Willie Mitchell - Aw Shucks

Bandleader Willie Mitchell was the driving force behind the Hi label of Memphis for much of  the 1960s and '70s and is best remembered these days for signing and producing the hits of soul singer Al Green.

Besides leading Hi's studio band, arranging and producing, Mitchell put out a string of singles and albums under his own name, some of which made the Billboard charts. Soul Serenade was probably his biggest success, with both the single and album of that name selling well in 1968.

Aw Shucks is a single that dates from 1967. It wasn't a hit and never made it on to a Willie Mitchell album. It did, however, turn up in 2001 on a CD compilation called Robbins Nest/Rarities, which is now out of print. Fanatics can purchase a used copy in the Amazon Marketplace for $42.99 (!!!). The rest if you can listen to and download Aw Shucks from the link below. The MP3 is taken from the 45.

Aw Shucks

Although Willie Mitchell died in January 2010, the website of his Royal Studios is still online. Nothing has been posted since his obituary, however. But there are some interesting photos of the studio.

From YouTube, here's a wonderful Willie Mitchell mini-concert from a 1966 syndicated TV show The !!!! Beat. The host is Nashville DJ Bill (Hoss) Allen. Some of the musicians in Mitchell's band included Teenie Hodges on guitar, Charles Hodges on organ, Leroy Hodges on bass and drummer Howard Grimes. Thanks to poster skankiniteasy for this video.

Jorgen Ingmann - Danish Guitar Ace

When the name of Danish guitarist Jorgen Ingmann is mentioned in North America, the immediate connection is with his 1961 hit single Apache. But Ingmann began his career as a jazz artist in the 1940s. Then after hearing the recordings of Les Paul, he began experimenting with multitrack recording in the following decade.

But despite his decades of recording in Denmark, his one claim to fame outside his home country is Apache. He wasn't the first to record the tune: That honour went to British guitarist Bert Weedon, who died earlier this month. Then the U.K. guitar group The Shadows recorded it and had the hit in Europe. But in the U.S. and Canada the version of choice was Ingmann's.

In 2005, Apache and 100 other recordings by Ingmann (some dating back to the early 1950s) were gathered in a deluxe box set called Danish Guitar Ace. This set was hard to find even when it was first released and now the highly reliable German mail order company Bear Family appears to be the only place still selling it. It'll set you back about $67, which may seem like a lot, but you get 101 selections on four CDs (excellent quality) plus a 60-page booklet with rare photos and deluxe longbox packaging.

To whet your appetite, here's Ingmann's version of You, You, You (a hit for the Ames Brothers), recorded in 1953 and taken from Danish Guitar Ace.

You, You, You

Those with a more limited music budget (or a more a limited appetite for Jorgen Ingmann) may wish to consider the selection of Ingmann recordings available as downloads. You, You, You is among them. Listen before you buy as some of these may be dubbed from vinyl. As well some tracks are duplicated in several of the available albums.

And to close, from YouTube, here's a version of Apache you may not have heard before. It's by Jorgen Ingmann but it's a re-recording done in the 1970s. Enjoy.

Joe Pass - A Sign of the Times

It was indeed a sign of the times in the mid-1960s as several jazz labels pushed their artists to record cover versions of the latest pop hits. World Pacific Records was particularly active in this area, with artists like Bud Shank, Chet Baker and guitarist Joe Pass putting out LPs of hit parade tunes.

These commercial ventures didn't improve the artists' standing in the jazz community and didn't seem to generate a great deal of interest among pop fans either. They did, however, gain plenty of airplay on the "good music" easy listening stations of the day.

A case in point is Pass's A Sign of the Times (1965), which takes its title from the Petula Clark hit. Listen to and download the title tune from the link below. The MP3 is taken from the original LP.

A Sign of the Times

Pass put out several of these pop albums, including one of movie themes and another called Stones Jazz, which was dedicated to the songs of the Rolling Stones.

In 2002, the British label Beat Goes On released A Sign of the Times on a 2-on-1 CD with another Pass album, Simplicity. It's still available, but expensive. You can also purchase A Sign of the Times as a download.

Martin Denny - Latin Village

Martin Denny had pretty much moved into easy listening territory by the time Latin Village came out in 1964. Gone were the bird calls, jungle sounds and exotic instrumentation of early albums like Exotica and Quiet Village.

Latin Village was released at the peak of the bossa nova craze, so Brazilian classics like The Girl From Ipanema and Corcovado are among the tunes covered.

An interesting guitar sound adorns the leadoff track, Angelito, which you can listen to and download from the link below. It sounds a lot like some of Vincent Bell's work, but who it actually is I don't know.

Angelito

Angelito was also released as a single by Liberty Records, but neither it nor the album were hits. Latin Village was briefly available on a Japanese CD that now goes for upwards of $40 in the Amazon Marketplace. Used vinyl copies from the same source are more reasonable. The album doesn't appear to be available as a legal download.

From YouTube, here's another selection from Latin Village:

J.J. Johnson & Kai Winding - The Great Kai & J.J.

The Great Kai & J.J. (1961) was the first recorded reunion of the two jazz trombone giants since they had co-led a quintet from 1954-56. It was also the first release on the now legendary jazz label Impulse.

Johnson and Winding would record several other albums together over the years, but this one is the one to start with. Eight of the 11 selections are standards, including the one below from the pen of Thelonius Monk. The MP3 is taken from a cassette version of the album.

Blue Monk

You can purchase The Great Kai & J.J. as a CD or a download at a reasonable price from a variety of sources.

And here, in a lengthy video, is a sampling of the two-trombone quintet led by Johnson and Winding from '54-'56. It's from an album on the Savoy label. Click on the large play button in the centre. It'll take you to another website to listen. Don't use the small play button at bottom left.

Lou Donaldson - Blues Walk

Alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson came out with Blues Walk, an album which the AllMusic Guide calls his "undisputed masterpiece," in 1958.

Donaldson was heavily influenced by Charlie Parker and this album, although still largely in a boppish vein, marked the point where he started to develop a distinctive style of his own, mainly by adding blues elements to his playing.

One of the album's highlights is a wonderful reading of the ballad Autumn Nocturne. The MP3 is taken from a DJ 45 that probably dates from around the time the original album was released.

Autumn Nocturne

If you're a newcomer to Donaldson's work, Blues Walk is the place to start. And fortunately the album is easily obtainable (and reasonably priced) in both CD and download formats.

To whet your appetite further, here's a video version of the title cut from Blues Walk. Excellent video and audio quality.

Jack Nathan & His Orchestra - If Glenn Miller Played the Hits of Today

A number of albums have popped up over the years with this simple premise: What would Glenn Miller's orchestra sound like if the bandleader were alive and had his musicians take on current pop hits? These albums seemed to be particularly popular in the 1960s.

Case in point is If Glenn Miller Played the Hits of Today (1968) by British bandleader Jack Nathan & His Orchestra. It's better than most, probably because of Nathan's roots in the swing era.

Nathan, a pianist, and his orchestra became well known in the U.K. through their frequent broadcasts on the BBC's Music While You Work. The program was begun in 1940 following a British government suggestion that morale in industry would be improved if there were daily broadcasts of cheerful music piped into the factories. There must have been something to officialdom's theory that improved morale would lead to better production because the program lasted in one form or another until 1967.

It was around this time that Nathan fronted a big band (not his regular orchestra) for some LPs for EMI in the U.K. The first was If Glenn Miller Played the Hits of Today, which was issued on Phillips in the U.S. From it comes a version of Lennon/McCartney's Yesterday.

Yesterday

None of Nathan's recorded output appears to have made it to the digital era, so here's another sample of the contents of the above album from the vaults of YouTube.

Pasadena Roof Orchestra - Happy Feet

For 40 years the U.K.-based Pasadena Roof Orchestra has made a career out of playing music in the style of pre-swing era dance bands; in other words dance bands before 1937.

Formed in 1969 by Johnny Arthy, the orchestra's first gig came the following April, and it has been performing and recording ever since.

The album Happy Feet dates from 1987 and was only recently re-released on CD. It already appears to be in short supply. The MP3 for A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square comes from the original vinyl version of the album.

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square

While Happy Feet is available as an outrageously priced import CD, the widely available digital downloard version is much cheaper.

For more information on the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, visit the band's website.

Claude Bolling - Tribute to the Piano Greats

French jazz pianist and composer Claude Bolling pays tribute to Oscar Peterson, Count Basie, Scott Joplin, George Shearing, Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Ramsey Lewis, Art Tatum, Jelly Roll Morton and Erroll Garner in a series of 12 original compositions.

Tribute to the Piano Greats, which dates from 2003, first appeared in 1975 under the title With the Help of My Friends. The same tracks appeared on CD as Inspirations in 2000 and finally as Tribute to the Piano Greats. The album is widely available in both CD and download versions under all three titles, so make sure you don't duplicate your purchase.

Below is Bolling's tribute to Oscar Peterson for listening and downloading.

An Oscar for Oscar

From YouTube comes a marvelous 1984 concert appearance in which Bolling plays with Peterson on An Oscar for Oscar. The sound quality is excellent, although the picture quality is not.

Claude Bolling is probably best known in North America for  a series of "crossover" collaborations with classical musicians, in particular his Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio with Jean-Pierre Rampal. That album was on the Billboard chart for more than 10 years after its release in 1975.

Les & Larry Elgart - The Beat of the Big Bands

Les & Larry Elgart, both together and separately, helped keep big band music alive long after the swing era had ended. The two brothers co-led one of the most popular bands of the 1950s.

Their big band was lighter in tone than many of the swing era bands and there were almost no solos for the band members. Many of their recordings veered into easy listening territory, particularly after the brothers split at the close of the '50s.

They reunited in 1963 but parted ways again after about four years. Larry went on to find late career success with the Hooked on Swing albums, which consisted of big band standards set to a disco beat.

What purports to be Les & Larry Elgart's version of Begin the Beguine, one of the best known swing era standards courtesy of Artie Shaw's 1938 hit, appeared on The Beat of the Big Bands, a 1973 compilation on Columbia's low-budget Harmony label. The MP3 below comes from a cassette version of that album. But further listening reveals that is a version by Les without his brother and which first appeared on the 1960 album The Band with That Sound.

Begin the Beguine

And just to confirm that this is Les's band alone, here's the YouTube video.

No need to go searching for old records (unless you're a vinyl fanatic) to get this version of Begin the Beguine. It's available both as a digital download and on CD.

Bobby Darin - Autumn Blues

There's a reason you don't hear as much about Bobby Darin as a pianist as you do about his vocal talents: His keyboard work was mediocre at best.

Still, Atco saw fit to release Beachcomber b/w Autumn Blues, two instrumentals composed and performed by Darin, in 1960. The saving grace is the orchestra conducted by jazzman Shorty Rogers, whose arrangments cover the holes nicely. You can listen to and download Autumn Blues from the link below.

Autumn Blues

A YouTube video presents us with a test pressing of Autumn Blues while showing us the inner workings of a jukebox as it's being played. Enjoy.

Beachcomber/Autumn Blues was not a hit, selling only to Darin's dedicated fans. Still, it was followed in 1961 with another instrumental release, Come September/Walk Back to Me.

Beachcomber turned up on Darin's album Things & Other Things and is available as a legal download from Amazon. Autumn Blues appeared only as the "B" side of the 45, didn't get an album release and isn't available as a legal download in North America. If you live in Belgium, you're in luck. It's available from iTunes in that country.

The Chelsea Strings - Always in My Heart

Here's another one of those "mystery" easy listening albums that turn up in the discount and thrift stores fairly regularly.

The good news about The Chelsea Strings conducted by Julian Byron is that this is a real orchestra and not some synthesizer-based dreck. Who these musicians are and where this recording was made, I haven't the faintest idea. In the mid-1990s, there were about half a dozen albums credited to The Chelsea Strings issued on the bargain-basement St. Clair label, based in Quebec. I doubt, however, that the recordings were made in Canada.

Always in My Heart, released in 1995, features some pleasant tenor sax work on Stevie Wonder's You Are the Sunshine of My Life, which you can listen to and download below.

You Are the Sunshine of My Life

None of the Chelsea Strings albums appear to be in print and none of their tracks appear to be available from legal download sites. However, cheap new and used copies of the CDs seem to turn up fairly regularly on eBay and elsewhere. Also sift through the bins at your local thrift stores.

The Mulcays - The Mulcays Play for a Kiss in the Dark

The husband and wife team of Jimmy and Mildred Mulcay were a harmonica duo that was moderately popular in the 1940s and '50s. They had hits in the early '50s with My Happiness and Alabamy Bound, toured with Bob Hope and appeared in several forgettable "B" movies with titles like Variety Girl, Night Club Girl and Varieties on Parade.

The duo's last on-screen appearance, in 1966, was in a piece of dreck called The Girl From Tobacco Row, headlined by Tex Ritter and Rachel Roman. The film premiered in Louisville, Ky., (presumably at a drive-in) and featured the tag line, "A girl wilder than a peach orchard hog." And no, I'm not making this up.

In any case, the Mulcays made some fine music in their day including the 1955 album pictured above, The Mulcays Play for a Kiss in the Dark. It was released on Somerset, the label that brought you the 101 Strings. The title song from the album is below for your listening and downloading pleasure. I think you'll agree the Hawaiian steel guitar is a nice touch.

A Kiss in the Dark

Used copies of the Kiss in the Dark LP are for sale at a reasonable price in the Amazon marketplace. And a dozen songs by the Mulcays, not including A Kiss in the Dark, are available from iTunes.

And to round things off, here's a video of the Mulcays performing with Bob Hope. The date of the appearance isn't specified.

Hugo Strasser - Das Beste von Hugo Strasser

German clarinetist and band leader Hugo Strasser (b. April 7, 1922) recently celebrated his 90th birthday and is still going strong. He tours in his home country with two other German big band legends, Max Greger (86) and Paul Kuhn (84).

Strasser formed his first band in 1955 and has performed almost continuously and recorded prolifically since then. Much of his recorded output is of the strict tempo dance variety, which is not exactly my cup of tea. After one or two selections, I find it quite mind-numbing. But I like it when Strasser turns to big band standards like Glenn Miller's American Patrol, which you can listen to and download from the link below.

American Patrol

American Patrol is available on several Hugo Strasser CDs, of which the easiest to find is Das Beste von Hugo Strasser, released by EMI in Germany in 1998. As well, a wide selection of Strasser's recordings is available via digital downloads in Canada and Europe. The download selection in the U.S. is much more limited.

The YouTube take on American Patrol has a cool picture of the maestro ready for some bandstand action.

David Matthews & the Tokyo Union Big Band - Keeping Count

The Tokyo Union Big Band, a Japanese ensemble, was formed in 1964 by alto saxophonist Ryusuke Nomura. Tenor sax man Tatsuya Takahashi took over two years later and under his leadership the band toured internationally, including appearances at the Montreux and Monterey jazz festivals.

Most of the band's recordings weren't available in North America. One notable exception was Keeping Count, a Count Basie tribute, released on the ProJazz label in 1986. The album featured arrangements by American David Matthews and included the swinging Ernie Wilkins-penned tribute Basie, which you can listen to and download from the link below. The MP3 is from a cassette version of the album.

Basie

Amazingly a used CD copy of this outstanding big band album can be had for as little as a penny! Pick one up today -- you won't regret it.

The Buckaroos - The Buck Owens' Buckaroos Strike Again

The Buckaroos, led by guitarist Don Rich, served as Buck Owens's band during the country star's hit-making days in the 1960s and '70s. Owens and the Buckaroos helped develop country music's Bakersfield Sound, which spread from the taverns and honky-tonks in the Bakersfield, Calif., area.

The Buckaroos also had a parallel recording career on their own, releasing a dozen albums and a number of singles on Capitol. Buckaroo, the band's theme song, made No. 1 on the country singles chart in 1965.

The LP Buck Owens' Buckaroos Strike Again came out two years later and made No. 11 on the U.S. country chart. From it comes Apple Jack, which was also released as a single. The MP3 is taken from the 45.

Apple Jack

As you can hear, Don Rich was the star of the band with his bright, propulsive sound on the Telecaster. When he died in a motorcycle accident in 1974, the band's hit-making days were essentially over.

Apple Jack is widely available as part of The Best of the Buckaroos compilation released by Sundazed in 2007. It can be had via both CD and download. The album contains a number of vocals.

For a wider selection of the band's instrumental offerings, check out The Instrumental Hits of Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, also from Sundazed. A used copy will cost you less than $10.