Django Reinhardt - Brazil (1947 version)

An encyclopedia of biographical and discographical information on Belgian-born French guitarist Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) is available in print and online, so I'm not going to repeat much of it here. Suffice it to say that Reinhardt is generally regarded as one of the greatest guitarists in jazz history and was among the first European jazz artists to have a major influence on the genre.

Reinhardt waxed the Latin standard Brazil three times between 1947 and 1953. The first version was among eight titles recorded on July 18, 1947, in Paris. The session featured Hubert Rostaing, clarinet; Emmanuel Soudieux, double bass; Andre Jourdan, drums; and Eugene Vees, rhythm guitar. Brazil was issued on a 78 rpm disc on the Blue Star label.

Although Joseph Reinhardt is listed on the label as the rhythm guitarist on Brazil most discographies and reissue CDs credit Eugene Vees.

Brazil



Like most of Django Reinhardt's recordings the 1947 session that generated Brazil has been repackaged numerous times on CD and via downloads. The easiest, and cheapest, to find is the album Django's Blues (Gitanas Jazz Productions, France, 2001), which also contains tracks from a second 1947 session on Oct. 4.

This is available via CD or download from all the major sources. I'd opt for the CD as it's really cheap.

For comparison here's the recording of Brazil made by Reinhardt on March, 10, 1953, with pianist Maurice Vander, bassist Pierre Michelot and drummer Jean-Louis Viale.

Footnote: The original title of Brazil, written in 1939 by Ary Barroso, was Aquarela do Brasil (Watercolor of Brazil). But it's commonly referred to in the English-speaking world as Brazil because of the numerous popular recordings (Xavier Cugat, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Dorsey, etc.) that used the shortened title.

Various Artists - Steel Guitar Hall of Fame

The Steel Guitar Hall of Fame, a collection of instrumentals by some of the top country and western steel players, has a long history, beginning with the Starday label release from 1963 pictured above. It had 14 tracks.

The album surfaced again on a Starday subsidiary, Nashville, in 1968, but with the number of tracks cut to 10.

And finally the 10-track version was issued on CD and as a download in 2013, with different cover art.

One selection that appears on both versions of The Steel Guitar Hall of Fame is Tennessee Plowboy by Little Roy Wiggins (1926-1999), who played with Eddy Arnold in the late 1940s and early '50s. "Tennessee Plowboy" was a moniker bestowed on Arnold early in his career and this is Wiggins's tribute to him. The MP3 is taken from a cassette copy of the 1968 release.

Tennessee Plowboy



Little Roy Wiggins recorded instrumentals for Starday, Dot and several smaller labels and later worked with such Grand Ole Opry acts as George Morgan, the Willis Brothers and Ernie Ashworth. In later years he operated a theater and music store in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

Here's a song from Twin Steel Guitars, an album Wiggins recorded in 1970 with Kayton Roberts, who was the steel player for Hank Snow's Rainbow Ranch Boys.

Paul Humphrey - Humphrey's Overture (single)

It's not surprising that this single from Detroit drummer Paul Humphrey has one foot in the disco camp, since it's from the soundtrack of a 1974 blaxploitation flick, Black Fist, in which star Richard Lawson plays a streetfighter who goes to work for a gangster.

Philip Michael Thomas (Miami Vice) and Dabney Coleman are the most recognizable names in the cast, which also includes Edward James Olmos making his screen debut.

Although the film came out in '74 the soundtrack album, featuring disco and funk tracks from various artists, wasn't released until 1977.

Paul Humphrey's contribution was also released as a single (b/w Bionic Salsa).

Humphrey's Overture



Neither the Black Fist soundtrack nor any of Paul Humphrey's recordings, including his 1971 hit Cool Aid (credited to Paul Humphrey and the Cool Aid Chemists), are available as downloads, despite what iTunes may think. That site has managed to confuse the drummer with a Toronto-based singer of the same name. The Paul Humphrey and Cool Aid Chemists album (1971) is available on a Japanese CD, but prices start at about $30.

So, in the meantime here's Cool Aid.

The Original Surfaris - Wheels-Shorts-Hot Rods

The Surfaris who are credited on this budget release (Diplomat, 1965) are not the ones who recorded the big hit Wipe Out in 1963. There were two groups called the Surfaris in southern California at the time and there was a lawsuit over the name. The group with the hit won, but the other group was allowed to call itself the Original Surfaris, apparently because it was formed first.

Wheels-Shorts-Hot Rods was put together to cash in on the short-lived fad for hot rod music, an offshoot of the surf sound that had emerged on the U.S. West Coast. The tracks on this LP for the most part bear little relation to surf or hot rod music and were likely recorded several years earlier -- and only the opening tune, Delano Soul Beat, is actually by the Original Surfaris. For example, Gear Down Boogie is a sax-driven stomper that sounds like it could have been made in the 1950s. All the tracks were apparently recorded by producer Tony Hilder at his small California studio but the groups were not credited, nor were they paid according to various sources.

Gear Down Boogie



By the time Wheels-Shorts-Hot Rods was released the Original Surfaris had disbanded. The group had been planning a true surf music LP for 1963 but the project was shelved in the wake of the legal action involving the other Surfaris. The album finally surfaced on LP and CD in 1995 thanks to Sundazed Records.

This album has been out of print for a number of years. There are a few copies floating around on the web, but they're kind of pricey. Luckily the album's 12 tracks are available for download at a reasonable price. Here's a sample from YouTube.

Various Artists - Stardust Memories

The subtitle of this vinyl box set says it all -- "Music for Listening and Relaxation." Stardust Memories, issued as a set of eight LPs by Reader's Digest in 1973, was culled from the vaults of RCA Victor. The easy listening set had actually begun life as a single LP the previous year.

Whether this single album was designed as a teaser for the box set or whether sales justified an expanded edition is unclear.

Like many Reader's Digest boxes the majority of selections on Stardust Memories had been recorded in the U.K., with some contributions from U.S. artists like Henry Mancini and Chet Atkins. There were even a few tracks that were likely recorded for RCA in Mexico. Among them was Time Was by Diego Lopez-Diaz & His Orchestra.

I can find no reference to Lopez-Diaz other than his recordings included on several Reader's Digest sets. This track sounds only vaguely Latin, but is a very pleasant listen nonetheless. Time Was is of Latin origin (Spanish title: Duerme), however, written by Miguel Prado and Gabriel Luna. Xavier Cugat and Helen O'Connell with Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra had hits with it in the 1940s.

Time Was



The Stardust Memories box set was also issued in the U.K., but with a different cover.

The set has not been issued as such in a digital format, but some of the tracks from it are included in various Reader's Digest compilation CDs and downloads.

To close, another sampling of Diego Lopez-Diaz and His Orchestra. This track is taken from the box set South of the Border (Reader's Digest, 1968).

Various Artists - Tijuana: Fun with the Mexican Brass

This 1971 box set from Reader's Digest has nothing to do with Mexico and everything to do with the popularity of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

Like many of the Reader's Digest LP box sets of the 1960s and '70s, most of the selections on Tijuana: Fun with the Mexican Brass were recorded in England featuring some of the U.K.'s top arrangers, conductors and musicians.

Among the artists featured on this set is arranger and conductor Arthur Greenslade (1923-2003), a frequent contributor to Reader's Digest compilations. He often worked in films and television and served as musical director for Engelbert Humperdinck and Shirley Bassey.

Greenslade's tracks on Tijuana: Fun with the Mexican Brass included Brasilia, composed by Julius Wechter of the Baja Marimba Band and included on the group's LP Baja Marimba Band Rides Again (A&M, 1965). It was also later recorded and turned into a hit by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

Brasilia - Arthur Greenslade & His Orchestra



From YouTube here's the original recording of Brasilia by the Baja Marimba Band.

Strangely Tijuana: Fun With the Mexican Brass was also issued in 1971 under the title Mexican Brass: Happy Hits with a Happy Beat with the same cover painting.

And the set came out again in 1974 as Tijuana: A Touch of Magic, with different cover art.

The Reader's Digest box set hasn't turned up in a digital format, although selections from it may well be included in other Reader's Digest albums on CD or via download.

Here's another selection by Arthur Greenslade from the Tijuana box set.

Dorsey Dodd - 20 Golden Hammond Hits

While some copies of this European album (Point Productions, 1991) credit Dorsey Dodd, others, like my cassette copy, contain no credits of any kind other than the record label.

Many of the tracks on 20 Golden Hammond Hits were originally released on the Vedette label in Italy in the late 1960s and early '70s under Dodd's name, one of the half dozen or so pseudonyms used by keyboardist Francesco Anselmo.

There is certainly a wide spectrum of styles on this release, ranging from pseudo R&B to space age pop tracks that sometimes veer dangerously close to Ken Griffin/skating rink sounds, like this version of Tea for Two.

Tea for Two




Although 20 Golden Hammond Hits isn't available per se as a download there are a number of Dorsey Dodd albums, including many of the tracks from Golden Hammond Hits, listed on iTunes and elsewhere. These are being marketed by the original Vedette label so the quality should be reasonably good. The best source for Hammond Hits on CD is probably thrift stores as the album was sold in Wal-Mart and similar outlets.

Here's Francesco Anselmo, this time using the name Cesco Anselmo, with Chocolate Beat, taken from a 1969 Italian LP of library music.