Teasing the Korean

An overlooked gem. Yes, back in the day when everyone was making a bossa nova record, jazzers like me often sneered, but some of them were very good indeed. This one and the Getz/McFarland Big Band Bossa Nova come to mind. Curiously, the Ellington isn't really a bossa album at all. I think that was a marketing ploy. Back then, anything "ethnic" could be passed off as bossa.

What glue are you currently sniffing?

You missed 1984 to 1989, when they were REALLY awful!

Stereo mixes that blow away the mono versions.

Which Aurora Monster Model Are You Building?

Hey, I LISTEN TO 8-TRACKS!

Allen Lowe Seeks Suggestions for Smooth Jazz Reissue Project

An overlooked gem.

Aloc's contributions to "What vinyl are you spinning" are endlessly entertaining. I admire and relate to his broad taste in music.

JS Bach - 4 Concertos for Harpsichords and Orchestra - Nonesuch (stereo) Karl Ristenpart, Chamber Orchestra of the Sarre. You really get your money's worth out of Nonesuch records, but with 30 minutes to a side you also have to CRANK UP THE VOLUME.

Murray Wilson - The Many Moods of Murray Wilson

Percy Faith - Black Magic Woman

Enoch Light - Permissive Polyphonics

Ethel Smith - Cha Chas and Mambos

The Three Suns - Fever and Smoke

The only reason to have the Murray album is for the record cover, and on a CD you won't get that. Keep digging the used crates for a copy. The cover is stunning, deserving of a much better record inside. The Transformed Man is actually an excellent album. The songs are thoughtfully paired together, and the arrangements by Don Ralke are really interesting. I really love that album, and I don't mean on a camp level. The record store that time forgot, Cheapo Records in Central Square in Cambridge, used to have amazing amounts of old stock that was sealed. The had a sealed copy of the Murray Wilson in the early 90s for like $6.99, and like an idiot I didn't buy it. I eventually found a copy a thrift store.

Randy Weston/Melba Liston - Uhuru Afrika - Roulette (stereo)

I'm pretty sure that next season will be the final one. Oh, wait, you guys are talking about the other Monk.

Ginastera: Panambi (suite) - Everest (purple and gold label, mono) Goossens & the LSO I am OBESSED with this piece. Imagine if Debussy had composed "The Rite of Spring." I also have the full-length 40 minute version on a Naxos CD. Essential 20th Century moderne primitivism.

Debussy - Nocturnes - RCA (Victrola, mono) Monteux & BSO Probably my favorite Debussy orchestral piece.

"Spinal Tap" is a great film, and I've kept up with all or most of Christopher Guest's mocumentaries over the years. They were being interviewed last night on Tavis Smiley as themselves, not in character. Either this was a piece of brilliant performance art, and they were satirizing themselves and the Hollywood establishment, or these are three of the most pompous guys you've ever seen. Actually, Michael McKean came off OK, but Guest and Shearer came off as totally pretentious windbags. My favorite line of the evening was when Shearer said, and I'm paraphrasing, "The best thing about this tour is that we're playing the songs as ourselves. When we played those Spinal Tap songs for the movie, we were approaching those songs as the characters would. Now, we're playing them as ourselves, so we can make different artistic choices." Keep in mind that he's discussing songs about Satan, Stonehenge, and girls with fat asses. If this appearance was intended as promotion for their tour, I wouldn't go.

Boulez/Cleveland Orchestra - Debussy Vol. 2 - Columbia Masterworks (stereo) Includes Images and Danses.

How'd you miss the "O" with the apostrophe?

"National Association of Broadcasters." A lot of early hi fi sets, including my Dad's, had EQ presets for different broadcasting companies. NAB was one of the choices. It was a mammoth two-speaker tube mono hi-fi, by Pilot. It sounded great and I wish I'd kept it.