The problem with an album like this is that there are two basically disinterested constituencies: Nino Rota fans who want to hear the actual soundtracks and people who don't know who Nino Rota is, or Fellini for that matter, and don't really care who they are or what The Umbrellas have done to interpret Rota's music.

How many Diana Krall albums does one need? That's a personal decision of course. However, if you have more than three but no Shirley Horn albums in your collection, you have a few too many. Ditto Sarah Vaughan, Ella, etc. That's not meant as a slight against Krall. In fact I think she'd probably agree with me.

Even if this record evaporated in a cloud of smoke after one play like the "Mission Impossible" tape it would be worth buying just to hear young Clifford Brown's suave take on the ballad "Easy Living", reproduced with such graceful authority on this double 45—especially if your previous reference was either the CD or the 1974 UA/ Blue Note compilation Brownie Eyes (BN-LA267G), which was all I've previously had. 

The British progressive rock group Gentle Giant never achieved exalted status among the genre's aficionados, though they were well respected and their following was loyal and vociferous. When I was on "free form" FM radio in the mid 1970s I'd get calls from fans requesting Gentle Giant, but when I played through the albums, I heard nothing that I thought would grab listeners.  Listening today to this and to Free Hand (ALLUGV03)—the two albums falling midway in their recording career— makes clear why that was so,  and why they are deserving of a second listen almost forty years later. 

Dick Dale is widely acknowledged as the inventor of “surf music.” Most observers consider his first single “Let’s Go Trippin’” recorded July 21st 1961to be the first surf record. Certainly those of us old enough to remember hearing it on the radio back then had never heard anything like it before, though that could be said about virtually everything that showed up on  pop music radio back then.

As a talent scout, bluesman John Mayall has no equal. Everyone knows he 'discovered' Eric Clapton and that the Blues Breakers album (Decca SKL 4804) became a best seller and a classic, but the list of Mayall discoveries and/or early accomplices is astonishing: John McVie (Fleetwood Mac), Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac), Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones), David O' List (The Nice), Andy Fraser (Free) and more recently (though still 25+ years ago!) Coco Montoya and Walter Trout.

The CTI record label started by producer Creed Taylor in 1968 didn’t immediately get the respect it deserved from jazz snobs who found its musical output as glitzy as its glossy cover art. It was the "smooth” jazz label of its day. By the musical terms of the next decade CTI’s original musical vibe was almost “free jazz” compared to the next decade's elevator music slop labeled as “smooth jazz.” It was smooth alright, but jazz?

Even atheists will swoon for Mahalia's unlikely Sunday morning thanksgiving at the 1958 Newport Jazz festival.  Accompanied by piano,  organ and bass Ms. Jackson begins with the solemn song "An Evening Prayer" and then moves to a more celebratory  "I'm On My Way." Then it's back to the mournful  "A City Called Heaven."

Recorded in December of 1956 and released in the spring of 1957, this lushly arranged, string-drenched concept album collected a set of love ballads that Nat “King” Cole delivered with unerring intimacy and warmth.

Back in 1969, five years before Vince Guaraldi jazzed up Christmas music for "A Charlie Brown Christmas," Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn conceived of and superbly executed this delightfully good-humored jazz version of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite."

Ellington and Strayhorn made up hip new names for Peter Ilich's originals, like "Sugar Rum Cherry" and "Toot Toot Tootie Toot" (Dance of the Reed-Pipes), but even without the novelty titles, you'd know The Duke was going for lightness and good humor.

The suite will be familiar to all, but the retelling as a jazz tale will be novel. The orchestra with Hodges, Carney, Gonzalves, Ray Nance and all the other great vets including drummer Sam Woodyard, swing their way easily through these rhythmically charged, nimbly struck arrangements.

My only criticism here are the short sides. Each is over too quickly.

The recording, produced in Los Angeles May through June of 1960 is clean, crisp and three dimensional, though the mix is more 3 track than stereo, with instruments panned fairly hard left and right with a prominent center fill and little to the its sides until you get to the hard left/right stuff.

Still, despite the somewhat dated staging, the recording quality itself is superb. The horns have a full, brassy swagger, the reeds plenty of buzzy warmth and Woodyard's drum kit is nicely developed with a juicy, woody rim shot that pops brilliantly and crisply chiming cymbals. Ellington's piano is also nicely recorded and there's an emphasis on close-miked percussion that helps make this an audiophile's delight.

A nice blend of direct, closely miked sound and chamber reverb produce a big, exciting picture you'll wrap your ears around with pleasure.

Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman's mastering and the quiet Pallas pressing make this reissue superior to the original, though if you have a clean one of those, you don't need this.

Though it was issued by Pure Pleasure last Spring, now's the time to remind you of this swinging Christmas record, perfect for right now!

I've been loving my original pressing for years. It's a record that comes out every Christmas. Get it and I guarantee it will become a tradition in your house every holiday season for years to come.