Vinyl Feature: Count Basie & The Mills Brothers - The Board Of Directors

A gem of an album featuring a dream collaboration between the legendary Mills Brothers and Count Basie that is almost mythical in it's imaginings! From the very first note until the very last every moment of this album demands to be savoured, listened to with utmost attention, engaged on a personal level as one would pour over a newly discovered treasure that has finally been found. I really cannot fault it and it simply has to be heard by anyone who is a fan of either the "Count" or the Mills Brothers. Fortunately the quality of the recording is as great as the artists themselves and consequently every instrument and every voice is clear, full and real.

First released in 1968 it has carried its age well, and while the music will only really be appreciated by fans of this particular style of swing/big band music, the quality of the sound coming off the vinyl will satisfy even the most picky audiophile! It was recorded at A&R Recording Studios in New York on November 20th and 21st in 1967 and was released in 1968. The album featured the Mills Brothers with Count Basie and orchestra, but the arrangements and conducting were by Dick Hyman.

The great thing about these old LP's were that the covers were used to convey a lot of background info on the artists in a large enough typeface that one can actually sit and read it in a dimly lit sitting room while enjoying your third glass of wine. Who can do that with cd's anymore? Heck, I struggle to read the micro script that most cd's come with in good light, outdoors, at midday, during a sunny summer. They even list the entire orchestra, engineer, producers and still found space for a nice selection of photographs on the back cover of this one!

Front Cover

Back Cover

Tracklist:
Side 1
Up A Lazy River
I May be Wrong But I Think You're Wonderful (Frank Foster solo)
Release Me
I Want To Be Happy (Eric Dixon flute solo)
Down-Down-Down
The Whiffenpoof Song
Side 2
I Dig Rock And Roll Music
Tiny Bubbles
December
Let Me Dream
April in Paris

My particular copy says it was printed in the U.S.A and is "the finest reproduction of Ultra High Fidelity Recording using the RIAA curve position" by Dot Records, Inc, 1507 North Vine Street, Hollywood, California, 90028.

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