Soft Focus Part 5: Soul, Bossa & Exotica

-
The exotica sounds of the 1950s (Les Baxter, Martin Denny and others) make you think of tropical islands, blue seas and sandy beaches. Some of the tropical ingredients were copied by Dr. Buzzards Original Savannah Band and more seventies disco acts (that are gathered on Cocktail Disco, a compilation by Dimitri From Paris). And many lounge acts used the typical exotica sounds in the 2000s. Even acts of today, like Surprise Chef and Sinj Clarke, refer to classic exotica. 

The closing track by Jordan Rakei is from the upcoming album Blue Note Re:imagined that will be released on October 16. Wind Parade originally appeared on trumpeter Donald Byrd’s 1975 classic jazz-funk album Places and Spaces, which was produced by the amazing Mizell brothers.  

Enjoy part 5 of my Soft Focus series! Next up is a spin-off episode of Mellow Mellow FM Radio.

Tracklist: 

Delegation – Oh Honey (1978)
Marlena Shaw – Last Tango In Paris (1973)
Surprise Chef – All News Is Good News (2020)
Barbara Mason – Give Me Your Love (1972)
Os Digitalistas – Lady Marmalade (2011)
Sinj Clarke – Unas Horas (2020)
Alessandro Alessandroni – Mitzi (1974)
Maxine Weldon – Someone Loves You Honey (1975)
Midnite Flite ‎– Don't Turn Away (1976)
Foxy – Let’s Love (1976)
Coke Escovedo – I Wouldn’t Change A Thing (1976)
Eddie Kendricks – Date With The Rain (1972)
Heavy – Wonderlove (For Minnie) [Jazzanova Remix] (2005)
Dionne Warwick – Walk On By (1964)
Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band – Sunshower (1976)
Jordan Rakei – Wind Parade (2020)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disco Knockouts!

-
Image
Apart from the picture of Sharron Davies, there are two songs that inspired me to make this mix. One of them is a recent track from Duck Sauce. The repetition of the female vocals reminded me of Stars On 45 (I believe they both sampled 'Gotta Go Home' by Boney M). The other one is from Dutch singer Dee Dee. I heard ‘I put a spell on you’ on a recent episode of Tim Sweeney’s ‘Beats in space’. In the accompanying video she looks a little bit like a sex doll, but I love the song! I like the closing track from soul veterans the Drifters, but isn’t it strange to hear guys who were in their thirties at the time sing about schoolgirls? Different times, I guess, when no one had heard of R. Kelly yet... One of my personal favourites is ‘Night time’ from Maggie MacNeal. I bought the 7” which was produced by Michael Lloyd (known for his work for the Osmonds, Lou Rawls and Solomon Burke) way back in 1979. Maggie MacNeal was one half of the successful Dutch duo Mouth & MacNeal. Their
Read more

Smooth Sailing On A Late Summer Night

-
Image
Unsplash As a touring member of the Pretenders Welshman Carwyn Ellis originally started his worldwide collective Rio 18 in Brazil. She’s In L.A. is a collaboration with AOR masters Young Gun Silver Fox: “They deliver a new flavour of lowriding Californian funk, telling a story about the joy of finding a new life in the City Of Angels, the metropolis by the sea.” (Bandcamp) Evie Sands began recording as a teenager in the mid-1960s. After a rocky start and having trouble with unreliable record executives who stole her songs, she finally had a hit single with Any Way That You Want Me in 1969. Her debut album, also named Any Way That You Want M e, was released several months after the single had peaked. In 1975 Estate of Mind saw the light of day on Capitol Records. Produced by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, the album marked her continued output as a first class singer/songwriter. The disco inspried One Thing On My Mind is one of the outstanding tracks. The song was covered by severa
Read more

Soft Rock For Autumn Days by The Smooth Operators

-
Image
Pexels Look outside and watch the falling leaves and early sun downs: this is the AOR soundtrack to this year’s autumn by The Smooth Operators (Martijn Soetens and I) 😊 Enjoy some soft rock with a touch of soul! Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel are best known for their UK number one hit (Come Up And See Me) Make Me Smile in 1975. The song came from their album The Best Years Of Our Lives and was co-produced by then relatively unknown engineer Alan Parsons. Their pretty funky track White, White Dove was released a year later as the final single from their next LP Timeless Flight . The track was written and produced by Harley himself.  White, White Dov e was the second single from the album , after Black Or White had failed to chart. White, White Dove came out shortly after Timeless Flight , but despite the album's top 20 success in the UK, the single did not reach the UK top 50 either. However, the same year Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel would return to the UK top 10,
Read more