Enoch Light 'Provocative Percussion' LP find

Aloha!

I just found a near mint copy of this record in a trash can here in the East Village. Great lounge music!! Anybody know of this title??

Getting into Exotica has been great so far. Firstly because as we all know there is so much great stuff (Denny, Lyman, Baxter, etc.) and has definitely expanded my horizons in terms of the 'lounge, space-age bachelor pad' stuff that I wouldn't have know about prior .

Secondly, because although it is sought after stuff some of it seems to be a little easier to find then say rare Blues or Rock, which makes it all the more satisfying because you can go to a flea market, thrift shop, dollar bin, or garage sale and score.

And finally, getting into all this Exotica and lounge stuff is a great alternative for someone like me (mid 30s, long time rock fan, and frustrated musician and critic) who is in the process of completely giving up on finding any current, RELEVANT, rock music. In my opinion...even though there are all these hyped new bands ala The Strokes (pretty boys ripping off Television & Richard Hell) and The Vines (please! Premature Nirvana rip-off) out there who some people claim have 'saved rock n roll', I have to quote The Who here..........'Rock is Dead...Long live Rock'.

:drink:

and to further quote Mr. Townshend:

....'and I get on my knees and pray, we don't get fooled again'

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2003-10-01 10:39 ]

YES!

This is a great find - one of my favorites - and one of a really awesome series that contains a lot of records. They're pretty easy to find, too! The covers are quite cool, all feature that sort of repeated graphical design, so they look very cool grouped in a wall display. The titles are pretty funny, actually, too -

They all have very similar titles with multiple volumes - Provocative Percussion, Persuasive Percussion, etc. I think Enoch Light made records for this series from the early 60s to the early 70s.

Let me know if you find other permutations on the Enoch Light 'percussion' genre!

Frenchy P.

If you're interested in Enoch Light and Project 3 records, a good site to visit is
http://www.enochlight.com/

They have some great animated images of some of the more popular Enoch Light LPs. They make me wish that all LP covers could somehow become animated.

Vern

The "Stereo Action" LPs have great covers as well, featuring die cut gatefold covers that let you peek at the artwork underneath.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/spaceagepopagogo/sld031.htm

I only have about 5 or so of these. I wish I had the Esquivel one!

Thanks for all the info, people! The Enoch Light page is pretty friggin' cool. It never ceases to amaze me how much info is out there on the web for specific tastes and obsessions.

I have actually seen the Stereo Action 'Dynamica" at one of the cooler used & rare LP stores in my 'hood that I go to at least once a week. If I recall correctly, the price was pretty reasonable. I was there yesterday, but I think it was gone. Frig!!

Just for good measure I picked up a pretty near mint copy of George Shearing 'White Satin' today for a dollar. Very cool cover. Musically, not THAT mind blowing, but a decent listen, and you can never beat that price! :drink:

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2003-10-01 14:09 ]

On 2003-10-01 14:00, donhonyc wrote:
Just for good measure I picked up a pretty near mint copy of George Shearing 'White Satin' today for a dollar. Very cool cover. Musically, not THAT mind blowing, but a decent listen, and you can never beat that price!

I like George Shearing's records. They make good romantic dinner music - or for after dinner drinking and ... :wink:

They have just the right amount of schmaltz, without the sickening over-stringed sound of many other easy listening albums.

I love the covers and names, too - Black Satin, Velvet Carpet, etc.

Yup, Shearing is good. My favorite is Shearing and Peggy Lee on "Beauty and the Beat". It was recorded live at a DJ's convention in Miami. It is really too cool.
My only Enoch Light is called something or other Percussion Cha-Cha-Cha. Musically, he's not anything like as interesting as Cugie, Prez or Puente but his use of stereo is mind-bending.
I also think it is really weird how alot of the albms from that era went into incredible detail about how the record was recorded... telefunken mics and lathes and dynagroves and what not. What a bunch of freakin nerds.

[ Edited by: Kailuageoff on 2003-10-01 15:07 ]

I hear you Jab.

Shearing's stuff is just a couple notches away from being complete overblown cheeze. As soon as the Vibe sounds kicked in, I knew I was in safe territory. The cover art is very cool though, and with alot of these old LPs that's a big selling point. In fact, my girlfriend, as cool as she is, picked up a Jackie Gleason album with cover art by Salvador Dali. Another near mint condition LP for a dollar. Maybe you've seen this one. It's cool enough that the cover is designed by Dali, but what's even cooler, or perhaps bizarre is the photo on the back of the jacket with Gleason & Dali shaking hands!! Wow, wish I was there having Martinis when that meeting was taking place. The "great one" and, uh...the "strange one". But yeah, Gleason's music is on par with Shearing. I'll give it a thumbs up on the cool, cheeze scale. But on the interesting, f*ck with my head music rating, I'd have to put on some Denny or Yma Sumac.

By the way I saw this Andre' Previn LP today (also in the dollar bin) with an interesting cover. I think it was called 'Like Blue'. My first thought was that maybe this is there answer to Miles Davis' 'Kind of Blue'. But then I thought, 'wasn't Andre Previn married to Mia Farrow?'. So somehow this dismantled any coolness that could be attached to this album. Anybody know this title?

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2003-10-01 15:20 ]

That Dali album cover is great! I have that one on 10". Some of Gleason's other record covers are pretty good, like the one with just man's and woman's hands on it. But the music varies a bit. Some are jazzier than others - "Riff Jazz" is a favorite of mine.

I have a bunch of these... Provocative Percussion, Persuasive Percussion, Bongos Bongos Bongos, and the most funny one... Percussive Pineapples!

I have them on a wall in those Retoration Hardware LP frames. They look great as a group, as previously mentioned...

I'm sure some of you may have been to this website, but check out http://www.tamboo.com/clubvelvet/lp/index.html

Very impressive collection.

Enoch Light is a god! I extracted 2 of his albums, Private Life of a Private Eye (1959) and Discotheque: Dance, Dance, Dance (1964) from a friend's garage. (His parents were getting rid of their old records.) I had to go through about 8-10 bins to find them, but it was worth it.

On 2003-10-01 14:37, thejab wrote:

I like George Shearing's records. They make good romantic dinner music - or for after dinner drinking and ... :wink:

Jab, I knew you were a sneaky, cheeky little devil.

I picked up a Leo Addeo hawaiian LP at my favorite 'Unnamed' antique store in Albany, Oregon - I HIGHLY recommend it, it's total schmaltz with 'Grinch Who Stole Christmas'-style singers. I love Addeo's work - lots of ocarinas, harmonicas, slide guitar, and plink-plink percussion - and enough swirling stereo to make someone well and truly seasick! (Witness his cover of 'The Music Goes Round and Round).

Another late breaking bulletin on Enoch Light:

I found another one of his LPs entitled "Stereo 35mm Volume 2". I must say that compared to my trash can find the other day, this was a total let down. More classical and stringy than lounge, but that's not Enoch's fault. People back then just got a charge out of hearing something produced in a technically perfected stereo environment. Gotta love that. Can you imagine anything like that in today's society. Anything without an explosion or violence or a bleeped out expletive here and there wouldn't even rate now...nevermind stereo.

The other LP I picked up today was called 'Pure Truck Stop' by Jerry Smith and his Pianos. Great cover photo of smiling waitresses standing in front of a Union 76 truck stop circa 1969. The music is kinda honky tonkish, and sometimes quirky. All instrumental. One tune does have some whistling on it instead of vocals. And you know what.....if it sounds like anything, it sounds like a truck stop!!

I love those Enoch albums. The first song on my thrift store sampler is a Enoch Light song. Turn up your speakers and check it out:

http://www.dirtyradio.net/~tylero/tsr.m3u

Jab...

Thanks for the tip on the 'Stereo Action' series. I picked up a mint copy of the 'Dynamica' edition by Ray Martin and his orchestra for the low-low price of $4.00. Very cool, and very interesting. Recorded at Webster Hall here in NYC in 1957. You wouldn't have known it by the kind of place Webster Hall is now which is basically a big loud dance club. I noticed that the store I bought the 'Dynamica' LP in also had the Dick Shory 'Running Wild' edition. Any recommendations?