Music American jazz vocalist Shaynee Rainbolt contacted me a while back having seen one of my compilations which features songs by legendary musician and composer Russell Garcia. It turns out that she is not only a fellow fan of his but also worked with him on her latest album entitled Charmed Life: Shaynee Rainbolt Sings Russell Garcia. Russell, now 92 years old have been living on New Zealand with his wife since 1971 where Shaynee traced him and not only convinced him to arrange and conduct her album but also add his Four Trombone Band to the recording session. The result is a elegant, sexy and dreamy 16-track album with laid back jazz rhythms, swingin’ melodies ( continue reading... )

The Cocktail Nation - Queens Of Vintage

Episode 266    May 12th 2013

This week we talk to the publisher of an online magazine called Queens Of Vintage, her name is Lena Weber and recently she interviewed me in her kings of vintage portion of the website so I thought we should have her on to talk vintage culture and the English scene. Plus the best exotica and lounge music from across the globe.

Music Like out of a modern love story, musicians Charlotte from France and Magon from Israel first made contact online. Two years later, they met face to face at the airport in Tel-Aviv after Magon invited Charlotte to fly over to produce a vintage influenced pop album with him. Two weeks later they had written nine complete songs and fallen deeply in love. Charlotte & Magon’s music can best be described as magical and dreamy, like you are running in slow motion next to a seashore in 1969 with a luke warm breeze in your hair, the sun reflecting in your eyes ( continue reading... )


Music Although based in London, pianist and composer Ian Williams and singer Claudia Barton outputs music that instantly transports you to a smoky, noir jazz club in 1960′s Paris. One of those clubs with a sole spotlight focusing on the elegant and voluptuous female singer. Gamine’s music is not something you would listen to on a sunny and warm day – if you would, everything that ( read more... )

Music Here in Sweden we just skipped spring, summer and autumn and went directly back to winter again, so what could be better than taking a trip to the sun with glamourous Eastern Airlines? Here is a compilation with six one-minute vintage commercials with none other than Brazilian bossa legend Astrud Gilberto on vocals. The jingles were recorded in the late 1960s and styled in different ( read more... )

Music Time for another album share here at Ultra Swank, this time featuring the groovy beats and melodies of Hugo Montenegro. This is the original soundtrack to the movie Lady in Cement starring Frank Sinatra as a private eye working in the swank (and not so swank) settings of Miami, Florida in the late 1960s. The movie is pretty nice, not a very original story – ( read more... )

Music As promised here is my first of (hopefully) many more vinyl shares. First up is a real classic by Les Baxter. Found it on a auction site here in Sweden for about $6 – what a bargain! Although this isn’t a exotica record per se, it is still very recognizable if you have heard Les Baxter’s work before. Most of the songs on it are ( read more... )