Day 0419 - Dire Straits

Dire Straits "Dire Straits" (1978)

Kind of an out-of-place album amongst the late 70s rush of punk, disco and the burgeoning new-wave scene. Dire straits was a vaguely blues-based 'adult-contemporary' rock band. Even the band's individual members are slightly incongruous in a rock setting. Band lead guitarist, singer and principal songwriter Mark Knopfler was an ex-journalist and schoolteacher; Knopfler's younger brother, guitarist David was a social worker; sociology student John Illsley on bass; and drummer Pick Withers.

The album did not fare well in Dire Straits' native England, but once the single "Sultans of Swing" blew up in the US, the UK sat up and took attention.

I don't have any particularly strong feelings about this album. It is perfectly enjoyable with some nice melodies and good musicianship... that said, it's so MoR that I find it more "inoffensive" than "life-changing".

Day 0018 - Sarah Vaughan at Mister Kelly's

Sarah Vaughan "Sarah Vaughan at Mister Kelly's" (1958) - got it

I LOVE Sarah Vaughan, she just has the most amazing vocal control and range of any jazz/popular singer I can think of.

I'm not usually a fan of live albums but Vaughan sounds note perfect, the recording quality is great, and you get the added charm of Vaughan's extra vocal gymnastics, her sassy banter with the crowd, and her quick-thinking ad-libs any time she happens to forget a lyric.

It's hard to tell, given that it's a sound recording, but at one point it sounds like she knocked over her lyric sheets.  Certainly at one point she ad-libs and scats the lyrics for an entire song ("how high the moon")

Day 0007 - Songs For Swingin' Lovers!

Frank Sinatra "Songs For Swingin' Lovers!" (1956) got it

Something of a companion piece to "In the wee small hours".  Where that was the breakup album you play at night and cry bitter tears into your scotch; this is the bright sunny flipside, as you revel in joys and wonders of love!

Frank has never been in better voice, and Nelson Riddle's arrangements are once again top-notch with brilliant little jabs of horns or pa-pows of drum fills that catch you unawares and put a smile on your face. Apparently after the band had run through Riddle's arrangement of "I've got you under my skin" they gave him a round of applause.

The book points out that the album's 45 minute runtime over 15 tracks shows that the 3 minute pop song was already well established here.

See this is where I'm glad for this listening 'quest' because I love this album but it seems there are always so many things I want to listen to , that it's easy enough for great albums like this to slip my net for a while.

Day 0006 - Ellington at Newport

Duke Ellington "Ellington at Newport"

The Duke had suffered the fate of most big jazz bandleaders in the second half of the 20th century a major drop in popularity despite the fact that he continued to tour solidly.

Despite swing's fall from grace, Duke's band's set at Newport ending up being a raging success.  The record company (as record companies are wont to do) rushed to capitalise on it and release this album... only to find that recordings of the show were pretty damaged.  Columbia dealt with this by getting Ellington into the studio to re-record the set.  The album was then patched together using the studio recordings, surviving pieces of the live recordings, and assorted canned applause.

Apparently there has since been a recording pieced together of the original show and it is something special... to be fair though, this version is great too; just a tight band playing some hot music!

Day 0005 - This is Fats

Fats Domino "This is Fats!" (1957)

...not to be mistaken with his 1956 album "This is Fats Domino"

I listened to this one a few years back when I first had a look at the '1001' albums book and remember thinking it was maybe a bit samey.  Certainly, when you compare it to the albums released in the mid-late 60s sure it can seem a bit limited with similar blues basslines being the core of pretty much every song; but then you get a mix of ballads and more upbeat numbers and something like "the fat man's hop" which has an almost middle-eastern vibe to the horn arrangements!  I've come to appreciate the subtleties a bit more.

"Blueberry Hill" will always have a special place in my heart because when we'd go on family holidays my parents had these compilation albums 'Cruisin' Classics' and that song was a favourite from it. According to the book, Blueberry Hill was never successfully recorded in the studio and was plagued with issues.  They couldn't find the sheet music, then once things were underway Fats kept forgetting the lyrics so they ended up cutting and pasting several aborted takes together after the fact.

Day 0004 - The Wildest

Louis Prima "The Wildest" (1956)

This is an album that I checked out the first time I had a read through the '1001 albums' book (2010 or so) and ended up buying up a greatest hits album that I found in a shop here.  This album is as good as his greatest hits and, at 10 tracks, much more concise a musical statement.

Dismissed as an Italian Louis Armstrong (not helped by covering 3 of Armstrong's tunes here) he is another artist whose career (like Sinatra's, as mentioned on day 0001) was floundering, but he married a young 22 year old singer and added her and a hot young sax player to revitalise his band.  That seemed to do the trick, with that new burst of energy being cut essentially live in the studio.  A great mix of tracks with some great vocal harmonies on the driving "Just a gigolo/I aint got nobody" and Prima and his wife Keely Smith trading lines on (the lyrically dated) "Just for You".

I just think it's an incredibly fun album, even the sweeter tracks like 'buonasera senorita' are performed with a twinkle in the eye.  The band is tight, the playing is hot and, as the book says: "this is irrepressible music that more than matches its glorious cover shot"

Fun fact, Louis also performed the voice of King Louie in the original 'Jungle Book' film.