There's a swirling image on the front cover here, and that really sums up some of the energy of the group of trumpeter Teus Nobel – players that wrap around each other beautifully, and find a way to create a cascading sense of energy that really drives the record home! Nobel's trumpet has a bold, soaring quality on most numbers – pushed forward by the piano of Alexander Van Popta, bass of Jeroen Vierdag, and drums of Tuur Moens – all players who have this strong sense of cohesion that fills the album with color and life! A few mellower cuts break the formation slightly, for a nice sense of variety – and titles include "Journey Of A Man", "Bobbypump", "The New Prehistoric Spacemonster Gamogedora", "Merino", and "Wabi Sabi". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

Heavy drums from Jimmy Takeuchi – in a groovy 60s Japanese mode, with a great mix of jazz and swinging styles! The set's got the usual instrumental covers of Anglo hits, but also features some nice Japanese material too – titles that include "Let It Be", "Bridge Over Troubled Water", "Venus", "Maltese Melody", and more. LP, Vinyl record album

John Williams come back! All is forgiven! We'll hardly complain anymore about all those overblown top-selling scores after hearing this gem from the early 70s! The record is a treasure – completely unlike any work that Williams did in later years – quite possibly because the film itself is a quirky little love story, starring James Caan and Marsha Mason in the sort of offbeat "when losers meet" sort of film that could have only been made in the early 70s. Some of the tunes on the set are nicely funky – almost in a Lalo Schifrin way – and others are mellow, but nicely moody, in a really understated scene-setting style that's great. Toots Thielemans plays some great harmonica on a few of the mellower cuts, and Paul Williams sings vocals to 3 of the tracks on the set, all contributed by him. Titles include "Wednesday Special", "New Shooter", "Boxing Montage", "The Ferry Ride", "Neptune's Bar", "Nice To Be Around", and "Maggie Shoots Pool". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

Unissued Liberty Records material from the great Eddie Cochran – with titles that include "Jam Sandwich", "Dark Lonely Street", "Am I Blue", "Guybo", "Eddie's Blues", "Little You", "Hammy Blues", and "I've Waited So Long". LP, Vinyl record album

About as classic as you can get for the great Eddie Cochran – no surprise, since the album was put together to mourn his untimely early passing, and is filled with some of the best tracks he ever cut for Liberty Records! The music here is Cochran at his prime – that post-country, pre-pop sound that has Eddie drawing on a lot of southern roots, but really giving the music a raw focus – with that sound that went onto make him a huge influence for years to come – through mod scenes, punk years, and beyond! Titles include "Lovin Time", "Drive In Show", "Teenage Heaven", "Sittin In The Balcony", "Summertime Blues", "C'Mon Everybody", "Cut Across Shorty", and "Somethin Else". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

Eddie's not singing the Frank Sinatra hit here – as the tune's instead one of his own, in a set that has a number of other originals too! LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic posthumous collection of work from this raw early rocker – with cuts that include "Nervous Breakdown", "Lonely", "Twenty Flight Rock", "Weekend", "Boll Weevil", "Love Again", "Milk Cow Blues", and "Little Angel". LP, Vinyl record album

A sweet follow up to Martin Denny's Taste Of Honey album – one that's got a great blend of piano, vibes, and percussion – all used in a way that's almost more jazz-like than some of Denny's earlier work! The formula works great to transform a host of 50s and 60s tunes – and titles include "Volare", "Cool", "Bijou", "Harlem Nocturne", "Satin Doll", "Anniversary Song", "Like Young", "Blue Carousel", and "Theme From The Manchurian Candidate". LP, Vinyl record album

Not really "the best", but a pretty nice collection of Denny's early work for Liberty – with a groovy photo on the back that shows him working with the group in action, beating on a big conga, while the rest of the band plays exotic percussion! Titles include "The Enchanted Sea", "Ruby", "Bali Hai", "China Nights", "Moonlight & Shadows", "Ebb Tide", and "Harbor Lights". LP, Vinyl record album

The birth of a sound and the birth of a legend – Martin Denny's first album in the Exotica series, and a record so great it named an entire genre! Denny certainly didn't invent the tropical style of easy listening that came to be known as "exotica" in the 50s – but with a record like this, he delivered the goods better than anyone else – by taking away all the too-sweet styles of Hawaiian music, and serving up a stripped-down, jazzy kind of sound! The album features Denny's classic original quartet – with Arthur Lyman on vibes and Augie Colon on bongos – and titles include "Stone God", "Jungle Flower", "Busy Port", "Lotus Land", and his hit recording of "Quiet Village". LP, Vinyl record album

Sublime late 50s work from Martin Denny – his third album under the Exotica banner, and almost a deeper and weirder album than the other two! The sound here is extremely haunting – even more freed from conventional melody than the rest, and very fixated on the tonal possibilities that could be produced from Denny's unique grouping of percussion, piano, bass, and vibes. There's few tricks or gimmicks on the set – just a spare and other-worldly approach to music that's totally great! Titles include "Manila", "Mama Iti E Papa E", "Bamboo Lullaby", "Ringo Oiwake", "Moon Of Manakoora", "Congo Train", and "Beautiful Kahana". LP, Vinyl record album

Martin Denny's music always takes us away to the tropics – and this set is a whole Forbidden Island of exotica tunes! The record features the classic Denny exotica quartet with Augie Colon and Julius Wechter – plus some additional guest players on flute, percussion, and guitar – rounding out things very nicely. The expanded sound works nicely for Denny's style – and the mood incorporates plenty of easy lounge arrangements of the fairly standard instrumentation in the backdrop – broadened wonderfully in the arrangements! It's sort of a blue-eyed tropical feel – one that makes it a cheeky classic! The set includes some good originals like "Goony Birds", "Cobra", "Exotica", and "Primitiva", plus the Les Baxter tunes "Port Au Prince" and "Sim Sim", as well as a perennial exotica fave, "March Of The Siamese Children". LP, Vinyl record album

One of Martin Denny's greatest albums – thanks to some extra special added elements! For the record, Denny's classic quartet is augmented by a wealth of odd added percussion – including gongs, cymbals, tuned logs, steel drums, chimes, and "chromatic bamboo"! All of these elements take Denny's exotica sound way further than ever before – and if that's not enough, the legendary Tak Shindo plays a bit of Koto on the record too! Titles include "M'Bira", "Burma Train", "Kalua", "M'Gambo Mambo", and "Mau Mau". LP, Vinyl record album

An undisputed classic in the exotica genre – and the record that yielded Martin Denny his biggest hit! The title track "Quiet Village" was originally written by Les Baxter, but it was Martin Denny's approach that really managed to send the tune over the top – using spare percussion, rhythmic piano, and just the right amount of vibes and bird calls to give the track a really haunting feel. That approach is echoed throughout the set – with shifting instrumentation that includes celeste, bongos, marimbas, and marimbula as well! Titles include "Quiet Village", "Paradise Found", "Sake Rock", "Martinique", "Tune From Rangoon", and "Pagan Love Song". LP, Vinyl record album

Cool 60s work from guitarist Snuff Garrett! Maria Elena takes a host of older Latin themes and tunes them towards a hip 60s style – using the overdubbed guitar approach of the 50 guitars group, and really stretching the sound out wide towards the farthest reaches of both speakers! Snuff Garrett's guitar is in the lead, but it's also cast here in a pretty full sound – one that makes for a spacious quality that still sounds pretty darn great all these many years later. Titles include "Jungle Drums", "Anna", "Without You", "The Breeze & I", "Brazil", and "Poinciana". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

An unusual Bay Area group – with Virgil Gonsalves on baritone sax, Dan Pateris on tenor, Bob Badgely on trombone, Clyde Pound on piano, Gus Gustafson on drums, and either Ron Crotty or Max Hartstein on bass. LP, Vinyl record album

Features great music from Bumps Blackwell – with a very young Billy Preston on organ! LP, Vinyl record album

A really wonderful soundtrack, for a very gripping film! Synanon, for those not in the know, was a famous west coast drug treatment center in the 60s – well known for its work with musicians like Joe Pass, Art Pepper, and others. The hospital is the setting for this dramatic film that starred Chuck Connors, Edmund O'Brien, and Stella Stevens – and it features a very hip soundtrack by Neal Hefti, on a par with his best jazzy work of the 60s! The tunes have a swinging approach – with some nice use of organ, drawn out in a spare thin tone that snakes through the best numbers with a sexy ease. The mood changes nicely from track to track – but keeps a groovy pace that makes the soundtrack a lot fresher than you might think, given the topic of the film. Titles include "Zankie", "Main Street", "Blues For Hopper", "Hope", "Tonight's The Night", and "Open House". LP, Vinyl record album