Tinkly Stuff That Sounds Elegant

Here is a bunch of stuff from my tape-off-the-radio days.  I've been able to identify only a few of the pieces, but they are all harpsichord or related performances.  To my mind, this is one of the perfect background reading-or-studying kinds of music.

There are 19 tracks.  Tracks 3 and 4 are Bach's Prelude and Fuge in C Major, the first two pieces of Book One of The Well-Tempered Clavier.  Track 8 is Beethoven's Minuet in G, also known to some as the "think music" piece in the film The Music Man.  It's the "la-dee-dah, dee-dah, dee-dah" melody that his would-be band members are supposed to conceptualize in their heads before trying to play.

Other than those three selections, the names and composers of the other pieces are up for identifying!

Give 'em a listen.

If you like this sort of music, then this is the sort of music you will like! 

 

Music Review -- Golden Age by Max Raabe and The Palast Orchester

This is a great collection of pop music from the 1920s and 1930s (mostly -- see the Bonus Tracks).  The performances are top-rate; listen to a song or two with your eyes closed and you’ll expect to be opening them in a dive in some city’s lower side -- except this stuff is played too well.

            While some may feel that Band leader Max Raabe’s with is too dry, or his (metaphorical) eyebrow is too arched, this style of singing perfectly fits the selections we hear in this album.  I’d love to hear Raabe maybe do a couple of duets with a female vocalist, though.

            If you relish that decadent jazz known as “the music between the wars” (to steal a phrase), you will really enjoy this disc.  The old-style arrangements of more modern tunes, tracks 18 and 19, were lost on me because I’m not familiar with the “original” versions.

            A few of the tracks were recorded at live performances.  You can see a lot of these on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=max+raabe+and+the+palast+orchester+youtube&sm=3 .  There you will see some of the fun and humor that you may not feel in the CD.

            Give me Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester any day!

Here are the tracks:

1. Singin' in the Rain 

2. Cheek to Cheek 

3. Just One of Those Things 

4. Though You're Not the First One 

5. These Foolish Things 

6. Love Thy Neighbour 

7. Over My Shoulder 

8. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf 

9. All God's Children 

10. Youkali 

11. Love Song of Tahiti 

12. Moon of Alabama 

13. Mein Kleiner Grüner Kaktus 

14. Tout Est Permis 

15. Tomorrow Is Another Day 

16. Dream a Little Dream of Me 

17. Cosi Cosa 

Bonus Tracks:

18. Oops!... I Did It Again 

19. Sex Bomb 

20. One Cannot Kiss Alone 

21. Für Frauen ist Das Kein Problem  

Their site is here:  http://www.palast-orchester.de/en/ .  Don’t ask me why they’re going aquatic!
 

And, here is the Amazon page for the release: http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Age-Max-Raabe/dp/B008FO81OK

Happy listening! 

Follow the Yellow Disco Road!

From 1979, we have a disco delight (maybe) ...

The late 1970s saw a mountain of cross-promotional re-recordings and rearrangements of tunes supposed to be familiar to an easily bemused audience.  There was Mickey Mouse Disco, Disco Duck, etc ...

The LP ran in two separate continuous arrangements.  Here is the contents listing:

01 - Over The Rainbow / Cyclone / Munchkinland / Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead / Munchkinland (Again) / We're Off To See The Wizard (The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz)
02 - Poppies / The Spell / Optimistic Voices / The Merry Old Land Of Oz / The Haunted Forest / March Of The Winkies / Dorothy's Rescue / If I Were King Of The Forest / Over The Rainbow / The Reprise

See you in the Emerald City!

 

Stomu Yamashta -- Music from "Tempest"

I neither know or care what this movie is about, other than a dim memory of seeint the trailer many decades ago and thinking, "That looks like a stupid movie."

But the soundtrack was written by Stomu Yamashta, whose Sea & Sky album is, to me, a very moving piece of music.

A few years ago I bought the LP of the Tempest soundtrack; here it is.

1)  Tempest Fantasia

2)  Nature

3)  Tango

4)  Theme from Tempest

5)  Wind Words

6)  Epilogue
A word on inclusions:  Track 3, "Tango," is by Lieber & Stoller.  I like it; it's an instrumental; I kept it.  But the final track on the soundtrack LP is the song "Manhattan," performed by Dinah Washington.  It screeched at my consciousness like a kitten in a blender, so I dropped it.

Hope you like it, too.