Baby Allstars - Lovers Red (1995)

What a curiously devilish little album!

There's not much info readily available about this kiddie chorus collection of dance-mixed pop covers, but it seems fitting that the Living, Dining & Kitchen record label has continued in a
J-Pop vein...

From the 'Lovers Red' LP,
(Living, Dining & Kitchen Records LP, 1995),
Listen to Baby Allstars:

No Woman No Cry
Over The Rainbow
Daydream Believer
Mercy Mercy Mercy
I Want You Back
Can't Help Falling In Love

Joe Bushkin - I Get A Kick Out of Porter (1958)

Definitions or the word 'ebullient' include "cheerful and full of energy".

It's a word that comes up often in describing the piano style of
Joe Bushkin (1916 - 2004).

During the big band era he played with many of the greats, some while still in his teens.

He joined Bunny Berigan's band at the age of 19, after having played with Berigan and Artie Shaw on some of vocalist Billie Holiday's earliest recordings.

He played with Mugsy Spanier and was a member of Eddie Condon's band from 1936 - '38.

The high point of his early career was his stretch with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra that began in 1939.
Bushkin played on over 100 recordings with the Dorsey band, including plenty of sessions with Frank Sinatra and drummer Buddy Rich.

In 1942 he entered the Army Air Corps, switching from piano over to trumpet in the Air Corps Band during WWII.
Post-war Bushkin worked a bit with David Rose, and with Benny Goodman before Goodman broke up his orchestra to concentrate on small groups.
Club gigs and studio playing followed, as well as a short stint on Broadway.

His first solo LP's were recorded in the early 1950's.
Upon moving to the Capitol label he struck up a working relationship with arranger Kenyon Hopkins, a collaboration that would continue over the course of several of Bushkin's albums.

The liner notes from this 1958 instrumental tribute to Cole Porter's music tell us that Gleb Derujinsky's cover photograph shows Mr. Bushkin perched atop a Grumman Navy Cougar (F9F-8T), which was purportedly airborne with Joe a few moments later...

From Joe Bushkin's
'I Get A Kick Out of Porter' LP,
(Capitol Records LP, 1958), Listen to:

I Get A Kick Out Of You
I've Got You Under My Skin
Night And Day
Begin The Beguine
Get Out Of Town
In The Still Of The Night
So In Love
Love For Sale
Let's Do It
Where Have You Been
What Is This Thing Called Love?
Just One Of Those Things

(click for audio)

- - OR download all 12 tracks in one 27.4 Mb zipfile.

See also:
- A thorough profile of Joe Bushkin Space Age Pop

- Joe Bushkin's 1957 LP, 'A Fellow Needs A Girl'
was recently featured at Singin' & Swingin'.

Selections from Jimmy Smith's 'Monster' (1965)

Soul-jazz pioneer of the Hammond B-3 organ Jimmy Smith released a stellar string of albums on the Verve label in the 1960's.

'Monster' may have been a lesser link in that chain of LP's, but the record doesn't deserve the bad rap it's received over the years.
Likely it's been maligned because the choice of material runs heavy on TV and movie theme songs, or perhaps because the arrangements run heavier on reeds than most of Smith's other albums of that period.

In fact, those same choices make 'Monster' an interesting album - - that all but a couple of it's tracks have so far avoided reissue also adds to its flavor...

Produced by Creed Taylor, with Oliver Nelson as arranger/conductor, the session personnel includes:
Jerome Richardson, Phil Woods, Budd Johnson, George Dorsey, Harvey Estrin, Robert Ashton, Danny Banks, and Ray Beckenstein doubling on assorted reeds and woodwinds, Kenny Burrell on guitar, Richard Davis on bass, and Grady Tate on drums.

From Jimmy Smith's
'Monster' LP,
(Verve Records, 1965), Listen to:

Goldfinger (Part 1)
Goldfinger (Part 2)
Gloomy Sunday
Theme From 'Bewitched'
Theme From 'The Munsters'
Theme From 'The Man With The Golden Arm'
The Creeper

(click for audio)









See also:
- For access to this complete LP in one download, you might try Rangeraver's Departure Lounge.

- For liner notes and more details on this album, check out The Incredible Jimmy Smith website - - which is a good source in general for all things Jimmy Smith.

- Jimmy Smith entry at All Music.Com

Hugh X. Lewis - Evolution and The Bible b/w Gone, Gone, Gone (1968)

In the early years of his career as a singer-songwriter in the 1950's, Hugh X. Lewis divided his time between country music and his job in a Kentucky Steel Mill.

Regular radio and TV appearances led to recording contracts, and in 1963 he left the mill and moved to Nashville, finding more success in writing songs for others to perform.

Lewis' original composition on the A-side of this 45 incorporates plenty of familiar devices as it tells its story using a 'talking blues' structure similar to Jimmy Dolan's 'Hot Rod Race'.

The B-side covers a Harlan Howard tune that had been a hit for Lefty Frizzell a few years prior to this recording.

Listen to:
Hugh X. Lewis -
Evolution and The Bible
(Kapp Records 45, 1968)
(click for audio)













Listen to:
Hugh X. Lewis -
Gone, Gone, Gone
(Kapp Records 45, 1968)
(click for audio)





See also:
- Hugh X. Lewis bio and discography at
Hillbilly Music.Com

- 1966's 'The Hugh X. Lewis Album' at
Red Neckerson's Radio Round Up

Machito Goes Memphis (1968)

A true pioneer of Latin Jazz, Cuban-born bandleader and vocalist
Machito (1909 - 1984) founded his influential orchestra, the Afro-Cubans, in 1940.

During that decade and beyond, he forged new bonds between Latin rhythm and progressive jazz improvisation, drawing established name jazz performers such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Mann, and others into his band as featured soloists.
A staple of New York dance clubs, he was at the center of the 1950's mambo craze.

By the '60's and beyond, his band was a juggernaut, but in '68 he was still happily exploring (and looking for commercial 'pop' hooks).
This 'Memphis Soul' album isn't necessarily indicative of typical Machito, and neither can it be said to be his best album.

But that doesn't stop it from cooking, just the same!

From Machito's
'Machito Goes Memphis' LP,
(RCA Records, 1968), Listen to:

Baby I Love You
Hip Hug Her
Knock On Wood
Alfie
Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa
In The Midnight Hour
Shake
Green Onions
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
634-5789
Soul American
Hold On, I'm Comin'

(click for audio)

- - OR download all 12 tracks in one 28.2 Mb zipfile.

See also:
- Machito profiles at Space Age Pop and Descarga.Com

- At YouTube, video clips of Machito and his orchestra with vocalist Graciela in Japan, performing live and being interviewed live on Japanese TV in the 1960's!
(follow links to)
Part 1
Part 2

In Crowd of the month: Les Blackburds (1967)

Alternate title: 'Mick Jones and The Road to Arena Rock' (Not to be confused with 'The other Mick Jones and The Road to Rock The Casbah').

A ripping instrumental version this month, steeped in obscurity, some snaky roots of rock history, and many dues paid along the way.

Major thanks are extended to my old pal
Pink Frankenstein for his assistance in connecting the dots.

'Les Blackburds' was the name of a backing band for legendary French pop singer
Johnny Hallyday, circa 1966 - '68.

The band was basically a group of 'hired gun' session musicians who could provide the
British-Beat elements that commerce dictated necessary to provide Hallyday with the sound of the day.

Leading the group was the team of guitarist Micky Jones and drummer Tommy Brown.

Brits Jones and Brown had worked together a few years earlier as they passed through the ever-changing ranks of the group Nero & The Gladiators, gaining some notice before moving on to their own partnership, later recording as the duo The State of Micky and Tommy.

They picked up a variety of session work as well, and in early 1964 were 'designated Brits' in French singer Sylvie Vartan's backing band for a series of performances in Paris.

A professional association with her husband Johnny Hallyday soon followed, and continued through the sixties.

Hallyday released new singles and EPs at a steady clip, and so the band was often traveling from their home in Paris back to London recording studios to capture 'the English sound' with
Glyn Johns or other producers.

In the photo, Johnny Hallyday with Les Blackburds ►

As 'Les Blackburds', the band's lineup typically included:

Micky Jones, guitar
Tommy Brown, drummer
Raymond Donnez
(aka Don Ray), keyboards
Gérard 'Papillon' Fournier, bass
Sam Kelly, percussion
Gérard Pisani, Pierre Ploquin, Jacques Ploquin, Gilles Pellegrini; trumpets
Jean Tosan, sax
Luis Fuentes, trombone

- - Though at this time it's uncertain if that was the exact line-up on their instrumental 'boogaloo' EP released (sans Hallyday) in '67.

From the EP 'The Blackburds play the Bugaloo'
(Phillips Records [France], 1967),
listen to:

Les Blackburds - The "In" Crowd
(click for audio)

- - and then for the next few years, things got interesting for Mick Jones.

His partnership with Tommy Brown began to wind down at the beginning of the 1970's, and eventually so did collaborations with Johnny Hallyday.

In 1970, he joined the line-up of
Gary Wright's new group, Wonderwheel, formed after the break-up of Spooky Tooth.

By 1972, Wright and Jones were members of a reformed Spooky Tooth, recording a couple of albums and changing personnel a few times before breaking up again in 1974.

During this general period Jones also played guitar on an album for Peter Frampton, on George Harrison's 'Dark Horse' LP, and on a few other artist's recording gigs as well.

After Spooky Tooth, he detoured to New York City for several months, working in the music industry as an A&R man for Nigel Thomas' short-lived Good Ear Records.

Heading back to performing, beginning in 1975 Jones did a relatively short stint in
The Leslie West Band, after the breakup of West's band, Mountain.

It appears that after working in A&R and working with the volatile West, Jones made the decision to start his own outfit.

The origins of Mick's career-defining group Foreigner quickly followed.

He met with multi-instrumentalist
Ian McDonald (a fellow Brit, formerly of
King Crimson) and recruited relatively unknown vocalist Lou Gramm, whom Jones had met a few years prior while touring with Spooky Tooth.

Filled out to a sextet and formed in New York in 1976, the band's name came from their 'hybrid' status as a blended Brit and American band.

If you lived through the end of the '70's and the '80's, you may recall that Foreigner did pretty well...

See also:

- A live appearance on 1960's French TV by
Johnny Hallyday and (quite possibly) Les Blackburds performing 'If I Was A Carpenter'.

- A video clip from The Dick Cavett Show circa 1971 shows Mick Jones as a member of Gary Wright's Wonderwheel, with guest George Harrison.

- A partial listing of Mick Jones' recording credits
at All Music.Com

- Click here to view the exhaustively detailed
'Mick Jones Panorama' biographical website, including the anecdotes avoided here about paths crossed with The Beatles, Otis Redding, Jimmy Page, Ahmet Ertegun and other music industry luminaries.

- Click here for this entry and all the previous
'In Crowd of the month' posts together on one page.

Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet - 'Music For Pets' ep (1991)

Toronto's Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet were a fun,
mostly-instrumental kinda-surfy band that were around for about ten years, from the mid-1980's to mid-'90's.

◀ In the photo, from left to right:
Don Pyle, drums
Brian Connelly, guitar, keyboards
Reid Diamond, bass




They'll always be best remembered for their association with the Canadian comedy troupe Kids In The Hall; On their TV show the band provided 'transitional' music between sketches as well as the program's theme song,
'Having An Average Weekend'.

The Shadowy Men released 3 full-length albums together, presented here is one of roughly a dozen singles and EPs they put out.

After the end of The Shadowy Men era, the former bandmates went on to perform and record with an assortment of bands, including Phonocomb and Atomic 7.
Bass player Reid Diamond lost a battle with cancer and passed away in 2001.

For detailed info regarding the band and their various musical incarnations following their break-up, click over to 'The Shadowy Site On A Shadowy Web'
- - an Unofficial webpage for The Shadowy Men.

From the 'Music For Pets'
7" EP (K Records, 1991),
Listen to
Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet:

Rover & Rusty

Here Kitty

The Cat Came Back

Baby Elephant Walk

That Wuz Ear Me Callin' A Horse

Lainie Kazan - selections from 'Right Now!' (1966)

A previous post here about actress & singer Lainie Kazan continues to get a fair amount of attention - - some of it no doubt generated by her recent supporting role in another
Adam Sandler film, but certainly also due to ongoing interest and curiosity about this talented and singular entertainer.

- - and then there are those who are still just now 'discovering' her.

Time for a follow-up post; Here are tracks from another classic mid-1960's Kazan album!

(Click on liner notes image ▼
to ENLARGE in a new window)


From Lainie Kazan's
'Right Now!' LP,
(MGM Records, 1966), Listen to:

Blues In The Night
Blue Skies
Joey, Joey, Joey
House of Flowers
Black, Black, Black
My Man's Gone Now
I Cried For You
Feeling Good
Don't Like Goodbyes
I'm Shooting High

(click for audio)

- - OR download all 10 tracks in one 27.1 Mb zipfile.

See also:
- Lainie Kazan listed at IMDb

- Lainie Kazan listed at the Internet Broadway Database

- Lainie Kazan's
Official Website

- Follow link for a '60's TV solo performance clip of 'What Now My Love?'

▼ Below, a video clip of a typically casual performance from one of Lainie's 26 TV appearances on
'The Dean Martin Show'.

78s fRom HeLL: Ferrante & Teicher - That Old Black Magic b/w Beezwhacks (circa 1953)

It was in 1960 that the music of piano duo
Arthur Ferrante and Louis Teicher took an abrupt and lucrative turn, as it headed firmly down Easy Listening's middle-of-the-road.

Their formulaic crowd-pleasing pop was a sharp contrast to the more sonically adventuresome 'prepared' piano sound present on many of their 1950's recordings, including the two posted here.

Ferrante and Teicher met in New York, while attending Julliard. They began performing together while teaching there in the latter half of the '40's.




Early on they began experimentation by modifying their instruments - - "...stuff(ing) wads of paper, sticks, rubber stops, masonite strings, cardboard wedges, and sandpaper into the pianos conjuring up weird effects
(a la [John] Cage) resembling gongs, castanets, drums, xylophone, and harpsichord." **

Pianos became percussion instruments as the team learned to play them from the inside.

Though it's currently lapsed out of print, the 1997 CD reissue of Ferrante and Teicher's 1958 'Blast Off' LP is highly recommended and worth seeking out.

But all good things come to an end.
Whether it's for the better is a matter of opinion and perspective.

Upon signing with United Artists Records in 1960, Ferrante and Teicher soon curtailed their gimmickry, filled out their sound with orchestral accompaniment, and played it straight (and safe) - - all to enormous success throughout the '60's and beyond.



Listen to:
Ferrante & Teicher - That Old Black Magic
(Columbia 78, circa 1953)

(click for audio)













Listen to:
Ferrante & Teicher - Beezwhacks
(Columbia 78, circa 1953)

(click for audio)




For more on Ferrante and Teicher, see also:
- All Music.Com

- The Official Homepage

- Space Age Pop's Ferrante and Teicher page clearly delineates the division between their prepared piano works and easy listening era.

- At Showcase, a Dutch record collector relates a tale of discovering the 1955 LP, 'Soundproof', and has posted a track.

The Johannesburg Street Band - Thimlela b/w Pata Pata (1968)

Jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela emigrated from his native South Africa in 1960, settling in New York City following time spent at London's Guildhall School of Music.

Soon after Masekela's first solo LP release, he married singer Miriam Makeba in 1964.
The two had worked together often since the late '50's in South Africa.

By 1968, he'd relocated to Los Angeles, following his divorce from Makeba.
That same year he recorded his highest-charting hit, 'Grazing In The Grass'.

The Johannesburg Street Band was a project formed by Masekela along with members of The Jazz Crusaders; trombonist Wayne Henderson and tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder.

Both tracks off of this 45 would appear on their LP, 'Dancin' Through The Streets', released on MCA's Uni subsidiary label.

In 1970, The Crusaders (having dropped 'Jazz' from their name at Masekela's suggestion) signed with Masekela's newly-formed Chisa record label.


Listen to:
The Johannesburg Street Band - Thimlela
(Uni Records 45, 1968)
(click for audio)










Listen to:
The Johannesburg Street Band - Pata Pata
(Uni Records 45, 1968)
(click for audio)

(FYI: Miriam Makeba's hit vocal version of her song 'Pata Pata' was released in 1967)


See also:
- A Hugh Masekela Biography / Discography page at Doug Payne's Sound Insights

In Crowd of the month: Pete Fountain (1966)

New Orleans clarinetist Pete Fountain found a niche years ago in dixieland jazz, playing both in a very traditional style, and applying that same sound to very commercial covers of popular music.

After Fountain's huge surge in popularity during his stint with Lawrence Welk, at the beginning of the 1960's he opened his own nightclub in New Orleans, performing there regularly until his semi-retirement in 2003.



This instrumental comes from one of his many albums released on the Coral record label, which was arguably where he made his finest recordings throughout the sixties.

From the LP
'A Taste Of Honey'
(Coral Records, 1966),
listen to:

Pete Fountain - The "In" Crowd
(click for audio)








See also:
- The extensive and expansive Pete Fountain Discography and blog

- Pete Fountain listed at All Music.Com

- A spotlight on Pete's years on TV with 'The Lawrence Welk Show' at the Welk Musical Family blog.

- Click here for this entry and all the previous 'In Crowd of the month' posts together on one page.

Jackie Wilson - Do Your Thing (1968)

Soul singer Jackie Wilson's career had faltered just a bit in the 1960's; His voice and performance style were still amazing, but he'd had some trouble weathering changing trends in pop music.

This 1968 LP came the year following a resurgence with his hit single 'Higher and Higher', which was essentially his last career highpoint.

With a great sound crafted by influential producer Carl Davis and Eugene Record (of The Chi-Lites), it's a sweet album overall, though perhaps a bit typically 'schizophonic' with respect to song choices - - mixing semi-current Rock hits with splashy 'big room' showpieces.





From the 'Do Your Thing' LP (Brunswick Records, 1968),
Listen to Jackie Wilson:

To Change My Love
This Guy's In Love With You
Why Don't You Do Your Thing
This Bitter Earth
Helpless
Light My Fire
That Lucky Old Sun
With These Hands
Hold On, I'm Comin'
Eleanor Rigby

- - OR download all 10 tracks in one 27.7 Mb zipfile.

See also:
Jackie Wilson at All Music.Com

Mr. Excitement - The Official Jackie Wilson website

In Crowd of the month: The Chipmunks (1965)

The Chipmunks have come a long way since their creation by Ross Bagdasarian (a.k.a. Dave Seville) in 1958.

Nah, I can't say I was too excited about
Jason Lee's 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' movie, although from the tiny bit I saw, it's sort of nice to see that the franchise still has a place with kids today.









The modern CG look to Alvin and his posse is a bit of a change from the 1960's animated cartoon look that I grew up with - - which in itself was markedly different than the depiction they'd had on their earliest records, or than the hand puppets that would be seen with Dave Seville on TV in those same early days.

It's the old look and spirit present on this 1965 LP cover ▼ that I miss, though.

I loved 'The Alvin Show' cartoon on TV, and I miss it.

Where's the spiffy DVD release for THAT show, huh?!?
That's what this aging nerd wants to know...

I needs me some
Clyde Crashcup!!

From the LP
'Chipmunks à Go-Go'
(Liberty Records, 1965),
listen to:

The Chipmunks - The "In" Crowd
(click for audio)



See also:
- Follow link to a nice healthy stack of video clips from 'The Alvin Show' at YouTube

- A history of The Chipmunks, written by Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. at his Chipmunks.Com
(requires Flash Player)

- Click here for this entry and all of the previously posted 'Bagdasarian-centric' items on this blog

- Click here for this entry and all the previous 'In Crowd of the month' posts together on one page.

Mingo 2000 - Out Of Our Way (1994)

In the unlikely event that the subject of Mingo 2000 should come up in conversation, memories of this mid-'90's band would likely elicit comparisons.

'Like a west-coast version of
Combustible Edison, with maybe a dash of
Man Or Astro-Man', for instance.

From what I remember of what I could glean at the time, I'll guess they were a bay area band, or perhaps from a bit further south...? Or am I way off?

In what I recall as a casually understated manner, Mingo 2000 emerged right smack at the very beginning of the 'lounge revival' around 1994, did some touring, put out this snappy ten-inch record, and fairly quickly evaporated as the scene heated up. They may have been blind-sided by bigger bands with more calculated 'concepts'.

I saw them play once as the opening band for Combustible Edison at Bimbo's in San Francisco, and I think there was a bit of bemusement from the headliners when Mingo 2000 played a couple of tunes they'd planned on performing - - So, two versions of Nina Rota's 'Cadillac' that evening.
No problem, just like-minded spirits doing their thing.

I also have a fuzzy memory of sitting on a couch in the East Bay and watching Mingo 2000 perform in someone's living room around Halloween - - which was enchanting, but I was unfortunately pretty 'fuzzy' at the time...

From the
'Out Of Our Way' 10" LP
(Mable Label Records, 1994),
Listen to Mingo 2000:

Frankie Machine
Cadillac
Hawks and Sparrows
War of the Satellites / Let's Dance The Jet
(side one lead-out lock groove)
Beat Girl
'Brillante'
Tulan
Tesla's Menses

- - OR download all 9 tracks in one 21.7 Mb zipfile.

Two 7-inch singles from Snakefinger (1978, 1980)

Musician Phillip 'Snakefinger' Lithman
(1949 - 1987) was a cohort and frequent collaborator to The Residents, back in their early years of complete obscurity, and through to the '80's heyday of the Ralph Record label.

Born in South London, Snakefinger had come up through the British Blues scene in his teens before moving to San Francisco at the end of the '60's, where he first met the enigmatic Residents.

Back in London in '72, he formed the pub rock band Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers along with fellow guitarist Martin Stone (of Savoy Brown) and members of Brinsley Schwarz (including
Nick Lowe).

Following the break-up of Chilli Willi and a sojourn to L.A. seeking a record contract, Lithman returned to San Francisco around 1978.

Very soon he was providing many snakey guitar licks as a 'guest performer' on several of The Residents recordings, which led to his own solo releases.



Listen to:
Snakefinger -
The Spot
Ralph Records 45, 1978
(click for audio)

Click here to see the song lyrics on the back cover of the 'Spot' picture sleeve.







After encouraging Snakefinger to go solo, The Residents collaborated on his first Ralph record, released on translucent blue vinyl.
The B-side, 'Smelly Tongues', was a cover version of a song from 1974's 'Meet The Residents', their first LP.









Listen to:
Snakefinger -
Smelly Tongues
Ralph Records 45, 1978
(click for audio)

The first Snakefinger LP, 1979's
'Chewing Hides The Sound' included a brilliant cover version of Kraftwerk's 'The Model'.

The 45 single release soon followed, backed by a track not found on the album.






Listen to:
Snakefinger -
The Model
Ralph Records 45, 1980
(click for audio)

Click here to see the image on the back cover of the 'Model' picture sleeve.










Listen to:
Snakefinger -
Talkin' In The Town
Ralph Records 45, 1980
(click for audio)

A few more LP releases followed, heading into the 1980's.
By 1982 Lithman had established his touring back-up group, The Vestal Virgins, with Eric Drew Feldman, who'd been with Capt. Beefheart's band.

In 1984, the tour and live recording from 'Snakefinger's History of The Blues' showcased his range of playing skills.

Having had a history of heart problems, it was while on tour in Europe with The Vestal Virgins in 1987 that Snakefinger died of a fatal heart attack at age 38.



See also:
- Snakefinger bio page at Residents.Com

- As of this writing, Snakefinger's first 3 full-length solo LPs on the Ralph label are all available for download at The Thing On The Doorstep

- Below, ▼ The classic 'Man In The Dark Sedan'
music video from 1980, directed by Graeme Whifler.