Teasing the Korean

Larry Mizell - Black Byrd (Blue Note) with Donald Byrd

Part of this depends on how sensitive your ear is to pitch. Some warped records will exhibit pitch drift, though not to the extent of an off-center pressing. Also, you will notice the warps more with certain instruments. Solo piano albums, for example. When I have two copies of a record, if a warped or off-center pressing is in cleaner shape, I will likely keep the flat on-center pressing and deal with any minor surface noise. I am very sensitive to pitch drift. I have a room full of LPs, but I don't fetishize vinyl. All media have their limitations. I am not the audience for the recentish vinyl revival and its $50 albums. I am happy with a CD or a lossless download.

He also arranged for the Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Christmas Album. The version of "Let it Snow" on there is gorgeous, taken as a ballad.

That's OK. He has a loud voice.

That was generally nice, although certain aspects reminded me of why I haven't spun this album more. Still, I will play the whole thing.

This album was included as part of the 2-LP Short Stops set, but left off of the CD version, presumably for a combination of space/time limits and its standalone release. I have both the CD and LP version, but I never played the LP. I am waiting to experience Shorty Courts the Count with the Jim Flora cover art.

I even find his writing somewhat lacking on parts of Afro Cuban Influence, but the percussion section, which includes Carlos Vidal, Mike Pacheco, and Shelly Manne, makes up for it. I've had both and they both sound good. IIRC, the mono has less reverb than the stereo, which generally is a good thing.

I run hot and cold on Shorty's writing. There are times when I feel that his harmonies and voicings are too straightforward. I can't really give you a good example right now, because the records I listen to (mentioned above) have more of the X factor I'm seeking. I will be interested to play these two albums and see if I still agree with my original assessment.

I can reach a major tenth if I am on all black or or all white keys, but if it is a mix of the two, it is hard.

I will spin both Chances Are and Plays Richard Rodgers this weekend. I will report back.

One Shorty Rogers album that I found a huge disappointment was An Invisible Orchard, a 1961 album that was not released until the 1990s. It ostensibly has an outer space theme, which in and of itself was very promising, but I couldn't hear it in the music.

Do you have either Afro Cuban Influence or The Fourth Dimension in Sound? I really like those two.

I picked up this album in the 1990s, back when Shorty Rogers albums were everywhere for a dollar or two. I don't think I've spun it more than once. #6 listed above (vibes and flute) is almost reason enough for me to want to spin this again. That is one of my favorite instrument combinations. I have a lot of Shorty Rogers, but the ones that I return to most frequently are the three that are collected on the RCA Short Stops compilation: SR & his Giants, Cool and Crazy, and The Wild One; Afro Cuban Influence, and The Fourth Dimension in Sound.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-fraught-dance-between-artist-and-interviewer-in-rewind-and-play?fbclid=IwAR0JEdxaX6LlHID7RzQ0XMPkl61v8wvsh0rJnC6KheZ3Q1g0mwFsOICsB2g

I have Vol. 3, the Octet. It has been ages since I spun it. I should revisit it.

One of my fave Buffalo Springfield tunes is "Pretty Girl Why," recorded for their aborted second album, but dusted off for their swan song LP. I have lots of Gabor Szabo, but only now learned that he recorded this tune!

Been a while since I've seen it, but that is my recollection!

Chic Chic Chico - Chico Hamilton (impulse! stereo)

A source music cue from Harry In Your Pocket. Lalo nails it.

Charles Wright - Doing What Comes Naturally (Dunhill)

Yeah, exactly!

I think it's fantastic! I bought a lossless download on Qobuz for $1.59! Granted, it doesn't have the cover art, which is at least half the reason for owning it. Still, beggars can't be choosers.

Thank you both.

Preorder now! This title will be available May 5th 2023. Please note that orders containing any items that are on preorder will ship in full when all items are in stock. A Sonic Apéritif! This is the apéritif that started the album that helped start the cocktail and exotica rebirth of the ‘90s! It’s hard to call recordings as lush and beautiful as these demos, but that’s what they are. These reels preceded the band’s Subpop debut I, Swinger, and contains early versions of most of that album along with songs you’ve never heard them do on record before! The devil’s in the demos! A singing, dancing tour of the seven wonders of the cocktail world hosted by Satan—it’s as awesome an origin story as any band could want. Especially the ensemble that kicked off the ‘90s neo-lounge scene. In 1992, the band squeezed into bassist Nicholas Cudahy’s living room to cut a home demo on his eight-track cassette recorder. “I think we recorded Liz in the bathroom,” reports drummer/vibraphonist Aaron Oppenheimer. “And then Nick mastered it down to these two-track tapes.” The process was anything but laborious. “Every song we played maybe a couple of takes. And then Nick went and locked himself in the room and came out with a demo.” Some songs wouldn’t make it to the band’s 1994 Sub Pop debut album, I, Swinger, and some would never see the inside of a proper studio at all. In their final I, Swinger versions, the bulk of the demo tunes sparked a nationwide movement. Legions of musicians swapped the Stooges and Ramones for Esquivel and Arthur Lyman in their pantheon of influences. But the tape that started it all was buried for decades until Nick unearthed it. In hindsight, the 1992 recordings seem as shockingly prescient as they were anachronistic, having foreshadowed everything from neo-swing to post-rock. And the ripples are still spreading. “I do feel like there is yet another resurgence of cocktail culture and tiki bars and things,” Oppenheimer avers. “Maybe it'll find a new audience. And maybe those folks who were fans 30 years ago will think, ‘Oh, yeah, that stuff is pretty good!’ It's exciting.” https://sundazed.com/combustible-edison-forbidden-isle-of-demos-cd.aspx

As I've mentioned elsewhere, my parents were professional group singers. They were in the final lineup of the Pied Pipers, until Chuck Lowry became so incapacitated from drinking that they had to replace him and, with no original members, began using other group names. So, I was steeped in this stuff from a young age, both through the records my parents played, and hearing then rehearse with other singers. I learned the tricks of the trade: To be a group singer, you had to sing with zero vibrato and have a smile on your face. (It's a different sound; you can tell when Sinatra is smiling when he sings.) After my parents retired and an old singer friend would visit us, we would sometimes sing arrangements. I was the second voice, right below my Mom. I wish I would have recorded this stuff. As a young person, I thought this would go on forever, and that I would have decades and decades to sing four-voice arrangements with my parents. They both died when I was in my 20s. Both the Hi-Los and Singers Unlimited were part of the wallpaper when I was a kid. So the name Gene Puerling was ubiquitous.