The Many-Splendored Guitars of Buddy Merrill

The general public became acquainted with the high-speed multitracked guitar playing of Buddy Merrill through his long tenure on the Lawrence Welk TV show (1959-1976) and through the dozens of LPs released on the Accent label, mainly in the 1960s and '70s. A few of those albums have appeared on CD.

You can read more about Merrill on his website, which has some great photos, or at the Space Age Pop Music page. Unfortunately neither site has been updated in years, but most of the information is still valid. What is certain is that Merrill hasn't been active in music for a long time.

The Many-Splendored Guitars of Buddy Merrill was released on Accent in 1967 (Billboard listed it among new releases in June). Below you can grab a sample track from this album.

Ask the Wind



Some of Buddy Merrill's CDs are available from Global Recording Artists at a reasonable $9.99. The albums can also be bought as downloads. The site also has a few new copies of his vinyl albums for sale. You'd have to be a real fan, though. They're $25 apiece.

A further selection of Merrill's albums can be had as CDs or downloads from Amazon and other online sites.

Many of the selections on The Many-Splendored Guitars, including Ask the Wind, aren't available in a digital format.

Merrill was also an accomplished steel guitarist, as you can see from this YouTube clip from the Welk show.

For an excellent 2011 interview with Merrill, visit the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) site. The video is part of NAMM's oral history project.

Jorgen Ingmann - Swinging Guitar (Post #2)

I posted a selection from Jorgen Ingmann's Swinging Guitar (1959) in September 2012, but I thought this LP of multitracked favourites was worth a second listen. You can glean all the background from the previous post while you grab the second selection from the album.

Bye Bye Blues has become a pop and jazz standard since it was written by Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Chauncey Gray and Bert Lown in 1930. Lown and his orchestra made the first recording of it that year, but perhaps the best-known version was waxed by Les Paul and Mary Ford in 1952. Since Ingmann was heavily influenced by Paul's multitracking techniques it seemed natural that he chose to include Bye Bye Blues on Swinging Guitar.

Bye Bye Blues



From YouTube comes Paul and Ford's hit version. The sound quality isn't all that it might be, but then it's dubbed from a vintage 10" LP.

And finally here's the original recorded version by Bert Lown and his Hotel Biltmore Orchestra from 1930. Sound quality and visuals are very good.

Mel Davis Orchestra - Gonna Build a Mountain (track)

In 1992 Bainbridge Records released Brass Menagerie: Big Band Brass of the Sixties, a selection of tracks from the catalogue of Time Records. Bainbridge re-released much of the output of Time, a label that was much favoured by stereophiles in the 1960s.

Brass Menagerie included tracks from the orchestras of Jerry Fielding, Jim Tyler, Hugo Montenegro and Mel Davis. One of the selections from the Davis band was Gonna Build a Mountain, from the Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse musical Stop the World, I Want to Get Off. Davis, a trumpeter who spent much of his working life in New York recording studios, had included the song on his 1963 Time album We Like Broadway.

Grab Mel Davis's Gonna Build a Mountain from the link below. The MP3 is sourced from a cassette version of Brass Menagerie.

Gonna Build a Mountain



Brass Menagerie appears to be available on CD from a few sources, including the iOldies Music Store. The album is also available as a download from most of the major sources.

Mel Davis accompanied Benny Goodman on a 1957 trip to Japan and here's a wonderful YouTube video of  Air Mail Special from that tour. Cue in about 1:05 to bypass the lengthy drum solo that opens the clip if you prefer. Davis is up front beside Goodman.

Papa Joe's Music Box - Closing Time (single)

Papa Joe's Music Box was the creation of Nashville pianist and producer Jerry Smith. Smith coined the group name from the Dixiebelles' 1963 hit (Down at) Papa Joe's, which Smith wrote and co-produced with Bill Justis.

Smith put his honky-tonk piano sound on wax for Sound Stage 7, Decca, Ranwood and Nuggett, both under his own name and as Papa Joe's Music Box. He was also behind some of The Magic Organ releases on Ranwood.

Closing Time came out on the Nuggett label in May 1968. It was the "B" side of a single that had something called Speakeasy 1929 as the "A" side that was promoted to disc jockeys. Billboard picked the 45 to make the Top 60 of the Hot 100 chart (it didn't). The trade magazine called the record, "A hot jukebox item with the old-timey feel of Bonnie & Clyde fever." Well, maybe...

In any case, you can grab Closing Time from the link below.

Closing Time



None of Jerry Smith's piano recordings seem to have made the transition to digital, although I believe some of The Magic Organ tracks made it on to CD. If you're a fan of skating rink organ, you can look it up.

Below, from YouTube, is the Dixiebelles' (Down at) Papa Joe's, with Jerry Smith on piano.

The Magnificent 7 - Country & Western Love Songs

Think Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass or perhaps Buck Owens's Bakersfield Brass. That's basically the sound of the anonymous group of musicians who make up The Magnificent 7. This budget label LP may even predate those mid- to late-1960s groups, with one source giving the date of release as 1961.

Listening to Country & Western Love Songs, however, leads me to believe that this album likely dates from the middle of the decade. Guitars and brass share the lead throughout. Listen to what The Magnificent 7 do with Ernest Tubb's Walking the Floor Over You.

Walking the Floor Over You



There was at least one other release under The Magnificent 7 moniker, Country & Western Million Sellers, again on the low-budget Power label. Both are worth picking up (think thrift store) for fans of country guitar.

None of this material has appeared in a digital format.

Enoch Light - April in Portugal (track)

There were no less than five hit versions of April in Portugal in 1953, including orchestral recordings by Les Baxter (the most popular), Richard Hayman and Freddy Martin and vocal renditions by Vic Damone and Tony Martin.

The song had begun life in 1947 as a Portuguese song called Coimbra, to which songwriter Jimmy Kennedy later added English lyrics.

Enoch Light recorded April in Portugal for his 1961 Command album Provocative Percussion, Vol. III and again in 1966 for the first release on his Project 3 label, Patterns in Sound, Vol. 1. (For more on Light and his labels Command and Project 3, click HERE and HERE.) Both versions turned up on several Light compilations over the years, with the Project 3 recording included on The Many Moods of Enoch Light, a vinyl box set from the direct mail company Longines Symphonette.

The audio for the track below is sourced from the Longines box.

April in Portugal



Both the Command and Project 3 versions of April in Portugal are available in the U.K. as downloads from iTunes on a compilation called Patterns in Sound. This collection apparently isn't available in North America. However, downloaders in the U.S. and Canada can choose from a wide range of Light's recordings, but not including either version of April in Portugal.

And for those of you who like pretty pictures with your Enoch Light, here's Charlie Barnet's hit Cherokee, taken from Light's 1971 Project 3 LP Big Band Hits of the 30s and 40s.

The Electric Indian - Broad Street (single)

In 1969, Bernie Binnick, the co-founder of Philadelphia-based Swan Records, put together a studio band that included such notables as Daryl Hall (Hall and Oates) and Vince Montana, who became a prominent figure in disco music in the following decade.

Binnick gave this aggregation the moniker of The Electric Indian. The group, produced by singer Len Barry (1-2-3 sold a million in 1965), had one big hit, Keem-O-Sabe (No. 20, Billboard Hot 100). There was an album titled after that tune that contained it and nine other selections. Obviously the combination of the tune's title and the group's name wouldn't pass muster today, conveying as it does an unfortunate racial stereotype of Native Americans.

Strangely the album didn't include the flip side of the 45, a fine piece of funk called Broad Street, which is a major Philadelphia thoroughfare. You can access it from the link below. Note: Although the label says Broad Street runs 1:59, it clearly is at least 20 seconds longer than that.

Broad Street



After The Electric Indian's shortlived recording career -- just the album and a couple of singles -- many of the members (including Vince Montana and guitarist Bobby Eli) went on to join MFSB, the studio band for soul producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Montana later formed the Salsoul Orchestra disco band.

Of The Electric Indian's recordings, only Keem-O-Sabe appears to be available in a digital format.

From YouTube, here's a track from the Keem-O-Sabe LP.

Houston Person - Close to You (single)

Like his main influence Gene Ammons, tenor saxophonist Houston Person has often found himself recording as part of an organ combo. He's accumulated an extensive catalogue of releases since he began recording in the 1960s. A good chunk of it, particularly his later albums for Muse and High Note, is available in digital formats.

The Close to You single (the "A" side was Son of Man) was taken from a 1970 Prestige album Person to Person!, recorded by a combo that included guitarist Grant Green and organist Sonny Phillips.

I'm not sure whether the single was sold commercially, since the only copies I've seen have been labelled or stamped as DJ promos. In any case the 45 version of Close to You runs less than half the length of the album cut, which is over five minutes. Below is a link to the single edit that was shipped to radio stations.

Close to You



Person to Person! and another 1970 release Houston Express were combined on a 1996 CD release, Legends of Acid Jazz.

It's out of print but is still available in the Amazon Marketplace. Unfortunately, it carries a rather hefty price tag.

None of Houston Person's recordings for Prestige in the 1960s and '70s appear to have been made available via downloads.

Here's a wonderful Person performance from a date at the Iridium in New York City in January 2012. Excellent audio and video quality.

John Froman, his piano & orchestra - Wall Street

There's not much I can tell you about John Froman or this album. It came out in 1966 (Billboard listed it among new releases in the Nov. 5 issue) and has the appearance of a private label issue although the arrangements are far too sophisticated for a mere vanity project. The recording also sounds a bit dated, as though it could have been recorded sometime earlier.

Froman himself is a mystery too. There is no information on him, although there was a John Froman who issued a couple of instrumental 45s on the Felsted label in 1963. Could be the same person I suppose.

In any case here's a photo of Froman from the rear of the Wall Street album. Both Wall Street photos in this entry were previously published on the now inactive Record Robot blog in 2006.

Froman arranged all the tunes on Wall Street and wrote four originals, including the title track, available from the link below.

Wall Street



 Needless to say none of Froman's material has surfaced in a digital format.

Marjorie Meinert - Vive La Difference

I've got to tell you I'm generally not a fan of the airy, fruity sound of the Lowery organ. Give me a robust Hammond B3 any day.

But this 1960 release by Marjorie Meinert, playing a Lowery, is a mildly pleasant surprise that swings along quite nicely on some of the tracks. The guitar player (not identified) gets in some groovy licks as well, which helps move things along.

According to a blurb in the Jan. 18, 1960, issue of Billboard: "RCA Victor is putting a strong promotional push behind organist Marjorie Meinert whose first package for the label is Vive La Difference, a collection of French songs. Album is the first of five scheduled for release in 1960. Diskery intends a saturation campaign in press, point of sale, deejay level, etc." Here's a print ad for that campaign:

Below is a link to a sample track from Vive La Difference.

April in Paris



A handful of Marjorie Meinert tracks, not including the Vive La Difference LP are available for download. These may be sourced from vinyl. None of her work appears to have surfaced on CD.

Meinert, a native of Davenport, Iowa, died in 2009 at age 88. Click here for a biography.

Here's a second track from Vive La Difference.

The T-Bones - Doin' the Jerk

This 1965 album by the T-Bones, a Los Angeles-based session group, predated the band's one significant hit No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In), which came out later that year and had its origins in an Alka Seltzer jingle. An album of the same name also made the charts.

The T-Bones had already released a couple of surf and hot-rod albums before Doin' the Jerk, an album that was issued to cash in on another of the seemingly endless series of dance crazes that cropped up in the '60s.

There were a couple of other albums after the T-Bones' big hit and then the group folded. However, the core members -- guitarist Don Hamilton, bassist Joe Frank Carollo and drummer Tommy Reynolds -- went on to form Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds, a trio that had a couple of big pop hits (Don't Pull Your Love (Out), Fallin' in Love) in the 1970s.

Here's a link to a sample track from Doin' the Jerk.

Bread and Butter



Doin' the Jerk has never received a legal digital reissue and used vinyl copies tend to be pricey. However, the hit album No Matter What Shape is easy to find on CD -- and a used copy is cheap, too.

An astounding 52 T-Bones tracks (not including the Doin' the Jerk LP)  are available on iTunes, but these may be sourced from vinyl, so proceed with caution.

Here are the T-Bones performing their big hit on TV. The source for this YouTube clip isn't given.

Roland Shaw & His Orchestra - The World of James Bond Adventure

The World of James Bond Adventure was one of a quartet of Bond and spy related albums released by British arranger and conductor Roland Shaw from 1965 to 1971 on the Decca (U.K.)/London Phase 4 labels. Others included James Bond in Action, Themes for Secret Agents and World of Spy Thrillers.

Shaw's exciting arrangements were enhanced by the excellent technical quality of the recordings. Thirty-seven tracks from these four albums were released on a double-CD release James Bond in Action/Themes for Secret Agents in 2008. It's still available from several sources.

Below is a link to a sample track, Goldfinger, taken from a cassette version of the original World of James Bond Adventure album. If you like it, buy the CD.

Goldfinger



Fourteen of Roland Shaw's Bond recordings, including Goldfinger, are available for download in Europe, but not in the U.S. or Canada. These same 14 tracks were also issued in 1992 on a British CD Cinema Gala: James Bond 007.

This album is for sale in the Amazon Marketplace, but you're probably better off with the double-CD set mentioned earlier.

To finish here's Roland Shaw's version of Casino Royale, from YouTube.

Charles Dant & His Orchestra - Chimes of Hawaii (single)

Here's a slice of vintage Hawaiian music from 1958, courtesy of Charles Dant and His Orchestra. This 45 (Swing Hula was on the flip) was taken from the album The Isle of Enchantment.

Although Dant was not Hawaiian (he was born in Indiana), he had a long association with the islands and would move there later in life. He died in Kailua Kona, Hawaii, in 1999 at age 92.

In the 1960s, Dant, who was often billed as Charles (Bud) Dant, was West Coast A&R head for Decca Records and produced the Irish Rovers' chart-topping hit The Unicorn. He also produced many of the LPs released by Pete Fountain in the '60s.

Here then is a link to Chimes of Hawaii, with the MP3 taken from the 45 single.

Chimes of Hawaii



Dant recorded relatively few titles under his own name and only two of them have made the transition to the digital age. The Golden West, an early album for Decca, and Hawaii's Latest and Greatest, an album Dant recorded in 1980 while living in the 50th state, are both available as downloads.

For The Isle of Enchantment, you'll have to hope to stumble across a used LP somewhere.

Jim Timmens and His Jazz All-Stars - Gilbert and Sullivan Revisited

The comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan might seem an odd choice for a jazz interpretation, but arranger Jim Timmens made it work on this 1959 Warner Bros. release.

Of course having the cream of the New York session players on board helped immeasurably -- people like Hal McKusick and Walt Levinsky on alto sax and clarinet, Al Klink on tenor sax and trumpeters Donald Byrd and Joe Wilder. Guitarists Kenny Burrell and Mundell Lowe are on board as well.

Timmens was also a composer, with his most famous song being the standard Aren't You Glad You're You, and served as musical director for New York's Radio City Music Hall. His recorded output under his own name appears to consist of Gilbert and Sullivan Revisited and a followup for Warner Bros., Showboat Revisited, also released in '59.

Below is a link to a sample track from Gilbert and Sullivan Revisited.

We Sail the Ocean Blue

Amazingly Gilbert and Sullivan Revisited is available as a download from most of the major sources. However, it's another release from Hallmark, which often uses vinyl as its source. Listen before buying.

Used copies of the LP turn up frequently on the auction sites, with quality and prices varying widely.

In 1957, Jim Timmens provided the arrangements for an album by actress Tina Louise, It's Time for Tina. Heard on this selection from YouTube are Tyree Glenn on trombone, Coleman Hawkins tenor sax and Hilton Jefferson alto sax, with the orchestra led by pianist Buddy Weed.