Dave Lewis Plays Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass


Dave Lewis was a highly notable teenage Rock & Roller in the 50s, and somewhat unintentionally responsible for uniting the two segregated musician's unions in Seattle. The story goes, local club owner Dick Parker said if you're gonna make me choose between Dave Lewis and the entire Local 76 white roster, i'm gonna book Lewis. On Jan. 14, 1958 the two locals merged and Seattle's music scene became a little less terrible, at least on paper. 

Lewis's various bands opened for all sorts of famous acts on tour in the Pacific Northwest, but regular club gigs were his main career throughout the 60s and 70s. Jimi Hendrix even jammed with them a few times, but audiences wouldn't exactly call Hendrix "danceable." That's fair. Lewis had some arrestworthy drug problems later in life and died in 1998. 

None of that matters much, tonight we're hearing his jazz organ covers of Herb Alpert tunes. I'm told it's an all the stars album, so i expect it'll be lovely. Keep in mind, it is merely background dancefloor music, so don't expect too much flash and dazzle, playful and tipsy is what we're striving for here. Now let's mingle. 

Oh yeah, this is seriously splendid. Organ and guitar solos, some jaunty, some clumsy, none annoying or overly silly. It's department store jazz, what more do you want? 

I guess if something like Maurice Larcange or Tony Mattola is too kitsch for you, then this will sound like a half hour of noodling that isn't Green Onions. If you have Merv Griffen Game Show Induced Psychosis (MGGSIP, for you fans of neologic acronyms), then this will sound like the dentist office waiting room in hell, but otherwise i think you're gonna love it as much as i do. 

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kpCiMWWRIJsdirBlDn1uDKvoK9P67FBPs

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 4 Seasons - The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette

Image
This might be my longest  album review ever. But i swear a couple times, so it's worth the read ;) How could i possibly mention Jefferson Airplane, The 4 Seasons, and Frank Zappa in the same context? Zappa said "this is rediculous" and a few years later The 4 Seasons said "you know what, Frank is right. This IS ridiculous." To which Jefferson Airplane said, "Oh. Ok. Got it." The real question is: which one is the most transgressive? Zappa said stop fighting, you look like idiots. Jefferson Airplane said i guess if love and community is a bad thing, then sure we're criminals and we'd be happy to move out into the fields and live peaceful lives without your garbage, let us go already. The 4 Seasons said hold my champagne for a moment. In 1969, The 4 Seasons released the single most ironic, acidic, extravagant, and downright befuddling album ever created, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. Zappa was accused of writing "shitty doo-w...
Read more

Welcome to my blog, and my record collection.

This is a blog about my love of listening to albums. It started off as a nightly perusal of my dad's record collection (which sadly became mine) on my personal facebook page. Over the last two months it has become quite an enjoyable process of simply ranting about what i think is a real art form, the album. It needs a more permanent home. Some of my reviews are positive, some negative. They might not be what you expect from album reviews, but i hope you at least find them entertaining. For the most part i do very little research, and they tend to be train of thought reactions rather than calculated essays. If nothing else, know that i'm really listening to them and whether they are amazing or abysmal i want you to go listen to them too.  I'll start migrating the 60+ i've written so far over here in the next few days, and hopefully get to the point where i just start writing them here. I'd probably even take suggestions if you're just dying to know my tho...
Read more

J. Geils Band - Freeze Frame

Image
Speaking of New Wave, I just listened to the penultimate J. Geils Band album, Feeze Frame, and it is awesome. You know the title track and Centerfold, but i highly doubt you know the album closer, Piss On The Wall.  It's not even really reviewable, to be honest, it's Freeze Frame, couple songs, Centerfold, couple more songs, and Piss On The Wall. I guess i could rehash what Post-Punk/New Wave New Wave was all about (actual dance club Rock & Roll with quirkily expensive synth leads), but you know The Cars and The Motels and Talking Heads. Believe it or not, the Ramones were considered New Wave rather than Punk in the beginning. Now we'd call them Pop Punk, but the point is that Rock in the late 70s existed on a spectrum from Corporate Cock to Nerdly Neurotic Pocket Protector, and in 1980/81 J. Geils Band said hold my beer, I gotta take a leak, how's this for "radio-friendly, twitchy nerd Rock with huge sing-along choruses?" Freakin' awesome, dude, freak...
Read more