The Explorers Club - Grand Hotel (2012)

The Explorers Club - Grand Hotel , 2012

  Now this band sure took their sweet time releasing a new album but the wait has been well worth it.   Grand Hotel is a Grand Album !  They took their ode-to-Beach Boys...tossed in a good shot of Herb Alpert and added some Enoch Light and James Last for good measure.  The end result is a total flashback to the Age of Sterophonics and space-age pop and an album that I adore.
   Great vocal harmonies and excellent song writing make this album not to be missed.
They just dont make em like this anymore !  

Marjorie Meinert - Vive La Difference (1960)

Marjorie Meinert - Vive La Difference (1960)

   Sacre Bleu!  Marjorie Meinert was one of the great unknowns........an excellent organist who released a number of excellent albums in the 50's and 60's.  This album features some pretty cool lowrey organ with an excellent unnamed guitarist.  Pretty much this is a concept album as well with all songs played in ode to Paris in some way..songs like "I Love Paris", "April In Paris", " Under The Bridges In Paris".  The album actually ends far too soon for my liking and clocks in around 30 mins.
  This is also a wonderful Space-Age album to sit back and groove out to with your friends and family.  

 

Doc Severinsen - Fever! (1966)

Doc Severinsen - Fever! , 1966 Command Records
 
  Vibrant, upbeat, lofty .....a real space age listening treat! .......heeeeeereeeeees Johnny!!! ....yep it's the same Doc from "The Tonight Shhow"starring Johnny Carson! 
     Doc was a master at the trumpet actually and his early albums on the Command Sparton label are all excellent! Songs Doc picked for this album include Sidewinder by Lee Morgan, a brass driven re-interpretation of "Fever" and my particular fav on the album ""The lady in red" (no.....not that song that you are thinking of...a different song!)
    As with all of the Command label vinyl albums they have all been carefully recorded with the finest recording capabilities that existed back in the day. This album was mastered by George Piros like most of the early Command vinyl records.
  Plug In..........Play Richly ...........you will love this album

Esquivel - Infinity (1960)

Esquivel - Infinity (1960)

     Juan Garcia Esquivel  was a composer and an arranger who really was one of the Lounge-lizard king pins of his day...  He released a number of albums in the late 50's and 60's that are today highly sought after by the growing re-surgence in Lounge music.   Esquivel was very concerned about the sound quality of his albums and I think on the Infinity series he made his mark.    Found somewhere in between lounge, jazz, big band and a certain experimentalism these albums just dont stop !    You must mix up a cosmic cocktail when listening to this album.......and maybe pull out the suede suit coat too !  With an air or "cheesy-ness" and yet something still seems just so cool about this album that I cant stop pulling it off the shelf.

You will find this vinyl album sitting in your local Bi-Way or Salvation Army thrift store record bins! 

  The perfect album for those nostalgic evenings out by the pool

Enoch Light - Persuasive Percussion (1960)

Enoch Light - Persuasive Percussion Vol One, 1960

      If you have not ever heard an Enoch Light album then you have missed out.......definitely space age music for the cocktail lover in you ! This is THE ULPTIMATE Jet-age, bachelor Pad, Shagadelic music on Earth ! Persuasive Percussion was his first Command LP and was a huge hit reaching Number One on the U.S. Pop charts in 1960. Audiophiles fell in love with Enoch Light as his Command label and later Project 3 albums were sonically perfect. I have collected a ton of Command Sparton albums over the years simply because of the high quality recordings.

    Musically this is lounge exotica........pure lounge with some very cool instrumentation and brilliant percussion. Time to spark up the ol' lava lamp and incense everyone.........this one is gonna take to some exotic place where you have always wanted to go to ........but were afraid to ask........

This is some pretty cool music that is ideal for chilling out to !

Xylophones, marimbas, sax, hand percussion, cha cha cha's, cow bell.....holy god man !!

Bring back the shag carpet

Martin Denny - Exotica II (1958)

Martin Denny - Exotica II, 1958 Remaster

   So there I was one evening listening to Music For A Pachelor Pad Volume 3 and out pops Martin Denny and his Exotica expert and I was just intoxicated by the creative spirit of this guy.    Denny was a native New Yorker and managed to release a ton of albums over his career many of which hit the lounge genre.    These early albums are all just amazing with tons of vivid coloring, great percussion, jazzy overtones and a certain creativity that you just cant put your finger on.   No question if you crank this album your family will truely believe you flipped your lid !

   Mommy........daddy's gone coo coo.....he listening to lounge Exotica album again........

Dave Pike - Manhattan Latin (1964)

Dave Pike - Manhattan Latin (1964)

  Vibraphonist guru Dave Pike will not be as immediately recognized as is Gary Burton but his music is not to be missed!   As the album cover says this album contains the "sensuous rhythms of Spanish Harlem".....and what an album cover eh !   Joining Pike on this album are a ton of jazz greats with the biggest name being a very young Chick Corea on the piano!  Imgine a loungie-psychedelic pop-jazz combination ....half great toe tapping elevator music and the other half psych-lounge and you pretty much have the album .   This may be one of the greatest albums to chill out to with a stiff martini and a girl on the Vibraphone.....snap you fingers and close your eyes..........