Teasing the Korean

Any Jim Flora covers?

Is there any film or video footage of Cal Tjader from any incarnation of any of his groups? The last time I checked youtube, I couldn't find anything.

Oh yes!

My claim that I owned more than anyone was in jest; we've established that I don't own Eventide and never heard of it until now. The first half of the 70s is one of my many "eras of love." The second half of that decade is dodgy, and I mostly avoid it, except for certain genres.

As I said in post #4, "...just about everyone went to hell by the late 70s or 1980s, so I can't really fault these guys (and gal)." So I'm not really singling out Singers Unlimited. Those two Pat Williams albums are pretty far aesthetically from the previous albums. I believe the McConnell album is from this same period, but again, as I mentioned earlier, the copyright dates on the PAUSA reissues do not necessarily reflect the original release dates, so I can't always place these releases in strict chronological order. I've liked Pat Williams in other settings, but not here. Obviously, I'm measuring these albums based on my own tastes and expectations based on their previous albums.

Fair enough. But imagine my disappointment when I picked up two of their albums that I didn't have only to find both of them for the most part terribly annoying, except for one or two tracks each. I will stay on the lookout for Eventide, though.

It's the only album they made that goes for more than a dollar. Did they do any live gigging? I realize they would have had to bring in additional singers or use 4-voice arrangements, as the albums seem to be arranged for as many as 8 parts.

Which SU titles from the late 70s do you think are solid throughout, like the ones from the early- to mid-70s?

Of course, because of the snow!

Fondue is linked to cold weather, Burt Bacharach, MPS records, and key parties in my universe, and that's the universe I'm interested in.

I'll invite you to my next fondue party, if it ever gets cold enough to have one. The top picture features typical Singers Unlimited fans: http://vintageskisty...-fun-to-fondue/ However, these young swingers would not have endured the later stuff.

How interesting that Black Jazz was co-founded by Dick Schory, who is best known for his space-age-bachelor-pad-era percussion albums on RCA.

Unfortunately, I do not have "Eventide." Yes, the albums in question are by Pat Williams, who did some cool stuff in the late 60s and early 70s. But not here. Gone is that sense of snowy spaciousness and Placidyl-induced calm that marked the Singers Unlimited's best work, and there are no groovy Now Sound numbers like "Dindi" or "We've Only Just Begun." The set list instead consists of all moldy fig uptempo jazz standards, done with fast walking bass on an electric bass, close-miked drums, Carpenters-esque unison vocals, and then, to show how hip they are, sudden mod vocal pyramids in fourths, and abrupt shifts to disco rhythms. Seriously, the version of "I've Got Rhythm" could have been on a Donny and Marie show. Or the Muppets. I keep waiting for Paul Williams to show up. What's confusing, though, is some of my SU albums are jiveass reissues of MPS albums on some label that starts with the letter P. They are earlier albums, but the copyright dates are from the 80s, when they were presumably reissued. Oh well, just about everyone went to hell by the late 70s or 1980s, so I can't really fault these guys (and gal).

I ADORE the Singers Unlimited and have more of their albums than anyone on this list. But while their albums up through, say, the mid-70s had a cool, modern detached sound - something you would play at a Bavarian fondue party - the ones from the late 70s are AWFUL, they sound like disco arrangements made for the Donny and Marie show. What happened?

This Pablo LP from 1976 sounds very much as though it could have been from 1974. I thought it would be all discoed-out based on the post-1975 recording date, but being that jazz musicians during this era tended to be behind the times, it worked in their favor for once. It was as if disco never happened. I need to be more open to post-1974 jazz records for this reason.

The reasons any of us are drawn to certain aesthetics are numerous and complex. I am less interested in knowing the reasons than satisfying the desire. I happen to love that early 70s spiritual/cosmic/black consciousness vibe. When you get beyond obvious sources for this, you have to dig deeper. Sometimes there is only one amazing track buried on an otherwise OK album, and it's worth it just for that one track.

For those of us who get into particular sub-sub-sub-genres of music for aesthetic reasons, we are at a certain point forced to go to the "obscure" sources, because the number of tracks in those sub-sub-sub-genres are finite. Hence my interest in Black Jazz, Tribe, Strata-East, etc.

My pet peeve is digital orchestral recordings with wildly exaggerated dynamic ranges. This rarely happened with LPs. I have a few CDs that I simply cannot listen to at any single level. The quiet passages either disappear into the room noise, or the loud passages shake the building.

I'm reluctant to say more publicly, in part because I am not 100% certain that the current label owners are the ones my friend dealt with, especially in light of everything that has gone on with the label's master tapes in recent years. The CDs my friend ended up buying were sourced from vinyl, and the guy was not pleasant to deal with.

A few years ago, a friend of mine had a very interesting phone conversation with someone associated with the reactivated label. Not sure I want to go into details here, but based on his experience, I don't think I would want to deal with them.

They were also out the day RCA did Mr. Lucky, apparently: "Sounds of TV" Stanley Wilson, Music from M Squad (LPM 2062)

"Swinging Big Band" - Shorty Rogers, The Wizard of Oz (LPM 1997) "World's Biggest Sound!" - Dick Schory, Music to Break Any Mood (LSP 2125) "New Sound Sensation" - Esquivel, Strings Aflame (LPM 1988) "Adventure in Sound" - The Markko Polo Adventurers, Orienta (LPM 1919)

I think RCA simply used sequential numbering for their regular LPM (mono) and LSP (stereo) series. They may have had some oddball series in addition.

So it looks like RCA was doing this at least between album 1947 and 2147, if not longer. I wonder if every album in this period received one of these phrases.

"Band with a Beat" - Henri Rene, Compulsion to Swing (LPM-1947) "Sound of TV" - Henry Mancini, Mr. Lucky (LSP-2198) "Two Moods" - Mancini, Blues and the Beat (LSP -2147) "Swing Softly" - The Mancini Touch (LPM - 2101)