Teasing the Korean

Yes, those are the two tracks. I remember "Main Chance" but don't remember the other two offhand. I have the CD - I'll have to give it a spin.

I am OBSESSED with tracks 4 and 5 from this collection.

John Dankworth - The Million Dollar Collection - Fontana (stereo) Same concept as "Pictures at an Exhibition," but it's better than Mussorgsky (IMHO).

Of the Sun Ra 50s/60s albums I have, I hear the exotica influence most on "Fate in a Pleasant Mood" and "When the Sun Comes Out."

Bamboo. Any exotica content?

The Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra - Chariots of the Gods? (OST) - Polydor

Emil Richards - New Time Element - Uni (stereo)

Sun Ra - Sun Song - Delmark (mono)

From the book SPACE IS THE PLACE : The Life and Times of Sun Ra ... " The big postwar jazz bands held little interest for Sonny , as most were either recycling past successes or shoving singers to the front , or else attempting to paste the innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie onto older formulas . Sonny was now listening to the Hollywood-inspired music being made by people like David Rose , whose lush massed string writing could be heard as theme songs on several popular radio programs ; or Walter Schumann , who brought classical choral methods to pop songs ; OR to the exotica of people like Martin Denny , who recorded in Honolulu under Henry Kaiser's Aluminum Dome accompanied by animal noises , natural accoustic delay , and reverberation ; and ESPECIALLY to the arrangements of LES BAXTER , the premier figure in what was being called mood music . Baxter was a big band saxophonist and singer who developed a post-swing style in the late 40's and early 50's of spectacular orchestral writing , full of tympani and hand drums , tumbling violin lines , harps , marimbas , celesta , Latin rhythm vamps , the cries of animals , choral moans , and flamboyany singers , creating imaginary soundscapes which he helped evoke with titles like " Saturday Night On Saturn " , " Atlantis " , " Voodoo Dreams " , and " Pyramid of the Sun " . Sonny first heard Baxter on Perfume Set to Music ( 1946 ) and Music Out of the Moon " ( 1947 ) , two albums built around melodies for theremin performed by Dr. Samuel Hoffman , a Los Angeles podiatrist who had played on the soundtracks Spellbound and The Lost Weekend . Baxter went on to produce records which celebrated the Aztecs ( Sacred Idol in 1959 ) , South Asia ( Ports of Pleasure 1957 ) , Africa and the Middle East ( Tamboo in 1955 ) , and the Caribbean ( Caribbean Moonlight in 1956 ) , all of which used Latin rhythms generically , as did his two big band records , African Jazz ( 1958 ) and Jungle Jazz ( 1959 ) . Though later generations would understand this music in strictly utilitarian terms , and hear in it the sounds of air conditioning and the clink of ice in cocktail shakers , for Sonny it was music rich with imagination and suggestion , and free of material constraints . His genius was to take as raw material what others in the 1950's thought of as " easy listening " and turn it into what in the late 1960's would be heard as " Third World Music ! by some and as " uneasy listening music " by others."

A bit of envy over here. How do you like Kink Kronikles?

The Kinks - Face to Face - Pye (mono, German pressing)

There's a Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin' On - Dot (stereo) The perfect album for today's young couple drinking wine on a Friday night.

I believe that within the next five years or so, the fab four's catalog will be completely overhauled, and they'll release everything - mono, stereo, and odd mixes for the US. Paul will need the money.

The thing I like better about Pepper in mono - and most 60s rock/pop in mono, for that matter - is that there is a better balance between the instruments and vocals. "Lucy in the Sky," "Fixing a Hole," and "Lovely Rita," for starters, have a much ballsier sound when everything kicks in. The stereo mix overall is vocal heavy and parts of it are very lopsided. On the other hand, "Getting Better" and "She's Leaving Home" sound great in stereo, because they are balanced well.

I would like the address too. Off the top of my head, I'm guessing I have more albums by Cal Tjader than any single jazz or latin artist.

This weekend I uploaded all of my Esquivel CDs into iTunes and have been listening non-stop. After you eliminate duplicated tracks, both the Bar None, Cabaret Manana, Warner/Reprise album, and stray tracks on "History of Space Age Pop" fit onto TWO CDs. Perfection.

I like the European stuff, along the lines of Tomasz Stanko. I can do without the embarrassing Moosewood Cookbook/hippie aesthetic of the American ECM artists. And I'm a vegetarian.

And I've spent years collecting at least ten thousand of those.

Bill Russo - Seven Deadly Sins - Roulette (mono). No where near as great as the cover. Pretty ponderous stuff - I can only imagine how Johnny Richards or Pete Rugolo would have approached this subject. Still, it was nice reading about Russo's love of Plato, brandy, Mozart and Brooks Brothers suits.

I have both US and UK mono Peppers. They have the same mix but are mastered differently. US has a little more compression and more of the mid-rangey sound. The UK is less compressed and has more highs. I like them both.

Not every producer is shooting for natural, real-world sound. I would say that the goal in most straight-ahead jazz albums is probably to record the group naturally. The irony with early stereo recordings is that they often did not present a real world scenario. When has anyone gone to a club and heard the vocal from one side of the room and the instruments from another? Or things flying from one side of the room to another - other than chairs or glasses, if a fight broke out. Generally you hear most everything in the center, with subtle placement of details in one direction or another. Some recordings either capture this naturally or recreate it artificially. Stereo imaging did not become dependable until the early 70s. Up until then it was a crap shoot.

I prefer Pepper in mono, but to each his own. As for the White Album, that was the first Beatles album for which the stereo mix was of primary importance. The mono version is very sloppy and has all the mistakes and out-of-whack levels that you typically hear on their earlier LPs in stereo. Worth hearing if you're obsessed, but stick with the stereo. IMHO.

In either baroque or classical times (can't remember which) it was more common to have the basses in or near the middle. A few conductors prefer this method today although it is less common.

The original LPs don't pop up very often, in my experience.