Wax of the Week #9...The Aaron Bell Orchestra: Music from 77 Sunset Strip (1959)

 

I still have yet to see this show (is it worth tracking down?), but you gotta love the light-hearted, swingin' crime jazz of this soundtrack cover album, which plays straight through with no duds. Crime jazz (and its descendants, spy jazz and cop show funk) create an aural world I want to live in, and I can listen to this stuff all day. If I ever win the lottery I may open a quiet, dark jazz club on a dingy sidestreet where live combos play this kind of music, a dress code is enforced, and no televisions or sports memorabilia are allowed. A dress code… remember in old movies, where the sign of a guy really down on his luck was that he was wearing a dirty suit?