Teasing the Korean

In the words of Mark Twain, Wagner's music isn't as bad as it sounds. I am not an opera fan, but love what little Wagner instrumental music I've been exposed to. Can anyone recommend a good comp or two that features reasonable samplings of his overtures and preludes? Looking for the better interpretations also. There are a bunch on Amazon but it's hard to know where to begin.

As I would imagine. Legrand's musical transformation from the 1950s to the the 1960s is fairly astonishing.

How is this album? I have lots of Legrand, but his 1950s orchestral albums tend to be a little on the sleepy side for me. His stuff from the 60s and 70s is almost always great, though.

Vibes and alto flute playing a unison line is one of the sensual sounds in all music.

Well, that's where I differentiate between Brazilian albums and international jet set albums. To achieve the latter, you really need participants from more than one continent to achieve those beautiful cultural disconnects that make the music so compelling. I can't imagine a world without bossa from France, Germany, or Italy.

In other words, aging jazz musicians could now grow out their sideburns and combovers, unbutton their shirts and get hip to the feelings, moods and vibrations of today.

I love his three "East Meets West" albums with Yehudi Menuhin. RIP.

My brother (who is a Philly soul expert) hipped me to this some time ago, but he says the release date keeps getting pushed back. We'll see if it really comes out on Jan. 1.

I just heard Fresh Air interview circa two years ago (90th birthday). It's interesting that he talks about being able to write music but not read it so well. That exactly mirrors my abilities/inabilities. He is the only other musician that I've heard describe this.

Half the jazz musicians still try to.

The best I've done is widened the spindle hole with a pocket knife, and then made a small mark on the label indicating the direction the LP should be shifted. Hardly ideal and not an exact science, but it works.

I have one of the Blue Notes, the one with the black cover. It has that decadent 70s international sound, which makes it a keeper.

http://www.lalalandrecords.com/STTOS.html

Probably more than any other single artist, he was a gateway jazz figure for me. Gotta admire a guy who made a good living playing jazz in oddball time signatures and who also lived in not one but two amazing moderne houses.

Amazing that more than 50 years after the advent of recorded sound, academics could not understand that interpretation was as valid and lasting an artform as composition. I guess some of them still haven't gotten that.

Les Baxter's orchestral pop stuff sounds nothing like his exotica stuff. Kind of like comparing the Laurie Johnson happy housewife music to his music for the Avengers. Versatility paid off in those days.

And here's another by Laurie Johnson, "Happy go Lively" And another Les Baxter, "The Clown on the Eiffel Tower":

Thanks for the heads up on those albums MG! I have wanted to post some Roger Roger in this thread, but I can't find anything on Youtube that fits this sub-genre.

"Workaday World" by Jack Beaver:

Can you link to a jpeg on your computer, or does it have to posted someplace on teh interwebz?

"Gay Spirits" by David Rose:

Very nice! I am such a sucker for that kind of stuff. There are a number of tunes in this subgenre that evoke traffic, such as "Rush Hour" by Marty Gold:

Absolutely! Don't forget, many of those happy secretaries worked in the bustling metropolis!

Thanks MG and JSngry! I will have to add that Hugo W tune to my collection. And now, another all-time favorite, "Bargains Galore" by Crombie and Berry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G4QutIo6xs

And here is another favorite, "Starfire" by Bob Thompson, with cold-war era introduction: