Verve - The Bottomless Pit Of "Who Knew?"

[JSngry]

They thought they had cracked the formula, but the folly in that is thinking that the formula was all there was. That's a fool's errand, always. You wanna get here, that takes some kind of depth. Formula is just the starting point.

Kudos to Goffin-King for growing up along the way.

And since it's Friday, bonus cut!

.

[mikeweil]

Edited February 24, 2018 by mikeweil

[JSngry]

[felser]

On 2/23/2018 at 5:41 PM, JSngry said:

They thought they had cracked the formula, but the folly in that is thinking that the formula was all there was. That's a fool's errand, always. You wanna get here, that takes some kind of depth. Formula is just the starting point.

Kudos to Goffin-King for growing up along the way.

And since it's Friday, bonus cut!

.

And the DJ's flipped "Hung on You" and played the throwaway B-side ("Unchained Melody").  And the rest is altered history ("Ebb Tide", etc.).

[medjuck]

2 hours ago, felser said:

And the DJ's flipped "Hung on You" and played the throwaway B-side ("Unchained Melody").  And the rest is altered history ("Ebb Tide", etc.).

Unchained Melody was already an oldie when they recorded it.  IIRC Al Hibbler had had a hit with it years before. and it was from a prison movie starring Leroy "Carzylegs" HIrsch.

[Chuck Nessa]

2 minutes ago, medjuck said:

Unchained Melody was already an oldie when they recorded it.  IIRC Al Hibbler had had a hit with it years before. and it was from a prison movie starring Leroy "Carzylegs" HIrsch.

That would be Elroy Hirsch.

[felser]

14 minutes ago, Chuck Nessa said:

That would be Elroy Hirsch.

Didn't realize he acted.  Just know him as the Rams receiver who had that one cosmic season in 1951.

19 minutes ago, medjuck said:

Unchained Melody was already an oldie when they recorded it.  IIRC Al Hibbler had had a hit with it years before. and it was from a prison movie starring Leroy "Carzylegs" HIrsch.

Also Roy Hamiliton and Les Baxter, simultaneously with Hibbler. 

[Chuck Nessa]

Folks from Wisconsin rememberer him for returning home to become athletic director at the University Of Wisconsin in the '70s and 80s.

[medjuck]

1 hour ago, felser said:

Didn't realize he acted.  Just know him as the Rams receiver who had that one cosmic season in 1951.

Also Roy Hamiliton and Les Baxter, simultaneously with Hibbler. 

He made at least three  movies.  The first one was his biography called "Crazy Legs".  The last one was "Zero Hour"  a film based on a Canadian tv drama called Flight into Danger by Arthur Haley who went on to write "Airport" and" Hotel".  Most important Zero Hour was the basis for "Airplane".   (I used to be pretty good at Trivial Pursuits.) 

Edited December 24, 2018 by medjuck

[Shrdlu]

WTF, Jim! Mercy! All this stuff.

In genuine Münster Dummell High Fidelity!

Dear old Norman, ha ha.

[Teasing the Korean]

Even a record by the great CHAINO!

 

Edited January 1, 2019 by Teasing the Korean

[Teasing the Korean]

On December 23, 2018 at 3:08 PM, JSngry said:

THIS has been on my want list for quite some time.  I have Phil Moore's similar Portrait of Leda album on Columbia, but not this.  

Phil Moore's other exotica masterpiece, Polynesian Paradise, on the obscure Strand label, has similarly eluded me. 

[mikeweil]

2 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Even a record by the great CHAINO!

 

Never heard of this guy or LP ..... 

[Teasing the Korean]

50 minutes ago, mikeweil said:

Never heard of this guy or LP ..... 

Seriously?!? He had a big resurgence in the 1990s.  He recorded a number of percussion albums in the 1950s and early 1960s, mostly for small labels like Tampa.  

Best bang for your buck is the CD compilation on Dionysus.  It organizes the music into his three basic categories:  Exotica, Africana, and rock 'n' roll, the latter of which is basically Preston Epps "Bongo Rock" kind of the stuff. 

Alternately, you may prefer Dionysus's reissue of Eye of the Spectre, aka Night of the Spectre, which is more along the lines of what Dionysus categorized as "Africana." 

 

 

[Brad]

Received an email from Verve today. They have released a four cd (also in digital) compilation called Norman Granz The Founder. Looks like it came out in December. Here’s an article on it. 

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/founder-box-set-celebrates-jazz-pioneer-norman-granz/

[Teasing the Korean]

Wow, this is incredible!

 

 

[JSngry]

It really is a bottomless pit. Found this one in a store today for $3.99:

any idea what the VPM series was all about?

[Rooster_Ties]

On 1/1/2019 at 10:18 AM, Teasing the Korean said:

Wow, this is incredible!

 

 

Bloody hell.  I just hit 'play' on this video, thinking I'd get some cheesy faux exotic 'tiki' mujsic, with god only knows what sort of "girl" component (I think that's actually the only reason I hit 'play' was to figure out what the 'girl' aspect was).  Then as the music unfolded, I exclaimed in a fairly loud voice "what the hell??!!!" -- loud enough that my wife wondered what in the world I was reacting to.

What a crazy record. Now I want to know more about this whole thing.  Who was Phil Moore?  What was the concept behind this thing?  What do those liners on the back of the album say (in the earlier images, up-thread).  Oddest thing I've heard, well, maybe all year.

[Larry Kart]

9 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Bloody hell.  I just hit 'play' on this video, thinking I'd get some cheesy faux exotic 'tiki' mujsic, with god only knows what sort of "girl" component (I think that's actually the only reason I hit 'play' was to figure out what the 'girl' aspect was).  Then as the music unfolded, I exclaimed in a fairly loud voice "what the hell??!!!" -- loud enough that my wife wondered what in the world I was reacting to.

What a crazy record. Now I want to know more about this whole thing.  Who was Phil Moore?  What was the concept behind this thing?  What do those liners on the back of the album say (in the earlier images, up-thread).  Oddest thing I've heard, well, maybe all year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Moore_(jazz_musician)

[Rooster_Ties]

7 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Moore_(jazz_musician)

• Fantasy for Girl and Orchestra (Verve, recorded 1947, released 1956)^[16]

1947??!!  OK, that's a full decade earlier than I was expecting. 

https://www.jazzdisco.org/verve-records/catalog-popular-2000-series/#mgv-2005

 

MGV 2005   Phil Moore - Fantasy For Girl And Orchestra

Ray Linn, Gerald Wilson, Snooky Young, trumpet; Ben Benson, Hank Coker, Murray McEachern, trombone; Harry Schumann, French horn; Harry Klee, flute; Marshall Royal, alto sax, clarinet; Lucky Thompson, tenor sax; Calvin Jackson, piano; Al Hendrickson, guitar; Red Callender or Art Shapiro, bass; Lee Young, drums; unidentified strings, Phil Moore, director.

Los Angeles, CA, 1947

D105	Concerto For Trombone And Orchestra, Part 1
D106	Concerto For Trombone And Orchestra, Part 2
D107	Fugue For Bar Room Piano
D108	Misty Moon Blues
D109 | D293	Day Dream
D110 | D292	125th Street Prophet
D111 | D291	Cornucopia
	Fantasy For Girl And Orchestra
	Mood For You

 

Edited March 13, 2019 by Rooster_Ties

[Larry Kart]

On 12/22/2018 at 5:50 PM, medjuck said:

Unchained Melody was already an oldie when they recorded it.  IIRC Al Hibbler had had a hit with it years before. and it was from a prison movie starring Leroy "Carzylegs" HIrsch.

Dexter Gordon had a bit part in the movie.

[medjuck]

21 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Dexter Gordon had a bit part in the movie.

Wow!  I gotta watch it someday. (I remember when it was new but never saw it. ) 

[JSngry]

12 hours ago, JSngry said:

It really is a bottomless pit. Found this one in a store today for $3.99:

any idea what the VPM series was all about?

Further research turns up that Babe Stovall appeared on some later records/compilations, but none on a label like Verve. I also see that Cosimo Matassa engineered this one. So I gotta ask the members here who know a lot about New Orleans - who the hell WAS Babe Stovall, relative to the overall New Orleans scene?

[paul secor]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Stovall

https://wirz.de/music/stovall.htm

[Teasing the Korean]

On March 13, 2019 at 10:38 PM, Rooster_Ties said:

Bloody hell.  I just hit 'play' on this video, thinking I'd get some cheesy faux exotic 'tiki' mujsic, with god only knows what sort of "girl" component (I think that's actually the only reason I hit 'play' was to figure out what the 'girl' aspect was).  Then as the music unfolded, I exclaimed in a fairly loud voice "what the hell??!!!" -- loud enough that my wife wondered what in the world I was reacting to.

What a crazy record. Now I want to know more about this whole thing.  Who was Phil Moore?  What was the concept behind this thing?  What do those liners on the back of the album say (in the earlier images, up-thread).  Oddest thing I've heard, well, maybe all year.

Check out Phil Moore's Portrait of Leda on Columbia:

 

And check out Martha Raye's versions of "Lotus Land" with a Phil Moore arrangement!

 

And here is Phil Moore's rare exotica masterpiece Polynesian Paradise on Strand!

 

 

Edited April 14, 2019 by Teasing the Korean