Ray Anthony and His Orchestra

Artist: Ray Anthony and His Orchestra

LP: Young Ideas

Song: "Coquette"

[ listen ]

According to the drawing on the back of this 1957 Ray Anthony LP, one young idea—admittedly not a very good one—is to bring your records and a record player with you to the beach and set them on the ground next to your towel so people can kick sand all over them. The album's front cover shows a woman in a bathing suit laying on top of a scantily-clad man who's holding a ukulele. Other "young ideas" are undoubtedly being formulated here, but for the life of me I can't imagine what they are. Ray Anthony, who celebrated his 90th birthday this past January, was at one time married to Mamie Van Doren, who's been giving fellows young ideas for the past 60 years, and who apparently doesn't take very good care of her records either. Van Doren divorced Anthony in 1958, citing cruelty, but the candid photo I've included below reveals what was really going on in the relationship. You can read all about talented trumpeteer extraordinaire Ray Anthony on Wikipedia here.

 [ Mamie & Ray ]

Maynard Ferguson and His Orchestra

Artist: Maynard Ferguson and His Orchestra

LP: Si! Si!—M.F.

Song: "Si! Si!—M.F."

[ listen ]

Looks like I missed Maynard's birthday—he would have been 83 years old last week if he hadn't passed away back in the summer of 2006. One might blandly suppose that the "M.F." in this album's title track stands for "Maynard Ferguson," but after hearing how this guy blows his crazy horn, it's more like—"Sí! Sí!—Motherfucker!" You can read all about M.F., the talented Canadian trumpeter extraordinaire, on Wikipedia here, find lots of neat photos and other things on his official website here, and the liner notes from the back of Maynard's brilliant 1962 "Sí Sí" LP are included below.

[ Maynard Ferguson: May 4, 1928 — August 23, 2006 ]