The False Ducks Blahg

   This is the blahg that I intended to publish last time. I got a little side-tracked with my mental health and trying to be upbeat.  Mental health is a big thing and for me, music is very important.  I don’t play any instruments but listening to good music is a great tonic.  Over the past 12 months we’ve have a couple of different lock-downs with this pandemic and I’ve spent a great deal of time working from home.  When stores were open I usually hit up local thrift shops and scanned through the record section.  This blahg is devoted to some of my acquisitions over the past year.  Most of these came from thrift stores with the odd one ordered online or picked up at a local DVD store that also sells some used records.

   Many of the albums mentioned in this blahg have not had CD releases so many will be new to you as they were to me.  Album covers usually attract my attention first and I thought it would be important to include those covers here.  More important, is the back covers because you can usually find out more information about the artists by reading the liner notes.  I’ve included good sized photos of the back covers where you can make out full details of the information on the rear covers.  Click on each photo to view larger sized images.

   The first up is an album called “Clarinet Gumbo” by Barney Bigard And His Orchestra.  This was released in 1976 on the RCA label

Here’s the title track, “Clarinet Gumbo”:

 

  Next up is the album “Dixie On The Rocks” by Dave Remington and The Dixie Six.  This album came out on the Vee Jay label in 1960.  The group looked like they were having a lot of fun so I decided to purchase the album

The fun track here is “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”:

 

   The previous two albums were thrift store finds and here’s another one from one of the same stores. It’s The Kenny Clarke Francy Boland Big Band with their 1965 album “Now Hear Our Meanin’ ” released in North America on the Columbia Label.

This track is a real swinger. It’s “Johnny One Note”:

 

   I think I acquired most of these records at the same time as I remember the following record was purchased at the same time and location as the above albums. This album is a 1962 reissue on the Trip Jazz label of the 1959 original release of “Buddy Johnson Wails”. The original issue had been on the Mercury label.

The track I chose from this album is “Please Mr. Johnson”. From the album jacket, “His sister, Ella, another unaffected singer, was always a major attraction, and she was responsible for several of the band’s biggest hits, among them “Please Mr. Johnson”, which she recorded for the first time at the age of fourteen while still in high school…”Please Mr. Johnson” is recreated here, with sister Ella on hand to sing it.”

 

   Here’s a real oddity.  This is the 1977 album “The Pucker And Valve Society Band”.  This album is like listening to the best of or strange songs by a marching band.  It’s fun nonetheless.

The track I have selected here is “I Was Kaiser Bill’s Bat Man”.

 

   In a previous blahg, THE RAMBLE UNPACKED, I wrote about an album I picked up before Christmas by Jonah Jones, with the title “and now in person Jonah Jones.”  That was a live album but many months before purchasing that album, I picked up “Jumpin’ With Jonah” by the same artist.

The song I have selected from this album is the first track on side one of the album.  The song is “No Moon At All” which is a song I’ve enjoyed by singers such as Doris Day and Mel Torme.

 

    I cannot for the life of me remember what inspired me to purchase the following album. I know I had to order it from a reseller on the www.discogs.com website but it’s enjoyable. This album, “Fireworks” was released by the Weatherbird Jazzband in 1982.

The track I have selected is the title track “Fireworks.”

 

   Now we get back to a vocal performance. This is from an artist I did not know but when I saw the album I thought I would give the album a chance. The artist is Betty Roché and the album is “Singin’ & Swingin’ ” from 1961.

There are quite a few standards on this album so the selection to offer here was a tough choice. I decided to go with a song that I have enjoyed by Frank Sinatra from his “L.A. Is My Lady” album. The song is “Until The Real Thing Comes Along” but it’s all Betty Roché.

  

   The next group is a Canadian band.  In fact this album was recorded live, November 14, 1975 at Olivet United Church, in Hamilton, Ontario.  The band is The Washingtons and the album is “50 Years Together”.

 

The album had quite a few scuffs and skipped in a couple of places but I was able to clean it and get a nice recording from it. Again, here’s another title track with The Washingtons performing “Fifty Years Together”.

 

    It’s time for another vocal selection. Here we have the great and talented Pat Suzuki. The album is “Pat Suzuki’s Broadway ’59”

Again, the selection was tough. Pat Suzuki performs song great tunes from such great Broadway shows as Flower Drum Song, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Bells Are Ringing, and The Music Man. I decided to go with a song from a Broadway show with which I wasn’t familiar. The Broadway show is “First Impressions” and the song is “I Feel Sorry For The Boy”

 

    It’s back to the jazz again with another thrift store purchase. I didn’t know this artist either but I seem to have good luck taking a chance on these purchases. The album is “The Don Elliott Quintet” by The Don Elliott Quintet from 1954. I know the album title isn’t very original.

There were some nice tracks to choose from but I selected the second track this time from the first side. Here’s the The Don Elliott Quintet with “Five O’Clock Whistle”:

 

  The last album is one I really enjoy. It’s got a nice swing to it and the artist was again unknown to me. The artist is Harold Betters and the album is “Out Of Sight & Sound”

I chose the song “Sweetheart” from this album because right from the get-go it grabbed me. Another great thrift store find.

 

   That’s the twelve records for this time.  Do yourself a favour and seek out some of these artists or take a chance on some unknown artists when you find their records in a thrift store bin.  You might just be surprised!  Stay tuned.  I have another batch of records from the past year featuring some more great artists.  Lucky you.  Lucky me.