What are you listening to?

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From the CD Notes:


THE ELEGANT SOUND OF THE ROYALETTES
The evolution of Rhythm & Blues music has been a long and grinding one. Many exponents of this part of the musical world have faded and left their techniques and musical contributions as a legacy for stars of the future. I have, in my musical life, witnessed great transition of music on radio. Today, it is a very challenging one because originality and production are very essential.

In 1961 a talent show was held on television in Baltimore with contestants from all over the State of Maryland. The TV program was headed by the famous BUDDY DEANE. The winners, by unanimous choice, of this contest were four very pretty and extremely talented young ladies by the names of SHEILA, RONNIE, TERRY and ANITA, known today as THE ROYALETTES.

The Royalettes have appeared to sell-out crowds at my Royal Theatre Shows in Baltimore five times. They have appeared with great stars such as: The Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas, The Coasters, Wilson Picket, Marvin Gaye and many, many others and have brought the house down time and time again. Their success has been especially satisfying to me because I have believed in them since I heard and sawthem for the first time.

The uniting of The Royalettes, Teddy Randazzo and MGM Records has proven to be very successful. Their smash recording of ITS GONNA TAKE A MIRACLE is a tremendous indication of wonderful things to come from this fabulous group. The Royalettes sing their hearts and souls out and on stage are as powerful as they are on records. So be on the lookout for The Royalettes when they come to your town. Sit back, relax and enjoy the epitome, the very zenith of entertainment of THE ROYALETTES as they sing their way into your heart. Once you heart THE GREAT ROYALETTES, It's Gonna' Take A Miracle to forget them.

King Paul “Fat Daddy” Johnson - High Priest of Soul - WITH Radio, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

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From my perspective, this highly underrated group is the female equivalent of Little Anthony and the Imperials in terms of song arrangement and background instrumentation.
This is for good reason...

"Randazzo wrote a string of major hits for other artists with composing partner, Bobby Weinstein [2], including "Pretty Blue Eyes", a top ten hit for Steve Lawrence. He penned many songs for Little Anthony and the Imperials, producing and arranging several albums for the group in the mid-60s. The hit songs included "Goin' Out of My Head" (#6 Pop, #22 R&B), which was covered by numerous artists including The Zombies and Frank Sinatra; "Hurt So Bad" (#10 Pop, #3 R&B), which was covered by The Lettermen (#12 in 1969), as well as Linda Ronstadt who took it to #8 in 1980; and the Imperials' Top 20 hits, "I'm On The Outside (Looking In)" and "Take Me Back". The Lettermen combined "Goin' Out of My Head" with Frankie Valli's hit, "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" in a medley which reached #7 in 1968."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Randazzo

This group should have had more than one major hit, but the competition in the 1950s through the late 1970s was much more fierce in the industry than what the music industry can produce based on marginalized musical talent versus physical looks. Video indeed killed the radio star...
 
Dusted - When We Were Young

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Lovely, chilled, but very musical music.

The Amazon review says:

"The first release by Rollo, the brains behind Faithless, and his new band, is a concept album of epic proportions. Thirteen cinematic downtempo tracks, When We Were Young is the stuff of childhood fairy tales and nightmares, covering love, hate, pain and murder (all, bizarrely, children story favourites) via the medium of hypnotic dub bass grooves and slow-motion beats. Musically, this is Massive Attack letting their imaginations run riot. The jostling of electronic bleeps, whizzing noises and sub-bass loops, with grand piano and spaced out vocals of Luke Garwood and Rachel Brown on "Want U" and "If You Go Down To The Woods Today" being the key moments when Rollo's vision of children's-stories-turned-child's-bad-dream strike the right nerve. The fundamental problem with concept albums is that the concept often gets in the way, and When We Were Young is no different. At points, creating the right mental imagery takes precedence, relegating the music to a prop--the annoying choir boy of "Always Remember...Pt1" being a case in point of a beautiful come down track blighted by a gimmick. But it's that there are so many pieces of boundary-free music that makes this an awe-inspiring album, and the concept an added extra. --Dan Gennoe"

I would agree with him as well :)
 
Back in the ice age when VCR was king, I took an interest in opera. I now have a large collection of opera on CD and DVD. But I also came across the live broadcasts from the New York Met on a Saturday evening throughout the winter - on BBC Radio 3 in the UK. These often started around 5.30pm and sometimes didn't finish until after 10pm and beyond. So I recorded on VCR set on long play. I have a large collection of these recordings. Played back through my amp and speakers the sound quality is amazing. And from very cheap tapes.

I'm listening to Idomeneo by Mozart right now.

Just the stuff to start the day!
 
Radio 3 live broadcasts usually sound wonderful, really spacious and a proper dynamic range. Sadly, I don't understand the appeal of opera, at all, except for the obvious lollipops and Rossini overtures.

Recently playing:
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Ah, Green Day! Masters of the facile rising chord progression and the turn-on-a-sixpence time changes which were such a thrill back in the early 80s. The formula still works, but this is a bit of a guilty pleasure which ill befits my age and dignity. ;)
 
Legendary blues singer Etta James dies in Calif.

http://music.yahoo.com/news/legendary-blues-singer-etta-james-dies-calif-163709371.html

In her honor...
At Last - Etta James

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1uunRdQ61M[/video]
 
Etta James Rocks The House

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Simply one of the greatest live blues albums ever captured on tape. Cut in 1963 at the New Era Club in Nashville, the set finds Etta James in stellar shape as she forcefully delivers her own "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and "Seven Day Fool" interspersed with a diet of sizzling covers ("What'd I Say," "Sweet Little Angel," "Money," "Ooh Poo Pah Doo"). The CD incarnation adds three more great titles, including an impassioned reprise of her "All I Could Do Was Cry." Guitarist David T. Walker is outstanding whenever he solos. Bill Dahl Allmusic.com

http://www.allmusic.com/album/etta-james-rocks-the-house-r10165
 
Boz Scaggs - Come on Home

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On this prime collection of R&B and blues songs and influences from Boz Scaggs' youth -- and four new yet classic-sounding self-penned originals -- the blue-eyed soulman eschews the slick production values of his pop chart-toppers such as "Lido" and "Lowdown," instead getting way down and his hands dirty with the honest blood, sweat, and tears of the real down-home blues. Packing in tow drummer Jim Keltner, guitarist Fred Tackett (from Little Feat), and slow-burning, soulful horn arrangements by Willie Mitchell, one of the founding fathers of Memphis soul (and composer of Come On Home's title track), Scaggs' covers of songs originally composed and performed by such legends as Jimmy Reed ("Found Love"), T-Bone Walker (the legendary "T-Bone Shuffle"), Sonny Boy Williamson ("Early in the Morning") and Bobby "Blue" Bland (the thunderous "Ask Me 'Bout Nothing (But the Blues)"), along with "It All Went Down the Drain" (Earl King), and the smoldering "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)" (David Porter with Isaac Hayes), are absolutely impossible to resist. Come On Home is a genuine musical treasure.

by Chris Slawecki - Allmusic.com
http://www.allmusic.com/album/come-on-home-r259536/review
 
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