Mystery Reel!
MYSTERY REEL TIME!!!!
What we have here is a reel, from a box, that has no label, but has some awfully good light/lounge music on it. Now, here's the mystery... I know the titles of a FEW of the tracks, but not all, and I have NO idea who the artist is!
The music is orchestral, almost in the mode of Edmundo Ros but not quite, fairly lush strings, and the use of some different and exotic percussion instruments. Whoever the heck this is, it is an album I'd love to have! There is definately some hints of ping-pong-y stereo, but nowhere near as nasty as a StereoAction disc.
I would ALMOST, but NOT QUITE, put this as an Esquivel LP, but which one? I honestly do not know.
Anyone out there care to try their hand? At least get me the song titles and maybe I Can go from there?
There are 2 more LPs' worth of tunes on this reel, I'll post them tomorrow after I clean them up and tag the tracks as best I can.
Mystery Reel number 1-a.
The second LP in the Mystery Reel.... it was recorded pretty hot, but it is some HOT orchestral tracks, with the occasional guitar solo... there's only ONE track I recognize the title to, that being the tango "Jealousy", but everything else definately has a LAtin/Spanish flavor to it. There are a few dropouts, and signs of over-saturation, but it is still good for some nice backgrounds for sipping the sangria on the deck...
Help me out kind friends, see if anyone knows the titles to Mystery Reel number 1-b.
Lastly, we go from Spain to a little north... the accordion interludes are a dead giveaway of something themed with Love and La Belle France... I caught two track titles here (you can see them in the track ID tags...), but most of the titles elude me. Maybe I'm in a fog, or maybe I have heard them all and just can't remember the title names or the orchestras, but come on, how many LPs do you know of that have these titles in the combination?
Recorded well, don't know if this was an LP or tape dub, but there is only a little bit of shrillness on the strings, and the orchestrations are Clebanoff or Mantovani lush... if you have ANY idea on tracks or orchestras, please???
Otherwise I'll be forced to load up Johnny Mathis or Polka tapes!
Take your best shot with Mystery Reel number 1-c.
posted by The Impaler @ 10:40 PM
13 Comments:
Well, I think I have some information concerning Mystery Reel 1-a.
Track 4 is "But Not For Me" written by George & Ira Gershwin. This song was rather famous and sung by Frank Sinatra with arrangements by Billy May or Ella Fitzgerald among others. I have it played by Erroll Garner, Artie Shaw or Jackie Gleason.
Track 5 is "El Negro Zumbon". It is from a 1951 italian motion picture called "Anna" featuring Silvana Mangano & Raf Vallone. It's been composed by Roman Vatro with original words by F. Giordano and english lyrics by William Engvick. It used to be a hit in the 50s and was played by bands like Xavier Cugat & Perez Prado. Recently it has been refreshed by the group "Pink Martini" in their album "Hang On Little Tomato".
Track 6 is "The High And The Mighty" from the 1954 William A. Wellman motion picture of the same name starring John Wayne. In the original soundtrack the song written by Dimitri Tiomkin was performed whistling and became then a hit played by people like Harry James.
That's all what I can offer for the moment.
Unfortunately I don't know what's the name of the orchestra playing in your mysterious tape but it's definitely not Juan Garcia Esquivel. It makes me thinking on some tracks to Jackie Gleason and on some others to Percy Faith or similar.
Anyway it gives me the opportunity to thank you for your posts, all outstanding, as far as I am concerned.
Great blog.
I'll come back if I find something else.
Thank you - every little bit helps... I've updated the tags locally and will update the archive soonly.
1-a is a very nice selection of tunes, very well performed but as to whose orchestra - well, your guess is as good as mine.
I was going to give you the same info as Quinlan but he beat me to the post.
Do you think you could include a link to The Reel Deal along with your favorite blogs? Otherwise it's a bit difficult to find.
Regards - Mel.
Yeah, I need to re-do the links on all the sites, I found a couple more faves to add... if I get time in the enxt couple of days I'll get those added...
Don't expect many lucid comments until this weekend, as I'm having a couple (more) teeth yanked on thursday morning :/
Reel A - I find through Google almost all the song titles were recorded by Robert Farnon and his Orchestra -- but NOT on the same album!
Could the tape be a compilation of favorite tracks lifted from several albums (and artists)?
Reel B - Track 3 is the most famous of all bullfighting tunes, "La Virgen de la Macarena."
Ted:
I *KNEW* I knew that song, just couldn't place the title!
Also, it is quite possible this was a compilation, but I didn't hear anything like needle drops or such between tracks... I *did* hear a long pause between what would have sides of an LP or tape...
That's the joy (and frustration) of these mystery tapes... good stuff, sometimes brilliantly recorded, with absolutely NO documentation.
Part of the joys of archiving :)
THANK YOU!
Reel C: Track 4 is "Pagan Love
Song."
Tape C - Track 8 is "Secret Love."
I'm starting to see a pattern on the C reel: Aren't all these songs Academy Award winners?
Tape C - Track 9 is "April Love," a big hit for Pat Boone, circa 1958.
Mystery Reel 1-c.
Track 3 is "Flamingo" written by Ted Grouya & Ed Anderson. Among a number of others it's been played by Duke Ellington,Dave Brubeck, Lalo Schiffrin, Jimmy Smith, Django Reinhardt or Henry Mancini.
Thanks Ted Hering for your findings.
If I may, just a couple of remarks:
Track 1 on that same 1-c tape is corrupted. Is it possible to have it back?
On your other blog "Moodie Toonz" you posted an excellent Lionel Hampton LP "Here's Gates". However it's a pity that the quality of the sound is not very good at all. It's sort of over-saturated.
I noticed that the bitrate is 128 kbps, which is not the best bitrate, where most of your posts have an excellent 320 kbps. Do you think you could do something to it?
Thanks anyway for eveything.
on the "Here's Gates" LP, it is at 128 because it is mono. Those recordings are from lesser quality airchecks, which is why it is on a budget label.
On the track on 1-c, let me check, and if it is bad, I'll reload the archive.
As a note, all mono files are uploaded at 128/44 which is well enough, except for some pristine LPs which I encode at 160/44. If you look closely ay MPEG-1 Layer 3 specs (commonly known as the MP3 format) for audio, a 256/44 stereo file is basically the same quality as 128/44 mono, since the stereo encoding is 2 synched mono streams. This is why 128/44 STEREO sounds like poo because you're getting 2 channels of 56/44 audio.
And, I NEVER use joint stereo or any other filler like that, and all encodes are done with the Fraunhoffer PRO codec (the GOOD one).
The Lionel Hampden was already remastered to get most of the crud out of the material, the disc was in good shape, it is just that the recordings themselves are poo.
on Track 1 of 1-c, I just checked the track, it was a bad dub on the original tape, and unfixable... sorry...
The reel was a home dub of the material, and on most of the tape, pretty good quality. There are the exceptions, however, and you'll get those with a lot of home dubs... this one was, overall, way better than most. You should hear some of the drek I have on the shelves where people had NO clue about levels, or deck alignment, or any other things that should have been taught in Tape Dubbing 101 :)
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