Various Artists
Various ArtistsThe Mouldy Vexations of Vinyl RotTracks
Welcome to the irritaining world of KBZ 200. A world where only three songs are played, over and over again, in a seemingly endless train of masterful and inventive cover versions. Only three songs. Sounds boring, you say? Give it a listen.
We think you'll change your mind, and maybe even your attitude.
That's because the producers and musicians featured on this disk have been through a lot. They've toured more than four countries on two continents, presenting these same three songs in 18 hour 'Vexations-style' events, manipulating cover version after cover
version of Quiet Village, Taboo, and Caravan. Oh sure, sometimes the KBZ 200 has managed to bug people a bit: getting physically thrown out by club owners after only nine hours or so, or having their event interrupted after thirteen hours by an overly zealous control freak DJ who decides to put a non-trilogy song on the turntable and refuses to remove it.
But in general, the KBZ 200 has experienced many successes. These tracks are selected from a 3-volume set of cassettes (the cassettes feature 81 different versions altogether of the same 3 songs!) that the KBZ has been putting out since 1991. An initial offering is being released now on CD because the KBZ is tired of answering the endless stream of requests for more cassettes of the original Exotic Trilogy volumes. People who bought cassettes only one or two weeks before, come by asking for more copies because their original ones were stolen. This happened so many times in the past that we decided to do a survey. It turns out that a majority of Exotic Trilogy cassette owners have had their original copies stolen, obviously by thieves who couldn't be bothered finding out where they can buy their own copy.
So, a word of caution: keep this disk in a safe place. If you have to take this music over to a friend's place, bring a back-up copy on cassette only.
Why only three songs, you may ask? That's because the KBZ 200 pays attention to important trends in music history.
This particular trend begins in Paris, in 1893. That's when Erik Satie composed Vexations, a one page piano piece that is repeated 840 times.
This takes about 18 hours. In Erik's time, recording technology had yet to be invented, but that didn't stop him from conceiving of background music, or musique d'ameublement (furniture music), as he called it. Composing a piece to be played 'live' in the background, over and over again, while people were supposed to converse and socialize in its presence was a pretty radical idea, if not downright avant-garde, at the time. An 18 hour work in repetitive form like this was not an ordinary thing for western classical music. It did, however, draw a parallel to some music rituals of exotic cultures. Many non-western cultures have musical and theatrical performances that sometimes continue for days.
What happened to this once-avant-garde concept called back¬ground music? It turned into something called Muzak. Pretty un¬avant-garde. But some Muzak has a link to another once-popular genre: Exotica. Any student of the Exotica movement would note that the three songs the KBZ 200 feature are important landmark anthems of this ersatz genre. And any of these three songs may also be considered as typically representative of the Muzak genre, as well. So why not seize upon these associations and do a Vexations of Mouldy Vinyl, thus acknowledging Muzak's implementation of Satie's concept?
This CD compilation is a portion of the entire utility required to realize the mouldy impactedness of ersatz Gesamtkunstwerk. As such, it is your personal passport to Instant Baghdadianism. To create your own Tableau of Mouldy Exoticism at home, try adding a few extra touches: a flaming Tiki head is, of course, obligatory, as are the screening of south sea travelog flims and 3D exotic slides, the cooking of exquisite cuisine on Volcano Wok, augmented at the right moment with the injection of Taboo Sauce, pumped through the Coconut Bra of an exotic goddess. Employ as many musicians as possible to perform live versions of the Exotic Trilogy, but please take care to appoint a control freak stage manager who will 'pull the plug' on any musician not playing one of the three songs. To prevent the gathering from becoming too predictable, always be prepared to embrace the principle of 'Theater of Total Failure'. Remember: you are on a rudderless voyage through the glittering desert of artcrust.
So pop this disk in your CD player, select endless repetition, and sit back and enjoy the irritainment. Play it at your next get-together for a big hit - guaranteed to make new friends (and a few enemies)!
Thanks to: Funny Farm, Laura & Gordon, Gordon W., Rob, Larry, Fabio, Egnekn, Sir Spinner, John, Eric, Michael, tENTATIVELY, Maria, Alex, Roland, Riksaraj, Stiletto, Kerstin, Hans Otto, Kai, Bastiaan & Megan, Robin, Lars, Otillie, Paul, Tim, Steve & Tim, Gargoyle, Martin, Tony, Rüdiger, Werner, Klaus, Elizabeth, Roger, Peter, Matthias, Ingrid, FGM, Frank, Helle, Eimer, Shelley, Peter, David, Andreas, Karen and all other charter members of KBZ 200 too numerous to mention here...
Dick Schory’s New Percussion EnsembleIn the early days of stereo there was much ado about the so-called ping-pong effect. Record people were simple enough to think that listeners with two speakers were only interested in hearing something different come out of each speaker. And many of the early musical arrangements were great for table tennis fans. Well, this record would be more like water polo.And substitute the following for the “IMPORTANT NOTICE” section:
Our every effort has been to keep the space three-dimensional, instead of two. East-to-west placement of instruments is clear, of course, but so is a spacious sense of depth. If the celesta was sitting southwest of the four marimbas, that’s where you’ll hear it. With such a setting, kettle drums come up like thunder; the harp swoops and soars as we’ve always been told it’s supposed to in its original celestial setting.
This record contains the new revolutionary anti-static ingredient, 317X, which repels dust, helps prevent surface noise, and helps insure faithful sound reproduction. This is a TRUE STEREOPHONIC RECORD specifically designed to be played only on phonographs equipped for stereophonic reproduction. This record will also give outstanding monaural performance on many conventional high fidelity phonographs by a replacement of the cartridge. See your local dealer or serviceman.Side 1
Dick Schory’s New Percussion EnsembleThis record is for people who are: (check one or more)Side 1
[ ] too happy
[ ] too sad
[ ] too romantic
[ ] too stimulated
[ ] too tranquilized
[ ] too much
The fact is, this is an album which can establish or shatter (as you wish) a great gamut of moods—for yourself or an expendable friend. It’s especially good for getting rid of wholesome guests or keeping incorrigibles entertained.
And it’s all done with new percussion sounds: some soft and caressing (Autumn in New York, Speak Low) others big and wild (Safari Anyone?, South Rampart Street Parade). Instruments include virtually everything which can be stroked, plucked, poked or banged.
Some, in the trade, have called this America’s first bang-along record. We earnestly hope it won’t start a movement of proportions similar to the recent sing-along fad. Even though twelve virtuoso percussionists are hard at work on twelve pop songs, there is really only a moderate amount of banging going on. At least half the selections feature creamy vibes and lush harp arrangements. Most are extremely danceable—at least for those who have had a recent physical checkup.
THE GONG ON THE COVER
The bands, when they do come along, go all the way. You’ll hear the gong on the cover in the first number, Caravan. It is not the girl’s gong. In fact, she was not even at the session—unfortunately. If it were her gong, she would jolly well know better than to get so close.
After striking the monster there is an extended period while it “revs up” and one can hear this awesome sound wash out over the vast acoustic cavern of Orchestra Hall in Chicago. Once it has spoken, the mighty vibrations roll out strong and low for minutes afterward. Finally, our engineer had to deliberately fade the gong; otherwise the prolonged reverberation would have run into considerable overtime. Three men with three puffy cushions quieted the giant down sufficiently to start the next “take.” Those brave enough to stand nearby said they experienced an almost indescribably pleasure. With the highest fidelity equipment, similar sensations have been reported in the home with this record. To our knowledge nothing like this has ever been offered on disc before.
WHO DID IT
Lew Layton, the engineer who’s responsible for some of our most glistening symphonic recordings from Boston, Chicago, Rome and New York, said he felt as if he had a souped-up jet job under his instrument panel. We trust his experience with Walkin’ My Baby Back Home will have no untoward effect on his next Beethoven cycle.
Every selection was a completely new production with different microphoning, new scrimmage formations for the players—even new instrumentation (percussionists double on everything). Modern recording musicians are used to music they’ve never seen before. In this case they’d never seen some of the instruments before either… a musical steel oil drum from Trinidad, for example. There were, in all, over one hundred instruments (see inventory, right-hand column), known and unknown, put to hard use during the two days and nights spent in making this album.
We flew Phil Kraus specially from New York for the sessions. He’s the vibe solo on I’ll Remember April, the timpani melody on Caravan, the bongos on Safari Anyone? Dave Black was already in Chicago appearing with Bob Scobey’s band. He’s the dance beat on rhythm drums most of the way, with a special contribution on Fly Now, Pay Later. Frankie Rullo stars on vibes, xylophone, bongos, cow bells, rhythm drums—anything we put in front of him. The rest of the team included Hubert Anderson, Earl Backus, Jose Bethancourt, Russell Crandell, John Frigo, John Gray, Donald Knapp, Martin Rubenstein, Robert Wessberg and David Poskonka.
The idea of making lush quiet music with hammers, or beating up a storm with sticks, is second nature to Dick Schory, our leader. He just naturally expresses himself with mallets. In addition to masterminding the musical adventures of his New Percussion Ensemble, he also drums a wide swath through: The Chicago Symphony, radio and TV commercials, and the Ludwig Drum Company, Dick is one of those who keeps several careers boiling at once. You might see (or more likely, hear) him any place in the country. He might be conducting percussions seminars as Educational and Advertising Director of Ludwig in one city, giving a serious concert with his boys in the next, or doing a TV jazz program in yet another. There are very few who better understand the chain reactions of combining percussion colors and rhythms—as explosive specialization which Schory says he can express most fully on recordings.
WORLD’S BIGGEST HI-FI
It is true that the big gong may be the world’s biggest sounding sound on record. But so is the sprightly music all around it. It has a sound and a size which cannot be duplicated by any other group, any place, on any other record (except perhaps Schory’s first volume*). The secret? … The magnificent, specious acoustics of Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and the luscious Schory instrumentation. The result? … How can we describe it? Autumn in New York was never mellower; A Foggy Day was never brighter. It’s a whole brace of top pop melodies set in fresh new sounds for the young at heart.
-Bob Bollard
* Also hear Dick Schory’s MUSIC FOR BANG, Baa-rOOM AND HARP (LPM-1866)
Dick Schory’s New Percussion EnsembleSTOP CODDLING YOUR HI-FI SET!Side 1
There are sounds in this album never before heard in the home. Tap dancers haven’t, to my knowledge, been recorded before—at least not two of them on the stage of Chicago’s immense Orchestra Hall, surrounded by twelve working percussionists.
But the taps are only incidental. And possibly there are some die-hards who are not entranced by the idea of two live hoofers in their living room anyway. Basically, this is a record of what happens when a dozen virtuoso percussinoists are turned loose on two truckloads of instruments or bang.
All the tunes are “pops” except on (Typee*)… the arrangements, as uninhibited as possible. Several are even danceable, depending on how you dance.
It really did take two moving vans to arm us with instruments—and these were in addition to the regular complement of timpani, chimes, gongs, etc., already housed at Orchestra Hall. The vast stage which comfortably accommodates the full Chicago Symphony was a jam-packed jigsaw puzzle of xylophones, marimbas, chimes, tambourines, tom-toms and tam-tams. Two guitars, harp and bass were the only plucked hybrids.
Two large banquet tables were crammed with the little gadgets: blocks, horns, slapsticks, whistles, poppers, tuned automobile brake drums. Some had probably never seen a microphone before—the musical logs on Baia, for example, antique finger cymbals, and one polished metal item none of the musicians could identify. When conductor Dick Schory appeared with the scores he nonchalantly identified it as a manifold from a 1946 Chevrolet… and handed its music to percussionist number 7. Between takes the men dashed for the tables to sort cut their ammunition for the next number.
Microphone placement was more like planning football plays than a recording session. There were twelve completely different mike set-ups and balances, one for each selection. The movement of men and matériel was a major undertaking for every number.
The original idea was to avoid a set “orchestra.” Each of the four arrangers was to feel free to use percussion in any combination. They did! If one number called for three oversized marimbas on the left, for the next tune they were replaced with two fat sets of pedal kettle drums. (I think it was this no-hold-barred feature which persuaded Skitch Henderson to compose and arrange two selections for us.)
Mostly we used as few microphones as possible, balancing the blend by changing the grouping rather than with the easy but treacherous “add-another-mike-for-what-you-don’t-hear” approach. A three-track Ampex was used and mostly Telefunken 47’s, wide open.
We experimented.
In spite of all the hoopla there have been precious few real explorations of stereo during an actual recording session. It can get mighty uncomfortable for arrangers, engineers, musicians and producer feeling their way into new territory when a slip can cost thousands. But the superficial gimmick of hearing something “different” from each speaker is a shallow excuse for stereo, a trick which wears thin very quickly.
The big contribution of stereo is space. It’s true that stereo can “place” different instruments on opposite sides of your living room. But only when each instrument or group is surrounded with its own envelope of space do we get the real, live, round sound. Without the sense of space around and between we just have two monaural recordings playing side by side.
That’s why we tried movement—tap dancers ricocheting from one side to another (Buck Dance), and drummers marching in from a distance (National Emblem March). We tried to utilize space—two complete sets of dance band drums battling it out from different positions (Duel on the Skins). (We cheated on Tiddley Winks, which called for a soft-shoe chorus. We used sand blocks; the live dancer we tried with real sand on the floor just sounded gritty.)
And there were other effects, some subtle (April in Paris), some contrapuntal (Skitch Henderson’s Holiday in a Hurry), and some just plain corny (Way Down Yonder in New Orleans)… all with the help of the remarkable acoustics of Orchestra Hall. This famous concert hall is a phenomenal and sensitive sound setting, one which very possibly can’t be matched anywhere. Moving a microphone or instrument only a couple of feet one way or another can change tone color and texture.
There were many factors which made this recording possible, many people who resonded above and beyond the call of duty. Mr. George Kuyper, Manager of Orchestra Hall, heads the list. Joe Wells and his Chicago crew handled the engineering. Charlie Pruzansky somehow managed to snatch the three-track equipment still warm from Van Cliburn’s New York recordings and have it appear at 7 a.m. Monday morning in Chicago. The Ludwig Drum Company and the Musser Marimba Company both put their splendid instrumental resources at our disposal. And there was the man who kept pumping coffee into us for the two days we didn’t see daylight.
An approximate instrument inventory:
Piano; String Bass; 2 Guitars; Banjo; Harp; 2 Complete Dance Outfits; Celesta; 3 Vibraphones; 3 Xylophones; 2 Marimbas; 2 Sets Orchestra Bells; Chromatic Cowbells; 8 Timpani; 4 High Tom-Toms; 4 Low Tom-Toms; 4 Medium Tom-Toms; 3 Snare Drums; 2 Field Drums; 2 Tenor Drums; Concert Bass Drum; Scotch Bass Drum; Bongo Drums; Conga Drums; Quinto; Boo Bam; Timbales; Rhythm Logs; Maracas; Guiro; Claves; 2 Pr. Antique Finger Cymbals; 6 Pr. Double Cymbals; 8 Suspended Cymbals; Boka-di-Bok Cymbals; 4 Gongs; 5 Temple Blocks; 4 Woodblocks; 4 Tambourines; 4 Triangles; 4 Pr. Catanets; Auto Brake Drums; 3 Auto Horns; 2 Slapsticks; Rachet; Bell Plate; Anvil; coo-Coo Whistle; Siren Whistle; Slide Whistle; Assorted Sound Effects.
The New Percussion Ensemble is the creation of Dick Schory, a uniquely talented young man to whom percussion has become a way of life (see cover). His group of twelve has been together almost two years. Many divide their time between the Chicago Symphony and the top recording and broadcasting bands. Ed Metzenger, Reiner’s top timpanist, is considered a dean of the percussive art and started many in the group on their present careers.
Dick Schory also appears with the Chicago Symphony, composes, conducts, has lecture tours, writes books, is advertising and educational director for Ludwig. The impressive thing is—he does these all at once.
--Bob Bollard
* Typee: An original by Schory and Christian based on Melville’s book of the same name which describes the author’s four-months captivity by a primitive tribe of savages living in the valley of Typee on the island of Mukuheva, one of the Marquesas islands in the South Seas. The music is meant to describe the setting of Typee, with its exotic environment and hostile population.
Recorded in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, June 2 and 3, 1958.
Produced by Bob Ballard
Al AnthonyAl started playing the organ in a Waukegan, Illinois church at the age of twelve. After graduating from high school, he attended college in Minneapolis, studying music and playing football. Deciding his future lay in the music field, he left college and formed a trio which won him popularity in supper clubs in Chicago, New York, Las Vegas and eventually the West Coast.Side 1
Al spent the entire 1956 winter season laying at the Hotel La Paz in Palm Springs, California, where he won the title of “Palm Springs’ Most Popular Entertainer”… and the summer seasons of ’56 and ’57 gaining new fans in Paris, Copenhagen, Rome and other European resorts. Guest appearances on Hollywood television shows followed and led to his own West Coast TV show, motion pictures, a recording contract and now, his first and very exciting Liberty album—“Swinging’ Hi-Fi.”
Al Anthony’s musical diversity is well displayed in this album… clever tricks and a crazy humor in “You’re Driving Me Crazy”… an authentic Latin touch in “Baia” and “Tropical Merengue”… spectacular wind, storm and even sea gull effects are produced by the Hammon in “Ebb Tide”… his obvious love for progressive jazz in “Ev’rything I’ve Got Belongs to You”… a “rockin’” arrangement of “I Can’t Believe That You’re in Love With Me,” happily dedicated to his teenage fans… and, if you are lucky enough to have this album in stereo, you’ll swing back and forth from speaker to speaker in the Al Anthony original “Swingin’ Hi”… actually written during one of the recording sessions.
Here, in your hands, is the musical personality of Al Anthony… filled with musical enthusiasm and closely integrated with Howard Roberts’ guitar, Mel Lewis’ drums and Buddy Clark’s bass—and all Swingin’ Hi to the fresh arrangements of the gifted Al Anthony.
