Earl Bostic - Exercise (single)

Alto saxophonist Earl Bostic (1913-1965) was an acknowledged technical master of his instrument, but he remains unappreciated by many jazz purists who only know him for his rhythm-and-blues hits of the late 1940s and early '50s, including the chart-topping Flamingo in 1951.

Yet Bostic's rough tone is often cited as a major influence on John Coltrane, who told Downbeat magazine in 1960 that Bostic "showed me a lot of things on my horn."

Although Bostic made some jazz recordings early in his career it wasn't until he switched to his R&B style of a simple melody backed by a strong beat that he found major commercial success. He recorded prolifically for King Records through the 1950s.

Exercise, a strong R&B tune, was on the flip side of his 1957 single She's Funny That Way. The MP3 is taken from the 45 and has a bit of distortion due to vinyl wear and tear.

Exercise



The first appearance of Exercise on an album came in 1958 on the LP Invitation to Dance with Bostic.

Since the majority of the saxophonist's King recordings have been released on CD and/or as downloads a quick search should lead you to Exercise and any other Bostic tracks that might strike your fancy.

Here's the Bostic tune most people recognize.

Denny Wright - Try a Little Tenderness (track)

Romantic Guitars was a compilation CD issued by the British label Hallmark in 1995. At that time Hallmark was still a label that put out quality releases rather than the dubbed-from-vinyl issues that have since become its stock in trade.

Denny Wright (more about him in a minute) was featured on seven of the 18 tracks on Romantic Guitars, with other contributions by Dick Abell and Jean-Claude Aprile.

Wright (1924-1992) was a British jazz and session guitarist best known for his association with skiffle musician Lonnie Donegan in the 1950s, where his playing attracted the attention of a young Paul McCartney. "I loved Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Lonnie Donegan's guitarist, Denny Wright, who was fantastic," McCartney told Guitarist magazine in 2004.

Wright also performed with jazz musicians such as Stephane Grappelli and Digby Fairweather and provided guitar on hits by the likes of Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield and Mary Hopkin.

No date is given for the recordings on Romantic Guitars nor are there any other session details. Below is one of Wright's contributions.

Try a Little Tenderness



Although the Romantic Guitars CD has long been out of print, the tracks by Wright and Abell are available on a download album from several sources.

Judging from this YouTube offering, Denny Wright had a bit of talent on the banjo as well.

Robert Maxwell - Shangri-La

If anyone had predicted that harpist Robert Maxwell (1921-2012) would have a Top 10 hit at the height of the British invasion most people probably would have snickered, or at least raised their eyebrows. But that's precisely what happened with Maxwell's Decca recording of Shangri-La. The tune, which the harpist composed, became an exotica standard, along with another of his compositions, Ebb Tide.

Both Shangri-La and Ebb Tide had made their debuts on Maxwell's 1956 Mercury LP, The Harp in Hi-Fi. As you can see from the LP cover his billing at the time was somewhat more informal.

At any rate Shangri-La did not become popular until some 18 years later after Jackie Gleason began using it regularly on his show.

As well as the hit single there was also a Shangri-La LP that sold very well. The album was also released under the title Bewitched. I believe the latter title came first but I'm not absolutely sure of that. In any case both had exactly the same cover art. Here's Bewitched from that album.

Bewitched



There is a limited number of Robert Maxwell recordings available for download, including Shangri-La and Ebb Tide, but since he recorded those tunes tunes several times over his career it's debatable what version(s) you'd be getting. Both have also been available on CD compilations over the years.

It's also worth noting that a Maxwell recording of Shangri-La appeared in recent years on the soundtrack of the hit TV series Mad Men.

Here's Shangri-La, the Decca hit version I believe.

As a final note -- if you own records by Mickey Mozart (Little Dipper), the Nairobi Trio (Song of the Nairobi Trio) or the Fortune Tellers, those are all pseudonyms for Robert Maxwell.

Terry Lee and the Poor Boys - Driftin' (single)

The Poor Boys were the band that backed little known Minnesota rockabilly singer Terry Lee, whose real name was Bob Becker. Their entire recorded output appears to be four tracks for the Minneapolis label Soma in 1959. Only two of the tracks were issued at the time, with the other two turning up on a Norton Records EP in 1994.

Driftin' was the group's lone instrumental, providing the "B" side of the vocal single My Little Sue. Driftin' was written by the group's lead guitarist Dave Pederson.

Driftin'



Driftin' has made half a dozen appearances on so-called "white label" (polite term for bootleg) CDs, including this collection, issued by Collector Records of The Netherlands in 1995.

Minnesota Rockers is also available as a download from iTunes and other sources. Driftin' also turns up on a massive 123-song download compilation called The Birth of Surf, Vol. 2, although the tune seems to me to be pretty far removed from the surf music that would emerge a couple of years down the road.

It's important to note that all the recordings of Driftin' are sourced from vinyl, as the master recordings likely disappeared long ago.

First Brass

The British-based First Brass ensemble released its self-titled album in 1986 on MA Music in Europe and A&M in North America. The group was the brainchild of trumpeter and composer Allan Botschinsky and producer Marion Kaempfert, the daughter of orchestra leader Bert Kaempfert. British trumpeter Derek Watkins and Dutch brothers Bart (trombone) and Erik Van Lier (trombone and tuba) completed First Brass

It's difficult to pigeonhole this group's music. It's not exactly jazz, although there are certainly jazz elements, and it's closer to that genre than to any other. Surprisingly most of the music is delightfully accessible, such as Kubismus 502. "Kubismus" is the German word for cubism and "502" refers to the length of the selection. Trumpeter Watkins is featured.

Kubismus 502



This was the only release by First Brass, although Botschinsky and Kaempfert's MA Music label released 15 more albums that featured such artists as Lee Konitz and Gary Burton. The First Brass album is available on CD at the MA Music website. It does not appear to have been made available as a download.

Here's another track from the album.

The Family - Family Affair (45 single)

This mellow funk version of the Sly & the Family Stone hit was issued shortly after Sly's single topped the charts in 1971.

According to YouTube poster fonsoul, whose channel boasts an eye-popping collection of 1,500 soul, R&B and blues selections, The Family was a group of Philadelphia studio musicians that included Leon Huff on keyboards, Ronnie Baker on bass, Earl Young on bass, Roland Chambers on bass and Larry Washington on congas. This was the group that evolved into MFSB after a name change in 1973 to avoid confusion with a British rock band.

Producers Huff and Kenny Gamble put this single out on their North Star label. It was reissued in 1973 under the MFSB name on Philadelphia-International, which the producers had formed in '71. By this time MFSB had become the studio band that backed nearly all of the label's hit records as well as waxing their own instrumental recordings, including the 1974 No. 1 hit TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia).

Family Affair



An extended version of Family Affair (4:21 as opposed to the single's 2:17) was included MFSB's self-titled 1973 album, which is available as a download and on a recently issued British CD.

The flip side of the original Family Affair single contained something called Nation Time, and here it is from fonsoul's collection.

The Swing Era 1940-1941 (Time Life box set)

Time-Life Records began issuing a series of three-LP box sets in 1970 that recreated the hits of the swing era. Most of the recordings were made by Billy May and His Orchestra, with some sets featuring tracks made by Glen Gray and a modern version of his Casa Loma Orchestra. All arrangements followed the original hits very closely.

Each box set (there were 14 of them) included a 64-page book. Despite the fact that these are not the original recordings The Swing Era series proved to be enormously popular -- one of Time-Life's biggest sellers. The records were pressed by Capitol Records Special Markets division and the pressings and stereo quality are top of the line.

Below is May's version of the Erskine Hawkins hit Tuxedo Junction, taken from the volume covering 1940-1941.

Tuxedo Junction



These Time-Life big band recreations were reissued at least three times in their entirety -- twice on vinyl box sets, with slightly different covers in the mid-1970s and entirely new covers later in the decade, and on CD, beginning in 1999. The track listings for the CDs varied from those on the LPs and the covers looked like this:

Reasonably priced vinyl box sets are easy to come by online. They also seem to populate thrift store shelves fairly often. The CDs, however, are harder to come by and seem to be quite pricey. These recordings haven't been marketed as downloads under The Swing Era title, but it's possible they're available on other compilations.

Here's another sample of the Swing Era series, this one taken from a CD. This time it's the Glen Gray Orchestra recreating Andy Kirk's Moten Swing.