Holiday Break

Guitars & All That Jazz is taking a holiday break. Posting will resume on Jan. 1, 2013. Best wishes for a great holiday season and a happy new year.

Joy to the World - Bianco

Harpist Gene Bianco (1927-2007) abandoned the fields of classical and jazz for easy listening in 1962 when he signed a contract with RCA Victor. Under the deal his records were sold exclusively by a record club formed by RCA and Reader's Digest.

He was billed as "The Rainbow Sound of Bianco" and was backed by a full orchestra for half a dozen high quality albums. The first of these was a holiday LP released for Christmas of '62. Below is a link to a sample track from Joy to the World.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas/Silent Night

Joy to the World appears to be the only Bianco album to appear in a digital format. Amazon is selling it as a download under the title The Rainbow Sound of Gene Bianco. Listen before buying as this may have been dubbed from vinyl.

If you own only one Gene Bianco album it probably should be Harp, Skip and Jump (1958), one of two early jazz efforts for RCA's budget Camden label. His musical partner in this swinging affair is guitarist Mundell Lowe.

Ace Cannon - 12 Saxophone Christmas Classics

Alto saxophonist Ace Cannon is best known for his work with Bill Black's Combo from 1959 to 1961 and for his '62 solo hit Tuff. Cannon had made his first recordings backing rockabbily artists on Sun Records.

Later in his career he had best-selling TV-marketed allbums with Golden Classics and The Entertainer, both recorded for the Nashville-based Gusto label.

Gusto released 12 Saxophone Christmas Classics in 2007, but the tracks were probably recorded at least a decade earlier. The other band members aren't credited. A sample track is available below.

The First Noel

12 Saxophone Christmas Classics is available on CD at a very reasonable price from most of the major outlets. You can also get it as a download.

Here's an interesting interview with Ace Cannon from a local Memphis TV show called George Klein's Memphis Sounds. Probably about three years old, as video was uploaded to YouTube in 2009. Be warned: Video and sound are out of synch.

Duane Eddy - Early Christmas

Each year between 2004 and 2010 guitarist Duane Eddy, rock 'n' roll's all-time best selling instrumentalist, released an original Christmas song, which was posted on the web for fans to download for free. These songs were never released on CD.

The original posting site has long since disappeared so I thought it was time to give people another chance to hear his first offering from '04. The link to Early Christmas follows.

Early Christmas

As you can hear it's just Duane and electronically-generated accompaniment. It sounds OK and his guitar tone is as deep and warm as it has always been. But I think Early Christmas is a tune that cries for a full band treatment, as do some of his other Christmas songs, released only as MP3s. It's a shame that Duane has never done a Christmas album, but I guess there's still hope as he's still very active at age 74. There -- that's my Christmas wish.

To keep up to date with his appearances and recordings, check the Duane Eddy Circle website and perhaps consider joining this long-running fan group.

Duane toured the U.K. this past spring to promote his album Road Trip (recorded in Sheffield, England). Here's a clip from his show at the Cheese and Grain in Frome, Somerset, on May 24.

Perly Buttons & the Red Coats - Fiddler on the Roof Goes Pop

The Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof, which began its run of more than 3,000 performances in 1964, was at the height of its popularity when RCA Victor issued this album two years later. The movie version of Fiddler didn't hit theatres until 1971.

Fiddler on the Roof Goes Pop is a bit of a misleading title. These are actually Dixieland jazz arrangements of songs from the show.

I have no idea who Perly Buttons & the Red Coats actually were. The only person named on the album is the A&R man. Production is credited to a company, not an individual. This was also the only recording credited to Perly Buttons & the Red Coats.

In any case, there are some decent Dixieland versions of selections from Fiddler, including the one available from the link below.

Anatevka



Fiddler on the Roof Goes Pop has never been released in a digital format. The album doesn't seem to be in any great demand from collectors, so the best bet in scoring a used vinyl copy is probably record shops or thrift stores in your area.

George Mann Orchestra - Casino Royale

In a previous post, I ruminated a bit about the albums put out under the name of the George Mann Orchestra. These ultra-cheap LPs were likely the work of Los Angeles session musicians and Mann was almost certainly a ficticious name.

That said, Casino Royale, the album pictured above is a cut above the rest of the product put out under the George Mann name. Lots of groovy spy tunes, all originals too, with the exception of the title cut. The LP probably dates from 1967 or thereabouts.

Here's a link to a sample track.

Bottled in Bond



What I wrote in the previous post about downloads of George Mann material still applies. Unfortunately, Casino Royale, undoubtedly the best of the bunch, is not among those available for purchase. Best bet is probably to check those thrift store bins for the original LP.

Sue Instrumentals (1959-1967): The Beat Is On

In 1987 EMI, which owned the catalogue of the R&B and jazz label Sue, issued

Sue Instrumentals (1959-1967): The Beat Is On as part of its Treasury series of releases.

Amazingly this compilation was issued only on vinyl and cassette and not on CD. Strange indeed, considering that the CD was a well-established format by 1987.

In any case this album was a treasure trove for lovers of instrumentals, with tracks by both well-known names (Bill Doggett, Jimmy McGriff, Ike Turner) and some lesser-known artists (Hank Jacobs, The Duals, The Commandos).

Sue Records was founded in New York by Juggy Murray. The company, which billed itself as "The Sound of Soul," was at its peak between 1959 and 1962 with hits by Jimmy McGriff, Baby Washington and Ike and Tina Turner.

Ike Turner had a pair of of tracks on the Sue Instrumentals album, including Going Home. The MP3 is taken from a cassette copy of the album.

Going Home

Going Home was included on a 2000 CD released by the British Ace Records label.

Ike's Instrumentals contained a generous 22 tracks and is still available online at a reasonable price.

Neither Ike's Instrumentals or the earlier Sue Instrumentals appear to be available as downloads. Getting hold of a vinyl copy of Sue Instrumentals would probably prove to be difficult and expensive.

Here's another great Ike Turner instrumental from YouTube. The Groove is also on the Ike's Instrumentals CD.

The Buckaroos - Chicken Pickin'

A big part of what made Buck Owens such an exciting country act was his band, The Buckaroos. Although Owens took some guitar solos himself (and he was a fine picker), most of the guitar picking came from the fingers of Don Rich.

A fine example of his fret work is the 1967 recording of Chicken Pickin', issued as a single and included on the album The Buckaroos Strike Again.

Below is a lick to Chicken Pickin', with the music taken off the 45 single.

Chicken Pickin'



The flip side of the single was Apple Jack, which was posted previously. That post also had more information on the album from which it was taken and on The Buckaroos.

Chicken Pickin' is available on several CD compilations, including two mentioned in the previous post. The track can also be downloaded.

From YouTube, here's a short live clip from TV of Don Rich and the Buckaroos playing Chaparral.

George Van Eps - Mellow Guitar

When George Van Eps (1913-1998) came up with the idea in the late 1930s of adding a seventh string to his guitar, it allowed him to play a bass line along with his chords and lead solos.

Van Eps became a master of the seven-string instrument, which was adopted by only a few other jazz guitarists, among them Howard Alden (a former student of Van Eps). Late in Van Eps's career he and Alden recorded three duo albums for Concord.

Mellow Guitar was issued by Columbia in 1956, in mono only apparently. The recording featured three distinct settings for Van Eps's guitar: a basic rhythm section, a nine-piece band arranged by Paul Weston with whom the guitarist frequently worked, and a string orchestra. A link to a sample track (taken from the vinyl LP) is below.

What Is This Thing Called Love



Mellow Guitar was available for a short time on CD on the Sundazed label, which issued it in 1999. Copies now demand premium prices, $30 and up. The album is also available as a download, but it's from the British company Hallmark, which often uses vinyl as its source. The usual caution -- listen before buying -- applies.

Via YouTube, here's another selection from Mellow Guitar.

Verrill Keene - An Afternoon Affair

This is Verrill Keene's one and only release, which came out on the obscure Showtown label in 1966. That Keene didn't put out anything else isn't all that surprising -- he isn't a real person.

Verrill Keene is a pseudonym for Bob Keane, the owner of Del-Fi Records, the company that put out all those great surfing records in the 1960s. Keane invented Keene and his playboy persona to push this release. Unfortunately, bachelor pad music was pretty well dead by the time An Afternoon Affair came out and the album promptly disappeared.

Thirty years later, in 1996, during the bachelor pad and lounge music revival, Keane decided to release the album on CD. Below you can listen to the title track.

An Afternoon Affair



The CD has long since been discontinued but cheap copies are plentiful in the Amazon Marketplace. An Afternoon Affair is also available as as a download from CD Universe, Amazon and elsewhere, but it's way cheaper to buy the CD.

The Brasileros - Bossa Nova: The New Sound in Jazz from South America

This is not the quick ripoff of the bossa nova craze of the early 1960s that you might expect from the cover.

Released on the ultra-cheap Diplomat label in 1962, Bossa Nova: The New Sound of Jazz from South America features some well-known jazzmen who apparently made the recording when funds were tight. According to a couple of online blogs (including the excellent Unearthed in the Atomic Attic), the personnel includes a young Kenny Barron on piano and Bill Barron on sax, with a rhythm section of Ron Carter on bass and Charlie Persip on drums.

Although the music is great the recording quality is substandard, to put it mildly. The sample track, Bossa Nova Blues, is in stereo, sort of. Sounds like fake stereo to me, which leads me to suspect that the session (date unknown) was done in mono.

Bossa Nova Blues



Much of the information on this session surfaced during an interview that Kenny Barron did with jazzreview.com in 2001.

The album has never been released on CD and is not available as a download.