Admiral Stereophonic Demonstration Record [1963] Decca Records DL 734212

 

Note:  There is a brief balance test after Track 10 and Track 16.

Admiral Stereophonic Demonstration Record [1965] Decca DL 738241

 

Welcome to the world of stereo demonstration records!

"The stereo selections on Admiral's stereophonic demonstration album have been recorded from the finest stereophonic albums available and feature a complete range from pops to classical played the Admiral stereo way, with full separation and startling realism that only Admiral with the exclusive phantom third channel can give you."  [Excerpt liner notes]

Roger Williams • Themes From Great Movies [1970] Kapp Records KS-3629

 

Requested by Eliane.  Enjoy!  😍

Marvin Ash and The Dixie Blue Blowers • New Orleans At Midnight [1956] Decca Records DL 8346

 

Marvin Ash was a superior string/stride player who brought his own sound and enthusiasm to prebop jazz. Ash grew up in Kansas City and played in local bands including those of Wallie Stoeffer, Connie Conrad, Herman Waldman, and Jack Crawford. After a period of living in Tulsa (1936-42) and working on the radio, he moved permanently to Los Angeles in 1942. Ash spent some time working with Wingy Manone and occasionally appeared with all-star bands but spent most of his career playing in small combos. Influenced by such pianists as James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, and Joe Sullivan, Ash may have only been three years older than Dizzy Gillespie but he certainly belonged to an earlier musical generation. Since he was based in Los Angeles, Ash did extensive work in the studios and worked for the Walt Disney music department. He had opportunities to play with Jack Teagarden, Matty Matlock, and Pete Daily.

Marvin Ash recorded as a leader for Mirror (1946-47), Jump, Capitol, Jazz Man, and finally for Decca in 1956. In later years he played piano at a small bar located in a bowling alley, happily performing prewar classics.  [AllMusic]

André Previn • Hollywood At Midnight [1956] Decca Records DL 8341

 

The conductor, composer, and pianist André Previn was not only among the most charismatic performers of his day but also enjoyed one of the greatest classical-music lives since Berlioz and Liszt – and one that did not grow less eventful with old age. His pedigree was unique: no other Oscar-winning conductor-composer from the Hollywood film studios became equally successful in the strictly classical world of the London Symphony Orchestra – which Previn headed from 1968 to 1979 – while also maintaining a side career as a jazz pianist.

Dante Varela and His Orchestra • Rio At Midnight [1956] Decca Records DL 8334

Tracklist:

01 Amor

02 Quizás, Quizás, Quizás (Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps)

03 Baía (No Baixa do Sapateiro)

04 The Romantic Cha-Cha-Cha

05 The Peanut Vendor (El Manisero)

06 Noche de Ronda

07 Baa-Too-Kee

08 Adiós

09 Misirlou

10 El Coco

11 Come Closer To Me (Acércate Más)

12 Estrellita

13 La Paloma

14 Cavaquinho (Cava-Keen-Yo)

Ellis Larkins • Manhattan At Midnight [1956] Decca Records DL 8303

 

Ellis Larkins, a jazz pianist, was best known for his understated elegance as an improviser and his sensitivity as an accompanist.

Ellis Lane Larkins was born into a musical family in Baltimore on May 15, 1923. His mother was a pianist, and his father, who earned his living as a janitor, played violin with the Baltimore City Colored Orchestra. When Mr. Larkins was 6, his father began giving him piano lessons, and within a few years he, too, was playing with the orchestra.

Skitch Henderson, His Piano and Orchestra • London At Midnight [1956] Decca Records DL 8302

 

Decca Records At Midnight Series - 1956

Skitch Henderson, His Piano and Orchestra • London At Midnight [1956]

Decca Records DL 8302

Ellis Larkins • Manhattan At Midnight [1956]

Decca Records DL 8303

Dante Varela and His Orchestra • Rio At Midnight [1956]

Decca Records DL 8334

Skitch Henderson, His Piano and Orchestra • Paris At Midnight [1956]

Decca Records DL 8339

André Previn • Hollywood At Midnight [1956]

Decca Records DL 8341

Marvin Ash and The Dixie Blue Blowers • New Orleans At Midnight [1956]

Decca Records DL 8346

Carmen Cavallaro • Rome At Midnight [1956]

Decca Records DL 8359

Dick Hyman's Century of Jazz Piano [5 CD Set + DVD] [2009] Arbors Records, Inc. ARCD 19348 (Arbors Piano Series Volume 20)

 

Happy Birthday Dick Hyman - 96 years young!

Dick Hyman's Century of Jazz Piano was originally issued as two separate CD-R discs to allow jazz piano students and fans to hear many different styles of jazz as performed by the veteran pianist. Repackaged as a five-CD set with a separate DVD for reissue by Arbors, this improved edition has the ability to play in conventional CD and DVD players as well. Hyman has long been recognized as a very versatile player who is capable of playing any style in jazz history, one of a handful of artists who has such an ability. 

Dick Hyman • The Age of Electronicus [1969] Command Records 946 S

 

Electronicus boasts the obligatory Beatles covers (“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” and “Blackbird”), two Booker T. & The M.G.’s cuts (“Time Is Tight” and “Green Onions”), Hair show-stopper “Aquarius,” an interpretation of James Brown’s “Give It Up Or Turn It Loose,” a rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” and merely one original. Sure, Electronicus smacks of Moog-hysteria cash-in, but Hyman’s inventiveness with this familiar and relatively eclectic material raises the record high above most of its counterparts now moldering in bargain bins. [Jive Time Records]

Tracklist: 

01 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

02 Give It Up Or Turn It Loose

03 Blackbird

04 Aquarius

05 Green Onions

06 Kolumbo

07 Time Is Tight

08 Alfie

09 Both Sides Now

Arranged and Produced by Dick Hyman 

Moog: The Electric Eclectics of Dick Hyman [1969] Command 938-S

 

In the late '60s, pianist Dick Hyman, famous for "Moritat, Theme from Threepenny Opera," experimented with various keyboard instruments, including Baldwin and Lowrey organs. This release was his first with what was then a completely newfangled machine, the Moog synthesizer. Hyman took the Moog by the horns and milked it for all it was worth on nine originals, including the monster hit single "The Minotaur" (which inspired Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's "Lucky Man").

Dick Hyman • Scott Joplin: The Complete Works For Piano [5 LP Set] [1975] RCA Red Seal CRL5-1106

 

Dick Hyman...An American jazz pianist/keyboardist and composer "who is best known for his versatility with jazz piano styles". 

Scott Joplin...An African-American composer and pianist.  Joplin was dubbed "The King of Ragtime". One of his first pieces, Maple Leaf Rag, became ragtime's first and most influential hit. 

Dick Hyman and Ken Peplowski • Counterpoint: Lerner and Loewe [2019] Arbors Records ARCD 19471

 

For my fellow jazz junkies!  ~Gipsy Dancer~

Reviews:

Pianist Dick Hyman and clarinetist/saxophonist Ken Peplowski both possess virtuosity beyond imagination. In a partnership that spans over 25 years, they've been producing work as technically flawless as it is wildly creative, born of a magical compatibility. Like the marriage of other iconic duos, such as Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt and Ruby Braff and Ellis Larkins, Hyman, and Peplowski stimulate each other to exceed the sum of their two parts.

This latest collaboration, Counterpoint: Lerner & Loewe, takes many of the familiar tunes of another splendidly creative duo, Broadway lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe, and steers them into new territory beyond stock interpretations.

Get Happy • Jazz Piano Great Dick Hyman '48CC Keeps On Ticking — and Tinkling.

 

                                  

Dick Hyman ’48CC, the mild-mannered jazz pianist known for his Faustian virtuosity, broad repertory, multi-style mastery, prodigious output, and vast musical knowledge, is a Yamaha artist, but that didn’t stop him from giving me a one-hour solo massage in front of two hundred people in St. Peter’s Church in Midtown the day before Thanksgiving.

Dick Hyman, His Piano and Trio • After Six [1960] MGM Records ‎SE3827

 

Shoot The Piano Player: Has The Ultimate Dick Hyman Movie Already Been Made?

 

Someone should make a documentary about Dick Hyman ’48CC. Here’s the pitch: a young, white, mild-mannered pianist, possessed of an almost superhuman ability to play anything, finds himself in the thick of the raging jazz world of postwar New York; and while eluding classification — no one can really pin him down — he leads a career as long, varied, and colorful as any in American music.

The film’s soundtrack would be drawn, naturally, from Hyman’s wide-ranging oeuvre, which is really the soundtrack of 20th-century America: ragtime, stride, boogie-woogie, swing, bebop, rock and roll, bubblegum pop, elevator Muzak, soap-opera organ swells, game-show schmaltz, space-age electronica. The visuals would be equally evocative — photographs and newsreels from the ragtime era to the Jazz Age to the Great Depression, along with split-screen shots of Hyman and the piano giants whose styles he is able to replicate: Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Teddy Wilson, even Art Tatum, whom Rachmaninoff regarded as the greatest pianist in any style. Then there’s that priceless television kinescope from 1952, which Dick explains in his eloquent, understated way: “I played on a local show on the DuMont network that aired every evening, called Date on Broadway, and one night the guests were Earl Wilson, the Broadway columnist, introducing Leonard Feather, the jazz writer, presenting the Esquire Award to Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. So then, of course, we played a number together, and that little bit of film turned out to be the only filmed evidence of Charlie Parker playing live.”

A Zillion Strings and Dick Hyman At The Piano [1960] Everest Records SDBR-1074

 

While perhaps not a zillion strings, the arrangements are quite elaborate. A masterpiece indeed!  ~Gipsy Dancer~  👌

This 1960 Everest LP is now considered an easy listening masterpiece, with Hyman's lush piano backed by a large string orchestra, conducted by Jules Schacter. Even though there are two jazz compositions included ("Caravan" and "Sugar Blues") on the album, as well as several standards favored by jazz musicians ("Willow Weep For Me" and "I'll Never Be The Same"), Hyman never takes the opportunity to show his true capabilities at the piano.  That might have overwhelmed the intended audience for this recording. His one original for this date, the Hawaiian-like "Kaipuala" was a jaunty vehicle written for a television sequence featuring Arthur Godfrey. Hyman served as Godfrey's music director from 1959 to 1961.

Dick Hyman, His Piano and Rhythm • 60 Great All Time Songs Volume 6 [1958] MGM Records E3588

 

The ultimate musical chameleon! Dick Hyman's fame for being able to perform in virtually any musical style on any keyboard instrument has come to overshadow his accomplishments as a musician and arranger in his own right. Hyman studied at Columbia University and played with Teddy Wilson, Red Norvo, Benny Goodman, and other jazz greats, but he says his best musical education came from working as a studio musician on radio and television in the 1950s, when he had to shift from one style to another as shows came and went throughout the day, and exceptional sight-reading and impromptu composition were essential survival skills. No one has kept track of many different recordings Hyman made under how many different names--ragtime piano as "Knuckles O'Toole," polka, light classical, "Living Trio" Three Suns clones are only a few. 

He also recorded under his own name, beginning in the mid-1950s for MGM. His cover of "Moritat," on harpsichord with his trio, sold over a million copies in 1956 and was the most successful recording of the tune until Bobby Darin did it as "Mack the Knife." He was the musical director of "The Arthur Godfrey Show" from 1958 to 1961. He was an early staple of Enoch Light's Command label, for which he recorded light classical, swinging harpsichord, funky organ, and "now sound" combo albums. He also demonstrated his continuing interest in new keyboard instruments, releasing two of the earliest Moog albums. Hyman has stayed in demand as much as any musician around, working for TV, scoring film soundtracks for Woody Allen, and, more recently, as a jazz pianist and organist. 

Tracklist:

01 All In A Day: Good Mornin'/Sunshine Cake/Sunflower/Sweeping The Clouds Away/Says My Heart/In The Cool, Cool, Cool of The Evening

  

02 The Nearness of You: The Nearness of You/You Leave Me Breathless/My Ideal/Moments Like This/I'm Yours/My Silent Love

     

03 Learn To Croon: Learn To Croon/Down The Old Ox Road/Just One More Chance/That's For Me/Thanks/Please

   

04 Lovers' Waltz: Lover/Champagne Waltz/The Vagabond King Waltz/That's Amore/Dream Lover

   

05 Love Is...: Love Is Just Around The Corner/Kiss The Boys Goodbye/One Dozen Roses/Louise/Stop! You're Breaking My Heart

     

06 Rain On The Roof: Hit The Road To Dreamland/Two Sleepy People/You're A Sweet Little Headache/The Lady's In Love With You/Rain On The Roof

   

07 Love In Bloom: Love In Bloom/June In January/Do I Love You/Heart and Soul/The Day You Came Along/Whispers In The Dark  

08 Sing Along, You Sinners: Sing You Sinners/Beyond The Blue Horizon/Jingle Jangle Jingle/I Hear Music/I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine/Buttons and Bows

   

09 Penthouse Serenade: Penthouse Serenade (When We're Alone)/Blue Orchids/I Wished On The Moon/Hello My Lover Goodbye/Stella By Starlight

10 I Remember You: I Remember You/You Brought A New Kind of Love To Me/With The Wind and Rain In Your Hair/I Get Along Without You Very Well/Out of Nowhere

11 You're Mine, You: You're Mine, You/Dolores/Only A Rose/Small Fry/Tangerine 

Dick Hyman, His Piano and Rhythm • 60 Great All Time Songs Volume 5 [1958] MGM Records E3587

 

Party music for dancing, romancing, or just sitting back and listening!  The choice is yours. . .  ~Gipsy Dancer~

Dick Hyman, His Piano and Rhythm • 60 Great All Time Songs Volume 4 [1958] MGM Records E3586

 

More in the life of this artist:

A very versatile virtuoso, Dick Hyman once recorded an album on which he played "A Child Is Born" in the styles of 11 different pianists, from Scott Joplin to Cecil Taylor. Hyman can clearly play anything he wants to, and since the '70s, he has concentrated chiefly on pre-bop swing and stride styles. Hyman worked with Red Norvo (1949-1950) and Benny Goodman (1950), and then spent much of the 1950s and '60s as a studio musician. He appears in the one known sound film of Charlie Parker (Hot House from 1952); recorded honky tonk under pseudonyms; played organ and early synthesizers in addition to piano; was Arthur Godfrey's music director (1959-1962); collaborated with Leonard Feather on some History of Jazz concerts (doubling on clarinet), and even performed rock and free jazz; but all of this was a prelude to his later work. In the 1970s, Hyman played with the New York Jazz Repertory Company, formed the Perfect Jazz Repertory Quintet (1976), and started writing soundtracks for Woody Allen films. He has recorded frequently during the past several decades (sometimes in duets with Ruby Braff) for Concord, Music Masters, and Reference, among other labels, and ranks at the top of the classic jazz field. In 2013, Hyman teamed up with vocalist Heather Masse for a standards set on the Red House label called Lock My Heart. 

Dick Hyman, His Piano and Rhythm • 60 Great All Time Songs Volume 3 [1957] MGM Record E3537

 

Installment three finds us enjoying some "oldies" and some show tunes! ~Gipsy Dancer~

Dick Hyman, His Piano and Rhythm • 60 Great All Time Songs Volume 2 [1957] MGM Records E 3536

 

Whether you are in the dancing mood or just the listening mood, you will find this quite entertaining by one of my favorite keyboard wizards!  ~Gipsy Dancer~  💖

Tracklist:

01 Bright and Bouncy: Looking At The World Through Rose Colored Glasses/High Society/Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall/Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby/Little Girl/Ooh! Looka There, Ain't She Pretty

02 Blues and Boogie: Lover Man (Oh! Where Can You Be)/Baby Won't You Please Come Home/Sugar Blues/You Don't Know What Love Is/Mad About Him, Sad About Him, How Can I Be Glad Without Him Blues/Cow Cow Boogie

03 Waltzing in a Dream With You: Waltzing in a Dream/You Always Hurt The One You Love/Daisy Bell (On A Bicycle Built For Two)/Nobody's Darlin' But Mine/The Man on the Flying Trapeze/Beautiful Brown Eyes 

04 Remember These?: Piccolo Pete/Come on a My House/Your Red Wagon/Tain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It), Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar/Loch Lomond (By Yon Bonnie Banks)

05 Touch of Latin: Enlloro (Voodoo Moon)/Matilda, Matilda/La Cucaracha/Heartaches/The Wedding Samba/Jungle Fantasy

06 Sweet With a Little Beat: I'll Never Smile Again/(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons/The Gypsy/Teach Me Tonight/I Love You Much Too Much/Kiss of Fire

07 Paris Waltzes: The Petite Waltz (La Petite Valse)/Under Paris Skies/Padam...Padam... (How It Echoes The Beat of My Heart)/Pigalle/Domino/(Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah) The Song That Haunts My Heart (Je N'en Connais Pas La Fin) 

08 Businessman's Bounce: A Sunday Kind of Love/C'Est Si Bon (It's So Good)/Anema E Core (With All My Heart and Soul)/My Extraordinary Gal/Meet Mister Callaghan/Comme Ci Comme Ca (Clopin-Clopant) 

09 Touch of Jazz: I've Found a New Baby/Undecided/Mr. Five By Five/Struttin' With Some Barbecue/Between 18th and 19th on Chestnut Street/Everybody Loves My Baby (But My Baby Don't Love Nobody But Me)

10 Goodnight: May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You/Now is the Hour, In the Evening by the Moonlight/Sleepy Serenade/Till Then/Auld Lang Syne 

Dick Hyman, His Piano and Rhythm • 60 Great All Time Songs Volume 1 [1957] MGM Records E3535

 

This 6-volume collection comprises the oldest Hyman recordings in my library dating from 1957-1958.  ~Gipsy Dancer~

Tracklist:

01 Fine and Dandy: Just One of Those Things/Mountain Greenery/Fine and Dandy/Three Little Words/Oh, Lady Be Good/Love Is Sweeping The Country

02 What Is This Thing Called Love: What Is This Thing Called Love/Moanin' Low/It's Magic/Ev'ry Day/I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan 

03 Geography: Shanghai/In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town/Along The Santa Fe Trail/Beside A Babbling Brook/Flirtation Walk

04 A Kiss In The Dark: A Kiss In The Dark/For You/Let The Rest of The World Go By/When Irish Eyes Are Smiling/Kiss Me Again

05 East Is East: Nagasaki/The Riff Song/Limehouse Blues/Chinatown My Chinatown/Twilight In Turkey

06 I Get A Kick Out of You: I Get A Kick Out of You/You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby/You Oughta Be In Pictures/You and The Night and The Music 

07 Thou Swell: Thou Swell/Too Marvelous For Words/It's Only A Paper Moon/When My Dream Boat Comes Home/A Cup of Coffee, A Sandwich and You/There's Yes! Yes! In Your Eyes/I Love You So Much

08 Alone Together: Alone Together/Why Shouldn't I/My Time Is Your Time/Oh You Crazy Moon/Deep Night 

09 Cheerful Little Earful: Cheerful Little Earful/Zing Went The Strings of My Heart/You're The Top/Five O'Clock Whistle/Lady, Play Your Mandolin/Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?  

10 Serenade: I Kiss Your Hand Madame/Soon/Gypsy Love Song/Serenade From "The Student Prince"/La Vie En Rose/Remember Me/Can't We Talk It Over

11 It Had To Be You: If I Could Be With You/It Had To Be You/Would You Like To Take A Walk/Maybe/ I'll String Along With You