Joe Loss and His Orchestra- Go Latin With Loss

This gem was all of 80 cents.  A lot of notes on the back.  I like that.  It makes my job of reviewing the record easier.

One of the underlying reasons I went to Amsterdam last month was to have duck for Thanksgiving at the same Chinese restaurant I have gone to in the past.  The Resturant Golden Chopsticks. The place I go is on Damstraat.  I chose duck because it is the closet thing to turkey that I can find.  I started going to Amsterdam around Thanksgiving because I get two extra days of holidays .  That week also played well with Champions League so originally, I could go overseas and catch the two games live.  I did that twice.  Anyway, I had my duck on Thanksgiving.  It was pretty good.  

Joe Loss (1909-1999) was a popular British band leader from Spitafields, London. His band, the Joe Loss Orchestra was one of the most popular big bands of the 1940’s.  

This album is a tribute to the Latin styles of music.  It features various forms including tangos, rumbas, sambas, and cha cha’s among others.  Most of the songs are instrumental but there are a few with vocals, performed by Ross McManus.  McManus would later have a son who would become Elvis Costello.  Back to this record, there are a lot of really good moments.  Overall, it is a great album.

According to the previous owner’s notes, the album opens up with “Guitar Tango”, which is noted as being too fast.  The owner also did not like several songs on the back.  These are noted with X’s.  The previous owner really liked “Kissin” as well as “Sucu Sucu” which was noted with “this one”.  Aside from the notes, I really liked the songs above as well as “Parakeet”, “Nicola”, and “La Bamba”. 

I had a hard time picking samples as most of this album is good. Off the bat, I am including “Quando Caliente El Sol” as it has McManus’ vocals on it.  I really liked “Nicola” and ‘Parakeet” despite having X’s written next to them.  Finally, I am posting “Sucu Sucu’ because the previous owner loved it.  I think it is ok.  Not great or nothing.

Whew, four samples.  Looks like I need to do a better job of editing myself.  Oh well.  As far as this record goes, I think it is great.  Satisfactory.