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For a lot of Americans in the late 1950s and \u201860s, jazz wasn\u2019t something they went to clubs to hear. If they heard it at all, jazz was often presented in the context of television and film theme music. The brash, hard-swinging sounds of big band jazz lent an exuberant (and wordlessly carefree) vibe to show like 77 Sunset Strip<\/i>, one of myriad crime dramas of the period.<\/p>\n
And in the same way in which studio cats would capitalize on trends \u2013 be they monster movies, sci-fi, surfing, stock cars or what-have-you \u2013 those working in the jazz idiom sometimes jumped on the exploitation bandwagon. One can take a jaded, uncharitable view of that, or one can take the resulting product for what it was\/is. At least in the case of Mel Henke\u2019s 77 Sunset Strip-per<\/i>, I happily choose the latter path.<\/p>\n
Simply put, this stuff is a scream. Think of the cheery, breathless approach of Earle Hagen\u2019s \u201cDick Van Dyke Theme.\u201d Now add to that a bit of Mad Men<\/i>-favored spice, some good old-fashioned female objectification. The result might sound a lot like the title track on this collection of Henke\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWoman in Space\u201d presages Jane Fonda\u2019s Barbarella<\/i> by several years, yet the playful, giddy spirit that was one dimension of the Atomic Age is in full flower here. Sure, the female voice comes off as more than a bit air-headed and dopey, but it\u2019s all in good fun.<\/p>\n
The male voice-over in \u201cBuilt! (for Comfort)\u201d strikes a tone halfway between word-jazz icon Ken Nordine and pastor John Rydgren\u2019s Silhouette Segments<\/i>, if Nordine and the good pastor were both leering, middle-aged dudes. The shameless automobile double-entendres come at you faster than a \u201962 Ford Galaxie 500 with a 406 c.i.d engine.<\/p>\n
And the musicianship is first-rate. Henke knew his craft, and the assembled musicians sink their collective teeth into the material. Listeners looking for nuance had best move along; 77 Sunset Strip-per<\/i> is up-front in its musical exploration of the era\u2019s hedonism. The man who composed \u201cSee the U.S.A. In Your Chevrolet\u201d was clearly having fun with these tunes, and the titles tell the story. \u201cLast Night on the Back Porch,\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s so Nice to Have a Man Around the House.\u201d And the covers coax previously-known meaning out of seemingly innocent songs. Who knew that \u201cOpen the Door, Richard\u201d was a naughty story. Same for \u201cFarmer John.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a challenge: try listening to the songs without smiling. Betcha can\u2019t do it. Pick up the vinyl and keep it handy for your next cocktail party. As liner note writer Brad Bigelow puts it, 77 Sunset Strip-per<\/i> is \u201c[t]oo slick to be sleazy, too cool to be cheesy, it\u2019s just good, swinging fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For a lot of Americans in the late 1950s and \u201860s, jazz wasn\u2019t something they went to clubs to hear. If they heard it at all, jazz was often presented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,42,73],"tags":[3452,2973],"class_list":["post-14705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedy","category-compilation","category-jazz","category-vinyl","tag-mel-henke","tag-modern-harmonic","cat-18-id","cat-19-id","cat-42-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14705"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14709,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14705\/revisions\/14709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}