Filmi Fest

Most people have some kind of "I've always wanted to go there, ever since I was young" kind of place. Ten years ago this month, I was lucky enough to be able to go to that place, after about a year of working two jobs and saving whatever extra money I had. For some people, it's all about backpacking around Europe; for me, I was always fascinated by India. So in November of 1999, I packed my bags and took off to India to just do "whatever" for a few months.

While there, I managed to see a few of the latest "Bollywood blockbusters" of the time - two of them at the stunning Raj Mandir Cinema in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Since there were no subtitles, I really didn't understand much (although Indian movie scripts often have this weird tendency to switch randomly from Hindi to English every so often), but it's always a good time, and I've always liked Indian music. So, to mark this anniversary, I offer a few of the Bollywood movie soundtracks I have collected on vinyl - in all cases, I wasn't really searching for these albums, they just turned up in record shops, often in the "world music" section.
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Hariyali Aur Rasta ("The Greenery and the Road") is a black-and-white oldie from 1962, so the music is definitely not like anything you'd hear these days. It's a romantic flick, so most of the songs are melodious love songs backed up by string orchestra, which has always been popular in Bollywood music, particularly back in the "old days".

Most songs are sung by hugely popular Lata Mangeshkar, whose music was featured in a previous post on this blog, in some cases doing a duet with the equally famed male singer Mukesh.

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

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Nikaah (an Arabic word roughly translated as "marriage contract"), released in 1982, was a film that dealt with the relatively touchy subject (for the time) of divorce within the Indian Muslim community.

It was directed by B.R. Chopra who was well-known for directing these types of "social commentary" films. As is often the case with people in the Hindi film industry, Chopra is from a "film family"; his brother Yash Chopra (see next entry) and nephew Aditya Chopra are also popular film directors.

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

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Directed by Yash Chopra, Chandni ("Moonlight"), released in 1989, became a huge box-office hit. It's basically the same love-triangle story that has been explored in countless other Hindi movies, but for some reason it struck a chord and eventually had a major influence on the industry. Its massive success, along with other films of the day, helped bring about a shift away from the violent action movies popular in the late 1980s, towards films with more romantic and family-based themes.

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

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Contrary to what I just said about the shift to fewer violent action films in the late 80s, Tujhe Nahin Chhodunga, also released in 1989, is clearly a bloody shoot-'em-up affair. Based on the cover, everybody has a gun, or possibly a grenade, and is about to kill or get killed (or, in the case of the young lady, perhaps have bad things happen to them after their judgment is impaired by drinking two glasses of wine at a time).

While most of the of music on the other albums featured here is carefully crafted, this is more of the hastily-thrown-together "potboiler" stuff, often featuring synths and disco beats. The track "Bum Chic Bum" is particularly notable for this.

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

Kinda punk, kinda lounge, kinda-sorta funk ... rich and tasty like Butter (08)

Released in 1996, this album is not from the "golden vinyl era" by any means. I just happen to have it on vinyl, since 1996 was a year of "vinyl obsession" of sorts for me and I tended to buy anything I could on LP instead of CD. Listening to this album again recently, I was reminded of how thoroughly it rocks, so I felt it needed to be resurrected.

Butter 08 was a collaboration of several musicians from different groups, including Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori from Cibo Matto, and Russell Simins from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Intended to be a side project, they released only one self-titled album, on the Beastie Boys' now-defunct Grand Royal label. I was really into Cibo Matto at the time (still am), so I was compelled to see them during what was probably their only tour, at Lee's Palace in Toronto. It was an incredible, high-energy show that included a big freaky guy in a Yoda mask who busted out on stage and started jumping around and providing "yelling" vocals (you can hear him on the track "Degobrah").

The music is a mish-mash of raucous neo-punk ("9MM", "It's The Rage", "Degobrah"), laid-back lounge ("How Do I Relax"), funky guitars ("Shut Up", "Hard To Hold"), and Beck-esque lo-fi grooves ("What Are You Wearing", "Sex Symbol"). It's not for everyone, to be sure, but if you like any of these genres, or if you're a Cibo Matto fan, you'll likely dig some of the stuff from Butter 08.

Listen for the incongruous Hall & Oates homage at the beginning of "It's The Rage". They also made a video for the track "Butter 0f 69" that I didn't know about until I started writing up this blurb - it can be found here:

[Link to "Butter Of 69" video]

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

Happy Birthday to Blog!

Well, it's about two weeks late, but The Vinyl LP Resurrection Collection has a birthday this month! To celebrate one year of resurrecting vinyl recordings to today's convenient digital format, we'll take a cue from the very first post on this blog, and go around the world again!

Last year, we went to New Orleans, hopped over to Greece, went back to the Americas into Trinidad and Tobago, and then finished our world tour in India.

This time, let's start in the east and head west: this year's world tour will start in China, then to South Africa. After that, we jet over to Brazil, and then relax for a while in sunny Barbados!
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Paul Horn is an American jazz/New Age flautist known as an innovator who has recorded a number of albums in "sacred" places, such as the Taj Mahal in India and the Potala Palace in Tibet. On this album, simply titled "China", he is given permission to play in the Temple of Heaven outside the Forbidden City in Beijing. Accompanying him is David M.Y. Liang, who plays along on other Chinese instruments.

The pieces on the first side are best described as a fusion of modern jazz and traditional Chinese, but the second side (track 4 onward) is where the more traditional pieces are found. Particularly beautiful is track 7, "Riding On The Wind", a sparse, ethereal piece featuring a bass flute and a Chinese zither called a ch'in.

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

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Amaduduzo is a Mbube group from South Africa. Mbube is a musical genre popularized in large part by the group known as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and may sound familiar to anyone who has heard Paul Simon's 1986 album Graceland.

A good chunk of the music on Siyabamukela consists of a cappella voices, while some passages feature light instrumental backup by traditional African instruments. A few songs are complete with full-on synthesizers and thumping bass beats. Personally I prefer the more subdued, traditional stuff, so if you're like me, you may want to skip the title track (track 1), and its reprise on track 5.

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

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I bought this album several years ago, and have always enjoyed listening to it. Unfortunately I have not been able to find much info on Clara Petraglia online, but one source put the release of this album in 1958. I can describe it as very simple folk songs sung in two-part harmony - Ms. Petraglia's voice is double-tracked and she accompanies herself on the guitar.

Sadly, some damage on the edge of this album has rendered the first track of both sides unplayable, and the album is a bit scratchy, so getting rid of all of the noise was neither easy nor entirely possible. Nevertheless, I think you'll enjoy this just the same.

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

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The Merrymen are a very popular and long-running group from the island of Barbados. Formed in the early 1960s, they became key players in the popularization of Barbadian calypso in the 60s and 70s. They became popular beyond the shores of Barbados, particularly in Europe, and even played at Carnegie Hall, in New York City, early in their career. They are still releasing albums as of the mid 2000s.

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

The Barry Sisters RELOADED

Just in time for Rosh Hashanah, we have more sweet tracks from our favourite swingin' Yiddish siblings, The Barry Sisters!

This album, "The Barry Sisters Sing", is brought to us by my new pal and a reader/listener of this blog, Ron Caddigan. You see, a few months ago, I posted an album of 'greatest hits' from the Barry Sisters, which prompted a comment from Ron saying how much he liked them as well. Since I didn't know Ron's name previously, I thought he was just a "random" person who had happened to visit this blog, but I found out later we were linked by about three or four degrees or separation, with Ron being the boyfriend of the daughter of the husband of an old friend of mine. So, we arranged to meet for lunch, and he entrusted me with this LP, so it could be featured on this blog as a sort of "Barry Sisters Part 2" kind of thing.

Like the 'greatest hits' album, this is full of sprightly tunes sung mostly in Hebrew/Yiddish (although there are some performed in English) by these two ladies who, perhaps by virtue of being sisters, have voices that seems to be meant to sing together. Lovely!

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

That's a Lot of Trombones

A 21-trombone salute? For this album, jazz trombonist Urbie Green assembled a group of 21 of the world's greatest trombone players (I'm dying to make a joke using the word tromboner but I'm gonna keep it professional) and over the course of three days, recorded these "tromboney" renditions of mostly pop and jazz standards.

There are indeed 21 trombones in the ensemble playing all together - possibly the biggest 'bone ensemble ever known! If 21 'bones seems like so much 'bone you'll groan, keep in mind that it's all backed up by a guitar/bass/drum-n-percussion rhythm section to help tone down the 'bone. So get into the 'Bone Zone ... 'bone so melodious, you'll be thrown!

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

Jug Band Music sounds so sweet,sounds so sweet, it's hard to beat

Keeping with the theme of "hot weather" music, today's post features music from Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band. Maybe it's because jug band music originated in the American South, but listening to it always makes me think of hangin' out on the porch, keepin' out of the bright, hot sun.

The earliest jug band music came around the 1920s, with the Memphis Jug Band as one of the major players. In the early 60s, jug band music experienced a revival of sorts, and Jim Kweskin's group, based in Boston, was one of a small handful of groups to achieve nationwide popularity. It's interesting to note that some well-known names in music came from this latter-day jug band revival: both John Sebastian, later with The Lovin' Spoonful, and Maria Muldaur, who sang the 1974 hit "Midnight at the Oasis", played in the Even Dozen Jug Band (Muldaur was also a part of Kweskin's group, and can be heard on this album, particularly on tracks 5, 9, and 17). Members of The Instant Action Jug Band would later on join Country Joe and the Fish, a group well known for Vietnam war protest songs in the late 60s. Finally, a few lads named John, Paul, and George, who were members of the British skiffle group The Quarrymen, would go on to form a group called The Beatles, who I understand were quite popular in their day. Skiffle music differs from jug band music, but shares the same spirit of using a variety of homemade instruments such as washboards, cigar-box guitars, comb-and-paper kazoos, etc.

This is a 24-track, double-disc compilation of Kweskin's greatest, released in 1970 and is a great intro to jug-band revival music.

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

Hot Like Hawaii

Hot, hazy days like this call for a bit of lazy, loungy summertime music. Santo & Johnny were an Italian-American pair of brothers from New York, who became best known for their instrumental hit "Sleep Walk". This was featured on their 1959 self-titled debut album and has since been used in countless films, TV shows and commercials, making it a very recognizable piece of music.

Two years later, in 1961, Santo & Johnny released this album of Hawaiian-influenced music. According to the back cover notes of this LP, "... there are only two kinds of people, those that have been to Hawaii, and those that dream about going there ... if you are one of the dreamers who have not yet made this most pleasurable of pilgrimages, this album will be your jet clipper or luxury liner straight to entertainment. The carefree joy, that urge to run away to a tropical island that is not too well hidden in all of us, is somewhat fulfilled when you sit back, close your eyes, and feel Hawaii all around you."

So there you go. It ain't quite Hawaii itself, but you'll save on airfare.

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)

Suddenly - it's the Hi-Lo's

The Hi-Lo's were a four-member vocal quartet formed in 1953, so named to reflect the vocal range of the group's singers. They were led by Gene Puerling, who became known for his densely-layered arrangements for a capella groups. He went on to work with similar groups such as The Manhattan Transfer and Take 6, and won a Grammy award in 1982 for his arrangement of "A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square" as performed by The Manhattan Transfer. Sadly, he passed away in March 2008.

Suddenly It's The Hi-Lo's was released originally in 1957, and features a number of jazz and pop standards, as well as a version of "Brahms' Lullaby", arranged by Puerling. Much of the material is a capella but they are backed up by an orchestra led by Frank Comstock, a well-known composer and band leader who worked extensively in TV and film.

For more information on the Hi-Lo's, visit their still-functioning website here. If you have your speakers on, you will be greeted by the group singing "Welcome to the Hi-Lo's ... dot com. BOP!"

click here to download the whole album
(click the "download folder" link on the Box.net page)