Sunday, July 24, 2011

Blues Cruise (and Chews)




I've been lucky enough over the past few months to play a series of gigs accompanying guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Hector Qirko. One such gig took place over the weekend of July 9th and 10th in Greenwood, SC for the Greenwood Festival of Discovery and Blues Cruise at the R3 Bistro. This audio is from a flip cam, which obviously comes equipped with an omni mic, since you can hear the diners at least as well as you can hear the band at which it was pointed. It was a fun gig.


Hector Qirko with Kevin Crothers - Greenwood (SC) Blues Cruise - 7-10-11-Set 01

Hector Qirko with Kevin Crothers - Greenwood (SC) Blues Cruise - 7-10-11-Set 02

Here's a two-song video excerpt of the same gig.

O, Boe Is Me



According to The New York Times Bert is "America's leading oboe recitalist" (a field no doubt crowded with singles of competitors), so who am I to argue with the paper of record?

Still, this may be the only time you'll see the words "sensual", "soulful", and "oboe" in the same sentence without the words "completely" and "not".

Humbert Lucarelli - Sensual Sound of the Soulful Oboe (Jonella Record Company JRC-1, 1981)



1. Elegie
2. Pachelbel's Kanon
3. Polovetsian Dances
4. Theme From Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto Number 2
5. Aranjuez (Mon Amor)
6. Shubert's Serenade
7. The Pearlfishers
8. Londonderry Air
9. Romance
10. El Condor Pasa
11. Playera
12. Barcarolle
13. Loving Eyes
14. Estrellita


OK, after a couple of listens, I have to admit that this is not bad: kind of cinematic, and good late at night.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

The Great White Way over to the left and then over to the right




As often evidenced on this blog, I have a severe weak spot for the detritus of the early "Hi-Fi" era: ping-pong stereo, exotica, bachelor pad music, etc. Dick Schory is one of the prime practitioners of the "Stereo Action (The Sound Your Eyes Can Follow)" genre, with at least fifteen LPs to his name, including this one from 1961. Of the several Schory albums that I own, this is (to my ears) the weakest, but that is likely because I have little taste for show tunes (beyond Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music).

The art on the whole series is fab, but this disc is especially nice, with an extra-thick die-cut outer sleeve and a colorful insert that peeks through the opening. The liner notes are far more extensive than can be reproduced here, with technical notes on the recording and individual paragraphs about each musical piece.


Dick Schory's Percussion and Brass Ensemble - Stereo Action Goes Broadway (RCA LSA-2382)

Heat Wave
Seventy-Six Trombones
Keep-A-Hoppin’
Bali Hai
It’s Legitimate
Slaughter On Tenth Avenue
Hernando’s Hideaway
I Got Rhythm
Camelot
Show Me
The Sound Of Music
El Sombrero

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Three For The Price of...Almost None
















Here's a nice thrift shop score - a three disc loss-leader set from Warner Brothers (Warner/Reprise PRO-423, 1970). Loss-leaders were albums sold cheaply (usually $2 for a two-disc set) by mail to promote the label artists. They were generally promoted on the inner sleeves of Warner Brothers albums. This is the only three-disc set of the series. For those of you who own record changers, side 1 is backed with side 6, side 2 with side 5, and side 3 with side 4 for smooth 1-6 flow. More information here about the whole series. The eight-page included booklet is choice, as well, with a rambling 1970 style and short write-ups about each song/artist. 

A1 John Gordon, Larry Lipades Radio Spot: It's The Plastic 0:60
A2 Faces, The Real Good Time 3:59
A3 Black Sabbath Paranoid 2:50
A4 Little Feat Strawberry Floats 2:21
A5 Hard Meat Smile As You Go Under 3:04
A6 Fleetwood Mac Tell Me All The Things You Do 4:10
A7 Jimi Hendrix Stepping Stone 4:05
B1 John Simon The Elves' Song 4:32
B2 Ry Cooder Alimony 2:11
B3 Randy Newman Let's Burn Down The Cornfield 3:03
B4 Gordon Lightfoot Me And Bobbie McGee 3:38
B5 Jimmy Webb P.F. Sloan 4:00
B6 Performance Harry Flowers 4:00
C1 John Gordon, Larry Lipades Radio Spot: Chip Dip 0:60
C2 Little Richard I Saw Her Standing There 2:37
C3 Grateful Dead, The Sugar Magnolia 3:15
C4 Van Morrison Call Me Up In Dreamland 3:52
C5 Kinks, The Apeman 4:06
C6 Arlo Guthrie Valley To Pray 2:47
C7 Beach Boys, The It's About Time 2:56
D1 Youngbloods, The It's A Lovely Day 2:35
D2 Jeffrey Cain Hounddog Turkey 2:56
D3 Lovecraft Love Has Come To Me 3:11
D4 Sweetwater Just For You 9:20
E1 Captain Beefheart Lick My Decals Off, Baby 2:38
E2 Mothers Of Invention Directly From My Heart To You 5:17
E3 Alice Cooper Return Of The Spiders 4:25
E4 Frank Zappa Would You Go All The Way? 2:30
E5 Beaver And Krause Spaced 3:51
E6 Pearls Before Swine The Jeweler 2:40
F1 Beaver And Krause Sanctuary 1:43
F2 James Taylor Lo And Behold 2:34
F3 Harper's Bizarre If We Ever Needed The Lord Before 2:57
F4 Van Dyke Parks On The Rolling Sea When Jesus Speak To Me 2:25
F5 Persuasions, The It's All Right 3:25
F6 Turley Richards I Heard The Voice Of Jesus 7:05