Listen To:


Selected MP3s of guitar instrumentals, jazz, big band, and classic easy listening from the original vinyl.

Welcome to Guitars & All That Jazz

Welcome to Guitars & All That Jazz

Guitars & All That Jazz was a radio station that webcast via Live365 for 11 years, ending in June 2011. The playlist consisted of guitar instrumentals, jazz, big band, early rock 'n' roll, lounge music and classic easy listening.

I hope to share some of this music with you via this blog. Most of it will be taken from the original vinyl (LPs and 45s) , cassettes and the occasional commercially unavailable CD.

Here's hoping you'll find something to enjoy. Please note files are available only for a limited time.

I urge you to purchase the digital version of the albums featured, either on CD or via download, wherever possible.

Listen to the Music
There are now two music streams. Click the appropriate player to the right.
1. Guitars & All That Jazz: Five hours of the best in jazz, guitars and other instrumental gems. New songs are added weekly.
2. Tiki Shores: Music to sweep you away to a tropical isle, a South American dance floor or a bossa nova on the beach at Rio. About 4.5 hours of classic exotica music, Latin rhythms and bossa nova.
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Friday, April 19, 2013

Charles Blackwell and His Orchestra - Death Valley (45 single)


British producer and orchestra leader Charles Blackwell began his career with legendary producer Joe Meek (Tornados, Telstar) in the early 1960s. In fact Blackwell recorded an entire album that was supposed to come out on Meek's Triumph label, but the label folded before the record could be released.

The album, Those Plucking Strings, did not surface until 2006 on a CD put out by the British RPM label. It's still readily available on disc and as a download.


One of the songs on Those Plucking Strings was the folk standard Freight Train. Blackwell would tackle this tune again on a 1962 single for Columbia in the U.K. On the flip side was the wonderful western-themed Death Valley, written by another great British orchestra leader and arranger, Norrie Paramor.



Neither side of this single appears to have made it to the digital age nor onto an LP.

Here, from YouTube, is the "A" side of the Columbia single.


Charles Blackwell's career stretched into the disco era, when he put out the best-selling Boogie Down album under the single moniker of Blackwell. He later launched a failed attempt to make a pop star out of TV hunk David Hasselhoff.

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