Browse by Artist: GARCIA AND HIS ORCHESTRA, RUSS

Artist:	GARCIA AND HIS ORCHESTRA, RUSS
Title:	Fantastica
Label:	BASTA (NETHERLANDS)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	BASTA 9191

"Fantastica is a 1950s exotica classic that stylistically defines the genre 'space age pop.' The era of manned space travel began in 1959, but in musical terms, composers had been exploring interplanetary vistas for centuries. Garcia's accomplishment was to merge compositional sophistication and the technology of the modern transistorized recording studio with cleverly created special effects. From the first track, 'Into Space,' Garcia sets the controls for interstellar overdrive and never looks back. His pan-galactic portraits shuttle the listener from planet to planet, as moods shift from mysterious to exhilarating. This Basta Essential Reissue contains the entire 1959 album as it was originally released. The liner notes include remembrances written in 2008 by the composer Russell Garcia (b. 1916, Oakland, California). Garcia explained, 'We had no computers to make effects, so I recorded a musical saw struck with a soft mallet; blew a straw into gelatin water; vibrated a kitchen knife off the edge of a table; tapped wood blocks; hit a gong while moving a microphone from the center to the edge. I recorded these sounds at different speeds, some of them backwards through feedback echo. Then I wrote them into the orchestral score.' Garcia has had a long, distinguished career in music as a trumpeter, songwriter, bandleader, conductor, arranger, TV and film score composer, teacher, and theorist. He has worked with Henry Mancini, Harry James, Oscar Peterson, Louis Armstrong, Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, and Ella Fitzgerald, among others. In 2005 the L.A. Jazz Institute honored Garcia for his over 60 years of contributions to jazz."

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