Teasing the Korean

The whole album (Neal Hefti - Li'l Darlin') sounds like that. It dates from that all-important cutoff year, 1964. I imagine Hefti writing the charts in late 1963, thinking that space-age modernism would continue forever, having no idea that the Beatles would come along in a few months and ruin everything.

For the cover!!!

Never heard them. They seem like precisely the kind of thing I would avoid.

Never heard it. I still need to find SF's space-age masterpiece, Adventure in Time. There are always several on eBay, but I never get around to buying one. Can't find it on the InterTubez either.

Paul Horn - Cleopatra

Duke Ellington - Jazz Party Duke Ellington - Afro Bossa If only this album had appropriate cover art...

He is, and that was indeed him on that track! Neal Hefti - Li'l Darlin' LP With strings, harp, harpsichord, and flutes.

Neal Hefti - Pardon My Doo-Wah Russ Garcia - Sounds in the Night

Don't forget using a piece of rope for a belt, like the Wolfman!

I don't disagree with you. But because Legrand was fairly well-known in the US, he was better positioned to demonstrate this to Americans. Obviously, people in Europe already knew better.

I see the album as a monument to postwar optimism, and a recognition of jazz as the aural equivalent of modern design and architecture. Also, being that it is by a Frenchman, it further acknowledges jazz's currency on the world stage. Imagine a record like that being made today. But there are no contemporary equivalents of Michel Legrand, and most listeners today can't name 31 contemporary jazz artists.

That was the goal. All tunes written by US jazz players, all performed by US jazz players. At that time, Legrand was known in the US primarily as a mood music guy. The album may have surprised a lot of listeners at the time, and maybe even some of the players on the session.

With its modernist music and stunning cover art, Capitol's original release of Stan Kenton's City of Glass by Bob Graettinger may be considered one of the earliest Space-Age Bachelor Pad albums. It is a shame that this cover art was not retained for the 12" album or CD.

One other important post-1964 genre I failed to mention is psychedelic. In many ways, psychedelic was to stoned teens in the late 1960s what SABP was to their parents in the 1950s, in that both provided escapism packaged as an adventure or an experience. _________________________________________________________________ John Dankworth - Jazz from Abroad, including "A String of Camels."

Yep! And The Soul Jazz of Cleopatra! This weekend, I will have to re-listen to Lonelyille for Phil Woods content. Several of the tracks are on YouTube, but you may alternately have to look under Creed Taylor and Kenyon Hopkins. I love all of his music, at least the four albums I have!

Fred Katz - Folk Songs for Far Out Folk Kenyon Hopkins - Lonelyville

Well, there is exotica and there is Exotica. Lower-case e "exotica" is often used generically as a descriptor for all kinds of non-mainstream music. I would consider Capitol E "Exotica" to be of the postwar Baxter/Denny/Lyman variety, and in my musical taxonomy, Exotica to be one of several subcategories of Space-Age Bachelor Pad. And many of Buddy Collette's records would meet my definition of SABP, such as this one that you might find in the jazz section. I am a huge Michel Legrand freak, so I am the wrong person to ask. But for French SABP found in the jazz section, there is always Andre Hodeir!

Yes, most certainly!

Not arbitrary at all, as my first post explains! Continue through the thread and listen to examples, and ye shall be rewarded! "Space-age bachelor pad" describes not only a particular kind of sound, or family of sounds, but also encompasses packaging and, perhaps most importantly, the promise of a hi-fi experience for the armchair traveler! With regard to Legrand Jazz specifically, I would argue that novelty of the ensemble configurations reflects the space-age ethos. This is music arranged specifically for the recording studio, and there would be few if any practical applications for presenting this music live. It was made to be experienced in moderne domestic splendor. Expanding the usual jazz orchestra instrumentation with flute, French horn, vibes, harp, and tuba provides atypical textures and allows for greater exploitation of hi-fi capabilities. And perhaps most importantly, Legrand's writing from this period simply exudes postwar optimism. Collectively, these elements push this one over the edge into clear space-age territory. I found my copy in the jazz section, but I file it in the space-age section, between Stan Kenton and Henry Mancini.

OK, one more Pete Rugolo, "Diamond on the Move" from Richard Diamond.

Larry, you turned me on to that album! And the record cover and title push it into space-age territory! It is also on my list of albums to be discussed. Two more key Pete Rugolo tracks before I move on. First, the opening track from Adventures in Rhythm, "Here's Pete." And the title track from the mono LP Music for Hi-Fi Bugs, which was later retitled "Stereo Spaceman" when it was issued in stereo on the LP Out of Space.

No, it is absolutely on my list of albums to discuss, along with New York, New York! But all in due time. I need to post a few more Pete Rugolo tracks.

I confess to not knowing the name Pete Rugolo from my jazz days. This was in part because I was more focused then on players than I was arrangers, and my knowledge of Stan Kenton (more about whom later) was limited to the track "Artistry in Rhythm," which my Dad had on a Capitol 78. After I'd sloughed off my restrictive jazz skin and embraced my bachelorhood - and I was indeed a bachelor then - I came across my first Pete Rugolo album in the jazz section of Princeton Record Exchange. It was $1.99, as Princeton's impossible-to-remove price sticker confirms. The LP graphics along with the image of a buxom, mallet-wielding babe in high heels pushed me over the edge. This was futurist, hi-fi big band music with what Larry Kart calls Pete Rugolo's "impish" quality. Here is a track from that album. I will also post some other Pete Rugolo tracks that reinforce the jazz/space-age nexus.

I don't categorically rate the Command or Time albums very highly. However, there are gems on both. Back in the day, I accumulated a lot of Command, and I unloaded most of them. Two that I kept were Strange Interlude by Lew Davies and The Private Life of a Private Eye by Enoch Light. Most Command albums lack a certain X-factor for me, generally in the harmonic department, but most of them also contain one or two standout tracks. I did not have the patience to keep the albums, though, for those exceptions. The great space-age albums on Time are Murder, Inc. by Irving Joseph and Thriller by Pete Rugolo, both of which were found in the jazz section!

In the early days of buying space-age bachelor pad records, there were no interwebz, or at least no interwebz on the scale of those we enjoy today. Similarly, there were no books on the topic. Consequently, buying back then was based on a combination of factors: Recognizing the name of the artist; the names of the sidemen (if listed); the album title; the cover art; the song selection; and any information related to recording equipment or left/right separation. There was a lot of trial and error involved. I knew the name Ralph Burns from my high school jazz band days, but when I saw in the jazz section Ralph Burns in Percussion: Where There's Burns There's Fire, I knew this one would have space-age potential. It is not as good as I would have hoped, being a few notches above Command records - and I am not generally a fan of Enoch Light/Command. Still, there are a few notable tracks, including "Blue Holiday."