Bill Ramal – Screamin’ Saxes (MGM E/SE 4051)

 

 

 

 

 

Side 1

1. Hand Clappin'

2. Hard Times

3. Cloudburst

4. Walkin' With Mr Lee

5. Em-Bee

6. Ichi-Ban

Side 2

1. Back Street

2. Castle Rock

3. Blow Your Horn

4. Sting Ray

5. Honky Tonk

6. Hot Rod

Here’s something that differs from the usual Be Bop Wino fare. It’s not quite the usual cool R&B / Jazz / Rock ‘n’ Roll that I like to think is the staple diet of this august blog. The album title, the front cover art, the track list, it all looks right and yet it’s kind of “off kilter.” There’s positively lurid use of stereo separation as the tenor saxes of Bill Ramal and big band veteran Georgie Auld tear through 12 honking sax instros but the feeling I get from listening to this set is that it consists of R&B by the numbers, or ersatz R&B.

“Screamin’ Saxes” was released in 1962. The sleeve notes assure us that the sounds contained therein are “… big and driving and new; this sound of the 60s.” In fact it’s a compilation of cover versions of 1950s R&B honking sax juke box hits, plus 3 original compositions by Bill Ramal: “Em-Bee”, “Ichi-Ban” and “Sting Ray.”

The cover versions are – “Hand Clappin’” and “Blow Your Horn” both originally by Red Prysock, “Hard Times” by Noble Watts, “Cloudburst” by “Claude Cloud and his Thunderclaps" (really the Leroy Kirkland band with Sam “The Man” Taylor on tenor sax), Lee Allen’s “Walkin’ With Mr. Lee”, Eddie Chamblee’s “Back Street”, “Castle Rock” by Johnny Hodges (Al Sears on tenor sax),” Honky Tonk” by Bill Doggett (Clifford Scott on tenor sax) and “Hot Rod” by Hal Singer.
 

 

There’s an interesting post on Bill Ramal at the Ill Folks blog. He was a saxophone player and arranger who worked with Del Shannon and Johnny And The Hurricanes. He also arranged and composed novelty records with Dickie Goodman. The Ill Folks post has a sound sample from Ramal’s 1963 LP “Young America Dances To TV’s Greatest Themes.”

Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps.

Download from here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/157902047/Screamin_%20Saxes.rar

Or here:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wv7d6wbe6471cbc

The password on the rapidshare download is greaseyspoon. There is no password on the mediafire download.