Teasing the Korean

Piero Piccioni's "The Tenth Victim" is one of my favorite albums ever.

Several of the benefactors requested smooth jazz for the VIP reception.

Listening to Now now. RIP.

Two other tunes from the Les Baxter "Skins" album that have a Sun Ra vibe are "Brazilian Bash" at about 2:45 in the above video and "Mood Tattooed" at about the 29:55 mark. Happy listening!

Nelson Riddle - Communication - MPS featuring the amazing "Volcano's Daughter" and "Uptown Dance."

Burt - Living Together - A&M featuring the amazing "Something Big." Dinner music.

Cannonball Adderley - Beginnings - Mercury (mono) Twofer collection of his early Mercury recordings, the first LP I'm playing with my new and improved stylus! Liner notes by some guy named Chris Albertson.

Quarteto Em Cy - De Marre de Cy - Elenco (mono) Continuing the tradition of bossa nova/MPB Sunday brunch!

Here is a rare live version of this Beatles classic:

Of all of them, Atlantis was initially the hardest one for me to really get inside of, but I've been rewarded with repeated spins.

I actually thought about Atlantic right after I posted this.

My pleasure!

Does Capitol have the greatest ever artist roster for a mainstream label? I would say so just for having the holy triumvirate of Les Baxter, David Axelrod, and Kraftwerk. But look at everyone who was on this label: Johnny Mercer Jo Stafford Frank Sinatra Yma Sumac Nat King Cole Stan Kenton Peggy Lee Nancy Wilson Les Baxter Louie and Keely The Louvin Brothers Wanda Jackson The Beach Boys The Beatles Howard Roberts Lou Rawls Cannonball Adderley David Axelrod Multiplication Rock Kraftwerk Not to mention artists like Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, and many others who were with them briefly. Like any other label, they released their share of dreck (Gordon MacRae, Liza, Judy). And since they've gotten Blue Note, they are better than ever. I have no idea what they've done since Kraftwerk. Pretty impressive, huh? Plus, they created two of the most beautiful record label designs ever: the classic rainbow label, and the green-and-purple early 70s label. Thank you, Dave Dexter, Jr., for your contributions to Western Civilization.

Absolutely. I rank him up there with any of the great jazz arrangers. Lots of people assume he is schmaltz because of his 50s pop hits, but all of those Capitol exotica LPs are among my favorites in any genre. There is something about his combinations of Debussy/Ravel orchestration and Latin percussion that is irresistible. But that track above is fascinating. It is from 1957, and it's just Les on an electric celeste with percussion, no bass or other instruments. The Sun Ra bio sites Les as an influence, and I'm sure Sonny must have listened to that track. But back to Sun Ra: Hot Ptah, did you see my previous post where I listed the Sun Ra 1960s albums I have? I'd like to know where they rank among his 60s work (based on your earlier post about his 60s work being inconsistent). Thanks

In this case, the MCA pressing would bother me more than the label!

Elsewhere, I went on and on about my love for the early 70s green-and-purple Capitol label. However, this love is not unconditional. I love seeing this label spinning on the turntable while I'm listening to David Axelrod. But I would NOT want to see this label spinning around for, say, Art Tatum, Wanda Jackson, The Louvin Brothers, Les Baxter, Keely Smith, or Frank Sinatra. It is simply wrong. I actually had Art Tatum and Wanda Jackson albums on this label and had to unload them, I could not listen to them. Do anachronistic label designs with later issues bother you? It just seems so wrong to me. It also drives me crazy that the CD reissue of Yma Sumac's "Voice of the Xtabay" uses the 70s Capitol album cover, with the severely cropped image and 70s Capitol logo.

Tim Buckley - Blue Afternoon

Incidentally, if you want to hear a Les Baxter track that sounds uncannily like Sun Ra, check out "Reverberasia" from his album "Skins." It comes in around the 19:36 mark:

Sun Ra is one of only a handful of artists whose albums I will buy blindly. I have accumulated his albums as I've encountered them, and not in any sort of strategic manner. Maybe I have been lucky and simply stumbled across the right ones, but among the 60s albums I have are: Futuristic Sounds Of Fate in a Pleasant Mood When the Sun Comes Out Secrets of the Sun Monorails and Satellites Atlantis The Magic City Pictures of Infinity My Brother the Wind Part II (1969-70) I am being very literal in defining the 1960s, because the 60s don't really begin until 1964. Based on what I have, I will agree with you that there is stylistic variety among his 1960s albums, but I wouldn't call them inconsistent; on the contrary, I keep coming back to these and find them fascinating. If he made bad albums in the 60s, I have missed them. His 70s albums are for me hit and miss. "Lanquidity" is amazing. As for the 1980s, I have a hard time buying anything by anyone dating from that most dreaded of decades, and rarely waste the shelf space on 80s albums even if I find them in the dollar bin. I'm sure I must be missing out on some good stuff, but I do have aesthetic principles.

I must have 25 or so of his albums by now. I think that his 50s and 60s albums are all pretty solid, though there is some stylistic variation. The twofer CD of "Fate in a Pleasant Mood" and "When the Sun Comes Out" is one that I keep coming back to. Agree that if you're into straight ahead stuff, "Jazz in Silhouette" and "Futuristic Sounds" may be good starting places. I also agree with the earlier comment that virtually every Sun Ra album you will stumble across will have some amazing track that you've never heard before. His 70s stuff is dodgy. There are some good titles during this period though, like "My Brother the Wind, Part II."

Neither pays well either.

The early 70s green and purple Capitol label encapsulates so much of what I love about the 70s; The logo is sleek and minimalist, suggesting the post-Woodstock oil embargo aesthetic of solar energy and a future of free love within the sterile andromeda-strain environment of outer space. And the best music that came with this logo - notably David Axelrod or Axelrod-produced/arranged sessions for Cannonball Adderley - beautifully combines introspective psychotronic funk grooves with Planet-of-the-Apes mutant monk Godspell choirs, as filtered through a Cronenbergesque vision of a faux-benevolent pharmaceutical corporatocracy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhxdnq_1OcM

I really love his 50s and 60s exotica stuff when he was listening to Les Baxter and Martin Denny. These are scattered over several albums though, some containing more than others.

Thanks all for the replies. I never read the novel; Were the contents of the two films both covered in the one novel?

Just watched both of these back to back, first time in decades.