Teasing the Korean

Are there any interviews with Nat Cole - print, audio, or video - in which he discusses his piano playing to a significant degree?

That was nice, thank you! Whose version of "Snowfall" was that?

No, I set up the trains only around Christmas. That is the reason that this is the time of year when a boy thinks about trains.

Yup! I'll post more pix later. I like night shots the best.

Merry Merry!

Yes, we had this one too growing up. Interesting that she had only one Perry (this one) and one Ray Charles Singers (Something Wonderful), even though she was on most of the records spanning the late-1950s to mid-1960s.

I don't think so. She is simply one of the contraltos on the tracks with a chorus. I do recognize her voice on the intro to Perry's version of "My Favorite Things." This has appeared on some Perry Holiday comps, but it is not on the Season's Greetings album. Thanks for remembering! You can see and hear my Mom at the 2:40 mark ("The Tender Trap"). https://youtu.be/f0PHnBWDGtM?si=8RoV2f5chTO1LI9j

Here you go. $8.49. https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/a-cool-yuletide-remastered-2018-urbie-green-and-his-all-stars/u0r1u4phv4kja Or, just download them from YouTube and choose wav.

Oh, dear...

Elsewhere, I posted about Leonard Feather's liner notes for a BN Thad Jones/Mel Lewis compilation, in which he simply couldn't find enough adjectives to describe them. You would hope that a writer of liner notes would be enthusiastic about the music, but Lenny almost sounds like he's being held hostage here: "...In 1965, at the Village Vanguard, a child was born. In almost a decade that has elapsed, his cries have been heard and received with elation wherever true jazz has been heard. Never has a youngster been more prodigious in his ability to communicate in the universal language of music. I would like to believe that the recordings of this orchestra will find their way into every library of music, every college music department, every connoisseur's collection, whether he grew on Basie or Brubeck or the Beatles or Herbie Hancock. There just aren't any greater sounds being created by any musical organization. "Am I overextending myself in my praise? Listening to these four sides you will be convinced that if anything the case is being understated."

Thanks. Joseph's bio on the Space-Age Pop pages doesn't reference Jackie Paris, hence my question. They usually know this stuff!

The Fresh Sounds blurb for their reissue of Jackie Paris Sings the Lyrics of Ira Gershwin indicates that it was arranged by pianist Irving Joseph. Is this the same Irving Joseph who recorded the amazing Murder, Inc. for Time Records?

When the economy comes roaring back in a couple of weeks, the sky's the limit!

I compare him to Raymond Scott, and I'm willing to bet that "Epistrophy" was inspired by "Powerhouse."

I'm about 19 years late to the party. A friend of mine was telling me about this cat. Where should I start?

I would love that. There must be other jazz albums from that period, like Monk's Greatest Hits, with liner notes that were self-consciously trying to appeal to 60s youth culture.

😆 It's not a very good album, even by sunshine pop standards, but I had to keep it for the liner notes. Kind of like with the Monk Greatest Hits.

Late-'60s liner notes are often ridiculous, and lines from many of them have stuck in my mind over the decades. For example, a line from the Love Generation's debut on Imperial, in which they discuss an impromptu party with "7-Up, pressed ham sandwiches, and flowers flowing freely."

Sounds like the Columbia Greatest Hits.

Happy Holidays form Sauter Finegan. I don't think I've ever seen any footage of them before, and I'm not sure that I ever bothered to search, either.

I often think about musical paths that were largely unexplored. Hearing this video makes me wonder if a subgenre of "rock" versions of jazz tunes could have evolved. I don't mean like fusion, but simply playing jazz tunes with a more or less rock/R&B approach. I'm sure there are examples of this kind of thing sprinkled over the decades, but still. (I realize that the NRBQ players have at least some jazz cred.)

You can download the tracks as Wav files from the InterTubes. That said, $8.49 for a rare 10" album in lossless format is a great deal. $6.99 for mp3 files is not necessarily a good deal.