Sold Date: October 22, 2022
Start Date: October 15, 2022
Final Price: $30.00 (USD)
Bid Count: 1
Seller Feedback: 690
Buyer Feedback: 0

ANDRE KOSTELANETZ AND HIS ORCHESTRA is best known for dozens of  "easy listening" (YUCCCH! I hate that term!) LPs that still clog the Salvation Army stores.  But Kostelanetz (1901 - 1980), originally  from Russia, launched his American recording career with a bang in 1935, taking on DON REDMAN'S amazing "CHANT OF THE WEED" - already the compositional wonder of Redman's contemporaries - and bringing it to the next level.  

Kostelanetz transforms "Chant" into a weed-and-opium fueled fantasy, a stunning production, with full orchestra and a massive, mystic chorus.  It's a wondrous record!  Close your eyes and you can see Fred Astaire, in technicolor, dancing  amongst reefer-smoking chorines, on a gigantic, smoke-filled M~G~M soundstage, with Fred descending step-by-step into a Cannibis-fueled, Hieronymus Bosch phantasmagoria! 

Too bad André quickly went middle-of-the-road after this stunning debut!    

"RUMBA FANTASY" - a medley of Rumba hits like "Tony's Wife," "Mama Inez" and the like, occupy the flip side. 

This original 1935 12" Victor 36161 is in clean E condition.  

***** 

These records come from my private collection, which I have been accumulating since 1967, and now am downsizing!  My highest priority in these eBay auctions is to give you the best possible idea of a record’s true condition and aesthetic value.  I always post at least four clear images, showing the record fore and aft, a close-up of the label, and the whole disc, warts and all.  If my purple prose won’t cut it, the pictures will!  Shipping is done with expert care. Your record will brave Media Mail in a stout corregated box, between four sheets of cardboard and a couple of “packers.”  I hope you are amused by these descriptions, and by the quality of service being offered.