Emil Richards - New Sound Element: Stones (1966)

Emil Richards, or Emilio Radocchia, started playing xylophone at age six. Later he joined the Hartford Symphony Orchestra while in tenth grade, working under Arthur Fiedler and Fritz Mahler. He began to work around New England with Bobby Hackett, Flip Phillips, and Chris Connor. In 1959 he moved to Los Angeles where he worked with the Paul Horn Quintet, Jimmy Witherspoon, the Shorty Rogers Big Band, Lennie Bruce, and Lord Buckly. He started recording for Frank Sinatra, Nelson Riddle, Judy Garland, Sarah Vaughan, and Doris Day. This record is sort of a concept record in different ways: 1) playing around with sound elements within jazz forms 2) naming each tune after a) a different month b) a different gemstone, and 3) then playing this funny music with jazz but adding-in the incredible sounds of Dr. Irv Wilson's 22 tone-to-the-octave electronic instruments. Believe me, this is one of those great records you don´t want to miss. Please sit back and enjoy some psychedelic percussion.