London Phase 4 Sampler

Here we go, the first of a new batch of tapes for the Reel Deal!

We have a treat, something sure to please! At least I think so, because I have seen three or four of these go on eBay lately... if you like a mix of lounge and light classical, recorded with the usual quality associated with London (the US versions of DECCA-UK), this is a great sampler. Everything from Edmundo Ros, ROnnie Aldrich, and Ted Heath to Stanley Black & the London Festival Orchestra, the Eric Rogers Chorale, and Will Glahe & His Orchestra... there's bound to be something that will tickle your fancy. And, these sound really really great, too!

Instead of going on about what "Phase 4" is, I have included a scan of the insert that is the promotional rah-rah included on all Phase 4 tapes (and is somewhat repeated on most of the London Phase 4 LP jackets).

Scans:
The front...
The back...
The rah-rah insert...

It's definately less messier than Whitman's, and lasts a whole lot longer, too! The London Phase 4 Sampler.

REPOST: Si Zentner - Desafinado

Bossa Nova & Si Zentner, an explosive combination. On the back of the box, the liner notes say that "bossa nove" translates into "new wrinkle", which has a bad connotation when dealing with tapes (or the faces of pretty women, but that's another matter entirely!)...

This is a Liberty stereo tape that has SIZZLING audio, nice charts, and other really good stuff. Si knows how to swing it, definately. I think the tape is from around 1965 or 66, again I'm not sure...

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

Without further ado, I present for you some definately UN-WRINKLED bossa nova in the form of Desafinado.

Now, a note on further postings...

I have had some requests for more tapes, including those that would fall outside of the scope of the otherwise loosely defined genre of this blog... should I start another share site that is exclusively reel tapes? I have a BUNCH of classical material, including some WFMT airchecks that are absolutely WONDERFUL as far as audio quality goes... those would be easy to put up as a bunch of them (there are 80 reels in all) are already encoded.

Now for the other shoe... if I do start up a new tape share site, I will be putting up a PayPal donation link, as I will need to subsidize server space as well as media acquisition cost... what say you, faithful fans... post comments & let me know.

Rest assured, I have a bunch of material on LP for moodietoonz, so there would stil be postings here either way, it is just that I am reluctant to put full classical stuff on a lounge/tiki/jazz site...

REPOST: Sheer Stereo Delight!

You asked for more, so here is more!

This one is earlier in the string, this is Popular Program number 10 (W-10 to be exact), with the 'sponsor' being 20th Century Fox Records. Someone posted in the comments section that there may be some Art Tatum, but, alas, no Art is to be had here. There ARE some nice performances by Andre Previn and Lena Horne, along with some good crooning by Tony Martin and Al Martino, and some very surprising jazz vocals by Joya Sherrill. You also get a couple of things from "Zorba the Greek" and "Those Magnificent Young Men In Their Flying Machines"... all in all it is a pretty good set, just right for that extra-dry martini as you cruise across the plains in your comfy seat (remember those?) with the legroom (remember that?) as you are pampered with smiling service by your flight attendant (remember THAT??).

I would probably put this tape at around 1964 or 1965 (there's no date anywhere on the thing, so I'm guessing), "...exactly as heard on American Airlines Astrovision." These are showing up occasionally on eBay, which leads to my next little bit... if you want more of these, I may have to set up a PayPal donation thingy, as these are NOT cheap... I was fortunate to snag these in the thrift shop, but any more of the popular ones are gonna cost me some serious buck-age :(

This tape runs out at about 92 minutes per side, I split out all 65 tunes on this and put them into three archives, each running about an hour.

Here are the three archives:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

This will be the last one of these, the Command/Westminster tape is a Classical programme, so I won't post it, unless there is a HUGE demand for it... I have a huge stack of reels to do up so that'll keep you occupied for a little while....

Coffee, tea, or milk?

REPOST: Music with a Touch of Heaven

Up now is something of a sub-culture colletor's thing... starting in the early 1960s, American Airlines began to make available recordings of their in-flight audio program to the public. I don't know if these were sold via retail, or if you had to buy them from American, but they are pretty sought-after tapes. Each side runs 92-3 minutes, so you have a little over three hours of music to soothe the savage frightened flyer. Each program was 'sponsored' by a particular record company, this one being Kapp records. Even though they were recorded at 3 3/4 ips, the audio quality on these was really really good, even if the music wasn't 'cutting edge' for the times.

Since Kapp was the 'sponsor', we have a mixture of late Louis Armstrong, some early Burt Bacharach, some Jack Jones, some Hugo Winterhalter, and a LOT of Roger Williams (as he was a Kapp 'feature artist'). The mixture is pretty darn good, thouth, and somewhat harkens back to the day of the mid 1960s 'Beautiful Music' format one would hear on FM stereo broadcast stations in the USA at the time.

This tape, from 1966, is Popular Program No. 16 in the series, "...exactly as heard on American Airlines Astrovision."

I am going to admit something right here and now... I am a lazy sod. This tape runs over 93 minutes per side, and there's no way I am going to break out all the tracks... all 67 of them!
(ADDENDUM)
I changed my mind... I went ahead and split out all 67 tunes, tagged them using my bulk tagger, and now they're in three archives of 30-some songs each. So, no complainin' outta any youse! You can split them up however you want to, make CDs or just chucnk it on to one big MP3 CDR with the other stuff (like I do for commuting).

Here are the three archives:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

I have a couple more of these, let me know if there is an interest and I'll post them... one I know of has Command and Westminster as the 'feature labels', so you KNOW there's gonna be some Enoch Light and Dick Hyman on THAT one!

Martini and a pillow, sir?

REPOST: Bola Sete at the Newport Jazz Festival

As a tribute to one of the coolest sites for Brasilian music, loronix (see sidebar for the link), I found this Bola Sete set in the pile-o-reels that I'm doing up for your listening pleasure.

Recorded at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966, Bola cuts loose with a great, albeit WAY too short, musical adventure into sonido Brasilero. His sidemen, Sebastian Neto on bass and Paulinho on drums, I can't say enough! Herb Wong, on the liner notes, says "This is a MAGNIFICENT album!" and I heartily agree with him.

Bola had been playing a lot of gigs with a lot of different combinations of players in the San Francisco Bay area, and had been with Vince Guaraldi for some time before this appearance. The current personnel, he had been with for about a year before the appearance at Monterey.

This was released in 1966 on Verve, and was produced by Creed Taylor (and thankfully, NOT overproduced!)... heck, I'm gonna shut up, now, RACK THE TAPE!!!

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

What else can I say? enjoy Bola Sete at the Monterey Jazz Festival!

REPOST: Louis Armstrong - I Love Jazz

Next up is a tape that kind of scares me... as you can see from the rear scan, it says "enhanced for Stereotape..." YIPE!

What we have are some recordings taken between 1950 and 1958 of Louis playing with several different groups... the personnel are on the back scan, along with recording session dates and locations.

What scares me is that I am looking at the waveforms and this is NOT mono, so someone has doinked with the recordings... I summed the 2 channels (post-recording) and it really doesn't sound that good in mono, so I did a little tweaking and left them as stereo files. At least these aren't treated like the crummy Capitol DuoPhonic process (BLEAH).

There are some good performances in here, and good sidemen, like Trummy Young, Peanuts Hucko, Barney Bigard, Charlie Shavers, Earl Hines, Cozy Cole, and Jack Teagarden to name a few. Give it a listen and see what you think.

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

See why Satchmo says: I Love Jazz!

REPOST: Herbie Mann - Today

Ah, the rites of cleaning and the joys of unearthing stuff I forgot I had... I was tasked by She Who Must Be Obeyed to find a certain Rod Stewart album that I thought I had on vinyl. No, sir, no LP there, so I have this bright idea: dig into the rack of boxes covered up by several sleeping bags and about 500 lbs of cables... the boxes that hold the reel-to-reel tapes. I found said Rod Stewart album, dutifully ripped it and burned a CD for her, then went back in and dug out a BUNCH of reels that were in there, undiscovered for well over 2 or 3 years. This will give me some great material for you for the next few postings (interspersed with the usual vynil goodies, of course!).

First one up is a Herbie Mann album from 1966, with arrangements and combo conducted by Oliver Nelson. Why Herbie needs a conductor for a small group, I know not... but it has some good stuff on here. With compositions ranging from David & Bacharach to Duke Ellington to Lennon & McCartney, there is grist for the mill, as it were, and it is handled quite well.

The personnel are listed on the back cover, so I won't re-post that here, as the full size scans are available.

So, off we go, with the first of a bunch of nifty reels for your pleasure... no having to thread up the reel deck, no worries about splicing a broken tape, just enjoyment!

Cover scans are here:
The front...
The back...

Rack up Herbie Mann - Today and press the play button!

First off... reposts!

Hi there, welcome to ANOTHER audio share from Casa del Club Impaler.

What I'm gonna do is this: I am gonna repost ALL the reel posts from MoodieToonz over here so we have something to look at, then we can start with new stuff.

I'll be posting pop, jazz, classical, and even some spoken word reels here, even some home recordings of stuff. The only limitation is that it has to (a) not be currrently in-catalog & available to buy retail, and (b) it's on reel-to-reel tape.

Also, I will be bringing up my Revox A77 so there may even be some stuff from 10.5" reel on here.

Also, since some of this stuff will be coming from eBay, and I am starting to get The Eyebrow from my server provider, it would be nice to throw some shekels at them.... and that will help me get more cool stuff for you all to enjoy!

Thanks for the support, and be looking here for more reel adventures.

- the Impaler