The Now Spinning/Recent Purchases Thread

[Rudy]

No serious jazz or vocal music fan should be without this one:

A definite high water mark in Tormé's catalog. He owns these tunes! While there is so much going on, there are a few things going on here that really stick out to me. First, that these songs are likely about 3 minutes or less in length--they get right down to business, say what they have to say, then they're done. Second, it's obvious Tormé is the focal point here, but the way he sings these just amazes me at times--it's not vocal pyrotechnics, but the way he uses the voice like another jazz instrument in the ensemble. Again, he does his part, and then is out of the way for the Marty Paich Orchestra or individual soloists (a who's who of west coast jazz greats) to do their part. He croons, he scats, he darts and jabs like a prize fighter--very flexible, yet, it's accessible! Anyone who enjoys vocal music can find a lot to like here, and jazz fans would appreciate Paich's arranging and the eight-bar solos peppering each song. As much as I like Mel Torme's many recordings, they all seem to pale next to this one.

 

[DeeInKY]

Second, it's obvious Tormé is the focal point here, but the way he sings these just amazes me at times--it's not vocal pyrotechnics, but the way he uses the voice like another jazz instrument in the ensemble.

He does have a way with a song... Another person who had great phrasing was Rosemary Clooney. Her voice had lost some tone by the end of her career (especially on some of those Concord Jazz recordings). But that never took away from my enjoyment of what she could do with a song. (BTW, she's the only person I have ever heard use the word "erstwhile" in a recording.)

 

[Rudy]

Ooooh, erstwhile!

One album I like is Tabasco that Clooney recorded with Perez Prado (one of my favorite mambo artists). A friend of mine who grew up in Salvador said that the album was a big hit down there. I managed to find a nice vinyl copy of it many years ago.

Peggy Lee is another who was more than just a garden-variety pop singer, leaning towards jazz in a lot of her work.

 

[Harry]

Side One

1. "Allergies" – 4:37
2. "Hearts and Bones" – 5:37
3. "When Numbers Get Serious" – 3:25
4. "Think Too Much (b)" – 2:44
5. "Song About the Moon" – 4:07

Side Two

1. "Think Too Much (a)" – 3:05
2. "Train in the Distance" – 5:11
3. "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War" – 3:44
4. "Cars Are Cars" – 3:15
5. "The Late Great Johnny Ace" – 4:45

A recent discovery of mine - the HEARTS AND BONES album by Paul Simon. When this album came out in 1983, they only released two singles, and neither did much on the charts. As a result, the album stiffed and is all but buried in the Simon catalog, though it is gradually gaining status as a "classic".

Reading about the album, I determined that I owned half of the tracks on various comps and one promo single, and was familiar with only one song, "The Late, Great Johnny Ace" that was performed in the CONCERT IN CENTRAL PARK, but I don't think I'd ever heard the studio recording. Also, I learned that the album was initially supposed to be a Simon & Garfunkel reunion studio album. Art had lain down some vocal tracks, but the two couldn't agree on something or other and his recorded vocals were wiped. Paul maintained that the songs that he was writing were way too personal to work as a S&G album. So if you search YouTube, you can find some of the Garfunkel vocals in some live performances of the era, but I'm more interested in this as a solo album.

OK, so I started with that last track, "The Late Great Johnny Ace" and really liked the way it sounded as a studio track. In the Central Park version, Simon is singing the song and a looney jumped on stage and yelled "I gotta talk to you", getting very close to him before security ushered him off stage. He finished the song without missing much of a beat, but its claimed that he never wanted to perform it again in concert. The song is a remembrance of 50s singer Johnny Ace who killed himself and intertwines with the murder of John Lennon. It's a haunting song, to be sure, and the studio version ends with a section composed by Philip Glass.

So then I looked for other traccks I had from the album, which were: the title track "Hearts And Bones", "Train In The Distance", the oddly titled "Rene And Georgette Magritte And Their Dog After With War", and the lone single I had, "Think Too Much (A)." Yes, Paul actually reworked his own song, "Think Too Much" into a totally different song with the same title and put both on the same album (A and B). The 45 I had of that was in pristine shape and sounded really good when I digitized it, and I came to really like this record, wishing it had registered on the trip.

"Train In The Distance" sounds like a variation on "Slip Slidin' Away", having the same groove and is a nice track - catchy, and I find myself humming this one. "Hearts And Bones" and "Rene And Georgette..." are really two gorgeous Simon compositions. So I've been spinning these tracks over the last couple of days. Today the CD of the album that I ordered arrived. It's an old original Warner Brothers issue, rather than a modern remaster with bonus tracks (some demos and an unfinished song). I'd heard that the original disc sounded just fine, and so far it does. So now I'm listening to the other songs from the album that I'm more unfamiliar with:

"Allergies" was a truly odd choice for a single, but the strength of Simon's name and coming off the immensely popular CONCERT IN CENTRAL PARK, it got enough airplay to elevate the song to #44 on the chart. I can't say I'd ever heard it before. It creates some interesting word-pictures, but a hit single it ain't. "When Numbers Get Serious" is a good-sounding track. I think I'll like this one.

The second version of "Think Too Much" is another catchy track and I know I'm gonna like that one. "Song About The Moon" has a good groove to it and is about composing songs. Finally "Cars Are Cars" is described many times all over the internet as Paul Simon's worst song ever. That's pretty harsh. Yes, it's a bit strange, but I think it works.

So I think the biggest mistake here was picking "Allergies" to be the lead single. It just doesn't work that way. It would have been better as a track 4 album track on a side. But all in all, this album has really impressed me and goes into my list of favorite discoveries.

Harry

 

[Mr Bill]

True... IRS is technically no longer around. The catalog was acquired by Capitol, the last distributor of IRS, with the only exemptions being titles from the A&M and MCA eras would remain with A&M and MCA respectively as long as they remained in print. After that they, too, reverted to Capitol. Aside from some REM or Go-Gos I don't believe anything from IRS's A&M and MCA eras remain in print. Aside form a long-rumored IRS box ser, I doubt Capitol will ever do anything with the IRS catalog beyond those previously mentioned groups (add FYC or maybe LOTNC or the Animals projects)...

--Mr Bill

 

[Rudy]

Post-midnight playlist...seems appropriate.

 

[DeeInKY]

That's the creepiest thing I've seen since my dad brought home a hearse to use as a camper.

 

[Rudy]

That's the creepiest thing I've seen since my dad brought home a hearse to use as a camper.

I think the clown is creepy.

I like the nod to The Munsters, the coffin hot rod being named Drag-u-la. It was used in one episode, Hot Rod Herman, "built" by Grandpa Munster and raced by Herman.) Coachwork was via George Barris's legendary shop (with the work done by Richard "Korky" Korkes, who purchased the casket from a L.A. area funeral home).

The vehicle used in the video is actually the Munster Koach, another Barris job.

I guess it's no surprise, from this video, that Rob Zombie (a big fan of horror and B-movies) would move from music videos into film, directing Night of 1000 Corpses, Devil's Rejects, and two Halloween reboots among others. Not my cup of tea, but I have to admire his creativity and vision in this genre.

A couple of local rockabilly/psychobilly/goth bands use hearses as their band vehicle. My favorite would be the 1959 Caddy.

 

[DeeInKY]

Any end of the world scenario should have clowns. (Just my personal opinion.)

 

[Rudy]

I can't quite put my finger on what is so creepy about clowns...

 

[DeeInKY]

I wouldn't be putting my fingers on any clowns.

Musically, it's Friday night fever with Vicki Sue Robinson "Turn the Beat Around." Then switched to "Fandango." Had to play Coco Loco several times since it's just been that kind of a day.

 

[Rudy]

Jean-Luc Ponty: Live at Semper Opera, as I look over the bike trail maps for the weekend...

 

[DeeInKY]

And now for something completely different...Wynonie Harris "Rot Gut." On the old King label.

 

[Rudy]

I almost had some rot gut for dinner last night, but I was driving, so...

Right now I am unwinding from a busy day. (Sitting at the beach, climbing a landfill, etc...long story. )

Trois Nocturnes is one of my favorite Debussy works. The rendition of "Fetes" from Trois Nocturnes is IMHO a little sloppy here and there, but overall it is a nice reading. Is it good? Haitink so...

 

[DeeInKY]

After being up till 2am painting a bathroom I figured I was entitled to some reward (not rot gut) - hard root beer!
Listening to JJ Cale this evening - good to wind down with.

 

[Rudy]

@DeeInKY I haven't heard of hard root beer yet. Going to have to do some intense study on this subject soon. (I'll check my usual suspects to see if they stock any of it.)

Anyway...

Looking forward to this, with a release date this coming Friday (the 11th):

I missed seeing this at our jazz festival, as it was the US debut of the work (composed by Metheny). Eberhard Weber can no longer play bass due to a stroke a few years back. He has not been inactive--he has put together an album's worth of material culled from his bass solo interludes, with additional accompaniment to flesh them out as full songs. Metheny's work pays tribute, and similarly uses Weber's bass from recordings as part of the work. Live, it was a multimedia experience, to which the band had to play in sync with. It is nice to see such ECM stalwarts such as Paul McCandless, Jan Garbarek and Gary Burton appearing here (as I know the former two have performed with Weber in the past), and very interesting to see former Pat Metheny Group drummer Danny Gottlieb on drums here.

 

[Rudy]

Spinning now:

From an original RCA Living Stereo pressing.

 

[!!goingplaces!!]

Been listening to alot of Kai Winding & J.J. Johnson, their reunion album on Impulse is a personal favorite or Kai's Incredible Trombones lp also on Impulse are steady players on my turntable.

 

[!!goingplaces!!]

 

[Harry]

Dubbing off some songs off of old records: today I'm doing some B.J. Thomas, The Neon Philharmonic, The Mike Curb Congregation, Petula Clark, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Colin Blunstone.

Harry
...mired in the late '60s, online...

 

[Rudy]

I almost picked up a copy of the BJ Thomas Everybody's Out Of Town LP. I have one from when I was a kid--always liked it. Had an overlooked Bacharach/David tune on it that I like: "Send My Picture to Scranton PA".

Not sure what to spin yet--I have a handful to put on the record vacuum and see if I can rescue 'em.

 

[70sFan]

Just picked up Oliver - Good Morning Starshine on vinyl. I had the singles of "Jean" and "Good Morning Starshine" but never bought the lp. Besides the two hits, he did some nice covers of Joni's "Both Sides Now" , the Beatles' "In My Life" and the Stones' "Ruby Tuesday". There are also three nice tunes he wrote himself and two from the film Oliver!. I am loving this album. I am so sorry to hear that he had passed away.

 

[Harry]

Just picked up Oliver - Good Morning Starshine on vinyl. I had the singles of "Jean" and "Good Morning Starshine" but never bought the lp. Besides the two hits, he did some nice covers of Joni's "Both Sides Now" , the Beatles' "In My Life" and the Stones' "Ruby Tuesday". There are also three nice tunes he wrote himself and two from the film Oliver!. I am loving this album. I am so sorry to hear that he had passed away.

Yeah I have that album - and his follow-up album in my collection. I'd already digitized "Jean" and "Good Morning Starshine". Those two got a lot of airplay.

One of the tunes I dig out today was Steve Allen's "Gravy Waltz". Great little instrumental!



Harry

 

[70sFan]

Yeah I have that album - and his follow-up album in my collection. I'd already digitized "Jean" and "Good Morning Starshine". Those two got a lot of airplay.

One of the tunes I dig out today was Steve Allen's "Gravy Waltz". Great little instrumental!



Harry

The Gravy Waltz was awesome, so was Steve Allen himself!

 

[Rudy]

I've played a few things on and off during this crazy day. For the past hour or so, I've been flipping through some of my surround music collection, playing a track here and there. Currently am playing the quad version of Tomita's debut release Snowflakes are Dancing. This is the best transfer I've yet heard of the quad version--last one was dubbed from LP and the surround would break up every so often. This one is from a Japan-released quad reel, so even if it's a bit soft on the top end, the four channels are solidly in place.

My grandmother was a huge classical music listener--she had hundreds of 78 RPM records, many of them the 12 inch size, all with classical works on them. I can imagine she was quite fond of the long-playing record when it first came out. But she was definitely not a classical music snob, because I recall the week she picked up this Tomita album, and was anxious for us to hear it over the weekend. This album and the Hooked On Bach were all the rage that year.

What amazes me about Snowflakes are Dancing is that the Moog is not a polyphonic instrument, so Isao Tomita had to record the entire album one voice at a time (multitracked). Very tedious! And having MIDI software here for the MiniMoog (by Arcturus, and it's officially licensed), I also am fascinated with how all of these different voices can be created with all the various waveform generators and filters.