Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of record covers from the golden age of LPs


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April, 2008

Some body is happy

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Brasil Em Cha Cha Cha.   Copacabana Records.   That Bacardi is good shit!

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Miles away

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The cover on top “Music for Your Vacation” is an easy listening lp from Columbia Records Argentina that shares the same stock photo as “Miles Ahead” below.

“Miles Ahead” by Miles Davis was released in 1957. This was the first album Davis recorded with Gil Evans, who combined the ten pieces that make up the album in a kind of suite, each following the preceding one without interruption. Davis is the only soloist on Miles Ahead, which also features a prominent horn section.

Miles was reportedly unhappy about the album’s original cover, which featured a photo of a young white woman aboard a sailboat. He made his displeasure known to Columbia executive George Avakian asking, “Why’d you put that white bitch on there?” Avakian later stated that the question was made in jest. For later releases of the record, the original cover-photo has been substituted by a photo of Miles Davis.

The album features Miles (on flugelhorn) and his band for the recordings consisting of Bernie Glow (lead trumpet), Ernie Royal, Louis Mucci, Taft Jordan, and John Carisi (trumpets); Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland, and Joe Bennett (trombones); Tom Mitchell (bass trombone); Willie Ruff and Tony Miranda (horns, with Jimmy Buffington replacing Miranda on one session); Bill Barber (tuba); Lee Konitz (alto sax); Danny Bank (bass clarinet); Romeo Penque and Sid Cooper (flute and clarinet, with Edwin Caine replacing Cooper on one session); Paul Chambers (bass) and Art Blakey (drums). The album features songs from four separate recording dates each with slight modifications of the band members.

A fifth recording date involved Davis alone (re-)recording material to cover/patch mistakes/omissions in his solos using overdubbing. The fact that this album was originally produced in mono makes these inserted overdubbings rather obvious in the new stereo setting.

On the alternate take of “Springsville”, Wynton Kelly features on piano as part of a version that underwent a re-write for the next recording session. Only about 10 seconds of his playing is heard on this track, although about 5 seconds of this can be heard in the master track. Nevertheless, Kelly’s contribution to the album was left uncredited until the reissues came out. (Wikepedia)

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (32 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)
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Young Monk

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Thelonious Monk Plays.   Prestige Lp 189 with Percy Heath and Art Blakey. (1954 Session). Tracks are: “Work”, “Nutty”, “Blue Monk”. “Just a Gigalo”.

Work — Only recorded once, in a trio setting on September 22, 1954 (Prestige PRLP 189), Work is a dissonant, difficult, wild melodic ride that artists have been willing to take. The title speaks for itself. Besides Monk’s version of Work, for which he alone is responsible for stating the melody, one of the few musicians to take up the challenge was soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, who recorded it on his debut album (Prestige 7125) in November of 1957

Nutty — First recorded on September 22, 1954, in a trio setting with Percy Heath (bass) and Art Blakey (drums), “Nutty”  was among Monk’s more popular tunes. Perhaps the most famous recording of it is with John Coltrane, July 1957 (Jazzland JLP[9]46). A few writers have strangely tried to link the title to Monk’s alleged state of mind (!), but any such claims betrays an ignorance of the “hip”  lingo of the day. In the 1940s and 50s (and even later), “nutty”  commonly meant “excellent”  or “cool” -like “insane,”  “mad,”  and “crazy.

Blue Monk — Monk recorded “Blue Monk”  more than any other composition besides “”ËœRound Midnight.”  His first recording dates back to September 22, 1954 (Prestige PRLP 189 LP7027).   Abbey Lincoln added lyrics and recorded it under the title Monkery’s the Blues. Monk himself was summoned to the studio to hear Lincoln’s version and to get his blessings. He approved.

In the early 1950s Monk recorded four albums for Prestige. In 1953 Prestige released two 10-inch LPs, Thelonious Monk Trio (PRLP-142) and Thelonious Monk Quintet with Sonny Rollins and Julius Watkins (PRLP-166), the latter his trio (with drums and bass) augmented by Rollins’ tenor sax and Watkins’ French horn. In 1954 Prestige released two more 10-inch LPs, Thelonious Monk Quintet (PRLP-180), and Thelonious Monk Trio (PRLP-189). The material on these four 10-inch LPs was repackaged and reissued by Prestige on a series of 12-inch LPs in 1956 and 1957 (Thelonious Monk, PRLP-7027; Monk, PRLP-7053; Thelonious Monk/Sonny Rollins, PRLP-7075), which were themselves reissued with new titles and catalog numbers starting in 1959 and continuing into the mid-1960s (as Monk’s Moods, PRLP-7159, a reissue of 7027; Work, PRLP-7169, a reissue of 7075; and We See, PRLP-7245, a reissue of 7053). (We See was later again reissued as The Golden Monk, PRLP-7363; Monk’s Moods as The High Priest, PRLP-7508; and Work as The Genius of Thelonious Monk, PRST-7656 ““ in “electronically rechanneled”  fake stereo.)

Notes courtesy Robin D.G. Kelley.

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Ball buster

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Klik-Klak.

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Bumptious!

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The Movers. “Bump Jive” No. 9. From South Africa.   In 1974 I came in second in the Bump dance contest at my Jr. High School Dance.

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Hora, Hora, Hora

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My Bubba & Zaeda’s   “Cha, Cha, Cha.”   Couldn’t they get Jews for the cover?

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (33 votes, average: 3.03 out of 5)
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Smells like team spirit

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“Music for Baton Twirlers.”   Mercury Records.

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A blood thirsty scream

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Los Dandies “Dracula Cha-Cha-Cha”

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Here a chick, there a chick

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“The Sound of The Chicks”   Viking (New Zealand)

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“Wouldn’t you like to be a squirter too?”

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(Dr. Pepper comes in a bottle but …) Squirt Does Its Thing  “Semi-Soft Music in Tijuana Style.”

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (21 votes, average: 3.19 out of 5)
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