Live From D23: When We Wish Upon A Star

Greetings from beautiful downtown Anaheim!  Your catalogue correspondent is reporting from the D23 Expo, or “The Ultimate Disney Fan Event.”  Every arm of The Walt Disney Company is here on the packed show floor, with special panels, presentations, signings and giveaways pertaining to each aspect of the company: film, television, theme parks, animation, publishing, and of course, music.

As I’m immersed in all things Disney this weekend, both Mike and I thought it would be the perfect time to share with you some of our “wishes upon a star,” in Disney parlance.  Back on June 27, Walt Disney Records and Intrada Records announced a partnership including a co-branded series of film soundtracks from the classic Disney library, produced with full input from the film score specialists.  Since then, we’ve joined many others in the worlds of Disneyana and soundtrack fandom in putting together wish lists of our most hoped-for reissues that could come from this once-in-a-lifetime pairing.  So, without further ado, we present our Top 10 Disney/Intrada Wishes, in no particular order.  We’ve drawn these not only from film soundtracks, but vintage Disneyland Records LPs and theme park attractions.  Thanks to that old Disney magic, Mike goes first, and then I’ll chime in.  And please share your own thoughts at the end of the post; we’d love to hear from you!  (Why?  Because we like you!)

Without further ado, hit the jump for our picks!  See ya real soon!

Weekend Wround-Up: Pat Metheny, Nat “King” Cole and More!

href=”https://theseconddisc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/nat-cole-st-louis-blues.jpg”>

• Analogue Productions continues its indispensable SACD reissue series of some of Nat King Cole’s finest releases on the Capitol label with the September 13 arrival of Just One of Those Things (1957) and St. Louis Blues (1958). Billy May handles the orchestrations for Just One of Those Things, which is playable as follows: a three-channel SACD section and Stereo SACD section include all songs except for the alternate take of “Just For The Fun Of It,” which was recorded in mono. There is a Mono SACD section with all songs included. The Stereo CD section includes the same content as the SACD Stereo section and the Mono CD section includes all songs. Nelson Riddle arranges and conducts St. Louis Blues, a collection of W.C. Handy’s greatest songs. All tracks are playable as Three-Channel, Stereo and Mono on the SACD layer and playable as Stereo and Mono on the CD layer. “Overture/Hesitating Blues” has been restored to its original length on both the mono and stereo versions. These beautifully-remastered discs come highly recommended!

• 1987’s Still Life (Talking) by the Pat Metheny Group is coming on September 20 in a new reissue from Nonesuch. The album contains the popular “Last Train Home” as well as elements of fusion, Brazilian jazz-influenced harmonies and even folk and pop sounds. Metheny on guitar is joined by Mark Ledford and David Blamires (vocals), Lyle Mays (piano/keyboards), Steve Rodby (acoustic and electric bass), Paul Wertico (drums) and Armando Marcal (percussion/vocals). Metheny fans are urged to check out his latest, 2011’s What’s It All About featuring radical reinventions of pop classics like “Alfie,” “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Would Be” and “Cherish.”

• On September 13, U.K. label Sepia will release four titles (available due to copyright law in the U.K.) sure to interest jazz and vocal fans. Tony Mottola’s Roman Guitar and Mr. Big joins together those two albums by the accomplished guitarist for the first time on CD. Felicia Sanders’ 1958 That Certain Feeling and 1960 I Wish You Love show that there was more to the singer than just her chart-topping “Song from Moulin Rouge.” Sepia’s ongoing series of Jane Morgan reissues continues with The Ballads of Lady Jane and The Second Time Around LPs plus bonus tracks on one CD. Finally, Betty Madigan’s Am I Blue? and The Jerome Kern Songbook LPs receive the two-on-one treatment plus four pop singles as bonus tracks.