Browse by Label: BUREAU B (GERMANY)

Artist:	VA
Title:	Achtung! German Grooves
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	BB 008CD

...20 Instrumental Dancefloor Killers from the 60s and 70s. The rehabilitation of German popular musicians continues with this new compilation from the Bureau B label, Hamburg's purveyors of quality music. Achtung! German Grooves brings together wild rare grooves, slick funk workouts, sleazy soul beats, wah-wah guitars, Fender-Rhodes, Hammond organs, meaty drum breaks, snappy horn sections -- everything the easygoing '60s and '70s had to offer. Although many of these musicians' first love was jazz and traditional big band, earning some pocket money demanded they create some kicky burners for the groovy dancefloor crowd. Alongside orchestral greats like James Last, Max Greger, Peter Thomas and Ambros Seelos, a number of lesser-known, but nonetheless exciting musicians take a deserved bow. Other artists include: Ady Zehnpfennig, Gerhard Narholz, Hans Haider, Don Kelly Band, Kai Warner And His Orchestra, Theo Schumann Combo, Henry Arland, Heinz Kiessling, Orchester Günter Gollasch, Pete Jacques, Hans Ehrlinger And His Orchestra, Catch Up, Helmut Zacharias, Roberto Delgado, Berry Lipman and Orchester Walter Kubiczek.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Easy Beatles: Irresistible In-Sound Interpretations
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	BB 009CD

...from the 60s and 70s. The Bureau B label presents what may very well be the best Beatles covers record, ever. Now-sound meets jet-set music meets space-age pop meets easy listening meets soul jazz meets vocal jazz. Not to mention stand-out contributors such as Gary McFarland, Gershon Kingsley, The Sandpipers, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Shirley Scott and many more. Countless musicians and bands have transposed The Beatles into styles as diverse as country & western, reggae or even waltzes. When it comes to Beatles interpretations, almost anything goes. The most prolific period of Beatles remakes coincided with the band's own active phase. The late '60s and early '70s were positively awash with Fab Four facsimiles on the songsheets of popular entertainers and jazz musicians. Some went as far as to record entire albums of Beatles songs. While some turned out to be rather fabulous in their own right, others were unintentionally amusing, but no less fascinating for that. More than a few pearls have been gathering dust in the archives over the years and many such treasures thoroughly deserve to see the light of day once again. This collection is but a small, initial foray into such territory. Eighteen jewels handpicked from the copious vaults of (primarily) American recordings embrace multi-genre interpretations. Little known starlets like The Assembled Multitude, studio musicians who came together for a single production, rub shoulders with the somewhat more familiar vocalist Nancy Ames (her highest chart position a less than stellar #89) and the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, a true giant of the vocal jazz scene. Includes detailed and entertaining track-by-track liner notes, beautifully packaged. Get ready to enter the Fab Fourth Dimension.

Artist:	LAST, JAMES
Title:	James Last In Los Angeles
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	BB 010LP

...The Legendary 1975 Record Plant Studio Sessions. The glitzy funk disco jazz fusion insider tip from 1975 is now brand new on limited vinyl. Considered by many jazz fans and DJs to be the finest album "Hansi" ever recorded, the erstwhile Well Kept Secret album now has now officially resurfaced and been retitled. James Last teamed up with arranger and producer Wes Farrell and an array of top-flight American musicians for the 1975 recording sessions in L.A.'s Record Plant Studios. Glitzy jazz/disco arrangements and on-the-money funk rhythms culminated in an orchestration which would not have been out of place in a Blaxploitation score. Original copies of the LP fetch handsome sums at record fairs and on the Internet, with tracks like "Bolero 75," "Love For Sale" and "I Can't Move No Mountains" firm favorites with cool club DJs. How did this extraordinary record come about? In the '70s, James Last was selling vast quantities of records and filling concert halls the world over. There was, however, one significant gap on the map -- the United States of America. Few in the USA had even heard of the hugely successful bandleader. Signed to Polydor, Last's desire to try out something different dovetailed nicely with his record company's ambition to conquer America. The ball started to roll, coming to a stop in L.A. where Last met Farrell and an unparalleled selection of musicians at one of the most renowned recording studios in the USA. Also credited with a role in the arrangements was keyboarder and former Elvis pianist, Larry Muhoberac. Among the musicians were sax stars Ernie Watts and Tom Scott, the guitarist Larry Carlton (Steely Dan, Crusaders), bass player Max Bennet (L.A. Express) and Jim Gordon (Derek and the Dominos) on the drums. In spite of everything, the album failed to achieve the commercial breakthrough hoped for in the USA. Meanwhile, the rest of the world did not seem ready for such a funky James Last... ensuring the album's status as both cult classic and well kept secret.

Artist:	DEBICH, HENRYK
Title:	String Beat
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	BB 011LP

LP-only release. One of the most legendary and eagerly sought-after treasures of Polish jazz funk is about to see the light of day again. First issued in 1975, Henryk Debich's String Beat is now released on vinyl by Bureau B, thanks to a friendly tip-off by Roskow Kretschmann of Jazzanova, an expert on jazz and groove obscurities. The vinyl was mastered from the original tapes belonging to the Polish Muza label. It is no great secret amongst aficionados that an awful lot of excellent jazz music has come out of Poland -- and still does. A particularly fruitful period for the Polish scene was the mid-'70s and Debich's String Beat captures the pinnacle of that era. Funk and jazz connoisseurs have long since fallen in love with it, so to call it a hidden gem does not quite do it justice. The established director and arranger Henryk Debich created this jazz funk monster in 1975 together with the Lodz Radio Orchestra, with no previous experience as a funkateer. Even the author of the original liner notes, Andrzej Jaroszewski, found it hard to contain his boundless amazement: "We have never before heard such an orchestra playing in such a style ... If you bought this record of Henryk Debich's orchestra through choice, you are a connoisseur, if by chance, you are a lucky fellow!" His enthusiasm is easy to fathom: razor sharp horns, a surgically precise rhythm section and crystal clear arrangements -- back then, as now, one would have to search far and wide to find a similar sound. Only the dubious version of "Obladi - Oblada" interrupts the flow a little. Along with The Beatles track, there are two other "western" inclusions on the album. Henryk Debich pays tribute to Isaac Hayes ("Melodia Z Filmu Shaft") as well as Herbie Hancock ("Kameleon"). Everything else was composed especially for String Beat by young, gifted Lodz composers.

Artist:	GODI, FRANCO
Title:	La Linea OST
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	BB 013CD

Bureau B releases the original soundtrack music to the 1970s cartoon, La Linea, composed by Franco Godi (also the composer for Signor Rossi). This is the music from all episodes on CD, supported by two modern remixes. La Linea (also called Lui) was a big-nosed cartoon character drawn as a single outline around his silhouette, walking on an infinite line of which he is a part. Along with his distinctive appearance, another unique feature of this popular character was that he -- to put it mildly -- did not hold back his opinions, ranting, griping, sneering and gloating to his heart's content. La Linea's creator was the Italian cartoonist Osvaldo Cavandoli, who recalls that the inspiration for this work was to "reduce everything to one line and express everything I wanted to say with this line" while tidying up his desk. Little did he know that it would become his greatest success. Starting in 1972, around 100 episodes were broadcast in 40 countries. Voicing this little hothead, who spoke, or rather ranted, in a gibberish fantasy language, was Italian voice actor Carlo Bonomi. Totally without technical aids, using nothing but his unusually multi-faceted voice and versatility, he made Mr. Linea's legendary temperamental outbursts audible and understandable to everyone around the world. But these little cartoons were also supported by wonderful music, composed by a number of advertising jingle specialists -- initially mainly by Franco Godi, later mostly by Corrado Tringali -- wonderfully cheerful, swinging easy-listening gems with hints of Latin music. To liven up the CD further, Mr. Linea pipes up occasionally with a spiteful laugh or throws a little fit of rage.

Artist:	LA DÜSSELDORF
Title:	Silver Cloud/La Düsseldorf
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	7"
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	BB 014EP

Exact, officially licensed repro of the band's first 7", originally issued on the German Nova/Teldec label; packaged in full color cardboard sleeve. La Düsseldorf was the German project founded in 1974 by Klaus Dinger, former member of Kraftwerk and Neu!. The band was completed by a series of musicians, including Nikolaus van Rhein Thomas Dinger, Hans Lampe from Neu!, Harald Konietzko, and Andreas Schell. The band's debut album La Düsseldorf was released in 1976 and it included the funk track "Silver Cloud."

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Artist:	HARMONIA
Title:	De Luxe (Immer Wieder)/Monza (Rauf Und Runter)
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	7"
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	BB 016EP

Artist:	PALAIS SCHAUMBURG
Title:	Wir Bauen Eine Neue Stadt/Madonna
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	7"
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	BB 017EP