John Too Cool McCool - 50 Years of Gold

I've had a track from this independently released album by John Too Cool McCool on my hard drive for a dozen years and just recently resurrected it. I've no idea where I got this pretty slick version of Mason Williams' hit Classical Gas as I don't own the CD and can't find anywhere that offers it as a download.

What can I tell you about the artist? Not much. He's from Mississippi, doesn't have a website but does have a Myspace page that hasn't been updated in years, literally. Much like the majority of that site, unfortunately.

McCool appears to favour electric blues judging by the sound samples at Myspace, unlike the earlier (2000?) pop-rock-R&B covers on 50 Years of Gold. In any case I like what he does with Classical Gas and you can get it below.

Classical Gas

I can find no indication whether McCool is active as a working musician, although he does have a YouTube playlist of  some of his music, including a crackerjack version of Ghost Riders in the Sky, which you can view below. It would be a shame if he weren't still playing live and recording. Let me know if you can shed any light on the matter.

Art Blakey, Dr. John & David (Fathead) Newman - Bluesiana Triangle

The primarily New Age label Windham Hill brought together Dr. John, David (Fathead) Newman and Art Blakey in 1990 for a blues-based session that was dubbed Bluesiana Triangle. Bluesiana II appeared the following year (Blakey died before that session took place) and that was the extent of the collaboration.

On the debut disc, there's plenty of Dr. John's boogie-woogie piano and raspy vocals, some soulful sax and flute from Newman and the whole thing being driven by Blakey's drums. The opening track is a fine instrumental jam on Newman's Heads Up. Get it below. The MP3 is from a cassette version of the album.

Heads Up

Neither Bluesiana CD remains in print, although used copies are plentiful (and reasonably priced) in the Amazon Marketplace. The albums aren't available as legal downloads.

Via YouTube, here's another sampling of Bluesiana Triangle.

Lou Donaldson - Light Foot

If you want a copy of this 1958 Lou Donaldson album on CD be prepared to fork out upwards of $40 for the Japanese import -- and that's for a used copy! Vinyl prices are into the stratosphere and Light Foot doesn't appear to be available as an album download (at least in North America), although all of the tracks are included in the CD box set and download compilation The Complete Blue Note Lou Donaldson Sessions 1957-60.

Light Foot was the followup to Blues Walk, considered by many to be his best album. For more on Blues Walk read this previous post.

With Light Foot the blues elements that surfaced on Blues Walk became more pronounced. Most of the tempos seemed slowed down and the solos more mellow. Take for instance the track Day Dreams, which you can access below.

Somehow Blue Note squeezed all five minutes of the album track on the "B" side of a DJ single (Hog Maw was on the "A" side) and it's from the 45 that the MP3 is taken.

Day Dreams

From YouTube here's another track from Light Foot. It was most likely sourced from a CD, judging by the excellent sound quality.

The Viscounts - Harlem Nocturne: Lost Instrumentals, Vol. 1

The Viscounts, an instrumental group formed in New Jersey in 1958, hit the charts twice with their version of  Earl Hagen's bluesy Harlem Nocturne.

The Viscounts, fronted by saxophonist Harry Haller, first recorded the tune for Madison in 1959.

The single rose to No. 52 on the Billboard pop chart and was followed by an album.

In 1965 both the single and album recorded for Madison were reissued on the Amy label.

This time the Viscounts' recording of Harlem Nocturne went to No. 39 on the Billboard chart. The reissued album had a slightly different track listing than the Madison release.

Most of the Viscounts early recordings, including all the tracks on both versions of the album, were collected on a 1998 CD release, Harlem Nocturne: Lost Instrumentals, Vol. 1. It's pictured at the top of this post

One of the tracks on the vinyl LP (both versions) was Viscount Rock. The link below will get you the MP3 of that tune.

Viscount Rock

The Vulture CD has long been out of print, although there are a few copies for sale on eBay for about $17. That's about the cheapest you'll find it. A word of warning: The sound quality is far from pristine and the packaging is slipshod, so it's possible this is a bootleg.

With the exception of Harlem Nocturne, none of the Viscounts' recordings appear to be available as legal downloads.

From YouTube, here's the Viscounts' big hit.

Franz Loffler - Gitarre in Gold 2

I'm afraid I can't tell you much about Franz Loffler, except that he's German and a guitarist. He appears to have a jazz background and his recordings, most of them for Polydor in the late 1960s and into the 70s, fall into two categories -- jazzy interpretations of the classics, like Swingin' Bach Guitar and Swinging Baroque Guitar, and easy listening, such as the second volume of Gitarre in Gold, released in 1969. (The first volume, which came out in '66, featured another German guitarist, Karlheinz Kastel).

Fans of studio players like Al Caiola and Tony Mottola will probably dig what Loffler has to offer.

Azzuro is an Italian pop song made famous in 1968 in a recording by Adriano Celentano. There were several German cover versions, including ones by Peter Rubin and Peter Alexander. Loffler included his interpretation on Gitarre in Gold 2. It's available below.

Azzuro

Both volumes of Gitarre in Gold were also released by Polydor in Canada but I'm not sure whether that happened in the U.S. It seems unlikely. These recordings have never been released on CD and aren't available as downloads.

However, there a few other Franz Loffler offerings available from iTunes and perhaps elsewhere as well.

From YouTube, here's Loffler doing the Latin standard Brazil.

Richard Davis & the Tequila Brass - Tequila a Go Go

Once the popularity of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass took off after their initial hit The Lonely Bull in 1962 the copycat groups came out of the woodwork by the dozens. From budget labels like Crown and Spin-O-Rama to mainstream imprints like World Pacific and Audio Fidelity albums by these groups flooded record store bins throughout the 60s and beyond.

Chet Baker fronted an aggregation dubbed the Mariachi Brass for World Pacific while Richard Davis and the Tequila Brass recorded for Audio Fidelity.

Davis was born in Argentina in 1934 and was a fan of classical trumpeter Rafael Mendez, so the liner notes tell us. Tequila a Go Go came out in 1966 (Billboard listed it among the new album releases in its Dec. 3 issue) and seems to have passed pretty much unnoticed at the time. This appears to the group's only North American release, although Davis had several other albums come out in his native country. Grab Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White from Tequila a Go Go via the link below.

Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White

The songs on Tequila a Go Go are included in a download compilation called Mexican Madness, which is available from several sources. This material may have been sourced from vinyl, so the usual caution applies.

Here's another tune by Richard Davis and the Tequila Brass, from YouTube.

Samuel Altonn - Guitar Boogie

What can I tell you about this album? Not much, I'm afraid, except that it's a first-rate album of rockin' guitar instrumentals. The selections range from big band standards (In the Mood) to R&B (I'm Walkin') to the U.K.'s Shadows (Shadoogie).

The album was issued in France, probably in the mid to late 1960s, under the name of Samuel Altonn and his orchestra. Whether Samuel Altonn actually exists is uncertain. There's no mention of him on the web other than this album and the LP cover shot looks suspiciously like a decapitated Chuck Berry. Still, the album was also released under another title with this cover, so maybe Altonn exists after all.

Among the songs on the album is something called Hamp's Boogie. The correct title is Hamp's Boogie Woogie, which Lionel Hampton recorded and had a hit with in 1944. Grab Samuel Altonn's version from the link below. The MP3 is from a cassette release of the album.

Hamp's Boogie

Altonn's LP hasn't been released in a digital format, but vinyl copies turn up from time to time at fairly reasonable prices on European auction sites. However, the postage to the U.S. and Canada more than doubles the price.

 From YouTube here's Lionel Hampton's recording of Hamp's Boogie Woogie.