Talkin' Jazz Series from Talkin' Loud

Gokhan Karakus (gokhan@superonline.net)
Wed, 27 May 1998 16:15:42 +0200

For the last week I've been listening to vol. 3 of the Talkin Jazz
series compiled by Gilles Peterson and Rainer Trudy. Most of the
material is from the late 60s. It starts out in a ethnic direction --
Indian, Latin -- and then moves to a jazzy big band sound from what
looks like predominantly German groups. Does anyone else have other
editions of Talkin' Jazz that they would recommend?

Vol. 3 is a real gem with nuggets like Ella Fitzgerald's big band
version of Sunshine of Your Love, Jazz Meets India's spaced out Yaad,
and a cool xylophonic number by the Roland Kovac Orchestra, Blue Dance.

As a comparison I have also been listening to the IRMA compilations of
Italian Easy Listening music from the same period, late 60s, early 70s.
I have the MIRAGEMAN and CORDARA ORCHESTRA compilations. Although the
band and the musicians are top notch, their sound is clean and exciting,
the songs themselves are weak suffering from overly simple arrangements
more akin to pop tunes.

Gokhan