut is warm and wonderful.

My last spin of the evening before I go catch up on some YouTube channels is Bossa Antigua:



A lovely album, and Desmond has a nice foil and accompanist in Jim Hall. It's a good late-night album.

 

[Bobberman]

I own a CD of that Bossa Antigua album it's one of my favorite Desmond solo albums

 

[Rudy]

I own a CD of that Bossa Antigua album it's one of my favorite Desmond solo albums

I really do need to find more of Desmond's albums.

 

[Harry]

I really do need to find more of Desmond's albums.

Maybe you'll find more in the summertime.

 

[JOv2]

Here's a truly gorgeous slice of circa-1940 musical Americana. Brief back story: my first job in radio was at a Classical / Jazz station in the mid-'80s. The jazz music director was a "pre-WWII" jazz connoisseur, so the station pushed pre-bebop jazz and I learned a great deal about jazz from its recorded beginnings (approx. 1920) to WWII. The below recording is jazz-pop fusion of its day. You'll note the guitarist has been listening to both the then-new bebop as well as what would soon become known as R&B. The soloing is solid and the vocals are top-notch (dig that slap bass on 2 and 4 in and out of the solos).

The music director loved this music because of the first-class musicianship: there were no overdubs, no punch-ins, and no we'll-fix-it-in-the-mix business in recorded music prior to the early 1950s (with the widespread use of recording tape and development of multi-channel recording technique).

 

[Rudy]

Maybe you'll find more in the summertime.

But only during the hot afternoon.