Hallock Hill

Danny Guglielmi, “Mosquito Festival,” Adventure in Sound

Another classic from WFMU’s Beware of the Blog. Go and listen to the entire album and read what Bob Purse has to say:

“Les Paul with a Violin (MP3s)

Here’s an album that I was inspired to search for after hearing one track on a compilation I received from my friend Citizen Kafka. (In fact, it was that compilation which led to our friendship.) The track was called “Mosquito Festival”, and it featured a man named Danny Guglielmi playing what appeared to be dozens of parts, primarily on violin, with a little bit of guitar, piano and perhaps bass thrown in. The inspiration was clearly Les Paul, but Guglielmi certainly had his own spin on things.

Well, here is the entire album. Taking the Les Paul inspiration to its logical conclusion, Danny Guglielmi also included his wife, Dena, on several tracks, often in multiple tracked performances herself. The album came out on the “Tops” budget label, and my copy is about as beat up as any other album that I own on that label.

The liner notes, which you can read yourself in the link below, are a masterwork of hyperbole, including tributes paid to Guglielmi by the Eisenhower family, as well as a comparison to the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Curiously, though hardly surprisingly, there is no mention of Les Paul or Mary Ford.

I mostly prefer Danny’s six instrumentals to the eight tracks featuring Dena. “Mosquito Festival” remains far and away my favorite - and indeed, it was shared on this blog quite some time ago, as part of a various artists posting - but “Cherokee”, “Jealous” and “Hot Schottish” are pretty good, too, as is the final track, a vocal of “The Sheik of Araby”.

And now, I’m off to search for some of the albums advertised on the back of this Tops album jacket. Mostly, I’m on the lookout for the “Rock and Roll with ‘Scat Man’ Crothers” album, but “Mr. Bongo Plays Hi-Fi Cha Cha Cha” is looking good, too.

Enjoy!

- Bob”