If I Had A Pair Of Wings: Jamaican Doo Wop, Vol. 2
Repressed by popular demand! Lauren Laverne's comp of the week on BBC Radio 6 Music w/c 11th Jan.
Girlesque
After the groundbreaking new edition of the legendary and iconic compilation "My Pussy Belongs To Daddy" from 1957, Ebalunga!!! presents the exquisite solo album "Girlesque" by the incomparable Faye Richmonde. Originally released in 1959, "Girlesque" once again captures the attention of the audience with its unique blend of genres and provocative song titles. Without succumbing to vulgarity, Faye Richmonde maintains sophistication, ease and witty humor, playing with memorable melodies and captiv…
The Third Man
*2024 stock* "Carol Reed’s classic post-war mystery, The Third Man, hardly lacks for admirers. If in 1949 it was merely a well-received thriller, “a bang-up melodrama” as one New York Times reviewer put it, at some indeterminate moment it became a masterpiece – a cherished grandfather-clock in the Academy attic. In 1999, a BFI poll declared it the No. 1 greatest British film of all time. In 2018, Time Out rightly criticised this list’s lack of diversity and ran its own poll on the subject. They …
Exotic Dreams – Martin Denny Presents The Enticing Voice Of Ethel Azama
Exotica masterpiece finally re-issued ! Which record is produced by Martin Denny, arranged by pianist Paul Conrad and features vintage Exotica's second lady who is only outclassed by the Peruvian chantress Yma Sumac? It's Exotic Dreams, released in 1958 that puts – so tells the cover artwork – "the enticing voice of Ethel Azama" (1934–1984), a Hawaiian Jazz singer, into the spotlight. Martin Denny discovered her a few years later and was able to negotiate with his house label Liberty Records, wh…
Mganga
Japan goes to Africa ! It's more than a bit ironic that Tak Shindo's most "exotic" album, the superb Mganga!, boasts no connection to his own Japanese heritage, instead focusing on the primal rhythms and tribal chants of Africa. Rooted largely in the arranger's experience on the Latin jazz circuit, its Afro-Cuban rhythms, sampled animal sounds, and chants capture an African musical culture based far more in fantasy than reality, much as rival exotica maestros like Martin Denny and Les Baxter con…
I Had The Craziest Dream: Modern Jazz And Hard-Bop In Post War London, Vol. 2
The second volume in a survey of the modern jazz & hard-bop scenes that emerged in the new cultural melting pot of post war London, with recordings from the end of the 1940s through to the early 1960s. Featuring representations from players whose roots lay in the East-End's jewish community alongside a wealth of talent of Caribbean and African descent playing and recording in post war London during this period. Made in partnership with the Barbican to coincide with the exhibition Postwar Modern:…
I Had The Craziest Dream: Modern Jazz And Hard-Bop In Post War London, Vol. 3
The third volume in a survey of the modern jazz & hard-bop scenes that emerged in the new cultural melting pot of post war London, with recordings from the end of the 1940s through to the early 1960s. Featuring representations from players whose roots lay in the East-End's jewish community alongside a wealth of talent of Caribbean and African descent playing and recording in post war London during this period. Made in partnership with the Barbican to coincide with the exhibition Postwar Modern: …
The Fascinating World Of Electronic Music
We Are Busy Bodies announces the official reissue of the seminal 1959 album, The Fascinating World of Electronic Music by the Dutch electronic music pioneers Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan. In combining jazz with experimental electronics, the album significantly predates other early renowned popular electronic music productions such as the ‘Dr Who’ theme, realised by Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (1963) or Wendy Carlos’ Switched-On Bach (1968). Adored by David Bowie and sampled …
Highlights of Vortex
The brainchild of visual artist Jordan Belson and electronics polymath Henry Jacobs, the Vortex Experiments ran from 1957 to 1960, first at San Francisco’s Morrison Planetarium and later at the SF Museum of Art. The very name of these events announced their aim: a swirling totality of sensory experience. Around Belson’s richly-colored visuals – making use of the planetarium’s entire dome and featuring luminous, sharply geometric imagery projected through an array of devices – Jacobs ringed a sy…