Hop Sun Part Deux

Desafanido- Laurindo Almeida MP3


Satin Doll- Laurindo Almeida MP3

8/12/11

beeradvocate.com rating- beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3818/17497

Southern Tier Hop Sun Summer Wheat Beer- Superior Market, Sunnyside, Queens, NY- 12 oz. bomber into Belgian Beer Glass- 7.0% ABV

Head- A fibger's worth of head which receded quickly; no lacing

Color- Darker in color than last years beer with more of an orange tint. (view 2010 version in post below.)

Mouthfeel- Light bodied. Medium active carbonation

Aroma- Lemon. Hops.

Tatse/ Overall- I had this beer last summer and spoke about it an earlier blog:

thursdaynightrecordsandbeer.blogspot.com/2010/09/9610-southern-tier-hop-sun-summer-wheat.html

I enjoyed it then and decided to try it again. It is very much as I remember it though with a bit more of a "wheaty" quality than last years. For a wheat beer it has a nice hop presence and a pleasant bitterness. This is a crisp refreshing beer and would be highly recommended for a summers day.

On the turntable is I Left My Heart In San Francisco- Laurindo Almeida- This LP, based on my research, was originally issued as "Acapulco 22" on Capitol Records in 1963. This version was released by Pickwick Records based out of Long Island City, NY about 5 or 6 miles west of where I live and was licensed from its original incarnation from Capitol. I got this LP earlier this summer in Philadelphia. It was reasonably priced and I had been looking for something by this guitarist for a while so I picked it up. I really like the cover art and its overall “60’s” design elements. The LP was manufactured in Hauppauge, NY out In Suffolk County. It’s funny to think of a record pressing plant out there but I guess at the time, back in the days of Grumman, it wasn’t uncommon to have a manufacturing plant out on Long Island. Pickwick Records largely did budget priced LP’s and soundalike records. This LP was probably marketed as a budget LP but the vinyl itself feels pretty high quality especially compared with a lot of the flimsy feeling “budget” lp’s in my collection or even later day records, from the mid seventies onwards, distributed by major labels like Warner Bros.

Mr. Almeida was a Brazilian born guitarist who was brought to the U.S. by Stan Kenton to play with his band. Mr. Almeida went on to have a successful recording career as a leader through much of the 60's and 70's. This is an “electronically enhanced” stereo LP which according to my friend was when they took a recording originally recorded in mono and “spruced” it up with reverb, etc. to create an artificial “stereo” effect. In this case I don’t think it really detracts from the album but this would certainly sound good in Mono. I really like the organ on these tracks and, for me, it really lends itself to what are otherwise fairly straight forward bossa-nova arrangements. Included above are the songs "Satin Doll" and "Desafinado".