★Pleasure For Music
Harps of the Ancient Temples
2022 Repress Very often, the greatest artists just don’t fit. They stand out there on their own, and fall in strange, unexpected zones, often occupied only by themselves. This is was certainly the case for the American harpist, Gail Laughton, who’s lone, the 1969 LP, Harps of the Ancient Temples - long championed and hunted by record collectors - is finally receiving the vinyl reissue treatment after roughly a half century out of print. A truly stunning and visionary piece of work with almost no…
The Age of Electronicus / Maracatú / Word Jazz
This bundle collects three of the latest Pleasure For Music essential re-releases:Dick Hyman "The Age of Electronicus" (1969)Elisabeth Waldo "Maracatú" (1959)Ken Nordine "Word Jazz" (1957)Dick Hyman "The Age of Electronicus" (1969)
In his long career Dick Hyman has covered a great variety of music fields, from Broadway through music for film and television to jazz, classical, pop, and electronic music. The Age of Electronicus, originally released in 1969 is one of his Electronic Pop jewels. A br…
Word Jazz
Ken Nordine’s debut LP from 1957, Word Jazz, belongs to two histories. While interconnected, one is momentary - capturing the close and incredibly important alignment between jazz and poetry that emerged during the 1950s and 60s - while the other is transient and progressive, belonging to a continuum that still exists today. It stands alongside similar albums like those capturing Jack Kerouac’s work with Steve Allen, Kenneth Rexroth and Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s collaborations with The Cellar Jazz…
Maracatú
Elisabeth Waldo’s Maracatú, originally released in 1959, is a rare and early gesture of hybridic musical multiculturalism that has remained sinfully overlooked through the decades. Occupying a similar territory to now widely celebrated, roughly concurrent albums like Eden Ahbez's Eden's Island and Chaino’s Jungle Echoes, Pleasure For Music’s reissue turns history on its head, offering a rare opportunity for a visionary and forward-thinking body of work to receive its rightful due.Elisabeth Wald…
Fancy
Released in 1970, Fancy is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry. A dense and inspired selection of songs, mostly covers, as vivid portraits of different female characters in American culture. The album includes highly personal renditions of songs such as Burt Bacharach's I'll Never Fall In Love Again, Leon Russell's Delta Man, James Taylor's Something in the Way He Moves and Laura Nyro's Wedding Bell Blues. A major statement from a great artist and a true American c…
The Moviegoer
Produced in summer 1972 and released in autumn of the same year by Phillips Records, this is one of the most obscure and controversial albums in Scott Walker's discography. The album was poorly received by critics and if we exclude a 1975 reissue on Contour Label, it has since been deleted till this very welcomed re-release. The Moviegoer is a declared journey through Pop arrangements of iconic film music themes. The album includes mainstream oriented version of classic themes like Nino Rota's l…
The Age of Electronicus
In astounding gatefold sleeve, tip! Dick Hyman’s 1969 opus, The Age of Electronicus - a visionary, funky excursion into the vast potential presented by the newly developed Moog synthesizer - stands as a shining example of the post-war avant-garde’s infiltration of the popular realm. Awash with creative optimism about the role of progress, change, and technology in society at large, it’s one of those obscurities that’s long been championed by diggers across the world, but has never fully gotten i…
Let It Be Me
Born and rooted in the Newark Gospel scene, Linda Jones was a true and splendid soul sister active between 1963 and 1972 when she suddenly died too young of diabetes complications. Her strong gospel-influenced vocal style shines through the magnificent songs contained in Let It Be Me, her classic album originally released on Turbo Records in 1972. A powerful work full of love and deep soul vibrations.
It's Raining
Here's another unearthed gem from the late sixties American Jazzy Pop scene. Terri Rae was a quiet and yet creative girl from Ohio, and this is her first and definitive classic album. Backed from a fine orchestra arranged and directed by pianist Sammy Beskin, Rae's fresh voice interprets a superb selection of little known but excellent songs. The perfect record to bring the sunshine on a rainy day.
A Taste of India
Tip! This is the one and only Martin Denny diving into the highly exotic sounds of India. Originally released in 1968 on Liberty Records, A Taste of India stands as one of the best later Denny's work. Here the king of Exotica injects his gorgeous instrumental arrangements with tons of sitars and tanpuras as the main ingredients of another stylized sound trip. The album highlights include a memorable version of The Strawberry Alarm Clock's Incense and Peppermints and Denny's own masterpiece Hypno…
The Distant Galaxy
Donald John Sebesky was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, USA, on 10 December 1937; his father worked in a steel-cable factory, his mother was a housewife. At the age of eight he started learning the accordion; he later came to realize that this instrument was the best possible choice he could have made because, as he says, «the accordion is a 'mini-orchestra' and teaches the principles of harmony from the very beginning».In 1965 Don Sebesky joined Verve Records when Creed Taylor was still a prod…
The Plastic Cow Goes Moooooog
"With sound engineer and synth wizard Bernie Krause and Paul Beaver on board, this record falls easily in the realm of space-age pop. Originally released in 1970 on Dot Records and distributed by Paramount Pictures, the album would have been a dj tool favorite for quite a while, thanks to some heavy breaks and proto-electro loops. Featuring amazing rendition of pop-rock classics such as Born To Be Wild, Sunshine of Your Love, Lay Lady Lay and The Ballad of John and Yoko, this is a truly welcomed…
Permissive Polyphonics
"As if the title doesn't give it away, Permissive Polyphonics finds Enoch Light, the king of studio kings, attempting to make it in the groovy, quadraphonic age. Featuring the gassy Puppet Man, a futuristic rendition of Sergio Mendes Mas Que Nada – with bass flute courtesy of veteran Don Ashworth - and Pass and I Call You with Dick Hyman stunny organ and Vinnie Bell fuzzy guitar, this album is an extraordinary example of easy listening at the turn of the revolutionary flower power era. Originall…
Sings Songs From His TV Series
"The fourth studio album by the American solo artist Scott Walker was released in June 1969. The album does not include original compositions by Walker and consists of performances of ballads and big band standards. The record is an accompaniment to his BBC TV series, the simply named Scott, aired during Walker’s self-described 'wilderness years.' Released between Scott III and Scott IV, Sings Songs From His TV Series was a collection of songs Walker performed on the show re-recorded in studio."
I'll Be Anything For You
"Tamiko Jones - born Barbara Tamiko Ferguson in 1945 in Kyle, West Virginia – debuted in 1967 on Atlantic with flautist and mentor Herbie Mann on the soul-jazz-bossa flavored A Mann & A Woman. Her solo career take off in 1968 with the rare groove inflected I'll Be Anything For You, released on A&M/CTI and produced by label owner Creed Taylor. Recorded and engineered by master Rudy Van Gelder at his own Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, the album is such a lovely combination of soul-funk ja…
The Man From O.R.G.A.N.
"Can you truly believe this record was released in 1965? Forging a brand new hybrid of space-age, easy listening and spy jazz the American pianist and composer Dick Hyman, born in New York in 1927, put together one of the cornerstone of the genre. Before switching to the Moog synthesizer (right on time with the moon landing in 1969) he had some very influential theme music releases on MGM Records and Command. But The Man From O.R.G.A.N. was a monster in itself. How could you go wrong with this t…