Teasing the Korean

We're still working on it, but we will. We have done, note-for-note and word-for-word, the Burt and Angie Martini & Rossi commercial.

My wife and I have a gag - an SCTV-like commercial for "Chris Montez Sings The Beatles' White Album." She is the announcer. She names the tunes, and I sing and play snippets, happy versions of "Revolution" "Everbody's Got Something to Hide," etc.

It is called "A Cube of Sugar." There are two amazing tracks on the MI box set: "500 Micros" and "Prison Pal/That Crazy Cube." The two collectively add up to 4:38. I can't find them on the InterTubes.

This is a dream I had, and I swear, I'm not lying, this is exactly how it went down in the dream: I dreamt I was a at a cocktail party and I was talking to Herb Alpert. He looked like he did in the 1960s, and was wearing a turtleneck. I approached him and told him how much I loved A&M Records - the Brass, Brasil '66, Bacharach, etc. I was gushing over how much I loved those records. He replied, "Thank you. In retrospect, I wish we weren't so formulaic, and that we had taken more chances." "Tell me about it," I replied, chuckling. "Like those Chris Montez records. They are all identical to one another. The same arrangement in every tune..." Herb's smile began to fade, and he walked away from me. I felt like I'd insulted him, even after I woke up!

And the label began to lose its organizing principle. I liked A&M especially in the late 1960s, when they did the early CTI albums. Granted, they had a few rock acts such as Boyce & Hart, the Merry-Go-Round, and Roger Nichols, if these meet your criteria for "rock."

It doesn't look like there was any surgery going on. I think the person who compiled the suite used existing tracks from the CD. Yeah, and the bridge is just killer. It's on the 6-CD Mission Impossible TV series box set. I need to revisit the Don Ellis score. That box set was a real slog for me because of the series' over-reliance on military snare drums, especially in the earlier seasons. You know the Groucho Marx joke...

Is the CD not readily available in the UK? You could easily recreate it.

I don't think so. It appears to be drawn from the soundtrack CD on Schifrin's Aleph label. Yeah, agreed!

Yep! Without close miking, it doesn't sound like funk!

Keep in mind that Doug Payne's listing is for one date only. It is likely that Guerin played drums on tracks recorded on a different date, perhaps explaining Carol Kaye's absence on the Doug Payne site.

Ray Brown (bass); Max Bennett (electric bass); Larry Bunker (drums); Emil Richards, John Guerin, Ken Watson, Joe Porcaro (percussion). The Library of Congress lists Carol Kaye as playing electric bass in addition to Max Bennett. https://www.loc.gov/item/jots.200014958/?fbclid=IwAR3VmI1SHxD1eYKF83Hnb1BBc8iBTQ22zjskcXXi9Ws5o-CqJ9nLaMJ0lA4 From Doug Payne's excellent website: DIRTY HARRY Lalo Schifrin Burbank, California: October 4, 1971 Gary Barone (tp); Craig Kupka (tb); Vincent De Rosa (frhrn); Tom Scott, Tony Ortega, Plas Johnson, Jerome Richardson (woodwinds); Mike Lang, Ralph Grierson, Mike Melvoin (key); Howard Roberts, Dennis Budimer, Michael Deasey (g); Ray Brown (b); Max Bennett (el-b); Larry Bunker (d); Emil Richards, John Guerin, Ken Watson, Joe Porcaro (perc); Sally Stevens (vcl); Israel Baker, David Frisina, Dorothy Wade, Paul Shure, Bonnie Douglas, Alfred Lustgarten, Jerome Reisler, George Kast, Joseph Livoti, Alex Beller, Herman Clebanoff, Samuel Cytron (vln); Milton Thomas, Virginia Majewski, Joe Reilich, Philip Goldberg (viola); Raphael Kramer, Armand Kaproff, Emmet Sergeant, Kurt Reher (cello); Catherine Gotthoffer (harp); Bill Williams, Dan Franklin (copyist); Kurt Wolff (orchestra mgr); Lalo Schifrin (arr,cond).

"Now Sound" to me is a very broad category, roughly mid-'60s to mid-'70s, that essentially involves artists from pre-rock genres (including jazz, easy listening, mood music) getting hip to youth culture. These explorations may be sincere (Gary McFarland, Gabor Szabo) or they may be contrived (Hollyridge Strings Beatles Songbook albums). This trend for me continues into the '70s - George Shearing doing "The World is a Ghetto," Maynard Ferguson doing "Chala Nata" and "El Dopo," Buddy Rich doing "Chameleon." I choose to file electric albums by Miles and Herbie in the Now Sound section. Filing something in the Now Sound section does mean the albums are of lesser musical merit; they just communicate to me something different than what may be described as straight-ahead jazz. It is completely subjective, but it works for me. Buddy and Maynard must have contributed, even if accidentally, to whole "the big bands are coming back" hype, and they must have profited from it too.

Jazz Is Music WNDT Channel 13

We may be defining groovy/now sound differently. Either way, those Buddy Rich albums provide me with something different than the albums that I file in the jazz section. I say this recognizing the limitations of categorization.

The vast majority of my LPs are "jazz" or "jazzy" to varying degrees. I file a significant number of jazz albums in the groovy/now sound section. These would include things like most CTI albums, Blue Note Rare groove, etc. The Buddy Rich albums, through a combination of packaging, song selection, and funk beats, are filed there too. I realize that these albums may have straight-ahead jazz content, more or less, but they overall reflect the now sound zeitgeist in my opinion. Filing is subjective, and as you have said in another thread, file them where you can find them!

Considering Buddy's incessant touring schedule, combined with his proficiency in firing musicians, do we have any knowledge of how he restocked the players? I realize that North Texas State and Miami were cranking out graduates every year. Did he audition people, or was it by reputation or recommendation? Would he fire a guy on Friday night in Cleveland, and another fresh-faced kid would get off a plane in Cincinnati on Saturday, and sight-read the charts? Did Buddy keep a minor-league farm team from which he could draw fresh blood?

Well, "major" to the degree that Perfect Angel was a big album, and Come to My Garden became readily available in the wake of its success. I guess a lot of copies were sitting in a warehouse someplace, and then they were able to move product.

Buddy Rich, apparently.

Oh, I know the album, but it has been ages. My older brother is a big soul/R&B/funk guy, and I heard every major 70s soul/R&B/funk album at one time or another through him. I don't think I have my own copy of it, though.

So here is what I have accumulated by Buddy Rich as a leader. While I have a number of jazz albums with him as a sideman, I don't think I have anything under his name from his jazz period, unless the dreadful Buddy Rich Sings counts. (It's been in my "to be cleaned" stack forever.) Everything else is from his groovy/now sound era. Swingin' New Big Band (Pacific Jazz/Liberty, 1966) Big Swing Face (Pacific Jazz, 1967) The New One! (Pacific Jazz, 1968) Mercy, Mercy (Pacific Jazz, 1968) Buddy & Soul (World Pacific, 1969) A Different Drummer (RCA, 1971) Rich in London (RCA, 1972) Stick It (RCA, 1972) The Roar of '74 (Groove Merchant, 1974) Very Live at Buddy's Place (Groove Merchant, 1974) Big Band Machine (Groove Merchant, 1975) Speak No Evil (RCA, 1976) I need to dig into these a little more. For ages, I have had two tracks from Very Live on a homemade funk compilation, "Chameleon" and Manny Albam's "Sierra Lonely." I guess I can add Buddy to my "Artists of whom you accumulated a zillion LPs without really trying" thread.

Thanks! I'll take it, especially at these prices!

Had no idea, and also didn't know it had lyrics! That is a very nice version, but the overall vibe and atmosphere on the original is hard to beat.

We have that We Five Make Someone Happy album. Can't remember it. Will spin this weekend (and will listen to those clips this evening.)

It is called "Memory Band."

I love A&M Records in the 1960s. There was a consistent aesthetic thread between most of those acts - Tijuana Brass, Brasil '66, Bacharach, Chris Montez, Claudine Longet. My family growing up included members of the WWII, Silent, Baby Boom, and Gen X generations. When we were all together on a long car trip and an A&M song came on the radio, it would be among the few things we could all agree on. RIP Jerry.