duaneiac

Mamborama! -- a 1990 Charly CD compilation of some old TICO recordings of Tito Puente and His Orchestra.

I love those Bear Family CDs. I think when I got those was when I first heard "Mambo A La Kenton" and "Mambo A La Billy May" and got a big kick out of them. It was definitely when I first heard "The Freeway Mambo", one of my favorite Prado recordings. When I was a kid, say somewhere around 1968-69, we got a box of old 45s our local small town radio station was purging, I guess (my mom worked with the mom of the guy who was the morning DJ on said station). I remember we had such discs as "Hot Diggity" by Perry Como, "Red Roses For a Blue Lady" and "Can't Get Used To Losing You" by Andy Williams, "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena" by the Beach Boys. But there was this one catchy, odd instrumental record that I loved, but I had no idea what the song was titled or who recorded. It took me decades until I stumbled across it again and learned the song I loved as a kid was this -- while looking for that, I also found these interesting clips. I like those modified Dizzy bell trumpets -- kind of a gooseneck look. The man sure loved those puffy shirts! Has any one ever recorded a solo piano album of mambos? Clearly Sr. Prado was not the man for that task, but it seems like a concept that just might work.

Rewatched one of my all-time favorite films -- It's so brilliant on so many levels -- the acting, the writing, the choreography, the cinematography, the editing (Oscar winner Alan Heim), the musical score (Oscar winner Ralph Burns), the costuming (Oscar winner Albert Wolsky) and set designing. And if none of that impresses you, there is always Ann Reinking !!! For a film so centered around death, it's simply brimming with life. I remember when I first saw it when it came out in 1979, I was so gobsmacked by the whole experience, I stayed in my seat to watch the next showing. Rarely have I done that with a film.

Thanks for that heads up! It showed there were only 20 left in stock and I can confirm there are now only 19 left!

This was Dave Brubeck's final recording project. I was concerned that it was forgotten about already and was never going to see the light of day. Glad it will finally be released next month; I indulged in a 15% off sale at Deep Discount and bought the following.

I hadn't heard this song in literally decades when it suddenly started randomly popping up in my mind the past couple of days. I had to scratch that itch and go give it a listen. It has some cool bass work. I wonder who played that. and what the heck, let's go for the full length version too My apologies if this ancient earworm proves to be infectious.

Disc 2 of 2.

Disc 2 of 2.

Disc 3 of 3, which features recordings "In An Afro Cuban, Bossa Nova, Calypso Groove".

Disc 1 of 3, which is focused on his big band recordings.

This image reminds me of the only time I saw Celia Cruz perform. It was a concert presented by SFJAZZ at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in SF. Great show of course, but I was standing up close to the stage and was astounded by her shoes. Imagine that shoe pictured above, but with the heel at a 45 degree angle, so that the spike heel was coming not out of the heel of the shoe, but out of the instep. It looked like it would be pretty challenging to walk in, but she carried it off flawlessly. I would have given her a standing ovation just for her shoes alone!

Granny rocks!

I'm very surprised there has not been a Burt Bacharach jukebox musical put together for Broadway by now. If the songs of Abba, Queen, Billy Joel, Carole King and The Go-Go's deserve such treatment, surely Mr. Bacharach's work does as well. Many of his songs, even those not specifically written for Broadway, have the feel of show tunes -- really good show tunes -- with some roots in pop and R&B music. This song alone would make for a great, dramatic (boy loses girl) Act One concluding number: I'm sure that dress would have been deemed "unsafe for TV" in the USA at that time!

Happy 92nd Birthday, Junior Mance!

I've always enjoyed this tune. Lyrics by Mack David. Nothing deep or insightful about it -- it's just a fun and flirty song. Since Ms. Russell's version was what brought this song back to my attention, I thought it appropriate to feature it here.

Well, you could take "Delta Dawn" and cross it with "The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald" and the resultant cacophony would still be more listenable than "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".