Boots Randolph - Yakety Sax!

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 31:18
Size: 71.7 MB
Styles: Country-jazz, Saxophone jazz
Year: 1963/2008
Art: Front

[2:02] 1. Yakety Sax
[2:16] 2. Walk Right In
[2:03] 3. If You've Got The Money
[2:21] 4. Cotton Fields
[2:30] 5. Charlie Brown
[1:57] 6. Cacklin' Sax
[3:15] 7. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
[3:03] 8. I Can't Stop Loving You
[2:28] 9. Lonely Street
[2:23] 10. It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'
[2:33] 11. I Fall To Pieces
[4:22] 12. I Really Don't Want To Know

Boots Randolph's signature tune, "Yakety Sax," was inspired by the sax solo in the Coasters' "Yakety Yak," and is much better known than its modest chart placement might suggest. Randolph had recorded "Yakety Sax" for RCA several years earlier without success, but his Monument recording clicked in 1963 and the accompanying gold-selling album spent nearly a year on the charts. Randolph's unique status as the man who popularized the saxophone in Nashville is reflected in half an album's worth of country songs like "I Fall to Pieces" and "If You've Got the Money." Randolph acknowledges the Coasters again on a version of "Charlie Brown," and gives the commercial folk craze the nod with renditions of "Cotton Fields" and "Walk Right In." "Cacklin' Sax" is a novelty number on which Randolph imitates the sound of a chicken with his versatile horn. The album is split into two halves, with the slow songs grouped on the second side, and the first half is the clear winner of the two. ~Greg Adams

Yakety Sax!

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Boots Randolph - Boots With Strings

Size: 103,1 MB
Time: 36:16
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1966/2016
Styles: Jazz, Easy Listening
Art: Front

01. The Shadow Of Your Smile (3:10)
02. What Now My Love (2:57)
03. Days Of Wine & Roses (3:00)
04. Yesterday (2:14)
05. You've Lost That Loving Feeling (4:04)
06. What Kind Of Fool Am I (2:39)
07. Moon River (2:45)
08. Michelle (2:44)
09. Stranger On The Shore (3:48)
10. I Left My Heart In San Francisco (2:38)
11. Dear Hearts (3:04)
12. Unchained Melody (3:07)

Tenor saxophonist Boots Randolph was an important contributor to the Nashville sound, the set of pop-flavored textures that dominated country music in the late '50s and early '60s. He was born in Paducah, KY, but grew up in small-town Cadiz, in Trigg County. Born Homer Louis Randolph III, he acquired the nickname "Boots" in childhood from his brother Bob. Randolph began playing the trombone in school and learned several other instruments, but by the time he was 16 he had begun to focus seriously on the sax. He honed his chops as a member of the U.S. Army Band during World War II.

After the war, Randolph returned home and performed semi-professionally for some years around Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. In the late '50s, Jethro Burns heard him play and suggested he move to Nashville. Burns introduced Randolph to Chet Atkins, who signed him to the RCA label. Randolph also quickly made the acquaintance of Atkins rival Owen Bradley and performed on many recordings Bradley helmed as producer. Nashville's new corps of session musicians spent its leisure time in the Printer's Alley section of the city's downtown, an actual alley (between First and Second avenues) that offered entrance to various basement barrooms, and Randolph became one of the group. Like other Nashville players, he took enthusiastically to jazz and rock & roll in addition to country music.

One single, the 1963 instrumental "Yakety Sax," showed Randolph putting all these influences together and delivering an extremely catchy tune; it became his only real hit. But Randolph was a consistent seller of LP albums (with 13 charted releases) in the 1960s and 1970s; offering pleasant saxophone covers of material from various genres of music, he became a counterpart to Atkins on guitar and Floyd Cramer on piano. He moved from RCA to the Monument label in 1966. For well over a decade, in addition, he averaged 200-300 studio sessions a year on recordings made by others. The saxophone heard on Elvis Presley's later records is likely to be Randolph's.

In 1977, Randolph opened a successful club of his own in Printer's Alley; it endured into the 1990s and spawned another club in the Opryland U.S.A. area. Randolph remained active as an entertainer into the 2000s, and in 1994 the original Yakety Sax album was admitted into the unofficial country canon; it was reissued by Germany's Bear Family label. Randolph suffered a brain hemorrhage in late June 2007 and remained in a coma until his passing at the age of 80 on July 3, 2007. ~by James Manheim

Boots With Strings

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Boots Randolph - A Whole New Ballgame

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 58:57
Size: 135.0 MB
Styles: Saxophone jazz
Year: 2007
Art: Front

[4:09] 1. I'm Beginning To See The Light
[5:40] 2. Billy's Bounce
[3:18] 3. I'll Be Seeing You
[4:08] 4. Take Me Out To The Ballgame
[3:31] 5. Candy
[6:16] 6. Basically Blues
[4:33] 7. 'round Midnight
[3:53] 8. Dream Dancing
[3:49] 9. Stompin' At The Savoy
[5:55] 10. Cry Me A River
[5:09] 11. L-O-V-E
[3:38] 12. You'll Never Know
[3:43] 13. I'll Walk Alone
[1:10] 14. Nature Boy

Boots Randolph will always be best-known for his cornball pop hit "Yakety Sax" and for his association with country music, but he has long loved swinging jazz. Years ago he recorded an effective jazz album with Richie Cole called Yakety Madness! Randolph's huge tone, influenced by Illinois Jacquet, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Coleman Hawkins, perfectly fits into the idiom, and on A Whole New Ballgame, he performs no-nonsense jazz. Although the occasional synthesized strings of keyboardist Jason Webb sounds a little cheesy in spots, Randolph is heard throughout in top form. He displays very impressive technique, knows the songs well and swings hard without going too over the top. The rhythm section is fine in support, with pianist Steve Willets and guitarist Roddy Smith having solo space, but Randolph is the main show, really blowing up a storm on "L-O-V-E," an up-tempo "Take Me out to the Ballgame" and "Basically Blues." Recommended. Unfortunately, Radolph died about a month after this was released. ~ Scott Yanow

Recording information: The Groovhouse, Nashville, TN (02/2006-04/2006).

Boots Randolph (tenor saxophone); Boots Randolph; Mark Stallings (Hammond b-3 organ); Jason Webb (keyboards); Tim Smith (bass guitar); Ray VonRotz (drums, drum, percussion); Roddy Smith (guitar); Steve Willets (piano).

A Whole New Ballgame

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