Duke Ellington and His Orchestra - "Nutcracker Suite/Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 & 2" Vinyl, Album (Columbia)

The Duke 'duke-itze' Tchaikovsky and Grieg.   Co-arranged by Billy Strayhorn, this is a remarkable work by the Ellington Orchestra.  It's a work that is re-imagined by the composing genius. "Nutcracker Suite" is a work that most of us know from the Christmas Holiday, a ballet that as a schoolchild one had to see.  It's the "Louie Louie" of the ballet world. In Ellington's version, it becomes a subtle work of beauty, that is understated, and the hint of the well-known melodies makes it more of an aftertaste than a full meal.

My favorite is Grieg's "Peer Gynt" which has beautiful melodies, and the tasteful horns with a superb percussion make this work come alive.  I'm a huge fan of arrangements of familiar music and Ellington like Jack Nitzsche's Chopin album, he presents his arranging skills as a skilled translator. 

Various - "Lost Legends of Surf Guitar" 2xVinyl, LP, Mono, Compilation, 2012 (Sundazed Music)

The classic era of Surf Music is in the early 1960s and for me, it is more about the sound of the recordings than anything else.  Everything here on this excellent compilation is from small independent labels throughout the United States.   What they have in common is a sound that is very much like Joe Meek's recordings, but also you can hear the first Roxy Music album as well.  Especially with the horn sound that is similar to Andy Mackay's work with Roxy.   Of course, there's the guitar sound, which is magnificent and iconic. 

"Devil Surfer" is by Scott Engel, who a few years later will turn into Scott Walker, and that cut is great.  The orchestration that hints the big screen vision of Scott's vision for his future.  The other piece I admire is The Menn's "Ian Fleming Theme" which captures the John Barry Bond vibe, as well as the remarkable "Pray for Surf" by The Essex.  Both are produced by John Hodge.  

The great thing about this type of music is that it's rock n' roll but filtered through an Exotica aesthetic that is all about the blue ocean, or communities near the water.  Even though the recordings could have been made in the Mid-West, it still conveys a fantasy.  Sundazed does great compilations, and "Lost Legends of Surf Guitar" is an important document that one can dream and dance to.

Roger Ruskin Spear - "Electric Shocks" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1972 (United Artists)

Vivian Stanshall is the face of The Bonzo Dog Band, but in truth, there is also the musical talents of the late Neil Innes, and then someone called Roger Ruskin Spear.   Mr. Spear played sax in the band and wore silly outfits.  One wonders what a solo album would be like from this artist (visual as well as aural).  The music is very tightly arranged, humorous (of course), and a glance back to the music hall days of Britain, but with a straightforward approach to (kind of) 1950s rock.  The appeal for me is the intelligence behind his work.  Spear knows his music history, in the same sense as someone like Roy Wood.  The fact that he has Andy Newman (of Thunderclap Newman) on piano, and two music journalists serving here as musicians.  The main cut here is "Patrick Moore" which has this great Joe Meek tribute in the middle of the song, and serves as the chorus. 

The Monkees - "The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees" Vinyl, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo, 1968/1996 (Sundazed Music)

This past 12-months, I have been slowly and carefully purchasing The Monkees' catalog on vinyl. Never a huge fan, but for sure, an admirer of their complicated work and history. The Monkees seemed to be made for a man like me, due to my age and era as a teenager. I watched every episode of the Monkees show as it was originally broadcast, I believe on NBC Network (this is from memory). Also, I purchased the first two Monkees albums, due to my love of the show. I quickly moved on to other aural pleasures, but alas, The Monkees never left! How a band that had the last grasps of the Brill Building aesthetic working for them, as well as being part of the Hippie world, and then this 'fake' band became a 'real' band. Not only that, they sabotaged their Monkees career by making the most post-punk film of its era "Head." It's laughable that the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, so far, ignored them. Is there anything more rock n' roll and crazed than The Monkees?

"The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees is their fifth album and was made when the TV series was dead in 1968. In such a manner, this album is their version of The Beatles "White Album." In that, each member of the band produced their own songs, in separate studios, away from the others. Peter Tork, I believe, is not even on the album, except for the one song and hit "Daydream Believer." Still, when everything is falling apart, some exciting art does come up. The stronger cuts on the album are contributed by Michael Nesmith. His work here is psychedelic, with traces of drones and wild keyboard playing. There are seconds or maybe a whole minute where one would think that Tony Conrad or La Monte Young showed up at the sessions. The Davy Jones contributions are very Pop (with the capital P).  His head and soul are very much part of the London West-End stages, even as a rock n' roll figure on an American TV show and in real life. I miss Mickey Dolenz's voice on this album. He is singing on three songs, but for my taste, I feel Dolenz is one of the great pop/rock singers of his era and is still fantastic. I suspect that there is no such thing as a bad Mickey Dolenz vocal or track. 

"The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees" is very much a transitional work that is between their beginnings and their wandering years. Boyce and Hart contribute to their production (uncredited) and songwriting on two songs, and that reflects on the past. Nesmith is very much the present on this album. A strange record in an appealing manner. 

Graham Gouldman - "The Graham Gouldman Thing (Vinyl, Album, Stereo, 1968 (RCA)

My interest in figures who somehow made pop music culture, yet remain in its shadows is an obsession of mine. For instance, songwriters who wrote numerous hit songs for various artists, and yet, they made their album. Does one wonder if they had hopes of being successful without fronting other music artists? Graham Gouldman wrote hit songs for The Yardbirds and Herman's Hermits, among others. He eventually formed and became a member of 10cc. Eric Stewart, his co-band member, was also from the British Invasion era. He was a member and songwriter for The Mindbenders (with and without "Wayne").

I'm an admirer of these 'pop' songwriter albums such as "The Graham Gouldman Thing" as well as Tony Hazzard (wrote songs for The Yardbirds as well as Manfred Mann) and Boyce and Hart (they wrote classic hits for The Monkees). All albums are of great importance, mostly due that they have their 'hit songs' on them, and it's interesting to compare the recordings between their recorded version and others by the bands who did their songs.

Gouldman's album was co-produced by Peter Noone (Herman of Herman's Hermits) and himself, as well as John Paul Jones handling the arrangements. It is released in 1968, a tad later than The Yardbirds's "For Your Love" this is very much a showcase of Gouldman's songs and his ability to carry these tunes under his name. The hits (made famous by others) are "For Your Love" (The Yardbirds), "Bus Stop" (The Hollies), "No Milk Today and "Upstairs and Downstairs" both by Herman's Hermits. If there is a Gouldman aesthetic, it seems his songs relay sort of mid-20th-century British culture, that is a snapshot of life as it happens, with a touch of the Harold Pinter/John Osbourne observation of British everyday life. When he started working with 10cc, his songs, as well as the others in the band, became still, observational, but with a savage sense of humor. Here in his early works, it's more of a reflection that has traces of sadness and romantic disappointment. Gouldman wrote the hits, but I feel he left an enormous amount of DNA of his personality and thoughts in these commercial works.