BANG, baa-rOOM and HARP - Dick Schory's New Percussion Ensemble

Stop coddling your Hi-Fi Set!

RCA Victor LPM - 1866, released 1958

This is one from my small but growing Exotica - Space Age - Lounge collection of LP's that I've got on the shelf. I saw this one and bought it purely for the cover and was not disappointed.

Recorded on June 2nd and 3rd, 1958, in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, BANG BaarOOM and HARP is cacophony of percussive instruments performing various tunes arranged by the likes of Skitch Henderson, Bobby Christian and Dick Schory. It sounds fantastic on the turntable, as the record bounces through tunes like "Baia", "September in the Rain" and "The Sheik of Araby" to name a few.

The extensive liner notes by Bob Bollard on the back of the cover give a detailed rundown of the recording process, and includes what he calls "an approximate instrument inventory", of which I'll name a couple here:

3 Vibraphones, 2 Xylophones, 4 Gongs, 8 Timpani, Boo Bam, Timbales, Bongo Drums, Banjo, Harp, Auto Brake Drums, 2 Slapsticks, 2 guitars, 1 Anvil, Coo-Coo Whistle, Siren Whistle, Slide Whistle, Piano, Chromatic Cowbells (take that, Blue Oyster Cult!) and 3 Snare Drums! That's not even half of the list provided.

Fans of Space Age will likely dig this platter. I don't know if it's available on CD, but I imagine with a little hunting one might snag a copy of the album somewhere.

Saturday Night Vinyl - Les Baxter Caribbean Moonlight

In this album arranger-conductor Les Baxter expresses the soft moods of the islands at night. The music suggests impressions rather than photographs. It evokes images of moonlit jungles and wave-washed beaches, of gardens sending the heady fragrance of orchids and bougainvillea into the night air.

Capital Records - 1956

Yeah, it is all that, what's said on the liner notes above, but I also see Robert Mitchum making out with Jane Greer on a moonlit beach in Mexico too. Okay, I'm a big fan of Out of the Past, so that's an easy one. Mostly, Les Baxter's Caribbean Moonlight is one of my top favorite records to put on during the early hours of a cocktail party or when I just feel like chilling alone. Arizona is a long way from any Caribbean moonlight but this record is a cool substitute. It's one of those records that glides through multiple listens without a hitch, that's the perfect backdrop for the tinkling of melting ice in a cold highball, or just cool listening to lush Exotica at its best.

I came by this album through a member of the family that was getting rid of their records. I really liked the cover and took it along with some other records that I don't play near as much as this one. It was also one of the first albums in the Exotica genre to join my mostly not so great 70s and 80s hard rock records - the ones I hide from public view. It was about time that something came along to class my collection up a bit! Since then I've gathered some nice additions, but Caribbean Moonlight still holds a top tier in my faves. Linked here is "Taboo" (Margarita Lecuona - Bob Russell) the first cut from the album.

Saturday Night Vinyl - Portrait of Leda

Leda sings blood music. D.H. Lawrence would have understood her. 

Columbia - WL 114, 1958

Well, if D.H. Lawrence would have understood Leda Annest, then he must have been some amazing kind of cat! This 1958 record Portrait of Leda by Leda Annest and Phil Moore is one of the more unusual albums I've found and taken home. I'd never heard of Leda Annest before picking this one up out of a box labelled "unclassifiable" at an old favorite record store I like to visit. I'd say it's somewhere between exotica and orchestra. The long liner notes on the back of the cover describe it best, "To listen to Leda is to hear the secret voices of the wellsprings of life come to the ear one after the other...I have seen a group of businessmen who listened to Leda together fall into consternation and embarrassment."

This must have been quite a platter to drop on that unsuspecting kitten invited up to a bachelor's apartment for a nightcap. It's got one objective in mind: Sex! Deep, dark, sloppy, wild sex! Leda's voice runs from the guttural to tortured to angelic, all in the space of three long tracks on this record. I'm betting, though, that when played for that neat little chick in 1958, there was too much going on in the dark for anyone to get up and flip the record over. The liner notes in back warn the listener that it's a record best played alone. To let Leda "find you, touch you, know you...you'll be richer for it."

Some years later, a certain phony artist who married a well known Beatle tried recording songs with a similar method. She ended up making cats in heat fighting with screeching babies sound better. Unfortunately, she's the punchline for singing in the style Leda Annest does here. And it's a safe bet that more people know this certain Beatle widow than anyone remembering Leda Annest. That's a shame, because Leda is definitely the real deal when it comes to belting out savage, seductive siren wail of the "soul-psyche-soma."

Find Portrait of Leda, and play it at your own risk. Don't say you weren't warned.

Sunday Morning Vinyl - Martin Denny - Exotic Percussion

I'm a big time sucker for vintage album cover art, and this cover is one of my favorites. The music inside is also irresistible.

Liberty Records, cover design Pete/Francis & Associates

The theme of this 1961 LP is a sort of East meets West vibe with the use of "exotic instruments" to play western melodies. The instruments in question include Burmese gongs, wood chimes, steel chimes, a three-stringed Japanese lute, a magna harp, wind chimes, a Hawaiian gourd, piccolo xylophones and bamboo percussion heads, and as always, the piano played by Martin Denny.

In addition to Martin Denny, the players are: August Colon, Julius Wechter, Harvey Ragsdale and Frank Kim.

As for the cover, I don't think this is Sandy Warner, who is on many of Denny's exotica LP's at the time. She looks a lot like her though.

This is great music to accompany that cocktail party featuring those sweet tasting drinks that sneak up on you about the third one in. Next thing you know you're the big kahuna swaying to the music and making a fool of yourself for the cute babe in the corner next to the black velvet painting. Or maybe she's got a special little dance of her own to lay on you instead...