JSngry

The Seekers Georgy Girl Phyllis George

No, U-Card is not incorrect: http://www.spinduplication.com/mainpages/sleeve_templates.html

Didn't get the notecard with mine...damn used LPs... You're no doubt familiar with The Warm World of Jack Sheldon, eh? Heard that today for the first time & immediately thought what a great Peggy Lee CTI album this would make...in fact, it's got Sebesky's tune "Sweet Talk" on it, which Lee would later cover.

I remember a Lee Konitz interview from a while back where he said that for him, the ideal would be to live in a culture where everybody played at an "amateur" level, not in terms of skill, but in terms of motivation and "career expectations". Truthfully, I think there's too much music and too many musicians right now for whom "career" is the primary motivator, at least when it comes to product and such. The marketplace is clearly showing that supply exceeds demand for too much more tahn music as a lifestyle accessory ('twas ever so, but the trend has snowballed past the point of no return). Lee's ideal of people playing and listening together out of mutual purpose for mutual enjoyment and not too much else is actually sane and sensible for this day and time. Let the careerist herd thin. It'll work out ok in the end.

When I first came to the music, the only Crawford to be heard - in a "general" sense - was the Kudu stuff, which did not exactly stir the imagination, if you know what I mean. But the years passed, I found out about the Ray Charles stint and the Atlantic dates, he started recording for Milestone, etc. Plus I caught him live at Cleveland Eaton's club in Birmingham, Alabama, 1980, playing nothing but bebop and playing it very well. What really started me turning the corner though was this one, which an alto player buddy of mine hipped me to one day. "Just listen to his tone and his phrasing, how much control he's got. Never mind anything else, just listen to that." We were both stoned at the time, and his advice worked really well. But I came back the next day and...yeah, I started thinking differently about Hank Crawford from then on out.

You're saying "parents" like the nuclear family is still the norm...

Oh my, talk about a surprise! Don Sebesky is in full early orchestral flower here, and Sheldon can play anything and put some musicality in it...take these performances, record them at RVG w/Creed Taylor providing the direction sonially, and you'd have something like White Rabbit or Sky Dive. Almost, anyway. I know that's a big turnoff for many, but hey, I like to hear what people can do with projects like this, what angle they decide to take, do they decide to play it safe, or do they go ahead and do stuff that they wouldn't have to do, just because? On this album, they go for it, and it works quite well. It's still easy-listening, make no mistake, but somewhat....expansive easy listening.

Ernie K-Doe Mother In Law The Law West Of The Pecos

Things haven't been the same since the big bands went away.

Do the French frequently flock to flammenkuche?

Recorded at United Sound in Detroit, arranged by David Van De Pitte, with Earl Van Dyke on piano for good measure. I got to meet Denise LaSalle once in a social setting. Her personality on record and in-person were pretty much one and the same. She's lively!

Middle school kids have always been monsters, given half a chance. It's up to the adults to smack them down (not literally, of course, although there are times...) when they get out of line. Or else glamorize them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knjf3ABPc0E

I cannot listen to this. It's making me very hungry, and I am on a diet.

Don't know it. Peggy Lee has not really been a priority of mine, but I recently found some LPs cheap and decided to spend the money for a listen. It sounds like it could be good, though, although I'm still thinking about the sonic Quaalude that was CTI as being something that Peggy Lee might have thrived being enveloped by.

The Nairobi Trio Trio Los Panchos Los Indios Tabajaras

Yeah. Uh-huh.

Little Anthony Rich Little The Impressions

Probably so, but it's either that or do laundry.

Somebody has/gets access to (or somebody who has access to) the depths of the Universal vaults, finds this project that got stalled out or whatever, and rips it to an mp3. Then they pass it on. Or, somebody gets an mp3 of a needle-drop. One would hope so, but stuff gets out of vaults and not to the internet, at least not right away...

Yes, but an mp3 of what?

FWIW, those were produced by Duke Pearson. this one was produced by George Butler, subsequent ones by, as noted, the Mizell brothers. So it's a "transitional" album, I think, not just musically, but in terms of Blue Note's direction. I think Duke Pearson did it right. Those other guys, not so much.

This new one is, yeah, we're talking about the recent "25 LPs on 3 CDs for 59 cents!!!!" box sets of recent origin. For all we know, this album had been remastered for legitimate CD issue a few years ago, but never made it out. Maybe somebody snuck it out and over to the Box Blizzard company. Or maybe not. I'm just saying - for this album to have appeared in that type collection and it not be some kind of needledrop in origin would require some kind of weirdness. And if it is just an mp3 of a need-drop, hey, how's that for a bargain, eh?

aka Nelson Cruz