A blueprint of how to make a tribute album if the artists are going to stick close to the originals. Everything on "Surfin' Senorita" is good to great. It's all about tasty "Whipped Cream". These underdogs collectively can play. This is a collectors album to have because it is a variety of good surf bands covering songs of Herb Albert & the Tijuana Brass. That in itself makes this worth having and raises the unique factor way, way, high. I have a feeling Herb Alpert is pleased with the results. I like this tribute. (in Amazon)
Shegundo Ramón Galarza (1924 – 2003) nasceu a 7 de Setembro de 1924, em Guipuzcoa, na região basca espanhola, mas desde os 25 anos que adoptou Portugal para viver. Shegundo Galarza foi educado por três mulheres, a mãe e duas tias, a quem dizem se ficou a dever a sua sensibilidade para a música. Fez o conservatório de Bilbau, onde estudou piano, harmonia e composição, e dizia que a agilidade que tinha se devia a andar quilómetros e ter jogado muita pelota basca. Em 1942, com apenas 18 anos e após ter ganho um prémio de piano, deixou Espanha e começou a percorrer a Europa em concertos, tendo-se, inicialmente, fixado em San Sebastian onde actuava em clubes de luxo. Estreou-se em Portugal no Natal de 1948, no Casino do Estoril, tendo começado a criar uma relação irreversível com o nosso País. Classificava o público português de «tímido e reservado» mas o facto é que foi por ele e em nome da música que não mais deixou o nosso País. Pouco depois de gravar os três primeiros discos para a editora “Melodia” ruma a África onde passa os primeiros anos da década de 50. Primeiro em Luanda, depois em Lourenço Marques, onde actua durante 6 meses no Hotel Polana. Seguem-se 2 anos em Johannesburg, na África do Sul, onde assina um contrato com a Springbok Radio e grava mais meia dúzia discos para a editora Decca. Novo regresso a LM e também ao Hotel Polana por mais um ano. Finalmente, em Maio de 1955, volta definitivamente para Lisboa, onde forma então a orquestra de Shegundo Galarza que lhe trará o reconhecimento do grande público (mais de 300 apresentações na RTP e cerca de 50 albuns gravados, em Portugal e Espanha, chegando também a trabalhar com Edmundo Ross e Xavier Cugat). Mas o bichinho de África nunca o abandonou, como o prova este album, “Saudades de Moçambique”, todo preenchido com música de Artur Fonseca. Desconhece-se a data de gravação, mas são todas canções compostas no fim dos anos 50, tendo a grande maioria sido celebrizada pela voz moçambicana de João Maria Tudella:
1. Kanimambo
2. Holiday in Lourenço Marques
3. Moçambique
4. Uma Casa Portuguesa
5. Lourenço Marques
6. Lourenço Marques Cidade Feitiço
7. Lourenço Marques Bonita
8. Canção de Angola
9. Lourenço Marques Menina
10. Uma Estrela Falou
11. O Meu Chapéu
12. Natal Negro
Diz quem sabe que em determinado período da sua carreira, «o maestro Shegundo Galarza, embora não sendo português, foi o homem que mais qualidade conferiu à música portuguesa e que mais a dignificou». As palavras pertencem ao também maestro José Atalaya, o homem que na década de 50 foi o responsável por ter levado Galarza a trabalhar para a RTP, onde formaria a sua Grande Orquestra. «Ele tinha formação clássica mas abordava qualquer tema ligeiro», explica o maestro José Atalaya, que não se esquece, no entanto, de enaltecer as qualidades humanas do maestro que, segundo refere, se pautava por «uma seriedade exemplar e por um trato extraordinário. Isto para além de ser um modelo como pai e como chefe de família». Por seu turno o pianista de jazz Bernardo Sassetti (falecido em 2012) referiu que Galarza trouxe para Portugal «um conhecimento em termos pianísticos que não existiam no nosso País. Ele deixou uma marca muito grande na nossa música porque trouxe elementos novos que ajudaram aqueles com quem trabalhou a criarem uma música muito mais interessante». Shegundo Galarza viria a falecer em Lisboa, a 4 de Janeiro de 2003. Tinha 78 anos.
After the multi-million selling "A Whiter Shade of Pale," Procol Harum coalesced around a new line-up and cut a debut album in two days, the sales of which were only fair (because the hit song wasn't on it originally). Then they did "Shine on Brightly", which initially drew on recordings going back to late 1967 - in the course of preparing their first proper LP, the band junked an entire side of blues-based numbers in favor of the 18-minute suite "In Held 'Twas I," which rivaled anything yet heard from such established progressive rock outfits as the Nice or the Moody Blues in length and surpassed them in audacity, with an extensive spoken part surrounded by virtuoso classical and psychedelic passages (and even a featured spot for Dave Knights' bass). It all proved that they were more than a one-hit wonder and, released in late 1968, the album extended the definition of progressive rock, even as it kept much of the music rooted in established rock genres. "Skip Softly," for all of its grand piano pyrotechnics, was also a showcase for Robin Trower's bluesy, high-energy guitar attack, and "Wish Me Well" was an even better vehicle for his instrument, while "Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)" was an interesting exercise in nostalgia highlighted by Matthew Fisher's organ. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)
"Lola" gave the Kinks an unexpected hit and its crisp, muscular sound, pitched halfway between acoustic folk and hard rock, provided a new style for the band. However, the song only hinted at what its accompanying album "Lola Versus the Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One" was all about. It didn't matter that Ray Davies just had his first hit in years - he had suffered greatly at the hands of the music industry and he wanted to tell the story in song. Hence, "Lola" - a loose concept album about Ray Davies' own psychosis and bitter feelings toward the music industry. Davies never really delivers a cohesive story, but the record holds together because it's one of his strongest set of songs. Dave Davies contributes the lovely "Strangers" and the appropriately paranoid "Rats," but this is truly Ray' show, as he lashes out at ex-managers (the boisterous vaudevillian "The Moneygoround"), publishers ("Denmark Street"), TV and music journalists (the hard-hitting "Top of the Pops"), label executives ("Powerman"), and, hell, just society in general ("Apeman," "Got to Be Free"). If his wit wasn't sharp, the entire project would be insufferable, but the album is as funny as it is angry. Furthermore, he balances his bile with three of his best melancholy ballads: "This Time Tomorrow," "A Long Way From Home," and the anti-welfare and union "Get Back in Line," which captures working-class angst better than any other rock song. These songs provide the spine for a wildly unfocused but nonetheless dazzling tour de force that reveals Ray's artistic strengths and endearing character flaws in equal measure. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)
Original released on LP PYE NSPL 18365
(UK 1971, March 26)
Ray Davies and company had already participated in one failed television musical when the movie "Percy" came along - it wasn't as original as "Arthur", nor did Davies have nearly as much to do with its creation, but he still outdid himself given the material at hand. Directed and co-produced by Ralph Thomas, who had been responsible for some brilliant thrillers ("The Clouded Yellow", "Above Us the Waves") and very popular comedies ("Doctor in the House") in past decades, "Percy" was the story of the world's first penis transplant (it was probably inspired, or at least justified, by big-budget efforts of the period like Myra Breckinridge). Although virtually unseen in the United States, it was still popular enough to yield a sequel ("Percy's Progress"), but its real impact came from its soundtrack. Davies wrote some hauntingly beautiful ballads and some solid blues and country as well - "God's Children" and "Animals in the Zoo" have turned up on some career anthologies, but there's a lot more to "Percy" than those two tracks. "Completely" is as fine a slow blues as the band ever recorded, with a sizzling performance by Dave Davies, and "Dreams" is a pretty solid rocker, even up alongside "Animals in the Zoo." To this day the album has never appeared in the U.S. catalog - recorded at the tail end of their contract with Pye Records in England and Warner/Reprise in America, and connected with a movie that was never going to see much exposure in the U.S.A., Reprise passed on it at the time. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)
Today's movie is a Sergio Leone's masterpiece from 1968 (it was first released in Italy in December 21). And this is the great Ennio Morricone at his very best! The soundtrack presented here is the ultimate version with 27 tracks (the original album was first edited in Italy - RCA OLS3 - with only 13 tracks). Excellent soundtrack (it deserves to be in the Top 5 original soundtracks of all time) giving you the complete score as it was intended - finally it looks to be the definitive version. Don't waste your time searching. This is the best you can get. Enjoy!
"The Poet of the Piano," Carmen Cavallaro was born May 6, 1913 in New York City; though a classically-trained performer, in time he expanded into pop arrangements in the mode of his chief inspiration, Eddy Duchin. After a four-year stint as the featured soloist with bandleader Al Kavelin, in 1937 Cavallaro moved on to a series of other society big bands, including those helmed by Abe Lyman, Enric Madriguera, and Meyer Davis; in the early 1940s, he began leading his own groups, making his name on the hotel circuit and on radio. Settling in Hollywood in 1944, he appeared in films including "Hollywood Canteen", "Out of This World" and "The Time, the Place and the Girl", and in 1945 also scored a hit with "Chopin's Polonaise"; after the war, he additionally hosted a radio program for NBC, The Sheaffer Parade. Signing to Decca, Cavallaro recorded a series of best-selling 78s including "Cavallaro Plays Ellington", "Music at Midnight" and "For Latin Lovers", and in 1956 he ghosted Tyrone Power's piano playing in the big-screen biopic The Eddy Duchin Story. He died in 1989. (Jason Ankeny in AllMusic)
A blueprint of how to make a tribute album if the artists are going to stick close to the originals. Everything on "Surfin' Senorita" is good to great. It's all about tasty "Whipped Cream". These underdogs collectively can play. This is a collectors album to have because it is a variety of good surf bands covering songs of Herb Albert & the Tijuana Brass. That in itself makes this worth having and raises the unique factor way, way, high. I have a feeling Herb Alpert is pleased with the results. I like this tribute. (in Amazon)
