Rabshakeh

From 2023 it strikes me as one of the most esoteric things out there. Who came up with this stuff?

I like this record a fair bit.

I thought that the Walrus version was strong and interesting, but the rest of the album did not stand up to that level.

The Surfmen – The Sounds Of Exotic Island

Martin Denny – The Enchanted Sea

Thank you

@HutchFan - I don't really know Schnitter. Where would you start?

Aren't the original Mario Overworld and Underworld themes taken from Lee Ritenour and The Square records? Overworld: https://youtu.be/-2la3MlJx3s Underworld: https://youtu.be/ZX5ef_KAZlY Best video game jazz record of course has to be the F-Zero soundtracks. There's a jazz fusion one and a more speed metal (but also basically fusion) one. I should add that I have not watched the video so I apologise if I am repeating what the guy says.

You've named some great composer/ arrangers but I hardly think that they are Easy Listening. Mod stuff and funk with strings (including so many soundtracks) obviously do create some really good records.

Brilliant piano trio at the heart of this.

Agreed. But it's pretty hard to think of a non-vocal orchestrated version of, say, the Beatles, that isn't substantially worse than the Beatles. I am really not opposed to the orchestration of pop music at all, but in the commercial context of American popular music circa 1968, orchestration is typically a portent of doom. Plenty of people dislike the concept of orchestration for the pre-rock era too. Sweet dance bands, Jackie Gleason, etc. etc. But it seems to me that stuff was often fine, and that the orchestrations and arrangements were as apt to increase the quality of the material as otherwise. I think that disappears once popular music hits the rock/soul/funk era. Orchestration tends to remove the perceived spontenaity and energy that is what makes those genres work, so you'd have to be very careful or inspired to make orchestrated pop come off as something other than watered down in those contexts.

It's all in the execution though. Orchestra playing pop music, for the 50s and 60s, tends to mean that you are the hands of a producer trying to cash in on youth trends by watering them down for an older market that wants the pop without the excitement. So orchestral pop treatments rarely bode well. But there's nothing fixed about that.

I wonder how much of my life has been soundtracked by this man's music without me ever knowing it or bothering to enquire. It is perfectly pleasant piano music with a nice soft touch that adds up to nothing much but is certainly not unpleasant. Have I heard it a thousand times in restaurants and supermarkets without noticing it?

I read somewhere that he actually hated singing Blues.

Britt Woodman, Joe Wilder, John Laporta – Playing For Keeps This one is nice. Esoteric cool. Similar to Giuffre or early LaPorta.

A lot of people out there just get forgotten. That includes a lot of the greats. You have to be in the corner of the genre that is attractive to the younger audience rediscovering it. If you aren't, won't be. That's true of Eckstine, but also of 90% of the 'big band pop' singers of that era.

Thanks everyone for the recommendations!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Clayderman Crazy to see how many units this guy shifted. I have never even heard of him. At least Mr. G and Ms. Dionne have left a mark. Monsieur Pages has left not a ripple. I hadn't seen this great comment until now.

Oh great. Looking forward to this!

Nice one. Where would you start with him?

With which of these would you start?

Thank you for that genuinely disgusting anecdote.

Surprised to find that we have no Eckstine thread. Where would one start with his work in the LP era?

Is this good? I love the opening Just Friends.