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Lucky Dip!
Lou Courtney made any number of great records and with Jerry Ragovoy's name
in the credits you know it's going to be good.
The price sticker on the sleeve says Mays - Dept. 64 - Price 74 cents. The going rate for a 45 in the US back in '73 I guess?
Lou Courtney - Beware 1973
Ha! Missed a day, so playing catch up. There wasn't even time yesterday to eat the Advent calendar chocolate! That means two today though.
Here's a re-up. You should always make room for some Rufus in your life. I originally posted this track just over 5 years ago!
Don't forget to hang around after the first fade.
Rufus - Stop On By 1974
Buy Rufusized
Lorez Alexandria was not a name I was familiar with until a year or so ago. I think it was an ebay listing where I first came across her name and that triggered a YouTube trawl. Everything of hers I play there I like a lot. One track in particular stood out but it took some serious Googling to find out which album it came from. Once I had identified the album I was pleasantly surprised to find that in only a few weeks I had managed to track one down on ebay for a very good price.
The track in question is "Morning" written by Clare Fischer. It comes from the album "A Woman Knows" an album full of cool, laid back jazz that caresses you from start to finish. It was recorded in December 1978 and released the following year on the small LA label Discovery.
Lorez was born in Chicago in 1929 and passed away in 2001. For me Jazz singers can often get a little bit too carried away with their interpretations and when they move into scat territory I usually get turned off. But Lorez certainly doesn't turn me off, her voice was pure in tone and she had a wonderfully subtle way of interpreting the songs she sang.
Her recording career started in the late Fifties and ran fairly consistently into the mid Sixties on the King, Argo, and Impulse labels. Then her output dropped off, until 1978 when she was back with a run of releases on Discovery, and then a few more albums through the Eighties and into the Nineties when ill health forced her to stop performing in 1996.
All in all Lorez Alexandria left behind a decent catalogue of recordings, but for somebody with such a wonderful voice it should have been much bigger and she remains relatively little known and largely under-appreciated.
Lorez Alexandria - Morning 1978
We got one of those new fangled Tivo boxes installed today. We can now get YouTube on the tele. It's a bit painful typing in the searches but I gave it a go. Earlier this week Blue Magic set me off on a Philly tip and yesterday I homed in on First Choice, so they were, appropriately I suppose, the first thing I looked up and listened to on YouTeletube. I'm true to type - get some new technology and the first thing I do is use it to listen to some 30 something year old music.
I have come to realise that I massively underrated this group back in the Seventies. Their 45s are always good value as the B sides never seem to be throwaways, Here's a great double sider of theirs from 1973. The A side will no doubt be familiar but the B side may not. Make sure you give it a listen, it's beautiful.
First Choice - Armed & Extremely Dangerous 1973
First Choice - Gonna Keep On Lovin' Him 1973
Behind door #9: Christmas pudding. (The novelty's worn off with this little feature. I will keep on eating the chocolate but let you guess what form it is in from now on).
This was recorded in New York, and as far as I know none of the personnel have any connection to New Orleans, but a few tracks on this album have a real Crescent City feel.
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie is the sticksman here, and the female vocalist is Jean Pace, Oscar Brown Jr's wife.
Reviews of this album don't normally highlight this track as one of the standouts, but I really like this.
Oscar Brown Jr. - To Stay In Good With You 1972
Behind door #8: a Robin (or a bird of some description).
Alluded to this record a few years back. Sold it last year on behalf of a friend. If you look it up on Popsike you will get the idea he had a nice Christmas present.
Disco boogie business, and very rare.
Master Force - Don't Fight The Feeling 1979
Behind door #7: Angel (at least I think it is, looks more like an elephant to me!)
