“Blues Helping”  Love Sculpture  Rare Earth Records (1967)  Love Sculpture was a British band that formed in Cardiff in 1966 out of the remnants of another local band called The Human Beans. The band, featuring lead guitarist Dave Edmunds (Right), John Williams on bass, and drummer Bob “Congo” Jones disbanded in 1970 after two LPs, this is their first. (Edmunds then went on to success with the number one song “I Hear You Knocking” and “I Knew the Bride (When She Used To Rock and Roll)” and then with Nick Lowe formed the band Rockpile.)

“Blues Helping” is pretty straight forward British blues rock with covers of “Summertime,” “Wang Dang Doodle,” and “Shake Your Hips”

Below is Robert Indiana’s “Love Sculpture” located on the corner of 6th Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan, NY.

Below is the album cover for “Renegade” by Rage Against The Machine which parodies the “Love” sculpture.  (Neither Robert Indiana nor Rage have any other connection with the “Blues Healing” LP that started this ramble.  None that I know of that is.)

(21 votes, average: 3.29 out of 5)

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Federico Moreno Torroba y su orquesta en Pinceladas Musicales de Agustin Lara  TK Records

(24 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

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Max Jacob and Fancis Poulenc  “Le Bal Masque”  Vega Records  Art by Joan Miro.

(30 votes, average: 3.53 out of 5)

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Cool Gabriels Groove Records  (1956)  Andy Warhol illustration and design.

This rare and longtime hard-to-find album was conceived to show how enjoyable cool trumpets can sound. Featured “Cool Gabriels” are Conte Candoli, Nick Travis, Don Stratton, Bernie Glow, Phil Sunkel, Al de Risi and Dick Sherman.  With a rhythm section of Elliot Lawrence (p), Burgher Jones (b), Sol Gubin (d)

The tune contained in this album were selected specifically to give each “Gabriel” a chance to show his stuff and also to demonstrate the various moods that could be brilliantly exemplified with a trumpet ensemble. The fun that the musicians had making these recordings is apparent on every selection.

Elevation (Mulligan-Lawrence) 2:54 / Five O’Clock Shadow (Lawrence-Reichner) 3:56 / Happy Hooligan (Mulligan) 2:54 / Spooky (Cohn) 2:54 / Each Other’s Arms (Lawrence-Reichner-Glenn) 3:59 / The Swingin’ Scot 1 & 2 (Lawrence) 3:10 / Nick (Benson Brooks) 2:59 / Cupcake (Cohn) 2:59 / Mostly Latin (Lawrence) 2:21 / Love is Just Arround the Corner (Lawrence) 2:49 / Something Blue (Selden) 3:59

(25 votes, average: 2.76 out of 5)

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George Siravo and His Orchestra  “Portraits in Hi-Fi”  Decca Records

(24 votes, average: 3.63 out of 5)

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“Dali in Venice”  London Records.  1962.

(32 votes, average: 3.84 out of 5)

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Thunderbird Records Present “Indian Songs of the Southwest” (Gems for Collectors) Includes a paste on cover of native American art by Gerald Nailor from 1948. Interesting liner notes too.

(22 votes, average: 3.27 out of 5)

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A nice illustrated cover by Ben Shahn (1898-1969). “Chicago Style Jazz” on Columbia.

Art, as I saw it one day when I helped hang a National Academy show while I was a student there, was about cows. In those days, early in the twenties, there were many cow paintings. More than that, the cows always stood knee-deep in purple shadows. For the life of me I never learned to see purple where there was no purple — and I detested cows. I was frankly distressed at the prospects for me as an artist.

But there came a time when I stopped painting, stopped in order to evaluate all these doubts. If I couldn’t see purple where there was no purple–I wouldn’t use it. If I didn’t like cows, I wouldn’t paint them. What then was I to paint? Slowly I found that I must paint those things that were meaningful to me–that I could honestly paint in the shapes and colors I felt belonged to them. What shall I paint? Stories. – Ben Shahn

Ben Shahn was an artist who spoke to the world. A man of uncompromising beliefs, he became the most popular artist of his age – his work was on the cover of Time as well as in the Museum of Modern Art.

Shahn came to prominence in the 1930s with “The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti,” a politically pointed series about the Italian anarchists who many believed were framed for murder. He went on to paint murals and take photographs for the government during the New Deal, and to become a successful painter and commercial artist.

In 1956-57, Ben Shahn was the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University (poetry was broadly defined as “all poetic expression in language, music, or the fine arts.”) During that time he gave a series of lectures, later collected and published by Harvard University Press. The Shape of Content has been in print and widely read since its publication in 1957. In fact, many people come into contact with Shahn’s writing before they are aware of his art.

(23 votes, average: 3.91 out of 5)

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“Passion in Paint”  Henri Rene and his Orchestra.  RCA Victor  “Famous Paintings Set to Music”  We’ve seen this concept executed differently already.  Compare with this Vincent Price cover.

(9 votes, average: 3.44 out of 5)

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Tschaikowsky “Pathetique” Symphony on HALO Records.   (Thanks to Mona Lisa)

(15 votes, average: 2.87 out of 5)

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