Johnny Lytle

Artist: Johnny Lytle

LP: Be Proud

Song: "Be Proud (Of What You Are)"
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Song: "You've Got to Love the World"
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Song: "Sit Tight"
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These songs by jazz vibraphone master Johnny Lytle seem to embody the positive message of human rights master Martin Luther King, Jr. The album was released in 1969, a year after King was killed, but if he'd been alive, I bet he would have liked listening to this one. You can read about Johnny Lytle of Springfield, Ohio here. 
Happy MLK Day!

[ Johnny Lytle: October 13, 1932 — December 15, 1995 ]

Jon Thomas

Artist: Jon Thomas

LP: Big Beat On the Organ

Song: "Hot Tip" 
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Song: "Hard Head" 
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Lately I've been trying to reorganize stuff in my apartment, and I thought it would be good if I bought some reorganizing music to help me get with it. Golden Oldies came through in spades, as usual, and I found way more there than I'd bargained—or budgeted—for. There's not a set of complete biographical information about jazz organist Jon Thomas that I could find on the web, but according to AllMusic, he was born in 1918 and someone on e-bay says that happened in Mississippi. Jon went on to become a session musician at King Records, says our e-bay contact, where he composed "Heartbreak," a hit for Little Willie John (I bet that's Jon on organ!). According to last.fm, Jon Thomas' "Big Beat On the Organ" LP was released on the first day of 1958; AllMusic says Jon died at the end of October, 1994. The photo below shows what Jon looked like, according to last.fm. I don't know how reliable any of that information is, but there is one thing about Jon Thomas we do know for sure: He was a talented jazz organist extraordinaire!

[ Jon Thomas: 1918 — October 28, 1994 ]

Cuban Dance Orchestra

Artist: Cuban Dance Orchestra

LP: Cha Cha

Song: "Negrita" 
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Happy Black Friday! I don't usually go shopping on Black Friday, but the Goodwill near my place was having a 40%-off sale on everything in the store (except yellow tag items) so I stopped by to rummage through their records. This scratchy Cuban jazz LP is one of the things I found. There aren't any liner notes on the back of the sleeve (Plymouth stuck their entire catalog listing there instead), and it's impossible to find info online for a group called simply "Cuban Dance Orchestra." What we do know is that a talented bunch of musicians got together about 60 years ago (this album was probably released in 1956) and made some terrific Cuban dance music! Someone recorded it, Plymouth released it, someone bought it, then they died (probably) and it was my good fortune to find it at Goodwill (for .60¢; regularly $1!). Plus we know that this record was also available in red.

Danny Guglielmi w/ Dena

Artist: Danny Guglielmi w/ vocals by Dena

LP: Adventure In Sound

Song: "Out of Nowhere" 
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Song: "Mosquito Festival" 
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Here's something colorful, spacey and exotic from a grey and rainy November morning in Seattle. Danny Guglielmi and his pipe-smoking wife Dena worked primarily behind the scenes in the music and film industry, but Danny briefly held the spotlight when he used early multi-track recording techniques to create this spectacular collection of atmospheric and slightly experimental tunes that showcase his remarkable musical talents. (This record is reportedly particularly soothing to US presidents recovering from heart trouble.) "Adventure In Sound" was released in 1956 on the budget Tops label and unfortunately failed to make either of the Guglielmis a household name. Their songs do hold up remarkably well nowadays though, and Danny and Dena have become household names in my apartment ever since I first listened to their spellbinding record. You can read more about the Guglielmis on the Space Age Pop Music website here and go here to visit the Ambient Exotica blog where you'll find more album details and reviews. Notes from the back of the LP are included below.

Harry Fields Quintet

 Artist: Harry Fields Quintet

LP: 7" single

Song: "Invitation"

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I was inadvertently listening to this 1962 EP while cooking dinner on my electric stove and it completely ruined my meal. You can read about Harry Fields here. 

The Jackson Trio

Artist: The Jackson Trio

LP: Merry Christmas Baby

Song: "Jingle Bell Hop"

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Here's a little something from a neat holiday blues compilation I found at Holy Cow Records while doing some last-minute Christmas shopping at the world-famous Pike Place Market (it's the one where they throw the fish around) in downtown Seattle this past Saturday. Merry Christmas!

Dorothy Donegan

Artist: Dorothy Donegan

LP: At the Embers

Song: "Sweet Georgia Brown"

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This terrific Dorothy Donegan record was another one of the things I'd planned to get rid of, mainly because instrumental piano jazz isn't really a genre I can commit to with my limited space. BUT after just watching her amazing 1945 piano duel (on a rotating grand piano!) where she plays with incredibly reckless perfection, I've decided to put this one back on my shelf, and I'll be keeping an eye out for more! You can read about Dorothy Donegan on Wikipedia here, and find the notes from the back of this amazing pianist's 1957 "Live at the Embers" LP below. I didn't know people were using the word "hipsters" back in 1957.

Dorothy Donegan on YouTube:

[ —dueling piano jazz, 1945!— ]

[ Dorothy Donegan: April 6, 1922 — May 19, 1998 ]

Elmer Bernstein

Artist: Elmer Bernstein

LP: The Caretakers

Song: "The Caretakers (main title)"

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Song: "Black Strait-Jacket"

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One of my favorite kinds of movie is the melodramatic "ripped-from-the-headlines" expose film of the late '50s and early '60s. Whether reporting on the struggles, sacrifices, and humiliations of big-city women working their way up the corporate ladder, of a group of big-city hospital interns, or of those involved in crimes of passion who smear the family name across the front pages of big-city tabloids, these films are guaranteed to deliver deliciously lurid thrills. Addressing issues like abortion, mental illness, racism, and sexual freedom, these films dragged movie audiences to places they'd never been before. THE CARETAKERS, which exposes the struggles, sacrifices, and humiliations of doctors and patients inside a women's mental hospital, is a fine example of the genre. Master composer Elmer Bernstein has fashioned a wildly dramatic soundtrack to match the histrionics hurled from the screen by actors Robert Stack, Polly Bergen, Herbert Marshall, Constance Ford, Janis Paige, Diane McBain...and Joan Crawford. As usual, Crawford sinks her teeth into her meaty role, this time a stern head-nurse named Lucretia Terry who rejects handsome young Dr. Donovan MacLeod's newfangled ways of treating the mentally ill, resolutely clinging to her tried-and-true methods involving violence and torture. You can buy a copy of THE CARETAKERS on DVD from the Warner Archives store here, go here to read about the life and career of Elmer Bernstein and see a list of films for which he composed music, and visit the official Elmer Bernstein website here.

[ Elmer Bernstein: April 4, 1922 — August 18, 2004 ]

Chuck Kirkland

Artist: Chuck Kirkland

LP: Yesterday and Today

Song: "I Don't Want to Walk Without You"

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Driving further north on High Street I came across Lost Weekend Records, a cluttered and eclectic store located on the ground level of an old 3-story house. They'd just acquired a bunch of records they wanted to bring in to sell, so to help clear some space, all LPs were on sale for 33% off and all 7" singles were 45% off. This groovy Chuck Kirkland record is one of the things for which I paid just 67% of the marked price. I can't find any info about this talented organist on the web (and the LP liner notes aren't any help), so if anyone reading this knows anything about Mr. Kirkland, please feel free to chime in!

 [ Lost Weekend Records — Columbus, OH ]

Duke Jordan

Artist: Duke Jordan

LP: Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Song: "Jazz Vendor"

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Before there was this movie adaptation, this one, and of course this one too, French filmmaker Roger Vadim scandalized all of France (not an easy thing to do) with his 1959 film version of the shocking 1782 novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" by Choderlos de Laclos. According to Wikipedia,  "it is the story of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, two rivals (and ex-lovers) who use sex as a weapon to humiliate and degrade others, all the while enjoying their cruel games. According to the liner notes on the back of this LP, it seems there may have been some confusion as to who actually wrote the music for Vadim's film, with jazz pianist Duke Jordan receiving due credit in 1962, three years after the movie was released. You can read more about Duke Jordan on Wikipedia here, and find the informative notes from his 1960 "Flight to Jordan" LP on the Hard Bop website here.

[ Irving Sidney "Duke" Jordan: April 1, 1922 — August 8, 2006 ]