Ritual Of The Savage question?

I picked this album up at a garage sale a couple of years ago and have never seen another copy. Its a 10" and has eight tracks. The label is pasted to the cover, which is made to look like a wood frame on the front. Also the name is in I think French. The question is is the copy rare, common or just uncommon? Is it worth anything? I do not want to sell it I'm just curious. Thanks.

I have this 10" also. Mine's not in very good condition, though.

Suzanne

The 10" is the original, as is the French title. It also came out as 78 rpm and 45 rpm albums with the same 8-track lineup.

The pasting job with the wooden frame border is typical of Capitol 10" albums of that period.

As a cohesive listening experience, the 10' is better than the 12" IMHO. The eight compositions on the 10" are thematically related and they flow well together.

That said, the 12" has "Sophisticated Savage." This is one of my favorite LB tunes but it is not thematically related to the 8 tunes on the 10" album.

Aloha Trav,

Onyabirri is correct. The 10" of Le Sacre du Sauvage was the original release of Les Baxter's Ritual of the Savage album, the title paying hommage to one of Les' favorite composers Igor Stravinsky. The release of the 12" included 4 extra tracks and an American re-titling.

It is not particularly rare or uncommon as this album sold very well back in 1951. It always pops up on eBay but it's still a nice find, and it's already framed too!! :)

Unbelievable that this album has still never seen a proper reissue.

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

OnyaBirri (et. al.) -

You may be interested in this post I wrote for my Exoticology 101 Blog.

Also there are deep connections between Baxter's writing on that album and Claude Debussy. Particularly on the tune "Stone God","Ecstasy", and "Jealousy."

More comments later if you're interested. Let me know.