A great album by Denny, with a nice approach that has sort of a drifting South Seas feel! The record is one of his last good ones for Liberty, and has lots of nice tracks like "My Isle Of Golden Dreams", "Beyond The Reef", "Flotsam & Jetsam", and "Cross Current". LP, Vinyl record album

An amazing little set that's as compelling as the title and cover might imply – and easily one of our favorite Martin Denny albums ever! There's a sound here that is, actually, quite "hypnotique" – as Denny's core combo is expanded by some larger arrangements, Japanese instrumentation, and even some cool vocals by the Jack Halloran singers – all of which serve to create these pulsating musical lines that shift and sway with an extremely dreamy quality, one that can easily hypnotize us with its musical magic! The added sound really adds a lot to Denny's core group – and the record has some great tracks like "Jungle Madness", "American In Bali", "Chinese Lullaby", "Hypnotique", "Scimitar", and "Voodoo Dreams". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most memorable Esquivel albums, and perhaps the first record that really let him hit his fantastic mix of off-beat orchestrations and spacey electronicized production! The arrangements are splendid, with echoey piano lines in the front that seem to trail off into the stratosphere. Behind them, the orchestra swings in a tight rocket-fueled way, soaring and dipping to match the oddly arranged piano lines. Titles include "Playfully", "That Old Black Magic", "Speak Low", "It Had To Be You", and "Night & Day". Plus, the cover's got a groovily attired model, hanging out in a very green lunar scene! LP, Vinyl record album

One of the best non-Winchester albums from the team of Ferrante & Teicher – not as crazy as some of their work, but still with some good elements of the piano trickery that made them famous. Titles include "Out Of This World", "East Of The Sun", "Over The Rainbow", "Stars In My Eyes", and "Stella By Starlight". Also features the original tracks "Serenade To A Star" and "Beyond The Moon". LP, Vinyl record album

Henri Rene and his orchestra accompany Eartha on this record named after her 1956 autobiography. There is an tiny excerpt from her book on the back cover but the songs don't seem to necessarily reflect her life story. It's a nice collection of some relatively tame tunes in that throaty Earth Kitt style. Titles include "Oggere," "Jonny," "Lazy Afternoon," "Lisbon Antigua," "Mademoiselle Kitt" and "Just An Old Fashioned Girl." (Vocalists, Now Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Very groovy stuff! Although the bulk of the material on this album is "pops meet jazz", in the hands of Oliver Nelson, it's transformed into something wonderful – with just the right blend of jazz to keep things lively. The arrangements have a nice off-kilter sound that works well with Nelson's strong reed performances – and tunes include "Jazz Bug", "Yesterday", "Flowers On The Wall", "Boots Are Made For Walkin", and "Beautiful Music". (Jazz, Now Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Easily the best album we've heard from Homer Dennison and his Night Strings – a slinky, sexy set of grooves that has some of the best touches of the European soundtrack scene of the time! As you'd guess from the name of the group, the strings are in the lead – but there's lots of nice electric bass grooving at the bottom, and some heavier piano over the top – creating the kind of soulful juxtaposition that we love in the best MPS easy/Snowflakes mode! The album sports a few original tunes that are worth the price of the album alone – and titles include "Black Sand & White Stars", "Blue Stoned Eyes", "Sagittarius", "On The Road To The Blues", and "On Days Like These". LP, Vinyl record album

Jazzy mambos from the king – and easily the most successful of Perez Prado's albums for RCA in the 50s! The album showcases the Latin mode that Prado crossed over big with on his hit "Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White" – a tune that almost single-handedly grabbed the energy and audiences of the late swing years, and grafted them onto the growing New York Latin scene of the time! Prado's got that great growl in his chants, as usual – pushing the band to even more rhythmic heights and brassy horn flourishes with his trademark calls – and titles include the classic "Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White", as well as tracks like "Tomcat Mambo", "Mambo Ala Kenton", "The High & The Mighty", "Marilyn Monroe Mambo", and "Skokiaan". (Latin, Now Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

A great collaboration between Perez Prado and trumpeter Shorty Rogers – one in which Rogers' solos sparkle brilliantly over the top of Perez's tight Latin rhythms – all in a style that's as moody as it is evocative and rhythmic! Side one features the extended "Voodoo Suite" – a side-long track that builds nicely on rootsy Latin rhythms that are much freer than Prado's pop work of the 50s – and which features a growing jazz horizon at the edges, filled with players who include Bud Shank on alto and flute, Bob Cooper on tenor, Shelly Manne on drums, and Pete Candoli on trumpet – in a larger section underneath Shorty Rogers' solos. Side two features shorter tracks recorded a year later – a bit more in the standard Prado mode, but still with a really dynamic feel, and contributions from jazz players like Candoli and Rolf Erikson on trumpets, Willie Maiden on tenor, and Jay Hill on trombone. Titles include "Music Makers", "In The Mood", "St. James Infirmary", and "Jumpin At The Woodside". (Latin, Now Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

A short detour in the 60s career of Chet Baker – one that we sure like a heck of a lot! This side is one of a couple that were recorded as an answer to the big success of Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass – with Chet's trumpet was backed by jaunty, brassy arrangements penned by Jack Nitzsche, and George Tipton. And while it might be easy to dismiss the tunes as copycat sound-a-likes, they're really not – as Nitszche brings in a much fuller groove to most of the numbers than Herb Alpert ever did – more of a sunny LA pop feel that has the whole group really gliding along on bold waves of sound all topped off by Baker's horn – sounding stronger and more confident here than on many of his other recordings of the 60s! Some numbers have a Latin undercurrent while others lean towards mainstream pop – a style that's bolder than A&M's approach to Tijuana – and one that explodes with some youthful LA energies! 12 tracks in all, including "Happiness Is", "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", "The Phoenix Love Theme (Senza Fine)", "On The Street Where You Live", 'Armen's Theme", "You Baby" and "It's Too Late". LP, Vinyl record album

A legendary sound library set from the 70s Italian scene – exactly the kind of record that got so many folks digging for sound library funk so many years ago! The record's a masterpiece of funky rhythms, jazzy instrumentation, and warmer touches – served up with plenty of Fender Rhodes in the mix, plus sweet flute lines, wah wah guitar, and just the right use of strings to give the whole thing almost a blacksploitation vibe at times! The set was billed to the team of Jay Richford and Gary Stevan – but it's actually the product of better-known sound library maestros Sandro Brugnolini and Stefano Torossi, who work here at a level that's at the top of their powers. There's almost a cop/crime vibe to the record at times – and although some instruments solo at points, the real groove lies in the tight vamping of the orchestra – which hits all the right notes to really send the whole thing soaring – often with a nice use of tone and color too! Titles include "Flying High", "Fearing Much", "Going Home", "Running Fast", "Walking In The Dark", and "Feeling Tense". (Sound Library, Now Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

A really cool shift for this very hip group – a set of sweet exotica numbers, after a previous record of blacksploitation grooves – yet one that's every bit as funky as the previous album, thanks to all the right instrumental touches! At the top, the music has lots of older exotica touches – percussion, vibes, harp, and other exotic elements – but at the bottom, there's some heavier grooves – working with the sounds on the top, all at a level that's maybe somewhere in the territory of a hip kung fu soundtrack – or as if Martin Denny were asked to score a film called Shaft In Hawaii! Titles include "Exotique", "Sun Harp", "Astra-Desia", "Enter The Palace", "Iron Tusk", "Mirage", "Secrets In The Sand", and "The Second Moon". (Deep Funk, Now Sound) CD

A really cool shift for this very hip group – a set of sweet exotica numbers, after a previous record of blacksploitation grooves – yet one that's every bit as funky as the previous album, thanks to all the right instrumental touches! At the top, the music has lots of older exotica touches – percussion, vibes, harp, and other exotic elements – but at the bottom, there's some heavier grooves – working with the sounds on the top, all at a level that's maybe somewhere in the territory of a hip kung fu soundtrack – or as if Martin Denny were asked to score a film called Shaft In Hawaii! Titles include "Exotique", "Sun Harp", "Astra-Desia", "Enter The Palace", "Iron Tusk", "Mirage", "Secrets In The Sand", and "The Second Moon". (Deep Funk, Now Sound) LP, Vinyl record album