8 mm

This collection merges two of groovy easy listening pioneer Enoch Light's 1961 albums, the show tunes-centric Stereo 35MM and Far Away Places, a foray into the beginnings of exotica. Coming off of the enormous success of his Persuasive Percussion album series, Light's orchestra utilizes stereo field recording techniques that were pretty mind-blowing for the early '60s on both albums. Stereo 35MM is the stronger half of the collection, offering fully orchestrated instrumental versions of schmaltzy movie songs like "My Romance" and "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" recorded at Carnegie Hall. Far Away Places tends more toward the tiki torch environments of Martin Denny's Quiet Village-era exotica with less interesting results, marinated in vaguely Hawaiian influences with plenty of harpsichord and beatniky bongos.

King Oliver - Off The Record: The Complete 1923 Jazz Band Recordings (2006) {2CD Off The Record-Archeophone ARCH OTR-MM 6-C2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 312 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 207 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 44 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1923, 2006 Off The Record / Archeophone Records | ARCH OTR-MM 6-C2
Jazz / Early Jazz / New Orleans Jazz / Cornet

Because the personnel include Louis Armstrong, Lillian Hardin, and Johnny and Baby Dodds, the 1923 recordings of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, originally made for the Gennett, OKeh, Columbia, and Paramount labels, have been reissued numerous times as formats have changed and technology has improved. Here, the Canadian label Off the Record (distributed in the U.S. by Archeophone Records) puts 37 tracks on two CDs, having made transfers from the most pristine 78-rpm discs available.

Here is another winning combination of two best-selling easy listening albums from music conductor Enoch Light, who produced a long string of hit stereo percussion albums in the 1960s. Stereo 35 MM Volume 2 was a Top Ten album in 1962 and with the coupling of "Far Away Places" Volume 2, are both on CD for the first time and re-mastered in glorious stereo.