Lost Vinyl Treasure: Vi Velasco with Zoot Sims and his Orchestra

We've all discovered those obscure albums and artists that just never had a chance despite releasing some brilliant music. Albums that leave you scratching your head wondering how they could have possibly fallen through the cracks (made even more frustrating when you think of some of the horrible albums that did somehow make it). Vi Velasco should have been a big name artist, yet she only released two albums (that I can confirm anyway) for Colpix and VeeJay Records between 1962 and 1964 and several singles including Lonely Boy (MTA Records), Oh No Not My Baby (Connoisseur Records), I Don't Want To Go On / You Are My Sunshine (VeeJay Records), and a cover of Johnny Cash's I Walk The Line (MTA Records). Velasco also released a Color-Sonics film for Bye Bye Black Bird. Today, you can find Velasco on the new Burt Bacharach tribute CD just released by Ace Records UK entitled Always Something There doing a cover of That's Not The Answer. She is also credited as an actress having appeared in several Broadway productions throughout the 1960s. On Singing The Bossa Nova, Velasco's effortless vocals exude a brilliant blend of Peggy Lee and Astrud Gilberto, perfectly suited to the Zoot Sims arrangements. This album sounds like something from the Verve or Capitol vaults, and perhaps if she signed with either label her name might have been just as big as Lee and Gilberto. Special thanks to Martin Shaker for first introducing me to this artist and providing the original upload which has since expired. This is truly a worthy album for jazz, lounge, and bossa nova fans alike. Grab it while you can and let us hope someone will remaster and re-issue this on CD one day.

Tracklisting:

01. I Got Rhythm
02. Recado Bossa Nova
03. I Got Plenty of Nuttin'
04. Zing Went the Strings of My Heart
05. Cheek to Cheek
06. And the Angel Sings
07. Don't Fool with Love
08. You and I
09. Don't Call Joe
10. Exactly Like You

Singing The Bossa Nova

NOTE: If you want to here her transition from bossa nova to Northern Soul, then be sure to play the extended audio sample of Benefit of the Doubt from her second album here. While I can't really judge the whole album on just over 60 seconds worth of music, I do prefer the sound and style of her first album much better.