Great Space-Age LPs Hidden in the Jazz Section

[Big Beat Steve]

12 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Several close French friends who are jazz enjoyers, all of whom regard this album as an all conquering powerhouse of greatness that is the unquestionable next step in French jazz once you have absorbed the Reinhardt/Grappellis.

Never understood it myself. There's plenty of amazing french jazz records out there. This wouldn't make my top ten.

Well, Down Beat gave it a five-star review. So it was not only the French ...
I listened to it again yesterday and found it quite OK and enjoyable but would certainly not rank it as sky-high as your friends do. I suppose the adulation by your French jazz friends is as much a matter of national pride as of musical merits (in short, a mixed bag, objectively speaking ... ) Legrand was a national hero in musical France so this may explain that but after all he was the only French participating in the Legrand Jazz sessions ... (And for this reason, talking about categories, I'd never think of filing that record in my "Eurojazz" section)
For recordings by a foreign bandleader visiting the US aroud that time, actually I like the recordings made under the leadership of André Persiany in the US in 1956/57 better.
And in general, if it was a matter of a non-U.S. band leader upsetting the big band world I'd rather give the nods to Harry Arnold from Sweden (the original "Jazztone Mystery Band" to the initiated ... )

As for André Hodeir in the SABP section, ho hum ... some of it is a bit too cerebral for my taste ...

 

[Teasing the Korean]

8 hours ago, felser said:

Those Warwick LP's like "The Soul of Jazz Percussion"?

Yep!  And The Soul Jazz of Cleopatra!  

6 hours ago, sgcim said:

Are there enough Phil Woods improvised solos on TNB to make it worth buying?

Here's the only KH discography I've ever seen:

http://www.dougpayne.com/khdisco.htm

This weekend, I will have to re-listen to Lonelyille for Phil Woods content.  Several of the tracks are on YouTube, but you may alternately have to look under Creed Taylor and Kenyon Hopkins. 

4 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

As for André Hodeir in the SABP section, ho hum ... some of it is a bit too cerebral for my taste ...

I love all of his music, at least the four albums I have!

Edited March 2, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[crisp]

On 28/02/2022 at 5:33 PM, Teasing the Korean said:

For my purposes, I am restricting the era of space-age bachelor pad music to 1946-1964.  The 1964 cutoff date is important, in that it represents the worldwide arrival of the Beatles and Bossa Nova, both of which led to the Now Sound and International Jet Set aesthetic, two genres that essentially supplanted space-age bachelor pad music. (These albums may also appear in the jazz section.)  

 

Makes sense to me. I think of what you call SABP music as distinct from easy listening, which came later and encompasses the now sound and jet set stuff you mention. When I googled the origins of the term “easy listening”, I got: "it was coined in 1965 by Claude Hall, radio-TV editor of Billboard magazine". He may have had his own idea of what the term meant, but I see it as very different from what happened before the mid-Sixties, which is as you say more closely allied with jazz. Easy listening I would broadly define as orchestras attempting to do post-rock and roll pop (eg Ray Conniff doing Paul Simon songs). So 1964 is a good cut-off point for SABP music.

[Teasing the Korean]

8 minutes ago, crisp said:

Makes sense to me. I think of what you call SABP music as distinct from easy listening, which came later and encompasses the now sound and jet set stuff you mention. When I googled the origins of the term “easy listening”, I got: "it was coined in 1965 by Claude Hall, radio-TV editor of Billboard magazine". He may have had his own idea of what the term meant, but I see it as very different from what happened before the mid-Sixties, which is as you say more closely allied with jazz. Easy listening I would broadly define as orchestras attempting to do post-rock and roll pop (eg Ray Conniff doing Paul Simon songs). So 1964 is a good cut-off point for SABP music.

One other important post-1964 genre I failed to mention is psychedelic.  In many ways, psychedelic was to stoned teens in the late 1960s what SABP was to their parents in the 1950s, in that both provided escapism packaged as an adventure or an experience.  

_________________________________________________________________

John Dankworth - Jazz from Abroad, including "A String of Camels."

 

Edited March 2, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[crisp]

Yep. I broadly see easy listening as I describe it as an attempt to keep up with the times. Not just with the songs but the styles. It was mocked at the time, but I find it rather touching that middle-aged people then were seeking a path between their music (big bands and string orchestras) and the music of their children (Beatles, folk, psychedelia). It resulted in a lot of enjoyable music for people of my generation (born 1968) who like both. It clearly had its origins in SABP music too -- that desire to bring an established genre up to date.

[Teasing the Korean]

With its modernist music and stunning cover art, Capitol's original release of Stan Kenton's City of Glass by Bob Graettinger may be considered one of the earliest Space-Age Bachelor Pad albums.   It is a shame that this cover art was not retained for the 12" album or CD.

[Rabshakeh]

5 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Well, Down Beat gave it a five-star review. So it was not only the French ...
I listened to it again yesterday and found it quite OK and enjoyable but would certainly not rank it as sky-high as your friends do. I suppose the adulation by your French jazz friends is as much a matter of national pride as of musical merits (in short, a mixed bag, objectively speaking ... ) Legrand was a national hero in musical France so this may explain that but after all he was the only French participating in the Legrand Jazz sessions ... (And for this reason, talking about categories, I'd never think of filing that record in my "Eurojazz" section)
For recordings by a foreign bandleader visiting the US aroud that time, actually I like the recordings made under the leadership of André Persiany in the US in 1956/57 better.
And in general, if it was a matter of a non-U.S. band leader upsetting the big band world I'd rather give the nods to Harry Arnold from Sweden (the original "Jazztone Mystery Band" to the initiated ... )

As for André Hodeir in the SABP section, ho hum ... some of it is a bit too cerebral for my taste ...

I think a lot of it is down to the players, who look very impressive to someone who is an on / off jazz fan.

[Teasing the Korean]

14 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

I think a lot of it is down to the players, who look very impressive to someone who is an on / off jazz fan.

That was the goal.  All tunes written by US jazz players, all performed by US jazz players.  At that time, Legrand was known in the US primarily as a mood music guy.  The album may have surprised a lot of listeners at the time, and maybe even some of the players on the session. 

[Big Beat Steve]

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

With its modernist music and stunning cover art, Capitol's original release of Stan Kenton's City of Glass by Bob Graettinger may be considered one of the earliest Space-Age Bachelor Pad albums.   It is a shame that this cover art was not retained for the 12" album or CD.

Well, they decided to take the "This Modern World" (Capitol H460) 10" cover art for the 12" release of BOTH of these 10-inchers (Capitol W736). Maybe because the color dots on that cover artwork hint at the rather "far out" notations by Bob Graettinger on his charts of both of these records (wasn't there a thread about these charts somewhere here?). Of course it may be open to debate if the City of Glass cover would't have fitted both just as well on one record.
FWIW, seeing the cover again now, I guess I'd grab this City of Glass release just for the cover if the price was right (though I already own both H460 and W736).

[Larry Kart]

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

That was the goal.  All tunes written by US jazz players, all performed by US jazz players.  At that time, Legrand was known in the US primarily as a mood music guy.  The album may have surprised a lot of listeners at the time, and maybe even some of the players on the session. 

There are cheesy bits a la Legrand, but some fine playing too. Check out Ben Webster.

[Teasing the Korean]

22 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

There are cheesy bits a la Legrand, but some fine playing too. Check out Ben Webster.

I see the album as a monument to postwar optimism, and a recognition of jazz as the aural equivalent of modern design and architecture.  Also, being that it is by a Frenchman, it further acknowledges jazz's currency on the world stage.

Imagine a record like that being made today.  But there are no contemporary equivalents of Michel Legrand, and most listeners today can't name 31 contemporary jazz artists.

Edited March 2, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[Big Beat Steve]

As for acknowlediging jazz's currency on the world stage (and its share of post-war optimism), I still "stand by" (pun intended ) what I said earlier: Harry Arnold's late 50s big band with a reversal of the roles: not one European plus a U.S. crew throughout but one U.S. man (Quincy Jones supplying the arrangements for some but not all of the outstanding recordings by the band, Arnold and Gösta Theselius contributed many too) or, rather, two (Benny Bailey featured on many Jones charts) plus a crew of the cream of Swedish jazzmen.
They were their own men and I find them not at all difficult to relax to in my (Eames) lounge chair.

But yes - tastes do differ.

Edited March 2, 2022 by Big Beat Steve

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

As for acknowlediging jazz's currency on the world stage (and its share of post-war optimism), I still "stand by" (pun intended ) what I said earlier: Harry Arnold's late 50s big band with a reversal of the roles: not one European plus a U.S. crew throughout but one U.S. man (Quincy Jones supplying the arrangements for some but not all of the outstanding recordings by the band, Arnold and Gösta Theselius contributed many too) or, rather, two (Benny Bailey featured on many Jones charts) plus a crew of the cream of Swedish jazzmen.
They were their own men and I find them not at all difficult to relax to in my (Eames) lounge chair.

But yes - tastes do differ.

I don't disagree with you. But because Legrand was fairly well-known in the US, he was better positioned to demonstrate this to Americans.  Obviously, people in Europe already knew better.

 

[sgcim]

8 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

With its modernist music and stunning cover art, Capitol's original release of Stan Kenton's City of Glass by Bob Graettinger may be considered one of the earliest Space-Age Bachelor Pad albums.   It is a shame that this cover art was not retained for the 12" album or CD.

I would have liked to have seen a bachelor's pad cult around Graettinger's City of Glass. They would have to adopt BG's special  liquid diet of only hard alcohol and have several eggs a day as their only solid food, supplemented by every vitamin under the sun in a serving plate on one of the Space Age tables.

They could wash down handfuls of the vitamins covered in egg yolk with the hard liquor of their choice, as they enjoy the Space Age beauty of Graettinger's music. After a bunch of years of this Space Age Graettinger Diet, their gatherings would give new meaning to Jim's 'Bachelor Tomb' designation.

[Teasing the Korean]

24 minutes ago, sgcim said:

I would have liked to have seen a bachelor's pad cult around Graettinger's City of Glass. They would have to adopt BG's special  liquid diet of only hard alcohol and have several eggs a day as their only solid food, supplemented by every vitamin under the sun in a serving plate on one of the Space Age tables.

They could wash down handfuls of the vitamins covered in egg yolk with the hard liquor of their choice, as they enjoy the Space Age beauty of Graettinger's music. After a bunch of years of this Space Age Graettinger Diet, their gatherings would give new meaning to Jim's 'Bachelor Tomb' designation.

Don't forget using a piece of rope for a belt, like the Wolfman!

[Teasing the Korean]

Neal Hefti - Pardon My Doo-Wah

 

Russ Garcia - Sounds in the Night

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[JSngry]

2 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Neal Hefti - Pardon My Doo-Was

 

Is Phil Woods credited on the record?

[Teasing the Korean]

2 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Is Phil Woods credited on the record?

He is, and that was indeed him on that track!

Neal Hefti - Li'l Darlin' LP

With strings, harp, harpsichord, and flutes.

 

[Teasing the Korean]

Duke Ellington - Jazz Party

 

 

Duke Ellington - Afro Bossa

If only this album had appropriate cover art...

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[Teasing the Korean]

Paul Horn - Cleopatra

 

[Big Beat Steve]

11 hours ago, sgcim said:

I would have liked to have seen a bachelor's pad cult around Graettinger's City of Glass. They would have to adopt BG's special  liquid diet of only hard alcohol and have several eggs a day as their only solid food, supplemented by every vitamin under the sun in a serving plate on one of the Space Age tables.

They could wash down handfuls of the vitamins covered in egg yolk with the hard liquor of their choice, as they enjoy the Space Age beauty of Graettinger's music. After a bunch of years of this Space Age Graettinger Diet, their gatherings would give new meaning to Jim's 'Bachelor Tomb' designation.

An interesting thought ...
Having read the Kenton chapter and the comments on Graettinger's lifestyle in Ted Gioia's "West Coast Jazz" not long ago, this image came to my mind too when I first read about Graettinger's Kenton recordings in this thread.

Another item on the "time to relisten" list, then - though I'd certainly steer clear of THAT "diet" ...

BTW, @TTK:
Another suggestion trying to expand the Sauter-Finegan legacy:

Have you had a listen to this?
https://www.discogs.com/de/release/10738993-Eddie-Sauter-In-Germany

Not as adventurous as the Sauter-Finegan recordings but he does carry some of it over into what normally would be more conventional big band jazz of the latter 50s. Which makes these fairly special in their time frame.

[Teasing the Korean]

3 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

BTW, @TTK:
Another suggestion trying to expand the Sauter-Finegan legacy:

Have you had a listen to this?
https://www.discogs.com/de/release/10738993-Eddie-Sauter-In-Germany

Not as adventurous as the Sauter-Finegan recordings but he does carry some of it over into what normally would be more conventional big band jazz of the latter 50s. Which makes these fairly special in their time frame.

Never heard it.  I still need to find SF's space-age masterpiece, Adventure in Time.  There are always several on eBay, but I never get around to buying one.  Can't find it on the InterTubez either.

[Big Beat Steve]

I suppose you want an original or early vinyl repressing of "Adventure in Time"? Because it does exist as a budget/public domain CD reissue in the "Classic Albums" series on AvidJazz. Spurred on by your S-F thread, I got that set for the "Sons of Sauter-Finegan" LP which I had been searching for unsuccessfully on vinyl in the past. A compromise I can live with in the face of the 4 or 5 original S-F LPs I already have.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Big Beat Steve

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

I suppose you want an original or early vinyl repressing of "Adventure in Time"? 

For the cover!!!

Edited March 3, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[sgcim]

21 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

He is, and that was indeed him on that track!

Neal Hefti - Li'l Darlin' LP

With strings, harp, harpsichord, and flutes.

 

I really liked the change in timbre on that one.

I got back to thinking about a film on that whole scene with Mulligan, that whacked out chick that he did the cross country trip with, and her other BF, Graettinger. There's got to be a lunatic film director who's a jazz version of Ken Russell, and instead of making warped films about classical composers, wants to make warped films about jazz musicians. Just imagine; Mullligan and what's-her-name, acting out Ayn Rand novels- that's worthy of Ken Russell himself, if he was still alive.