Music Gourmets Presents 60 Years of Great Music - 1963

[axolotl]

Sure, but you don't want to waste your '64 pick on a Capitol slice-and-dice job after I picked the original

Oh, five shits. I thought that Capitol slice-and-dice job was 1966's Yesterday ...and Today.

 

[JazzyRandy]

Freddie Hubbard - Hub-Tones


This is an unusually difficult year for me, because there are no albums that demand my vote. There are several I like very much, but nothing I love unconditionally. When I halved my options to five options, this review of Hub-Tones on RYM seemed fitting ...

there’s nothing groundbreaking about its content, the truth is “Hub-Tones” appears as a successful essay at trying to forge an aural identity ... at a time when trendy meant the unorthodox ways of Free and as if he was fighting for the endangered survival of a genre, Hubbard gives a strong contribution for what could be a renewed conception of what mainstream could mean, mixing Hard-Bop, Blues and modal experimentation.

Striking from the get go is that although only in his early twenties the trumpeter already possessed such an extensive vocabulary and dazzling technical skills, and the clarity the fire the exaltation and the exuberance of his playing are so finely documented all over that it would be painful to try to pinpoint precise locations, inasmuch the listening pleasure is guaranteed throughout.

Add in contributions from Herbie Hancock and personal fave James Spaulding, and I am happy to nominate Hub-Tones for 1963.

 

[lpfreak1170]

Ray Price - Night Life

Might as well get this one in early. I haven't picked many country LP's until now because they are generally lousy - 1 or 2 singles and a lot of filler. Ray Price fractured that paradigm in 1962 with San Antonio Rose, his Bob Wills tribute, and busted it wide open with Night Life. Both are fully realized concept albums, complete with spoken word intro and outro. Night Life presents a dozen honest stories of men who deal with lost love by taking to the bars and honky tonks. The title cut is one of Willie Nelson's finest writing efforts but there isn't a weak song in the bunch.

Wiki is wrong - Ray didn't record this record with his stellar road band, the Cherokee Cowboys (which included Nelson as front man at the time). However, among the Nashville A-Teamers he did use his own steel player, Buddy Emmons. I'll post more about Emmons in the future but suffice it to say he was a trendsetter who not only added elements of jazz but also created his own unusual tunings and then invented an instrument (the Emmons steel) capable of playing them. Listen to his solo on the title song and you'll hear why he was considered the best.

Sadly, that was one I eliminated...glad to see it here!

The Beatles - With the Beatles

Well, with Dylan, The Clancy's and Spector's Christmas album picked, many of my big albums from 1963 have been aptly chosen. Sure, Dexter's Our Man in Paris is on the outside looking in (as is Back at the Chicken Shack), but hey...this is With the Beatles and needs to be here!

PatrikC picked the first one Please Please Me (and Patrik, tell MissusC she needs to pick ), but I've always loved this one better...in fact, I listen to it more than A Hard Day's Night. So much energy from the opening "It Won't Be Long". Sure there's a number of covers but "Money" and "Please Mr. Postman" are just as definitive as their originals (with "Roll Over Beethoven" pretty close). Only two singles from this one ("Beethoven" and "All My Loving"), true, but the lesser know album cuts of "Not A Second Time" and "All I Got to Do" are strong.

Of course, U.S. fans would have Capitol's Meet the Beatles which has 9 tracks from this (the 8 originals) plus singles like "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" so next year's pickers (it's a '64 release) might go for that as a better album. I'd disagree because it does lack the three killer covers listed above.

Another I eliminated...glad to see it here, too! Being born in '70, I grew up with my Dad's Beatles albums and singles. He preferred the really early stuff so I played Meet The Beatles, The Beatles' Second Album, and Beatles '65 to absolute death. They still have a special place in my heart and get played regularly.

 

[LeslieC]

Frank Sinatra -Sinatra's Sinatra

This album was the attempt of his new label, Reprise Records, to duplicate this success by offering some earlier songs in stereophonic sound, which by 1963 was an exploding recording technology. The album was arranged and conducted by frequent Sinatra collaborator Nelson Riddle. My mom's favorite Sinatra album and I grew up to this one.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Frank Sinatra -Sinatra's Sinatra

This album was the attempt of his new label, Reprise Records, to duplicate this success by offering some earlier songs in stereophonic sound, which by 1963 was an exploding recording technology. The album was arranged and conducted by frequent Sinatra collaborator Nelson Riddle. My mom's favorite Sinatra album and I grew up to this one.

Great selection and nice post, Mrs. C!

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Some great picks! Have you gotten YOURS in? Week's almost over

 

[Markonomicon]

Another great year.

I narrowed mine down to ("Midnight Blue"...but someone beat me to it) Coltrane's "Stardust" & "Ballads", Dexter's "Our Man In Paris", and...(my pick):

 

[captwhiffle]

Barbra Streisand - The Barbra Streisand Album



What can I say? I was raised on Streisand, so there's the nostalgia value to this pick. Her debut constitutes Streisand's dual efforts to position herself amongst the great torch singers of the time and to challenge established singing styles with her own unique approaches to phrasing on jazz & pop standards.

 

[LeslieC]

I was almost going to pick this one captwhiffle. This was a great start to her career & I too was raised on Streisand, (& Sinatra too)

 

[Mattafett]