Henri René & His Orchestra - Riot in Rhythm

Henri René (1906-1993) served as music director for RCA Victor from about 1946 until 1959. You can read a brief biography at Space Age Pop Music.

René managed to find time to record a bunch of albums under his own name, many of which consisted of light classical works or mood music and are of little interest today. Sometimes, though, he stepped out and swung, as he did on the 1958 release Compulsion to Swing. This album deserves to be heard in stereo, where René's offbeat arrangements really shine. A sample track, Whispering, is below.

Whispering

Riot in Rhythm is available as a legal download, but I would suggest listening to several samples before purchasing as the company behind it is Hallmark, which is notorious for its substandard dubbed-from-vinyl releases.

The album also turned up on CD (courtesy of the French label Jasmine) in 2009, paired with another of René's RCA releases, Compulsion to Swing, under the title Compulsion to Swing in Rhythm. A new copy can be had in the Amazon Marketplace for about $10.

Used, reasonably priced vinyl copies of both albums are also fairly easy to come by.

René recorded a version of Santo and Johnny's Sleep Walk for his album The Swinging 59 (1960 on Imperial). This later turned up on one of the Ultra-Lounge series of CDs and recently gained further exposure when it was used in the TV series True Blood. Here's the song from YouTube.

Mike Melvoin - Between the Two

Keyboardist Mike Melvoin, who died last February at age 74, really had two parallel careers -- as an in-demand session musician in Los Angeles and as a first-rate jazz improviser and composer.

After he moved to L.A. in 1961, his session credits included such landmark recordings as Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys, That's Life by Frank Sinatra and Natalie Cole's Unforgettable. In the meantime he was also playing with West Coast jazz stalwarts like Gerald Wilson, Plas Johnson and Frank Rosolino.

Between the Two, released on Liberty in 1968, sticks pretty much to the easy listening-instrumental pop genre. And like many such instrumental LPs of the period, it was aimed more at radio DJs than the record-buying public. All of the tracks, like Alabamy Bound available from the link below, were around 2:30-3:00 minutes in length, perfect for radio airplay.

Alabamy Bound

Melvoin concentrated on jazz during the latter part of his career, releasing several excellent albums on the City Light Entertainment label. Most are available at ridiculously low prices in the Amazon Marketplace.

Between the Two, unfortunately, has never been available in a digital format.

From YouTube comes Mike Melvoin performing They Play the Blues in Kansas City. The audio is accompanied by a series of still images from a celebration of Melvoin's 50-year career at an L.A. club in December 2011, two months before his death from cancer.

The Sidewalk Swingers - Folk Swingin' Harpsichord with 12-String Guitar

Before Glen Campbell became a top-rank country star, he was one of the most in-demand guitarists on the Los Angeles recording scene. For a while, he was associated with the group of session musicians that came to be known as The Wrecking Crew.

These musicians recorded many one-off instrumental albums for various labels including this 1964 effort for Warner Bros. under the moniker of The Sidewalk Swingers. God knows who came up with the off-the-wall idea of pairing a harpsichord with a 12-string guitar on a bunch of folk tunes old and new. It's Campbell on the 12-string of course, paired with harpsichordist Russell Bridges. Two veterans of The Wrecking Crew, drummer Hal Blaine and bassist Jimmy Bond, help things along.

The results are mixed to say the least. Personally, the peppy sound of that harpsichord tends to give me the urge to smash something after about three tracks, so listening to the whole album at once is out of the question, at least for me. Still, popping the odd track or two on your music player provides some mild amusement.

Below is The Sidewalk Swingers' take on Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind.

Blowin' in the Wind

If you really must have the entire LP (it's not available in a digital format) you can pay anywhere from $15-50 for a used copy -- or you can visit the Many Fantastic Colors blog for a download link to the whole album. The chances of this ever being available on CD or as a legal download are remote.

Don Sebesky - Moving Lines (Part 2)

I first posted a selection from this 1985 album by arranger-composer Don Sebesky a couple of weeks ago. Since the album is no longer available on CD and can't be had via a legal download, here's a second track. This time it's Claire's Song, composed by Russell Ferrante of the Yellowjackets. It's the lead song on their 1983 album Mirage A Trois.

As before, the MP3 is taken from a cassette copy of Moving Lines.

Claire's Song

Don Sebesky's take on The Entertainer is just about the only version of the Scott Joplin warhorse (popularized by its use in the movie The Sting) I'd want to hear more than once. It was included in his 1975 album The Rape of El Morro. Here it is from YouTube, accompanied by a nonsensical series of images that include a cereal commercial cartoon, nuclear explosions and a cowboy on horseback dragging a Christmas tree through the snow. If there's a message here it escapes me.

Shirley Scott - Soul Sister

Almost all the organ combos of the 1950s and 60s featured saxophone and guitar -- which is what makes this 1960 session (not released by Prestige until 1966) by Shirley Scott (1934-2002) unique. Scott's main accompaniment here is the vibraphone of Lem Winchester. There's no sax, no guitar.

Five of the LP's six tracks were standards, but the one Scott original, Blues for Tyrone, is the highlight. The album cut runs just short of 10 minutes, however the MP3 below is a much shorter version that was slapped onto a 45 for DJs. It should whet your appetite sufficiently to search out the full album.

Blues for Tyrone

Used copies of the LP, which was reissued in the 1970s, turn up now and again, but a better bet is the CD version, released in 2000 as part of Prestige's Legends of Acid Jazz series. It's still available from Amazon and has the cover pictured below.

As welll as the Soul Sister LP, the CD release also has the complete 1964 album Travelin' Light plus the title track from the LP Now's the Time. A legal download version of the CD is not available.

And to top it all off, here's a wonderful YouTube video of Scott performing in San Francisco in 1996. Audio quality is very good, the video less so, not surprising considering its vintage.

Nashville String Band - Identified!

By the time this 1971 album found its way into record stores, almost everyone (well, at least anyone who had any interest in guitar instrumentals) knew who the principals in the Nashville String Band were. And on the back of this LP sleeve, they were unmasked for all to see -- Chet Atkins (guitar), Henry (Homer) Haynes (guitar) and Kenneth (Jethro) Burns (mandolin).

The latter two were better known for their country comedy recordings under the moniker Homer and Jethro. But both were fine musicians and Atkins would have been well aware of that as he was the producer of their Homer and Jethro sessions.

The Nashville String Band released half a dozen instrumental albums on RCA Victor between 1969 and 1972, of which Identified! was the penultimate. From it comes White Silver Sands. The MP is taken from vinyl.

White Silver Sands

Almost everything that Chet Atkins recorded seems to be available (or has been available) on CD or as a download. Everything that is except recordings by the Nashville String Band. I've no idea why.

Used copies of their LPs turn up fairly often on the auction sites, but no one except Atkins fanatics will be willing to pay the prices being asked.

There are several YouTube selections from the Nashville String Band posted by someone in Eastern Europe, but the audio quality is abysmal and I've elected not to include a sample here.

Unknown Artist - Sweet Guitar

Here's another anonymous guitar album, presumably featuring a European musician since the CD is manufactured in the U.K.

There's a reason there's no name (or a fake one) attached to most of these albums: They aren't very good and the musicians (in many cases only a solo guitarist) are paid peanuts.

This album is a happy exception in the quality department. It's a pleasant, well-played mixture of the usual pop standards (The Lady in Red, Music of the Night, etc.) and a couple of classical warhorses. Although the backing strings sound electronic, they're not shrill and obboxious like they are on many cheap instrumental albums. Here's a sample track.

Air on a G-String

Sweet Guitar, released in 1996, has long since been deleted, but there are cheap used copies available on several U.K. sites, including Amazon. The album doesn't appear to be available as a download (legal), although one can never be too sure since these anonymous CDs are often endlessly repackaged under different titles and artist names.

Exactly who are the musicians that put together these albums where no credit is given? In the case of Sweet Guitar, we're not even told in which country this album was recorded.

And what is the target market for these recordings? Do you know anyone that sits around waiting to buy a CD where the artist isn't credited? Presumably the manufacturer is aiming at the impulse buyer who doesn't want to spend more than a couple of bucks for background music to accompany the macaroni and cheese entrée.

Still, as Sweet Guitar proves, there are few satisfactory purchases to made from the discount bins.

Bob Bain's All Stars - Black Beauty

Bob Bain was Henry Mancini's guitarist of choice during the 1950s and 60s, appearing on the Peter Gunn, Mr. Lucky and Pink Panther soundtracks. Bain and his legendary modified 1953 Telecaster were profiled in the May 2012 issue of Vintage Guitar magazine.

Bain and Tommy Tedesco were the busiest guitarists on the Los Angeles session scene and neither had much time for a solo career. Bain recorded a few albums and EPs for Capitol, as well as some singles for various labels, but mostly he stayed in the studios.

This obscure single, one of at least two recorded for the Montclare label, probably dates from the early '60s. It's a showcase for another Mancini veteran, tenor saxophonist Plas Johnson. The label photo was originally published in the excellent Office Naps blog, which features obscure 45s, in 2006. The MP3 comes from the 45.

Black Beauty

To my knowledge Black Beauty has never turned up on a CD compilation (more's the pity) and it isn't available as a legal download. Copies of the single turn up occasionally on the auction sites.

If there's one Bob Bain album you should pickup it's his Rockin', Rollin', Strollin', released by Capitol in 1958. Here's a video sample:

Don Sebesky & the Contemporary Arranger's Workshop - Moving Lines

Arranger Don Sebesky is best known for arranging many of producer Creed Taylor's albums for Verve, CTI and A&M. Sebesky backed artists like Wes Montgomery, George Benson and Freddie Hubbard with large string orchestras, making their music more accessible to people who didn't normally listen to jazz.

Sebesky has issued a number of albums under his own name over the years including Moving Lines, which first came out in 1985 on producer Bob Thiele's Doctor Jazz label and was reissued in 1990 by Sony with the cover pictured above.

The Contemporary Arranger's Workshop was Sebesky's own aggregation, presumbably based on the ideas expressed in his book The Contemporary Arranger (1975).

Listen to Sebesky's unique interpretation of the big band standard Cherokee, composed by Ray Noble and popularized by Charlie Barnett. The MP3 is taken from a cassette version of the album.

Cherokee

If you're patient and scout around, it's possible to score a used vinyl or CD copy of this album at a reasonable cost. Moving Lines is not available as a legal download.

Ike Quebec - Bossa Nova Soul Samba

The deep-toned tenor sax of Ike Quebec was featured on a number of albums for Blue Note in the 1950s and '60s, including Boss Nova Soul Samba. Released in 1962, this album would be the final outing for Quebec, who died of cancer the following year.

Despite having "bossa nova" in the album title (no doubt an effort to cash in on the then-current bossa nova craze) this is not a traditional bossa nova LP. Think of it as a bluesy blowing session with Brazilian overtones.

Guitarist Kenny Burrell is Quebec's co-star on this album and from it comes Blue Samba, with the MP3 taken from a promo 45. The full six minutes of the album track was squeezed onto a single side of the 45, a very rare occurence for a lengthy jazz track in the 60s. Usually, the longer cuts were split into two parts -- one on each side of the single -- in an effort to gain airplay from DJs who preferred shorter cuts. About seven minutes of music would fit on each side of a seven-inch 45, but this was rarely done.

Blue Samba

Bossa Nova Soul Samba is widely available on CD and as a download. Some new and used copies of this classic album are selling for less than $5 in the Amazon Marketplace.

From YouTube comes another track from Bossa Nova Soul Samba, Loie.

Joe Houston - Kicking Back

Joe Houston was one of those honking tenor sax guys who dominated rhythm-and-blues and early rock 'n' roll before the guitar became the favoured instrument.

A contemporary of such honkers and screamers as Big Jay McNeely, Rusty Bryant (before his jazz days) and Illinois Jacquet, Houston made his most exciting sides for the ultra-cheap Los Angeles-based Crown label. This material was endlessly repackaged, including albums to take advantage of the twist and surfing music crazes. Songs were often retitled as well, making it easy to buy the same material two or three times. Most of these 1950s recordings are available as downloads, sometimes with their original song titles and sometimes not. Use caution when purchasing.

Kicking Back is from relatively late in Houston's career. It was issued in 1978 by Big Town Records and unfortunately (for my tastes, at least) bears some trademarks of the disco era. Still it's an enoyable recording, as you can hear on Why Don't You Rock Me. The MP3 is taken from the vinyl LP.

Why Don't You Rock Me

Kicking Back was never released on CD to my knowledge but it is available as a download from iTunes, and probably other sources as well.

Here's a further sample from the album, courtesy of YouTube.

Joe Houston continued performing into the new millennium until suffering a stroke in 2005. He made a brief reappearance but has since retired from music.