Today, the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog is pondering Voltaire’s quote “those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,” while also thinking about all-time favorite 20th century recordings, those sounds that got us through many rough spots in life.
First and foremost, there's music from the movies - and an especially outstanding album is a comprehensive retrospective of sprightly LeRoy Shield themes from Hal Roach Studio classics by vintage movie soundtrack champions The Beau Hunks.
The excellent Dutch orchestra devoted years of hard work and study learning the LeRoy Shield themes that enlivened the Our Gang, Laurel & Hardy and Charley Chase comedies.
The Beau Hunks mastered the sound and feel of LeRoy Shields' high-spirited music, as well as the early 1930's period flavor.
While this writer, unfortunately, has not seen The Beau Hunks in concert, clips from the orchestra's performances accompanying Laurel & Hardy classics are up on YouTube.
Yes, we are indeed big fans of movie soundtrack music; could easily come up with 50 film soundtrack albums, headed by The Beau Hunks and the late Hal Willner's The Carl Stalling Project.
While we love the music of Dubin & Warren, David Raksin, Bernard Herrmann and Michel Legrand, atop the list of film composers is the one, the only Ennio Morricone (1928-2020). The great composer passed last year at 92 after, both on the silver screen and in concert, creating incredible music for decades.
Luckily, Mr. Morricone maintained good health way beyond the point where most of us are six feet under and was conducting the great orchestras of the world in concerts of his compositions well into his 80's.
So many Morricone albums are top-notch, it is tough to pick just one or two favorites from his lengthy career. The Peace Notes Live In Venice concert is on Blu-ray and DVD - and particularly wonderful.
Could not recommend the Morricone Conducts Morricone CDS and Blu-rays more highly. All the Morricone concerts on YouTube are incredible.
In some respects merely a hop, skip and a jump away from movie soundtracks is that genre prevalent in the late 1960's and early 1970's known as progressive rock or "prog" rock, hated by punk rockers but loved by many.
Am partial to those who explored the orchestral side of rock music, from Brian Wilson and George Martin's arrangements for The Fab 4 to Moody Blues to Yes to ELO to Focus. A favorite group exemplifying this genre is King Crimson. Of Robert Fripp's ensemble's numerous lineups from 1969 to the present, we love the lineup of Tony Levin, Adrian Belew and Bill Bruford and the 1994 double-quartet configuration.
Here's a performance in its entirety of the record that's tied with six or seven other Crimson albums as tops with me: Three Of A Perfect Pair.
Not many albums were recorded at Baltimore's Left Bank Jazz Society, but every one this music aficionado has heard is a beaut. Best of the best? One of the greatest jazz albums ever recorded, The Free Slave, an incredible set led by percussionist Roy Brooks (March 9, 1938 - November 15, 2005).
The Free Slave, recorded live at the Left Bank Jazz Society, on gone but not forgotten Muse Records, ranks high on this writer's short list of favorite jazz albums. Along with Brooks' Live At Town Hall recording, it numbers among the few recorded concerts that fully captures the excitement of live music. While this record remains long out-of-print, used copies can be found on vinyl and CD.
Mr. Brooks, while lesser known in comparison to such drummer-bandleaders as Max Roach, Art Blakey and Buddy Rich, is up there among the greatest percussionists in jazz history. Sadly, he would suffer severe health setbacks in later years.
On The Free Slave, trumpeter Woody Shaw rocks the house, and ace saxophonist from Miles Davis and Elvin Jones’ bands, George Coleman, plays at peak inspiration, while bassist Cecil McBee and pianist Hugh Lawson add just the right sounds to the mix and keep the groove going. The synthesis of soul jazz and Horace Silver style hard bop, delivered at fever pitch, is tough to beat.
This wasn’t the first time Roy played at the legendary Left Bank Jazz Society. He and fellow Horace Silver Quintet bandmate Gene Taylor, with pianist Barry Harris, backed the international star, master tenor saxophonist and swing king Coleman Hawkins.
While for this enthusiast, the aforementioned recordings are just the tip of the iceberg, if money is no object, go ahead, buy ALL the records by The Beau Hunks, King Crimson, Roy Brooks (not to mention Woody Shaw, George Coleman, Horace Silver, Woody Shaw and Coleman Hawkins), every one of them, right now. There's also an 18-CD set of Ennio Morricone soundtracks.
These recordings, like the inspired basketball of Steph Curry, restore my faith in humanity.
