Thursday, December 22, 2016

Christmas At Garden State Plaza

Blake Productions ‎ LPM/S 669

I love Christmas music performed by brass bands, and this quintet is very good, so I'm posting it again for 2016. This was a thrift shop find (99¢), in great shape. Unfortunately, the pressing is noisy.

Side 1 features The Festival Brass Quintet, ‎and Side 2, The Riverside Church Carillon.

Presumably this record was sold at the Garden State Plaza shopping center, or perhaps it was given away with a purchase. It is undated, but if I had to guess, I'd say 1972 ±5 years.

Technics SL-7, Sonus SPM-4, Pro-Ject Phono Box S, harman/kardon CDR-2.

Christmas At Garden State Plaza: The Festival Brass Quintet (excerpt)

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

The Pete King Chorale: Christmas Time

Kapp Records KL-1214 
Here's 2016's first Christmas LP. This was a thrift shop find, in good shape. It is not on CD. The mp3 album is available on Amazon UK, but according to wikipedia "Amazon.com sells music only to US customers while Amazon.co.uk sells music only to UK customers."

The album has been digitized and posted on youtube.

Friday, October 28, 2016

Godfrey Hirsch: At Pete's Place, New Orleans

Coral CRL 757475

[Update: tracks have been deleted from YouTube] This was a thrift shop find ($1.99), in excellent shape, part of a haul of three Pete Fountain-related LPs. It is not on CD.

The cover is a tad deceptive: Pete Fountain appears (out of focus) in the background but does not play on the record. Pete's band, however, does, including Eddie Miller on tenor sax on several tracks. It has been digitized and posted on youtube.

Bass – Oliver Felix
Drums – Nick Fatool, Paul Edwards
Guitar – Paul Guma
Piano – Earl Vuiovich
Tenor Saxophone – Eddie Miller
Vibraphone – Godfrey Hirsch

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

After You've Gone (1975)

Concord CJ-6 

A recent find in an Oxfam shop in England for 2£, in very good shape. The Internet reveals that there was a CD release in 2000, but it is out of print. Features Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Jake Hanna, Plas Johnson, and George Duke.

A YouTuber has digitized a track from the LP.


Saturday, August 6, 2016

Jim Dawson: Songman (1971)

Kama Sutra KSBS 2035

This was a thrift shop find (99¢) in good but not great shape. (Image from discogs)

I see that Jim Dawson just had a "70th Birthday Bash" concert at The Cutting Room in New York City, which is a nice music venue where I was fortunate to catch a David Lindley solo concert last year. Surprisingly, the room was only about third full. What to make of that?

Saturday Airplane

Once Was a Time I Thought / Now and Then

FrankenShure M111HE/N94e, Technics SL-7, Pro-Ject Phono Box S, harman/kardon CDR-2.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Alberto Mozzati: A Chopin Recital (1967)


Audio Fidelity FCS 50,033 

I picked this up because the label, Audio Fidelity, released the great Satchmo Plays King Oliver as well as some other well-recorded albums of New Orleans musicians. Plus I am always interested in hearing different interpretations of Chopin’s music.

Audio Fidelity, however, wasn’t involved in this recording (“Original recordings by Angelicum – Milan, Italy” it says on the back cover). Still, it’s a goodish-sounding recording of an artist who, per my internet searches, has never appeared on CD. As I’ve written here before, if you are a fan of classical music, you really have to have a turntable to hear the huge variety of recordings.

Alberto Mozzati is another artist who has a substantial YouTube presence despite never appearing on CD. If you like these interpretations, it’s worth exploring. I’m not qualified to judge his playing, but I’d welcome comments from those who are.

This was a thrift shop find ($1.99) in good but not great shape.

Chopin Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2

Chopin Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 6, No. 2

FrankenShure M111HE/N94e, Technics SL-7, Pro-Ject Phono Box S, harman/kardon CDR-2.  

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Frank Ferera: The All-Time Greatest Hawaiian Recording Artist

Maple MA-1013
This LP is a Canadian compilation, a gift from a friend in Toronto. There isn't a lot of Frank Ferera music on CD or mp3s, which is odd, as wikipedia calls him "the first star of Hawaiian music."

Three songs from this LP appear on various digital Hawaiian compilations. Youtube has quite a few videos of the remaining tracks, many of them from the original 78s. Listening to them makes it clear that some reverb or echo has been added to some of the tracks on this compilation. Too bad. Sample tracks are from youtube:


Saturday, May 21, 2016

Ray Charles: From the Pages of My Mind (1986)

 Columbia FC 40338

This was a thrift shop find (99¢), in excellent shape inside and out. Five songs from this album appear on the CD Ray Charles: The Complete Country & Western Recordings 1959-1986. I guess the other tracks weren't considered country. They are not on CD.

YouTube link: Over and Over (Again)

YouTube link: Love Is Worth The Pain

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Norm Hacking : Cut Roses (1979)

Indoor Records 79701  

I picked this up in the dollar bin at a record store in Toronto. The owner had two other copies priced at $10 and $12, so I asked him if maybe he mispriced it, but he said no, it was $1 because it was badly warped. He placed it on his turntable and, when I saw the substantial warp, I initially passed on it, but then he offered it to me for free. Free is coincidentally my favorite price, so I grabbed it. My Technics SL-7 has a very light (3 gms) and short arm, and it tracks the giant warp in this LP easily, with no visible woofer movement. Impressive.

normhacking[DOT]com says this, his first record, is "no longer available," but that "Tracks 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8 are included on [the CD] "Skysongs... A Writer's Collection," which is available on the used market.

So Good to See You

Bernard to Broadway

Technics SL-7, Shure M111HE/N94e, Pro-Ject Phono Box S, harman/kardon CDR-2.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Billy Novick, Guy Van Duser: The New Pennywhistle Album (1978)

Green Linnet SIF 1013

This was a thrift shop find (99¢), in great shape inside and out. I passed on it at first look, thinking it was a recording for teaching penny whistle to kids (or something like that). Then I took a second look at it, and when I saw who the artists were, I grabbed it.

It has been digitized and posted on YouTube.

Gershwin Medley (YouTube link)

Friday, March 4, 2016

Josh Graves & Bobby Smith: Sweet Sunny South (1976)

CMH-6209

This was a thrift shop find (99¢), in great shape, with some of the original shrink wrap left on it.

From the Independent: That the Dobro guitar is today indelibly associated with bluegrass music is a tribute to Uncle Josh Graves. His long-time association with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs gave the instrument exposure at a time when bluegrass was developing an international following...

The instrumental "Juarez" is credited to E.B. Graves, "Jennifer Waltz" to J. Graves. Are they both Josh Graves (real name Burkett Howard Graves)? You do the research and let me know.

Technics SL-7, Digitrac 300se, Pro-Ject Phono Box S, harman/kardon CDR-2.

Juarez

Jennifer Waltz

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Smith Brothers (1980)

KTS 001

I'm guessing the Smith Brothers, Tom and Kevin Smith, perform(ed) together in nightclubs, as this is a self-produced album of covers of popular songs done in the style of the originals, plus look at the photo on the cover.

"We've played many different kinds of music," reads the back cover, and the album has covers of pop, country, and easy listening hits, a Gershwin medley, and a "Hora medley." So perhaps they played weddings as well. The sample track shows them at their best.

Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys

Come On Over (Youtube link)

Technics SL-7, Grado Blue, Pro-Ject Phono Box S, harman/kardon CDR-2.