The above is your brain on drugs (or really good pharmaceuticals) (not that I'm advising anything illegal) (ish). Confused? Don't be. Mickey and his friends were big turn-ons for all those acid-tripping hippies and yippies in the late 1960's and early 1970's (Timothy Leary loved "Dumbo") (I know, right?).
You'll understand things even better when you listen to this super-rare 2003 CD in which members of Pizzicato 5 give their take on "Chim-Chim Cher-ee," Bibidi-Bobidi-Boo" and many more famed MouseHouse tunes. It shouldn't be as entertaining as it is - most of these songs, in their original form, set my teeth to gnashing - and yet some unholy marriages really do work.
Speaking of rare, the sexy-and-she-knows-it R&B artist below couldn't even get her sophomore CD released by her record company.
Adina Howard hit it big with her first CD - which included her gold single "Freak Like Me - and seemed poised for superstardom. But in one of the strangest turns in R&B history, Elektra Records abruptly gave up on her by the time she finished "Welcome To Fantasy Island," her second CD which had already received advance raves from critics.
Confused fans would have to wait two more years for it to be leaked to the Internet, and while a handful of commercially-pressed CDs were sold in Europe, most of her fans had already moved on. And yet the reputation of "Welcome To Fantasy Island" has endured. Why? I decided to find out; it was either going to be one of those would-be sensations stoked by overenthusiastic rumors or a lost gem. To my surprise, it turns out to be the later. Really, no joke. This slow-jam make-out CD is in a class by itself, and it's obvious that more than a few artists have given it a listen or two throughout the years - especially Madonna, Brittany, Nicki Minaj and Rhianna, who've lifted (read: stolen) quite a lot from it.
Yet unlike all of her imitators, Adina can really sing, and her writing is playful, teasing and smartly produced (and her voice isn't obscured under a deluge of production). Some of the arrangements may seem a little dated, but if a new artist were to release this today, it would turn gold in a nano-second.
I'm a late arrival to the world of Adina, but I've long enjoyed Jimmy Smith and a certain black puddytat.
In college, I bought "The Cat" at a used record store because I liked the menacing black cat on the cover and thought I'd frame it. It never made it to the wall. Instead, I played the record and was gobsmacked, as the Brits like to say, by jazz great Jimmy Smith's sound on electric organ, and by Lalo Schiffren's finger snappin', "big daddy" brass arrangements. The music nearly jumps out of the speakers and grabs you.
Sometime after college, I realized I no longer had the LP. I'd lent it to a friend - damn you, Martha! - who'd wanted to make a cassette tape copy for herself (remember those?). But Martha was gone. She'd moved to Tennessee (of all places) (I'm sure she still feels superguilty about not giving it back) (and, yes, of course, I totally forgive her).
I remembered the LP a week or so ago and got my paws on a fantastic restored copy. And, yes, it's as irresistible as ever. Trust me, jazz-heads, you really want this.
Jazz-heads of the vocal variety have reason to rejoice today, too. The world's sunniest jazz vocalist has arrived with a Super Jazzy-Cheerful Exclusive! courtesy of my Cuban Luvuh.
Fans of Teresa Brewer will surely appreciate her 1992 take on Louis Armstrong's favorite numbers. I know what you're thinking. "Who could sound less like Louis Armstrong than Teresa Brewer?!" No one, of course, but that's part of what makes it work; she has no choice but to sing them in her own inimitable fashion.
And just as wonderful, a different jazz trumpeter joins her on each track, including the likes of Dizzy Gillepsie, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Wynton Marsalis and many more. My favorite is "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams," which has Teresa getting really low-down and raspy. It's like the girl-next-door's become a Naughty Girl Guide!
Naughty doesn't even begin to describe the Secret Song File's forlorn friend below, who's taken to receiving clandestine instructions from his besties in order to enjoy certain liasons beneath a grimy bridge.
Even I have standards.
Tell me how much you don't believe me in the comments!
