The Feminine Sax

Quick, name a pre-1970s female jazz horn player. I came up with "some chick in Ina Ray Hutton's band" and got stuck.

So the 1957 album "The Feminine Sax" featuring Willene Barton with the Dayton Selby Trio is an oddity indeed. The liner notes allude to both musicians' roots in Cincinnati, but little else can be found about either artist. Apparently Dayton Selby spent some time playing the club scene in Brooklyn--a 1989 NY Times article refers to Selby performing with Jimmy Smith and Jimmy Witherspoon in a concert recalling the days of organ trios.

It's Selby who delivers the strongest performance here--if you're a fan of jazz organ music, you'll probably enjoy his style. Barton has her moments, but never really delivers. Though I get the feeling they were a lot of fun to see performing live.

The Feminine Sax

Too Close For Comfort
Blues 2
Blues 1
Dayton’s Dance
I’ll Never Stop Loving You

Blues 2 (note: I renamed this Blues 3, since I couldn't name two different songs by the same title)
Seven Eleven
Breakin’ the Blues
Blue Moon
In the Still of the Night
Barton’s Blues

Design Records DLP 37 (1957)

Mr. Lumberjack

Remember that great seventies movie starring Burt Reynolds where he was a North Woods lumberjack? Where he was sittin’ on the tree stump eatin’ johnnycake? No? How about the one about where he was the gold miner in the Klondike, roundin' up his malamutes, packin' his grubstake on his back? Well, that could be part of the reason why the album “Mr. Lumberjack” by Hal Willis never caught on—America never felt the romantic fever for sawing logs or panning for gold like they did for driving the big rig.

You wouldn’t think DJs would ever be at a loss for words, but being tapped to pen the liner notes for the album seem to stymie Bill Claiborne of radio station WSM in Nashville. Here’s the best hyperbole he could muster:

“It is my wish that someday those of you who are listening to this album will have the pleasure of meeting and talking to Hal Willis and once you do, you will, like me, find a loss of words to describe what most of us here in Nashville call ‘Hal Willis, the Nice Guy’”.

Now myself, I would talk at length about Hal's off-kilter growly scat singing, which was truly the best part of the album.

Oh, and wife Ginger’s vocals on “Winding Wana Bago” WILL result in a spit-take, or your money cheerfully refunded.

Mr. Lumberjack – Hal Willis

Lumberjack Man
North To Alaska
My Thumb & Shoes
Knopper the Topper
Springtime in Alaska
Dig Me a Hole
Jack the Lumberjack
The Parson From Paint Rock
So Right But So Wrong
Winding Wana Bago
Creole Rose
Klondike Mike

Arc Sound Limited 851, Toronto, Ont.

Taped Informally in the Quittner Living Room Cleveland Ohio 1973

It seems that every time I post an album with a boring cover, Marco updates his weirdomusic download links page , and there I am for a week or more, being represented by something as boring as the
Cumbia album instead of, say, the Sexcessfully Yours album cover. [UPDATE: Evil Marco just did a "special" update of this horrible album cover......just for me.....grrrrr]

Weirdo music just updated with the jazzy Tequila cover (below), so it’s safe to post this one, the dullest album cover ever. It’s from a vanity label—Artist’s Recording Co. from Cincinnati-- or more to the point, it would have been vanity had the artist been alive to enjoy it.


According to the liner notes, George Quittner was a chemical engineer whose passion was for jazz—he emulated the music of pianists Earl Hines, Art Tatum, and Fats Waller. This album is “a rare collection of outstanding improvisations taped informally in the Quitttner living room, Cleveland Ohio 1973”. George died not two years later, at the age of 54, and his wife probably produced this to pass around as a memento to friends and relatives.

The only song that captured my attention is George’s version of the Jelly Roll Morton tune “Grandpa’s Spells”, which sounds for the world as though George started ragtimin’ just as fast as he possibly could and starting spinning out of control and just couldn’t stop. It’s pretty strange and just seems to go on and on and on, though it’s less than 4 minutes long. If I ever compile Son of Turd in the Punchbowl it would fit right in.

Jazz Improvisations of George Quittner
EDIT: The link is now fixed....it's not like I don't do this all the time or anything!

There Will Never Be Another You
I Ain't Got Nobody
The Man I Love
Mean To Me
Grandpa's Spells
George's Blues
Memories of You
Lullaby of the Leaves

Tequila A Go Go

There’s no hot-looking babe covered with a mound whipped cream (or refritos and guacamole either for that matter) on the album cover, and that would be the only idea Richard Davis and the Tequila Brass did NOT borrow from Herb Alpert. But hey, it’s 1966 and a guy’s gotta make a living, right? According to the notes on the back of the album, Richard Davis & the Tequila Brass were the “first and leading exponent in Argentina” of the “California Sound”-- I wonder if Argentine game shows used the music of the Tequila Brass as theme music. OK, let’s recap--a guy born in Argentina with an American sounding name playing anglicized Mexican music. Works for me.

Tequila A Go Go
Corcovado
Shadow of Your Smile
Lover
Amado Mio
Viva Maria
Guantanamera
Swinging Mariachi
Flower Bud
Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White
The Drunken Band
Cordovan

Tequila A Go Go
Audio Fidelity AFLP 2185 (1966)

More Phantom Third Channel!

My post of the Phantom Third Channel music prompted gifts in my inbox of an earlier release of this hi-fi testing music series. These selections from The Amazing Phantom Third Channel include The Kirby Stone Four doing "Baubles, Bangles, and Beads", along with music from Tony Bennett, Ray Conniff, and Andre Kostelanetz. The Kirby Stone is great, I highly recommend.

Gershwin With Bongos

Damn. Now I wish I hadn't sold my set of Matador brand gold glitter bongo drums so I could play along.

The slow tunes are pretty strange, with the bongo beat thrown in as an afterthought--but the version of "I Got Rhythm" is truly a unique arrangement of the old standby.

And the liner notes are golden......

Add to the list of popular indoor and outdoor sports: bongos. The typical bongo addict (he's seldom a dabbler) is known by several distinctive traits. He lifts his double-barreled percussion piece at the drop of a vamp. His eyes moisten at the mention of a party, any kind of party. He spends long hours improvising paradiddles. A study in determination, he takes his craft seriously, flexes his fingers in off moments, oils his hands till they glimmer, and forsakes all others to spend evenings stretching his bongo skins to the ripping point. He will Thump Along with any kind of music, from Tchiakovsky to Carrie Jacobs Band.

Whether you're a full fledged bongo addict or just an interested spectator, until you've heard Gershwin with bongos...well, your ears just haven't lived.

Don't cheat your ears. They deserve this.

Gershwin With Bongos

Fascinating Rhythm
How Long Has This Been Going On
Clap Yo Hands
Our Love Is Here to Stay
Summertime
My One and Only

They All Laughed
Love Walked In
They Can't Take That Away From Me
Maybe
A Foggy Day
I Got Rhythm

The Opposite of Rare

Which are you more likely to come across while pawing through piles of old records, the Lawrence Welk Christmas album, or this one? I've come across tons of copies of this album, and guess what, there are actually a few songs on it worth sharing.

This is the album that came with your brand new Admiral Stereophonic High Fidelity record player with not just the left and right channels, but the "Amazing Phantom Third Channel". So there is a lot of kitschy silliness trumpeting how this invention will change your life and make you more popular. I'm pretty fond of the "Trumpet Cha Cha Cha" myself.

Phantom Third Channel
(incomplete)

Intro - Ski-Run - Lionel Newman
Everybody Loves a Lover - Lenny Dee
Around the World - Henry Jerome
Trumpet Cha Cha Cha - Warren Covington
Joey's Song - Bill Haley & the Comets
Sweet Georgia Brown - Carol Burnett
Tic-Tac Polka - Mishel Piastro
Oye Negra - Irving Fields
The Lonely Goatherd - Stratford Strings

Blinded By Turds

A very long time ago, I used to receive a catalog from Publishers Central Bureau selling cutout albums and out of print books. They sold some of the Request (calypso) library that had been re-rereleased on the low-budget Murray Hill label. They also had a stellar collection of music by randy folkie Oscar Brand. I didn’t like folk music, and had never heard of the guy, but the song titles were SO intriguing....Ring Dang Doo...She’ll Do It Again...Three Prominent Bastards.
So I ended up buying the Bawdy Sea Chanteys album, which has been a perennial favorite (and was one of maybe 50 albums I’ve kept since my early collecting days).

So despite a higher price than I usually pay ($4), Oscar Brand’s Bawdy Western Songs came home with me from yesterday's shopping expedition. If you don’t race to download this based upon the fact that there is a song called “Blinded By Turds”, then I really have no idea what you’re doing here. Honestly. You’re DEAD to me.


The Old Grey Bustle
Chisholm Trail
As I Was Out Riding
The Little Brown Bull
Charlotte the Harlot
Pinto Pony
Blinded By Turds

In Abilene
Ride On
I Ride An Old Paint
My Love Is a Rider
Poor Little Angeline
The Texas Boys
The Great Big Wheel

Bawdy Western Songs Vol. 6 (I’m on the prowl for Vol. 1-5, believe you me) – Oscar Brand

And All That Jazz

I've been lukewarm about the other Hi-Lo's music I've heard, but I like several of the songs on this album. The Hi-Lo's (the apostrophe is theirs, not mine--I'm more educated than THAT) signature is highly polished vocal arrangements, sweeter and more commercial than say, Kirby Stone's group. Here, the Hi-Lo's are backed by such able West Coast jazzmen as Bud Shank on bari sax and Mel Lewis on drums, and things are a little more swinging than I've heard from this group before. Give it a try!

The Hi-Lo's And All That Jazz

Fascinatin' Rhythm
Small Fry
Something's Coming
Love Locked Out
Lady in Red
Agogically So


Some Minor Changes
Then I'll Be Tired of You
Mayforth
Moon-Faced, Starry-Eyed
Summer Sketch
Of Thee I Sing

¡Cumbia!

Cumbiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Um....that just about sums it up. Featuring guitarist Mike Laure. Good stuff.

The last 3 songs on side 1 are wonky, and I don’t know why. Side 2 is more fun to listen to, anyway.

Cumbia con Mike Laure
Musart 1038

Las Muchachas
Quiero Amanecer
Tabaco Mascao
La Pobreza
Grande de Cadera (Fuerte de Cadera)
Calavera

Rajita de Canela
El Solterito
Mi Sombrero Alon
Se Va la Balsa
Cumbia Buena
La Conexion

thanks, china!

thanks, china!, originally uploaded by sir fanceepants.