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.