RECORDS THAT HAVE IMPRESSED PEOPLE SO MUCH THEY BOUGHT MY STEREO
Remember the good ol' days when you put ads in the local newspapers and were not afraid. to let total strangers into your home? I remember one time I got a call from a girl who wanted to make arrangements to come over with a friend to check out some speakers I had advertised for sale in the newspaper classifieds.She showed up with a guy who was obviously blind.She led him in and directed him toward the speakers.The speakers were not playing anything yet, but he walked over to one of them,felt all up and down the perfect cabinet with his hand and without even hearing a note,he shook his head "No" to the girl and they left out the door.The whole thing took less than a minute.I guess the cabinets didn't "feel" big enough to him.But that's not the way it usually went.You usually had to put something on so they could hear how the equipment sounded.
Even back then when home audio was at its peak,you usually wouldn't' get that many calls on a classified ad,so you knew you really had to make it count.Which brought up a bit of a decision making dilemna of just what music to play for them in order to impress them enough to make the sale.
Nowadays a lot of people at shows and such choose simple minimally miked recordings of a singing voice,(usually female) and a few background musicians, a piano usually.Now these recordings do sound pleasant enough but the music itself is usually not particularly memorable or "really COOKING". To really impress someone into spending serious money, shouldn't' they be using something more musically memorable with lots of complex,beautifully layered instrumentation? When selling equipment that's the kind of stuff I used to use to demonstrate equipment.Maybe the sound is not 100% as clean as some of these so called "purist" recordings chosen today,but they were clean enough and far more impressive in other ways; and not "a bore".The idea is to stimulate and excite people into wanting something bad enough to pay for it,and at those prices they "really" have to want it.Here then are some of the LP's that I used to demonstrate equipment with which almost always got me that "sale"so I could use the money to continue on my upgrading path.These are mostly obscure, seldom if ever discussed titles but not so rare you can't find them somewhere with good selection.
Jungle Fever by Neil Larsen.This not that well known late 1970's jazz fusion classic features really cooking keyboard playing by Neil Larsen,(original compositions too) along with excellent guitarist Buzz Feiten,with really good drummer and percussion and occasional,but tastefully arranged horns.Really excellent,memorable and unique.I believe Neil, who is depicted on the cover was from Florida,but the group seems to be better known in Japan.The Japanese know amazing jazz and a great recording when they hear it.
I DON'T CARE "ask anyone".This one I discovered in a 1970's pawnshop that always had boxes upon boxes of used records.It was not in the greatest shape and years later I finally found a mint copy.Once again a really unique cooking sound with great compositions,vocals,great variety of instrumentation, rhythm and horn section,and really good music with a lot of interesting stuff going on simultaneously.The music even often has a sense of humor,like the title.
Downwind/Crosscurrents by the group Gong.Same era,same kind of music and recording.Pierre Moerlan is a great vibraphone player along with his younger brother,teamed up with great musicians like former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor and others.Once again a whole lot of cooking instrumentation going on at once.Very unique.May take several listens to grow on you.By the fourth or fifth listen you might find it a unique masterpiece.The CD is decent also but I think is available only as an import.The LP is not that rare but somewhat scarce here in the US.Mostly original compositions.You won't believe their version of Santana's classic Oye Como Va,(spelling?),especially on a high end system with fast transient response.
RIO by Lee Rittenour.This is something very different by him with a Latin tinge.If ever there was a guitar album of mostly acoustic instrumentation where the guitarist just could not choose a wrong note being on such a creative high, its this one.This was recorded digitally and has a hint of digital character but is still a wonderful recording.Loads of different instruments used on this one.Fairly common to locate as an LP or CD.Very hard to locate as a Japanese XRCD. Speaking of Japan I will soon be experiencing my first ULTRA HIGH QUALITY CD on order.They make the discs out of a special material that is said to allow more faithful and precise pit pressing.
