Light mellow Verve-y instrumental orchestral stuff, featuring Don Costa's versions of contemporary pop stuff, like "Heroes & Villains", "All You Need Is Love", "Ode To Billie Jo". and "Valley of the Dolls". Not totally jazzy, but a nice package of soft groovy grooves, in a cool gatefold cover (with notes), and a great subdued easy feel throughout. LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

A pretty nice set of "mood jazz in hi fi" – featuring Don on the mellophone, trumpet, and vibes – working with a surprisingly hip group that features Bill Evans, Hal McKusick, Paul Motian, and Barry Galbraith. A number of tunes feature backings by a vocal choir of 6 voices – dreamily setting a field of sound for the main soloists to work through – creating a style that actually works better here than some of Elliott's straighter jazz sides of the time. Titles include "A Waltz", "Blue Waltz", "Poinciana", "Summer Scene", "Tired Of Me", and "A Million Dreams Ago". Quite nice, with some dark and modern edges that you wouldn't expect! (Jazz, Now Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Excellent compilation of the early solo tracks recorded by this beautiful vocalist from The Zombies. The tracks are culled from his first 3 records – One Year, Ennismore, and Journey – all of which are pretty darn tough to find on wax! If you don't know this stuff, it's some of the most godlike pop ever created in the world, and it mixes Colin's heavenly voice with swirling strings and haunting arrangements that are a perfect extension from the late Zombies material. Titles include "I Don't Believe In Miracles", "Wonderful", "Say You Don't Mind", "Misty Roses", "Though You Are Far Away", "Let Me Come Closer To You", "How Could We Dare To Be Wrong", and "Caroline Goodbye". (Rock, Now Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

With The Ladybirds. LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

Breezy bossa nova – Hollywood 60s style! The album's one of the best cut for Capitol by guitarist Laurindo Almeida – and has a sweet groovy little style that features Laurindo's lovely guitar work over some lightly dancing small combo backings that include flute, harmonica, organ, percussion, and even a bit of whistling on a few tracks! The vibe's very much in the best Verve/Impulse takes on the bossa – done with a clear California influence, which keeps things cool and breezy – and which also pushes Almeida past his sometimes-staid style on guitar. Two cuts also feature some great vocals by Irene Kral – and titles include "Twilight In Rio", "Old Guitaron", "Sarah's Samba", "Izabella", "Winter Moon", "Girl From Ipanema", and "Choro For People In Love". LP, Vinyl record album

Breezy bossa nova – Hollywood 60s style! The album's one of the best cut for Capitol by guitarist Laurindo Almeida – and has a sweet groovy little style that features Laurindo's lovely guitar work over some lightly dancing small combo backings that include flute, harmonica, organ, percussion, and even a bit of whistling on a few tracks! The vibe's very much in the best Verve/Impulse takes on the bossa – done with a clear California influence, which keeps things cool and breezy – and which also pushes Almeida past his sometimes-staid style on guitar. Two cuts also feature some great vocals by Irene Kral – and titles include "Twilight In Rio", "Old Guitaron", "Sarah's Samba", "Izabella", "Winter Moon", "Girl From Ipanema", and "Choro For People In Love". CD

Herb Alpert's definitely Going Places by the time of this set – and his trademark Tijuana Brass sound proves itself to be a great fit for just about any sort of number! The album kicks off with the wonderful "Tijuana Taxi", a sublimely jaunty tune that almost takes Herb into Bacharach territory – and which is followed up by the even-greater "Spanish Flea" – an ear-popping anthem that's one of the greatest bits of 60s instrumental pop ever recorded! And over and above those two tunes, the album's still got plenty more to offer too – a wonderful array of tracks all given the Tijuana touch, with titles that include "More & More Amor", "Mae", "Walk Don't Run", "Felicia", and "Cinco De Mayo". LP, Vinyl record album

Herb Alpert's first-ever album – a runaway hit that was the birthplace of so many groovy things – not just the start of the Tijuana Brass sound, also the birth of A&M Records! The album's the first to feature Herb's trademark take on the Mexican band style – done here with a bit more "jaunty" pop stylings than in later years, including a "rocking" electric bass that kicks along nicely at the bottom of some of the more chart-oriented tunes. The first full album on A&M – and the beginning of an empire – with titles that include "The Lonely Bull", "El Lobo", "Desafinado", "Mexico", "Never On Sunday", and "Struttin With Maria". LP, Vinyl record album

A standing room ovation in the A&M Studios – certainly the kind of reception we'd imagine Herb would get during these glory years of his career! The set's one of the most no-nonsense Tijuana Brass sessions of the 60s – a tightly crafted album that has a bit more jazz than usual sneaking in on some of the tunes, but still enough of that snapping, punchy rhythmic approach that makes Herb and the group so great! As usual, the fluidity here is the strongest point – as the A&M touch takes a sound that should be hokey, and flips it into something really really groovy through warm use of compression in the studio. Titles include "Blue Sunday", "Bean Bag", "Work Song", "Our Day Will Come", "Mexican Road Race", and "Freight Train Joe". LP, Vinyl record album

Trumpety magic from Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass – a record that's known not only for its classic cover of a model dipped in whipped cream, but also for it's tremendously groovy groove! The Tijuana sound is very firmly in place by the time of this set – Mexican-inspired, but compressed down into a sweet little LA groove in that magical A&M way – never too over the top, done in a way that takes a previously-hokey brassy sound, and smoothes it out for the Now Sound generation! Titles include the hit single "Whipped Cream", plus "Taste Of Honey", "Green Peppers", "Bittersweet Samba", "Lemon Tree", "Ladyfingers", and "Butterball". LP, Vinyl record album

It's great to see that David Axelrod's finally getting his due – and this reissue of material from Fantasy is one of the first reissues of his work in the US! Most cuts here are much more jazz-based than Axelrod's higher-concept material under his own name for Capitol in the late 60s – and the music represents Axe's key move to Fantasy after bigger label fame – a move that he made with Cannonball Adderley, who also figures in on some of these tracks. The CD features 8 tracks from Axelrod's Full Axe album – a tasty bit of funky fusion that's one of his best jazz-oriented releases – plus a sampling of tracks from other albums he produced and/or arranged for Fantasy. Titles from Full Axe include "My Family", "Mucho Chupar", "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing", and "Everything Counts" – and other tracks include "Cantaro" and "Solitario" by Gene Ammons, "Bach" and "Sierra Morena" by Hampton Hawes, "Quit It" by Nat Adderley, "Goodbye So Long" by Funk Inc, and "Stayin Place" from the Big Man 2LP set. (Jazz, Now Sound) CD

Genius work from Les Baxter – two of his best albums for Capitol, back to back on one CD! Ritual Of The Savage is one of those must-have albums from the 50s – a super-huge record upon its initial release, and an album that pushed the genre of exotica far further than most others at the time! Before this record, most attempts at exotica were simple instrumental pop, colored with slight worldly instrumentation – or too-dreamy recordings, putting over a sleepy version of life on the islands. Enter Les Baxter, who had an amazing ear for sounds, rhythms, and arrangements – one that was the first to record this sort of music in a way that was sonically evocative, and could stand on its own without other referents. Instrumentation is often conventional, but used oddly here – and Baxter's original compositions are all pretty darn great – playful without being goofy, and nicely mixing Latin and Pacific rhythms at the bottom. Titles include "Busy Port", "The Ritual", "Coronation", "Jungle Jalopy", and Les' original version of "Quiet Village". Heck, even the cover is gorgeous – with a brilliant blue illustration of some guy putting the moves on a woman amidst spooky tribal relics! The Passions is a really obscure box set recording – done as Les Baxter's classic exploitation of "a woman's passions", using vocalist Bas Sheva in the role of the tormented female! Shiva's got a bold, evocative style that's not unlike Yma Sumac – and she sings here wordlessly, as an added instrument on top of Baxter's orchestrations – playing the role of the inner psyche of woman, on titles that include "Lust", "Terror", "Joy", "Hate", "Ecstasy", and "Despair"! The whole thing's a mini docu-drama in sound – beautifully recorded in a flurry of red, blue, and other chromatic hues – not as exotic as Baxter's other work from the 50s, but equally great as a modern sonic psychoanalytic text! CD

Amazing work from Stanley Black – honest! The album's far funkier and far more dynamic than most of Stanley's other albums in the past – and is a sweet electric 70s session with plenty of elements you'd expect to find in some of the Brit Easy or sound library albums of the time! The arrangements are full, with a fair bit of electricity – but also some heavy percussion on the bottom on some funkier tracks too. Titles include versions of "Love In The Rain", "All It Takes Is Two", "Berimbau", "Wave", "Shaft", "The Hustle", and "Volare". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album