New Finds

By special request from Kenneth Buttercup comes this post about a couple of The IP’s latest thrift store LPs. Kenneth has good timing because just this weekend The IP scored two sweet LPs down at the Goodwill. First we’ll look at the more frivolous of the two, Cha Cha Charm by Jan August:

First of all, even without having listened to the music, The IP liked this one because of the awesome cover. Don’t those two dancers look “authentic?” But just as good as the cover is the kick-ass sextet that plays with August that includes such studio music workhorses as Eddie Layton on organ, Tony Mottola on guitar, and Terry Snyder on drums. The IP has several LPs of those artists’ own releases, so this LP comes with a musical familiarity that he cannot deny. Eddie Layton, especially, is one of The IP’s favorites!

The music is LISTENABLE ++, with a vigorous slate of cha cha tunes that are not “sweetened” up with strings. It’s straight-ahead cha cha with a small group. As the liner notes declare:

Working with some excellent cha cha arrangements, August and his sextet develolp a contagion that socks just as hard as the normal 20 and 25-musicians on other cha cha sessions.

The IP agrees that this LP is contagious.

The second LP The IP found was a real gem, a compilation of recordings from one of the fathers of the High Fidelity Movement, Emory Cook:

If you’ve never heard of Emory Cook, you should realize that all his recordings are held by the Smithsonian, and he is said by the same to be “widely regarded as one of the top audio engineers of all time.” The IP concurs, and he can’t figure out how he can still find such cool LPs at Goodwill. Brilliant!And check out the playlist:

And talk about good copy. Read what it says on the margins of the cover:

“Indecent proportions” “shady development of high fidelity”…WTF! That’s crazy!

Stay tuned for the next music-related post. It’s gonna be all about the Newstalgia Movement of the late-1960s.

Rocket City Ramble

Huntsville, Alabama.  Rocket City.  Longtime home to electrical engineers and authentic Space Age bachelors.  A good place to find some thrift store vinyl.

 

Thanks to Owen, a Huntsville native, TSV was clued-in to an amazing re-cycled building materials and home infrastructure store that also had a small-but-potent stash of used LPs. One wouldn’t at first think he would find thrift store vinyl in such a place; but Owen knew it was there:

Off in a corner, hidden amongst the old electrical parts, garbage disposals, sinks, tubs, doors, window frames, chairs, toasters, flooring materials, and electric ovens inside the above warehouse was a small double-bin table with about 150 vinyl LPs. The gem-to-clinker ratio in these bins was one of the highest in the entire history of TSV’s thrift store record shopping. This was made even more enjoyable because TSV spent the better part of that morning at a place that had a gem-to-clinker ratio of about 1-to-700. More about that, perhaps, in another post.

For now, let’s take a look at some of the cool vinyl finds that TSV scored at the Restore:

Check out this German Decca pressing of one of TSV’s favourite musical Teutons, Werner Mueller. It’s a great-sounding Phase-4 Stereo LP with “20-Kanal-Aufnahme!” It actually sounds like that woman’s hat looks, if you know what we’re is sayin’.

Mueller really kicks out the internationally flavoured jams on this platter, with tunes originating from the countries of Brazil, Hawaii, Germany, and Cuba, amoung others. One even will hear a bit of early 70’s synth on a few tunes! Mueller is unique in the world of easy listening for his pumped up, often experimental, interpretations of songs from the world’s pop music cannon. Excellent German high fidelity sound too. You should hear Mueller’s version of Spanish Flea. WTF! Herb Alpert would blush with jealousy. This ranks up there in TSV’s soon-to-be-published 100 Most Awesomely Excellent Easy Listening LPs list.

The above is a queer gem from the already queer genre of Tuba jazz. The role of the Tuba in marching bands has really distracted most folks from its musical versatility and subtlety. Ray Draper was one of a few Tuba players to dedicate himself to the world of jazz, and this LP is a good primer of what the Tuba can do with an ensemble of hard-boppers. Draper rocketed through the Space Age and eventually blew up like a failed launch; he had a Tuba-sized heroin habit. Yet, while he was around, he created a catalogue of Tuba jazz that remains the high mark for those aspiring to equal any part of his talent and style. This is the LP that you put on for yourself, for individual listening, not for background music.

TSV’s luck just kept getting better with this small record stash at the Restore store. He was stunned to look down and see this two-group jazz LP on the always-interesting Jazztone label:

Jazztone was a small mail-order record club label. Subscribers would be sent a cool jazz LP each month, often with original sessions made for the label. It was only around for 3 years in the U.S., but managed to record some real heavies like Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, and the two awesome bands on this LP featuring the hepcat drummer, Chico Hamilton, the legendary Brasilian guitarist, Laurindo Almeida, and the cool, cool jazz saxophonist, Bud Shank. On this LP, Chico sets the beat for some interesting “chamber jazz.” The latter was made famous by small combos from the 1930s like John Kirby’s sextet. Chamber jazz is usually flavoured with classical music devices, both in its arrangements and its instrumentation. Chico’s quintet featuring cello, flute, clarinet, guitar, bass, and, of course, the leader’s drums, creates some movin’ music that requires one’s attention to really appreciate; as others have observed, this kind of music is for listening, not dancing.

Or, in the case of the awesome movie The Sweet Smell of Success, it’s also for watching as Chico’s quintet play themselves in a great cameo appearance. This is a great youtube of a rare 50’s jazz jam on film. Make sure to listen to the music in the background. Watch Clip.

Side two features another TSV favourite, Brasileiro Laurindo Almeida. This Jazztone session with West Coast sax man Bud Shank represents the very birth of the Bossa Nova wave that would soon swallow up much of popular music. One can hear the ripples of that wave in the samba-inspired guitar of Almeida and the smooth-but-boppin’ sax of Shank. If Gilberto and Getz hadn’t burst upon the seen a few years later, it could easily have been Almeida and Shank to introduce the Bossa Nova in the U.S.; although it would’ve lacked the vocal element.

 

 

TSV found this cool clip of Laurindo playing with the MJQ; it’s a lot like the music found on the Jazztone record he found:

Watch Clip

The above is a great youtube, but TSV wants to put a cap in the ass of the elitist Wanker who introduces and postscripts the performance. What a dick!

And that’s just three of about 20 cool LPs TSV snagged in all!

 

 

#1 In Poor Taste: Gold Award HITS ‘67’

This is the first in a series of posts about “questionable” LP covers.  The IP will feature one a week until he gets tired of it or he runs out of questionable covers, whichever comes first. 

 

What is it about this LP cover that makes The IP cringe?

 

 

You get the impression that they actually told the woman to “look as sleazy and tramp-like as possible.”  In fact, they (likely men) “suggested” what she might do to achieve that end.  Her blouse is completely unbuttoned, she’s doing that stupid “naughty little girl” thing with her left hand, and her right hand is pulling down the front of her “pants.”  She’s exposing her belly button and, The IP hates to say it, but it looks like she’s got no underwear on under there.  Bare feet.  Big bare feet.  Nothing wrong with that.  At least she’s sitting on what looks like a Saarinen-design stool, albeit suggestively.  What is that thing in her right hand?  Some kind of “lucky charm?” 

 

She might actually look kinda cool if not for all that over-the-top suggestiveness.  Well, it is the hits of 1967, after all.  That “loose” look, for lack of a better term, was popular back then (it still is today in some circles).

 

The LP itself is the musical equivalent of a damp dishtowel.  Music To Watch Girls By is OK, but that song is almost always good no matter who does it.  The “Academy Award Orchestra” has no distinctive style or quirkiness to make this LP really worth listening to; but that horrible cover!!

TERRY BAXTER MARKET ALERT!

Boy.  How bout that economy? WTF?   A “Subprime” mortgage?”  That sounds akin to a slice of cheap meat; with e-coli.  But I digress, just a little, because I’ve been listening about and thinking to Terry Baxter these last few evenings; you know, after work, with a beer/s and the stereo.  I found his LPs to be so good that I actually did a lot of research on Terry Baxter lately, which is hard to do, because you can’t find much on Terry Baxter at all.

 

 

 

But I feel, after having listened to Terry Baxter the last few nights, I can predict a steady increase in the value of his LPs beginning around the New Year.  His “sound” is ready and ripe for 2009.  I can feel it.  The below graph shows my projection for the value of Terry Baxter LPs:

 

 

 

My advice is to buy your Terry Baxter LPs now before they get to pricey.  This is a perfect time to get into the Terry Baxter market at a good price and then watch the value of his output increase over the next year.  At the point when his catalog is released on CD the value will plummet.  Get in now so you can buy TB LPs, migrate them to digital media, sell the LPs, and make upwards $12.00 in pure profit when you consider the time and effort it takes to drive around in your car with gas at $4.69 a gallon and the thrift stores far and few between and with e-bay not worth it because of the shipping cost and that they probably already have Terry Baxter on the Intarwebs for free or cheap and that maybe…etc.

Hard on The Back, Easy on The Ears

Ray Conniff’s I Can See Clearly Now

 

I’ve given it a lot of thought, and a lot of staring, and I have to say that Ray Conniff’s I Can See Clearly Now has some of the more-inexplicable cover art I’ve ever seen.  The cover art, in fact, is what made me buy the LP, because the music is easily explicable;  just covers of circa-1973 popular music.  Not much experimentation or risky musical maneuvers on the record.  It’s palatable and predictable Conniff presented with a pleasing, if pedestrian, palette of perfunctory and professional performances.

 

But back to that cover.  The allusion to Jonathan Livingston Seagull is obvious with the very same swooping down to dump a big seagull poop onto the unsuspecting woman with severe scoliosis.  That both are situated in what looks like Monument Valley after a nearby nuclear test is odd enough, but the way they made the young lass black & white and strike such an angular, almost-unfathomable pose, puts it over the top.  And you got to admit that that is one amazing head of hair. 

 

The “leaning-skinny-b/w-girl-in-a-long-dress” trope shows up in some other LPs in my collection.  She is found, for one example, in the excellent Bob Crewe Generation LP Birds of Britain.  Bob Crewe LPs will be the subject of another post.

 

RAY CONNIFF I Can See Clearly Now

 

Columbia – CBS 1973 / Catalog #KC32090

 

Tracks:

 

                        Side One

I Can See Clearly Now

If You Don’t Know Me By Now

It Never Rains In Southern California

Ben

Summer Breeze

Clair

 

                        Side Two

I Believe In Music

If I Could Reach You

Something’s Wrong With Me

I Am Woman

I’d Love You To Want Me

 

 

File this LP under “Innocuous Background Easy Listening Vocals.”  Don’t spend more than a buck for this one, but a nice clean copy with a clean cover is worth about that.

The First Fifty

The IP has been collecting vinyl LPs for nearly 15 years now.  He finally has had it with trying to find this and that, to locate where a particular LP is on his shelf.  Hence The IP Cataloging Project!! 

Below is the first lot of fifty albums, randomly grabbed from The IP’s collection.  Note the variety of labels.  The IP chose to catalog his records by label; that is the honest way.  

Please take the time to check out the links to some of The IPs favorite artists…maybe you’ll learn to appreciate the unapreciated. 

ABC-Paramount
Candido – Candido’s Comparsa ABCS-453 1963 ST
Leo Diamond’s Orchestra – Exciting Sounds From Romantic Places ABCS-268 1959(?) ST

Above is one of The IP’s first SAP finds where he had NO CLUE about the music but just liked the cover. Turns out it is quite an interesting record.  If not for The IP’s sister Marlone, and her great magician husband, this record would never have been found.

A&M
Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 – Equinox SP 4122 1967 ST
The Sandpipers – Guantanamera SP 4117 1966 ST
The Sandpipers – The Sandpipers Spanish Album SP 4159 1969 ST

ATCO
Bent Fabric – The Happy Puppy ATCO 33-155 1962 ST

Most of you know his tune Alley Cat, but you ain’t heard nothing until you’ve heard The Happy Puppy. This is Bent’s second but second-to-none release on Atco.

Capital
Laurindo Almeida (et al) – Viva Bossa Nova! T 1759 1962 M
Bob Bain – Latin Love T-1201 1959 M

Columbia
Les Elgart – Sophisticated Swing CL 536 1953 M
Les & Larry Elgart – Elgart au Go-Go CL 2355 1965 M
Percy Faith & Mitch Miller – It’s So Peaceful In The Country CL 779 1956 M
Percy Faith – Themes For Young Lovers CS 8823 1963 ST
Percy Faith – Clair CQ 32164 1974 Quad
Various – Curtis Mathes: Collection of Stereo Music XSV 69104/5 (Album 1) 1964 (?) ST

Command
Enoch Light And The Light Brigade – Discoteque Vol. 2 RS 33-882 1965 M

Decca
Lenny Dee – Gentle On My Mind DL 74994 1968 ST

DynoVoice
The Bob Crewe Generation – Music To Watch Girls By LP 9003 1967 M

Imperial
Sandy Nelson – Let There Be Drums LP9159 1961 M

Jamie
Duane Eddy – $1,000,000.00 Worth Of Twang JLP 70-3014 1960 ST

Kapp
Various – Kapp Jazz Festival KS-1 1956 M

Liberty
The Fantastic Strings of Felix Slatkin – Street Scene LSS 14008 1961 ST

London
Guitars Unlimited – The Fantastic Sound Of Guitars UnlimitedSP-44147 1970 ST

MCA (formerly Decca)
Earl Grant – Ebb Tide MCA-194 (Formerly DL7-4165) 197? (org. 1961)

Omega
Various – Sounds Out Of This World: Stereophonic Balance Test and Demonstration OSD-1 1959 (?) ST

Phillips
The Joe Rene Complex – Music To Read The Pretenders By PHS 600-327 1968 ST

Polydor
Bert Kaempfert – The Happy Wonderland of Bert Kaempfert K2S 5052 1966 ST (2 LP)*
Bert Kaempfert – Afrikaan Beat SPH 37556 1967 ST*

Promenade
John Elliott And His Diatonic Four – Organ Rhythms FM-1 (QX1) 196? ST

Ranwood
The Exotic Guitars – Those Were The Days R. 8040 1968 ST

RCA Camden
Leo Addeo – Songs of Hawaii CAL-759 1963 M
Living Marimbas – Georgie Girl And Other Music To Watch Girls By CAS-2149 1967 ST
Zaccarias And His Orchestra – Dance The Bossa Nova CAS-749 1962 ST

RCA Victor
Larry Ferrari – Relax With Larry Ferrari LPM-1496 1957 M
Al Hirt – Honey in The Horn LSP-2733 1963 ST
Los Indios Tabajaras – Sweet And Savage LPM-1788 1958 M
Buddy Morrow – Impact LSP-2042 1959 ST
Dick Schory’s Percussion Pops Orchestra – Politely Percussive LPM-2738 1963
Dick Schory’s Percussion Pops Orchestra – Supercussion LSP-2613 1963 ST<
Various – The Dancing Beat of The Latin Bands LSP 2087 1960 ST
Various – Dimensions In Dynagroove SNRS 3141/2 1965 ST
Various – Sounds Fantastic RVS-80 1966 ST
Hugo Winterhalter – Hugo Winterhalter Goes Continental LPM-2482 1962

Smash
Pete Drake – Forever MGS 27053 1964 M

Spin-O-Rama
Mike Di Napoli Trio – Flying Down To Rio MK 3035 1962? M

SSS International
The Tennessee Guitars – Golden Guitar Hits SSS#10 196? ST

Tops
Dave Pell And His Orchestra – Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White 9749 1963? ST

Unart
Sir Julian – Love is Blue MS 21029 1968 ST

The IP has a penchant for obnoxious organ albums, and this is one of the best (worst?). A real big slice of keyboard cheese from a master of the genre.

Verve
Astrud Gilberto – Look To The Rainbow V6-8643 1965 ST
Astrud Gilberto – The Shadow of Your Smile V6-8629 1965 ST

World Pacific
Bud Shank – California Dreaming WPS-21845 1966 ST

Kenyon Hopkins/Esquire Magazine: Sound Tour: Hawaii

 

TOUR: HAWAII – IMPRESSIONS IN SOUND OF AN AMERICAN ON TOUR. Verve V/V6-50003 (issued May 1962)

Rarity Level: ****

Cover Kitsch Level: ****

Music Kitsch Level: ****

Overall Score: *****

Acquired:  Last Chance Thrift, Decatur GA

Price: $1.01

What do you get when you take an established high-end record label like Verve, add a composer/arranger who is known for his Jazz-influenced movie soundtracks, and then add some top-of-the-line Jazz musicians to the mix?  Wait.  How about throwing in a flautist who would later go on to form the Supergroup The Brass Ring?  You want more?  How about “real” sound effects like pounding ocean surf, chirping birds, ebullient tourist chatter, and cruise ship steam whistles?  What?  You want more? How about a die-cut, fold out album jacket with a TRAVEL GUIDE affixed to the inside?  More?  How about having this whole “concept” in Hi-Fi be a partnership with Verve and our Nation’s first and most respected “men’s” magazine, none other than Esquire?  Finally, how about the album being the only one of the whole series that is set in, you guessed it, HAWAII!!  

A post-modern, thrift-store-record-buying bachelor gets a rare and quintessential piece of mid-60s audio nirvana; that’s what he gets! 

This reviewer had already encountered Kenyon Hopkins when he found himself getting sucked in to a TCM showing of Mr. Buddwing, a strange, 1966 B&W flick featuring a very young James Garner and a VERY beautiful Suzanne Pleshette.  It was filmed on location in NYC, and Hopkins did a masterful job with the soundtrack, making his Jazzy take on the story really “fill out” what, without the music, could have been  much less of a film.  The IP gave the flick 4 stars, with two of them going to Hopkins. Thankfully, Verve corralled KH for four albums in a “concept” series entitled “Sound Tour.”  The three other tours, also featuring the KH touch, were in France, Italy, and Spain.  The IP found the Hawaii LP in a local thrift store, and he knew right away that it would be good.  It’s more than good, actually. 

The recording quality, the arrangements, the performances, and the added “sounds” of Hawaii make this LP a sort of Exotica-Light, a blend of kitsch with a strong Jazz sensibility.  The latter is made obviously apparent by the alto sax of Phil Woods and the trumpet of Joe Wilder.  And playing exceptionally on flute is Phil Bodner, a hard-working musician and producer of one of the greatest Sleazy Listening groups of all time: The Brass Ring!

 

Then there is the album itself, with beautiful cover photos and a die-cut, gate-fold design complete with a little “Guide” to the highlights of America’s 50^th State; at least as they were in the mid-60s. 

Not reissued on CD, so you have to be lucky at the thrifts or pay $20+ on the intrawebs. 

Details: 

SOUND TOUR: HAWAII New York City: February 16, 1962Joe Wilder (tp solo); unknown (tb); Phil Woods (as solo); Jerome Richardson, Phil Bodner (f solo); unknown (acc); unknown (g); unknown (steel g); unknown (ukelele); unknown (b); unknown (d); unknown (perc); unknown (harp); Keene Crockett (sound effects); Kenyon Hopkins (arr, cond). a. (62VK358) Pagan Love Song (A. Freed/N. H. Brown) – 1:58b. (62VK359)

Hawaiian War Chant (Freed/Noble/Leleiohaku) – 1:49c. (62VK360) Sweet Leilani (Owens) – 1:51d. (62VK361)

Nani Pua (Kenyon Hopkins) – 2:18e. (62VK362)

Outer Island (Kenyon Hopkins) – 2:27f. (62VK363)

On The Beach At Waikiki (Stover/Kailimai) – 1:37g. (62VK364)

Siva Siva (Kenyon Hopkins) – 2:18h. (62VK365)

Catamaran (Kenyon Hopkins) – 1:45i. (62VK366) Hula

Shuffle (Kenyon Hopkins) – 2:24j. (62VK367)

Kooki Muus (Kenyon Hopkins) – 2:45k. (62VK368)

Song Of The Islands (C. E. King) – 2:20l. (62VK369)

Luau (Kenyon Hopkins) – 2:05m. (62VK370)

Aloha (traditional) – 1:40 

Note: Complete title is VERVE RECORDS AND ESQUIRE MAGAZINE – SOUND TOUR: HAWAII – IMPRESSIONS IN SOUND OF AN AMERICAN ON TOUR. 

Issues: a-m on Verve V/V6-50003 (issued May 1962), MGM Premium PM 23/9. Samplers: b, c & d also on Verve V6-DJ3 titled VERVE/ESQUIRE “TRAVEL SAMPLER”.Producer: Creed TaylorEngineer: Bob SimpsonNotes: Richard Joseph        

Now Playing! Great Music From Great Motion Pictures

 A/AS-23 – Now Playing! (Great Music from Great Motion Pictures) – Various Artists [1963] Artists: Carol Lawrence/Victor Feldman/Harry Betts/Elmer Bernstein/Pete Jolly/Dick Hazard

Rarity Level: ***

Cover Kitsch Level: **

Music Kitsch Level: **

Overall Score: ***

Acquired:  Goodwill, Lilburn GA

Price: $1.01

Acquisition Notes:  Typical Saturday morning find from a Goodwill that always produces.  

Review:

This album on MGM’s budget AVA label actually provided more interest and value than The IP expected.  The predominant performer/arrangers are Elmer Bernstein and Harry Betts, both well-respected and successful movie-score men.  In fact, Harry Betts arranged one of The IP’s favorite surf movie scores for The Fantastic Plastic Machine.  But that’s another story.  On to the review of Now Playing!

The overarching theme of this LP is that each song on it is from a movie nominated for the Academy Awards of 1963; this means that the movies were released in 1962, coincidental with the year of The IP’s birth.  Curiously, rather than the typical movie score album that is all covers by one band, Now Playing! features an interesting mix of original performers and curious covers that make it a keeper. The movies that produced the songs on this LP are a mix of the well-known and not-so-well-known: 

Days of Wine and Roses 

To Kill a Mockingbird 

Walk on The Wild Side 

Mutiny on The Bounty 

Lawrence of Arabia 

Jumbo

Gypsy 

Taras Bulba

Two For The Seesaw  

Click on the titles for info on the movies

 The evidently ubiquitous Carol Lawrence innocuously starts off the LP with her version Henry Mancini’s hit Days of Wine and Roses.  Complete pabulum with cheesy backup singers; makes The IP want to hear Mancini’s version.  Not horrible, but horribly banal. 

What’s this?  The theme from one of  -if not THE- epic films of all time, Lawrence of Arabia, being played by a Jazz trio?  This short-lived 2:15 track by the Victor Feldman Trio makes this album worth the price of admission ($1.01).

Harry Betts takes a Bossa Nova approach (all the rage at the time) in his arrangement of A Second Chance from the movie Two For The Seesaw.  It’s a more pleasant listening experience than the earlier track by Carol Lawrence, but not by much.  The “Bill Brown Singers,” whoever the heck they are, ruin what might be a cool, Bossa Nove instrumental track.

Elmer Bernstein proves his composing and arranging prowess with his theme from Walk on The Wildside.  Always a winner, even when covered by other artists. 

The acting, rather than the music, carried the day for the movie To Kill a Mockingbird, so much so that one might never have known that Elmer Bernstein wrote the music.  This track proves that point, with its rather generic piano tinkling and subdued orchestration.  Whatever.   

The first track of Side Two of Now Playing! presents a complete and appreciated departure from the last track of Side One.  Pete Jolly Trio & Friends apply the Bossa Nova trope to the To Kill a Mockingbird theme.  Like the Victor Feldman Jazz track on Side One, this one leaves the listener wanting more.  And Pete Jolly is an unexpected bonus to be included on such an album. 

Whoever those Bill Brown Singers are, they again ruin an otherwise…well, this time the music sucks too.  They are “singing” on a arrangement by one “Dick Hazard.”  The name says enough.  This song, at least as performed here, is more than forgettable.   

Ready for some more Bossa Nova?  The IP told you that it was all the rage in 1963.  Here we have Harry Betts trying to make the most of a bad situation.  What might that be?  He has to work with those damn Bill Brown Singers!  But Betts must have known how to browbeat these horrible vocalists into a slight submission; most of their “singing” on this track is actually of the “doo-doo-doo, da-da-da” variety that actually goes well with a Bossa Nova beat.  In short: passable. 

This Elmer Bernstein track (Follow Me) for the 1962 version of Mutiny on The Bounty is another throw-away, with a pseudo-Bolero sound that is, to this writer, more than a bit embarrassing.  Hey, whatever works. 

This LP ends with another Harry Betts Bossa Nova interpretation of a song from the movie Gypsy.  Again, Betts manages to keep those intrusive Bill Brown Singers at bay, at least for most of the song…Hey…maybe I’m being too hard on these Bill Brown Singers…They didn’t sound so bad the third time around.  Then again, I’m on my third beer.  

As mentioned earlier, the few authentic Jazz tracks by Victor Feldman and Pete Jolly make this thrift store LP a keeper, as long as it’s under $1.01.  That’s what The IP pays at the Goodwill where he got it.  The Harry Betts tracks are just “OK.”  The Bill Brown Singers are like a virus that infects any song they are on.  The Elmer Berstein theme from Walk on The Wild Side can be found on the actual soundtrack album of the same name. 

All in all, The IP was pleased by this LP, if not overwhelmed. 

Berj Vaugn’s “Instrumentally Yours”

 

ARCO records LP-500, Stereo, USA (Miami, Florida) 196? 

 

Track Listing:

Rarity Level: *****

Cover Kitsch Level: *****

Music Kitsch Level: *

Overall Score: ****

Acquired: Goodwill, Lilburn GA

Price: $1.01

Acquisition Notes: Got lucky with a Saturday morning infusion of new used records brought out in a cart by one of the Goodwill empoyees while I was perusing the LPs.

Review:

One of the many classifications of old LPs is the “club album.” Such an LP usually features a performer who somehow garnered enough attention as a “regular” at a particular lounge/restaurant for them or some small local label (usually the former) to transmit their unique musical stylings through a rented Scully Lathe and onto a master disc. The resulting lot of LPs were usually sold at the venue as a souvenir for the departing (usually tipsy) couples who wanted a permanent reminder of their club dinner evening. What a symbolic treasure! An audio reminder of a full three hours where they didn’t once bitch and argue with each other!

One could not think of a better place and time for such LPs as Miami Beach in the late 50s and early 60s. And what better a venue than the beachfront Thunderbird Hotel, said to be a Miami hangout of the legendary “Rat Pack.” That’s not surprising since at the time there was a Thunderbird hotel and casino in Las Vegas also. And who better to represent the culture and Class of Miami Beach than Berj Vaughn, multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire.

It says in the liner notes of his club album “Instrumentally Yours” that Mr. Vaughn had been “…comfortably ensconced in the world famous Thunderbird’s Pow Wow Room in Miami Beach for ten years” Holy shite! One hopes they let him out for some fresh air now and again.

Those ten years were enough for Berj to make a name for himself in greater Miami, even if “Berj” was already a unique name to begin with. “Berj” is a common Armenian name, but regardless of his ethnicity, Berj has some serious chops. He competently and, at times, even inspiringly, wails away on oboe, clarinet, trumpet, flute, and both tenor and soprano saxes. And on “Instrumentally Yours,” each song was composed by Berj himself, a hard thing to pull off when the dinner crowd probably expects to here their tired “favorites.” And Damn, does Berj pull it off, along with backing from a solid pianist, bassist, and two percussionist who flavor the set with solid beats and Cubanesque conga and timbale rhythms (it is Miami, after all).

This 12-song set is mostly straight-ahead jazz, with nice tinges of exotica found in the tight Latin/Caribe percussion and Vaughn’s flute. There are a few songs that don’t reach the level of “serious” jazz, but they are at worst only innocuous. All in all, this LP is a thrift store winner.

Berj Vaughn’s Instrumentally Yours is a one-of-a-kind club album that actually is really good; this author has suffered the indignity of listening to many club music train wrecks, so when he found and heard Berj Vaughn’s LP it renewed his faith in the idea that one CAN find minor-label club albums that please the ear and inspire the mind. Good luck finding it though, because it’s being sold by specialty record shops on the internets as a “Rare” LP in the $25 to $35 range.

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