OLÉ, JAMES! OLÉ!

Original Released on 2-LP Polydor 2371596/7

(PORTUGAL, 1968)

It begins softly with just some chords of an acoustic guitar. Then… the music explodes, blowing up your ears and your senses. And for about 67 minutes you’ll be surrounded by 23 classic spanish songs with fabulous orchestrations. This is a very rare set, ‘cause it includes both volumes one (tracks 1 to 12) and two (tracks 13 to 23) of “… Y Olé”, a double album released 1968 in Portugal. I was lucky enough to have found my copy in an antiques shop of Lisbon for just a couple of euros. And my expectations were far exceeded when I’ve listen to its exciting sound. So, here you have the chance to collect this instrumental gem from mr. James Last: don’t waste your time, get it while you can.

(James Last in 2006)

James Last (born Hans Last on April 17, 1929 in Bremen) is a German composer and big-band leader. Last learned to play the piano as a child, then switching to bass guitar as a teenager. At 14 he became entered the Bückeburg Military Music School of the German Wehrmacht. After the fall of the Nazis, he joined Hans-Gunther Österreich's Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra in 1946. In 1948, he became the leader of the Last-Becker Ensemble, which performed for seven years. During that time, he was voted as the best bassist in the country by a German jazz poll for three consecutive years, from 1950-1952. After the Last-Becker Ensemble disbanded, he became the in-house arranger for Polydor Records, as well as for a number of European radio stations. For the next decade, he helped arrange hits for artists like Helmut Zacharias, Freddy Quinn, Lolita, Alfred Hause and Caterina Valente.

James Last released his first album, "Non-Stop Dancing", in 1965, a recording of brief renditions of popular songs, all tied together by an insistent dance beat and joyous crowd noises. It was a hit and helped make him a major European star. Over the next four decades, Last released over 190 records, including several more volumes of "Non-Stop Dancing". On these records, he varies his formula by adding different songs from different countries and genres, as well as guest performers like Richard Clayderman and Astrud Gilberto. He also had his own successful television series in the 1970s with guests ABBA and Lynsey de Paul. Though his concerts and albums are consistently successful - especially in England, where he had 52 hit albums between 1967 and 1986, which made him second only to Elvis Presley in charting records - he has only had two hit singles with “The Seduction,” the theme from "American Gigolo" (1980), and “Biscaya” from the album "Biscaya". The song "The Lonely Shepherd", written by Last and performed by Zamfir and the James Last Orchestra, was featured in the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino's film "Kill Bill Vol. 1" (2003). He has won numerous popular and professional awards, including Billboard magazine's “Star of the Year” trophy in 1976, and has been honored for lifetime achievement with the German ECHO prize in 1994. Last had a large fan base in Europe and elsewhere. His trademark is big-band arrangements of pop music hits; his series of “party albums” is equally well known. Over the course of his career, he has sold well over 100 million albums. He lived in Palm Beach, Florida, when he passed away on 9 June 2015, aged 86 years.

KOSTELANETZ's "I'll Never Fall In Love Again"

Original released on LP Columbia CS 9998

(US, 1970)

ANDRE KOSTELANETZ: "Scarborough Fair"

Original Released on LP Columbia CS 9623 

(US, 1968)

THE VENTURES ~ KNOCK ME OUT!

Original released on LP Dolton BLP 2033 (US, February 1965)

TIJUANA'S 6TH ALBUM

Original Released on LP A&M 114/SP 4114 
(US, May 1966)

Produced by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss
Arranged by Herb Alpert
Engineered by Larry Levine
Recorded at Gold Star Recording Studios
Album designed by Peter Whorf Graphics
Billboard peak album chart position: 1, 9 weeks (debuted 5/21/66)
Weeks in Top 40 album chart: 141

...«On a personal note, my father's favorite Tijuana Brass song was If I Were A Rich Man from Fiddler On The Roof. My father left Russia alone at the age of 16. His dream was to make enough money so that he could bring his entire family to the United States. He didn't speak english when the ship docked at Ellis Island in 1916, but he found a way to survive and worked hard to finally realize his dream of helping bring his entire family to America. I will always remember him as a gentle, generous and loving man.» - Herb Alpert

With this album, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass settle into their hitmaking groove, the once strikingly eclectic elements of Dixieland, pop, rock, and mariachi becoming more smoothly integrated within Alpert's infectious "Ameriachi" blend. They sound more like a band now; along with Alpert's now-indelibly stamped trumpet sound, we can recognize jazzman John Pisano's distinctive rhythm guitar, Lou Pagani's piano, the droll Bob Edmondson's dulcet trombone, etc. Pisano, who debuted as a composer on Going Places, comes up with a memorably whistleable song "So What's New," and the rest of Alpert's songwriting brigade (Ervan Coleman, Julius Wechter and Sol Lake) chime in with some lively, catchy tunes. There is also an assortment of pop, film, and Broadway standards of the day, all impeccably arranged by Alpert, whose production instincts grew sharper and surer with every release. Result: another hugely entertaining hit LP, one that stayed at number one longer than any other TJB album (nine weeks).

IT'S HIP! IT'S ZACHARIAS!

Original released on LP Columbia (EMI) / TWO 265

(UK, 1969)

Hip (hip), n. 1. the part of the human body surrounding and including the joint formed by each thigh bone and the pelvis; especially, the fleshy part of the upper thigh; haunch.

Depending on your outlook, you either have hips (in the conventional anatomic sense) or you are hip (in the present-day verb sense) or you’re flexible and lucky enough to have what amounts to hip hips, ie. the best of both worlds. If at that point you’ve managed to categorize yourself and you’ve landed in the second or third pigeon hole, you are enjoying the very delightful company of Helmut Zacharias, a German virtuoso violinist-composer-arranger-conductor who most definitely has hip hips. What made Helmut hip? It began in Berlin forty-nine years ago when he was born on January 27th which is Beethoven’s birthday and a very hip beginning. Helmut grew and grew under the tutelage of his father, a symphony violinist and composer and his mother, a concert singer, until, at the age of three he could play a pretty mean violin. By the time he reached sixteen, Helmut had joined the nationally famous Berlin Chamber Orchestra. At nineteen he discovered jazz and much like today’s young pop music heads, became deeply involved with his new love, composing and arranging even in the most out-of-the-way moments. In 1950 Zacharias became famous for his technique of over-dubbing (recording, then rerecording the same piece over the original). Thus were born the »Magic Violins«, the absolute and end sound of their day. Two years later came the Zacharias hit "Lilacs in the Rain" which reached the top of almost every country’s music chart. So far, so hip.

But today Zacharias has achieved the ultimate degree of – you can guess – hipness. He has developed »Talking Violins«. And you should hear what they say! Things like "Come on Baby, light my fire" and "I can’t get no satisfaction, I can get no girly action". That’s just how hip Helmut got. He takes his fantastic musical genius and plunges it deep into the worlds of Rock, Soul and Swinging Hip. He creates dinner music for the hip-over-thirties with Bill Medley’s "Brown Eyed Woman", Otis Redding’s "Respect", The Stone’s "Satisfaction", Donovan’s "Hurdy Gurdy Man", Aretha Franklin’s "The House That Jack Built", Dionne Warwick’s "I Say A Little Prayer" and another half truckload of the most contemporary, most hip music you can hear on the radio today. Helmut’s been hip ever since he was born on Beethoven’s birthday almost fifty years ago… but it’s just now on this album that we’re finding out exactly how hip!

(original liner notes of the 1969 release)

Just Waiting For You To Join Her...

Original released on LP EMI-Columbia, TWO 375 (Stereo)

(UK, 1972)

HARRY STONEHAM'S "High Power Hammond"

Original released on LP EMI-Columbia STUDIO2STEREO TWO 326

(UK, 1970)

LES PAUL In '68

Original Released in LP London SP 44101 
(US, 1968)

This album, originally released in 1968 on London / Decca UK's Phase 4 label devoted to high quality stereo recordings for the HiFi market at the time, is a classic in that it features Les being briefly coaxed out of retirement to record this album of stereo instrumental remakes of several of his classic hits including "How High The Moon," "Lover," "Sleep," "Tennessee Waltz," etc. recorded on his then new stereo 8-track multitrack tape recorder manufactured by Ampex under his standards and still playing great at the time on his Les Paul guitars made by Gibson Guitars. He also features 3 songs on this album that were not originally recorded for Capitol by Les, "The System," "Los Angeles," and "Golden Earrings." Because he has become an icon and has been a major force in the development of high fidelity sound, Phase 4 decided that he should be the first artist being recorded for the label, and this album is the result. (in Amazon)

AL HIRT: "Latin In The Horn"

Original released on LP RCA Victor 
Dynagroove LSP-3653 (stereo)

(US, 1966)

The Swinging Guitar Of JORGEN INGMANN

 

Original released on LP Mercury MG-20200 

(US, 1956)

APACHEMANIA

“Apache”, tema composto por Jerry Lordan (30/4/1934 – 24/7/1995) e assim denominado por causa do filme norte-americano homónimo de 1954 com Burt Lancaster, sai em single (Columbia DB 4484) no Reino Unido, em Julho de 1960, interpretado por quatro jovens músicos que iriam entrar na história do Rock: Os SHADOWS.

Gravado em 17 de Junho de 1960 nos estúdio 2 de Abbey Road e tendo no lado B “Quartermaster’s Stores”, o single entra em 23 de Julho directamente para o 19º lugar do Top do New Musical Express, subindo um mês depois ao 1º lugar, onde se manterá durante 5 semanas (só em 12 de Novembro saíria das tabelas inglesas). Era a primeira vez que o recém-formado grupo inglês (até então apenas visto como os acompanhantes de Cliff Richard, que por acaso também participou na gravação de "Apache" tocando um tamborim chinês) utilizava uma câmara de eco para uma gravação, o que se impôs rapidamente como o seu som de marca. Começava assim a era do Rock Instrumental, que originou um boom na venda de guitarras eléctricas em todo o mundo.

Esta excitante coleção, editada em som de alta definição de 24 bits em 2004 pela Magic Records francesa, reúne 22 versões do celebérrimo tema. Para além dos Shadows (com a versão original e uma outra ao vivo no Olympia de Paris, 1975), uma série de países encontram-se aqui representados: França (Cousins e Guitares du Diable), Alemanha (Ricky King e Newtones), Suécia (Spacemen), Brasil (Jet Blacks e Jordans) ou EUA (Ventures e Surfaris), entre muitos outros. E no entanto estas 22 versões não passam de uma gota d’água, atendendo às centenas de versões existentes de “Apache”, que pode muito justamente ser considerado como o cássico absoluto de todos os clássicos instrumentais.

"When the Moon is in the 7th House..."

Original Released on LP Command ABC 946-S 
(US, 1969)

Programming by Walter Sear
Cover Art by Byron Goto & Henry Epstein
Photo by Roger Pola & Eric Goto

Some may find it surprising that a "Programmer" is credited on this album considering that it was released in 1969. The Moog Synthesizer was employed here along with the Maestro Rhythmaster (an early drum machine) to record tunes by The Beatles, Booker T & the MGs, James Brown, Joni Mitchell and more. As the cover photos will attest, analog synths were no walk in the park. You didn't stroll up, select "flute" from the drop down menu on the display and proceed to make with the flute music. Oh no, gentle reader. This was work for the engineers, the brain trust, the geeks. Patching the various wave shapers, oscillators and such took an inordinate amount of involvement. But I'm glad someone took it upon themselves to do it for us. The cover art has one foot in the Aquarian age and one in the space age. Very cool daddy-O. In a delightfully cheesy way, of course. (in Trafalz Archives)

Born in New York City in 1927, Dick Hyman studied at Columbia University and played with some of the greatests Jazz musicians like Teddy Wilson, Red Norvo, and Benny Goodman… In the late ‘60s he investigated the earliest periods of Jazz and Ragtime and researched and recorded the music of some of the first early Jazz figures. Hyman experimented with various keyboard instruments, including Baldwin and Lowrey organs. In the late 60’s he recorded a series of Avant-Garde albums using a Minimoog synthesizer focused in the instrument. He recorded some of the most appreciated albums from the Space Age Pop. Hyman has also worked for TV, scoring film soundtracks for Woody Allen, and as a Jazz pianist and organist. “The Age of Electronicus" was an experimental 1969 album of electronic music, one of many in the period which saw then-current popular songs set to Moog synthesizer. Two songs from The Beatles were covered, namely the album’s opening track of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" and "Blackbird", both from the so-called “White Album.” Musical styles ran the gamut from the funk of the number one R&B hit "Give It Up Or Turn It Loose" by James Brown, the Memphis soul hit instrumental "Green Onions" by Booker T. & the M.G.’s to easy listening, evidenced by covers of "Alfie" and the Joni Mitchell hit, "Both Sides Now".

BOB BAIN - "Latin Love"

Original released on LP Capitol T 1201

(US, 1960)