An Evening With Cleo Laine and The John Dankworth Quartet [Double LP] [1983]

DRG Records MR2S 608

José Melis ‎• Latin American Stylings [1956]

Mercury Records MG 20127

Jerry Murad's Harmonicats ‎• Try A Little Tenderness [1963]

Columbia Records CS 8890 

Ray Ellis and His Orchestra • La Dolce Vita and Other Great Motion Picture Themes [1961]

RCA Victor ‎Living Stereo LSP-2410

Richard Maltby and His Orchestra • Maltby With Strings Attached [1957]

Vik LX-1074

The Living Marimbas • Spanish Harlem and Other Hits [1971]

RCA Camden CAS-2541 

Don Costa • The Golden Touch [1964]

DCP International DCS 6802 

The Clebanoff Strings • The World's Great Waltzes [1961]

Mercury Records MG 20577 

Wayne King • Dream Time [1958]

Decca Records DL 78663

A popular 30s bandleader, Wayne King has been compared to Lawrence Welk and Fred Waring. Known as the "Waltz King," his repertoire was made up of waltzes, novelty songs, and sentimental recordings. The sound was copied by other musicians and made Wayne King famous. It was radio broadcasts, such as the Lady Esther Serenade, his Victor recording contracts, and performances on Chicago's Aragon Ballroom that sold millions of recordings for Wayne King. Besides being a successful bandleader, Wayne King was also a saxophonist, often playing his instrument in the Wayne King Orchestra. 

Les McCann and Eddie Harris • Swiss Movement [Live] [1969]

Atlantic Records SD 1537

One of the most popular soul jazz albums of all time, and one of the best, although Harris (and trumpeter Benny Bailey) had never played or rehearsed with the Les McCann Trio before, and indeed wasn't even given the music. Perhaps that's what sparked the spontaneous funk coming through clearly on the tape of this show, recorded at the Montreux Festival on June 21, 1969. It's actually much more of a showcase for McCann than Harris, although the tenor saxist's contributions are significant. The sole vocal, a version of Gene McDaniels' "Compared to What," remains McCann's signature tune.  Swiss Movement was a top-selling jazz record, and the single "Compared to What" sold platinum.  [Some reissues add a nine-minute bonus track, "Kaftan."]

Eddie Harris • Love...From A Horn [1972]

Harmony Headliner Series KH 31164 

Eddie has always been known for his experiments with the tenor saxophone. His first known experimentation combined a tenor saxophone with a trombone mouthpiece that he called the “Saxobone.” Later, Eddie began using a clarinet double barrel joint in between the neck and body of the instrument causing the tenor sax to sound like a bass clarinet. He also created a hybrid instrument with a bassoon bocal replacing the tenor sax neck. These experimental sounds are featured prominently on the album, “A Study in Jazz” on VeeJay Records. He could make all of these unique sounds by merging only a few spare parts with the tenor saxophone. One of Eddie’s most popular creations was the reed mouthpiece for brass instruments. He holds the U.S. Patent for the reed mouthpiece for the trumpet, cornet, trombone, and flugelhorn. Eddie also experimented with the electric Varitone saxophone, a musical device that allowed the sound of a saxophone to be electronically manipulated. The electronics of the Varitone could add a sub-octave and also filter the timbre and tone of the sax.

Eddie Harris • Sculpture [1969]

Buddah Records BDS 4004

"Sculpture is an apt title for this album because Eddie and the sidemen treat the charts like a sculptor carving in marble.  These sides represent an honest approach to jazz that is imaginative, exciting and real.  The selections you will hear show a wide range of ideas without the use of musical gimmicks or fads - just good, sound, honest playing."  [Excerpt liner notes by Marty Faye, WBEE Chicago]

Eddie Harris • Cool Sax, Warm Heart [1964]

Columbia Records CS 8968 

Long underrated in the pantheon of jazz greats, Eddie Harris was an eclectic and imaginative saxophonist whose career was marked by a hearty appetite for experimentation. For quite some time, he was far more popular with audiences than with critics, many of whom denigrated him for his more commercially successful ventures. Harris' tastes ranged across the spectrum of black music, not all of which was deemed acceptable by jazz purists. He had the chops to handle technically demanding bop, and the restraint to play in the cool-toned West Coast style, but he also delved into crossover-friendly jazz-pop, rock- and funk-influenced fusion, outside improvisations, bizarre electronic effects, new crossbreedings of traditional instruments, blues crooning, and even comedy.

Eddie Harris • Mighty Like A Rose [1961]

Vee Jay Records SR 3025

Mighty Like a Rose was Eddie Harris' follow-up to the smash Exodus to Jazz, and it probably comes as no surprise that it's mightily similar in sound and style. One can hardly blame Harris for taking essentially the same approach; it's not every day that a jazz artist's debut LP makes him a million-selling star overnight. And he struck while the iron was hot, completing the sessions for Mighty Like a Rose a month before the single edit of "Exodus" had even peaked on the pop charts. Perhaps that's why there are only two Harris originals this time around; the rest of the repertoire is mostly standards, plus another movie theme adaptation -- this time of "Spartacus" -- that would prove to be the first of many "Exodus" sequels Harris recorded in his early period (although pop-chart lightning never did strike twice).

Eddie Harris • Exodus To Jazz [1961]

Vee Jay Records SR-3016

One of the biggest hit jazz LPs of the post-rock and roll era, Eddie Harris' Exodus To Jazz seemed to come completely out of left field. It was the debut album by a previously unknown artist from an under-publicized scene in Chicago, and it was released on the primarily R and B-oriented Vee Jay label, which had originally signed Harris as a pianist, not a tenor saxophonist. 

Don Costa's Instrumental Versions of Simon and Garfunkel [1968]

Mercury Records SR-61177 

Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra • Have You Never Been Mellow [1975]

MGM Records M3G 4999

Le grand orchestre de Paul Mauriat • "Un jour, un enfant" [1969]

Philips 844.972 BY (France)

Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra • El Condor Pasa [1971]

Philips PHS 600-352

The music is just as spectacular as the album art!

The Living Voices Sing Indian Love Call and Other Great Duets and Love Songs

RCA Camden CAL 697

The Living Strings Plus Two Pianos • ‎Theme From Love Story [1971]

RCA Camden CAS-2477 

"The sound is lush but substantial, moody but exciting, subtle but with a beat." [Excerpt liner notes]

The Living Strings Plus Two Pianos • My Silent Love [1963]

RCA Camden ‎CAS-754

The Living Strings Plus Two Pianos Play The Most Beautiful Music In The World [1962]

RCA Camden CAS 687 

Recorded in Mexico, The Living Strings are conducted by Mario Ruíz Armengol.  The featured pianists are none other than Roberto Peréz Vázquez and Jorge Ortega of The Magic Violins of Villa Fontana fame, with the arrangements by Armengol, Vázquez, and Ortega.