Teisco Del Rey Plays Music for Lovers

Del Rey's second album takes the instrumental game plan and ups the ante just a wee bit higher. There's more of a purpose to this one, it's a little more cohesive, a little more adventurous, and a little bit crazier. Oh, there are lots of fun tracks here, like the opener "Seville," based on Verdi's The Barber of Seville, "Second Line Limbo," a sort of New Orleans "Limbo Rock," and the Duane Eddy-ish "Twango." But the big musical leap forward on this album comes with the track "Kyla Vuotti Uuta Kuuta," a Finnish (Corelia?) wedding song, totally souped up and overdubbed by Teisco until the guy's practically an orchestra. Not exactly something you can do on-stage every night when the crowd's hollering for "Miserlou," abut definitely having at least one track like this on the album is a creative idea well worth pursuing on future discoramas. Bottom line is there's no sophomore jinx stink on this platter, and if your idea of a contemporary instrumental album extends no further than Kenny G or John Tesh, here's where you wake up and smell the enchiladas. And where else can you find an instrumental tribute titled "Hermanos Alou," dedicated to Felipe, Manny, and Jesus Alou? And by the time you get to the last four or five tunes on this disc (which includes a Link Wray number, "Theme from Lawrence of Arabia" and closes with Brian Hyland's wimpy but beeyooteeful "Sealed with a Kiss"), you're convinced that if the compiler isn't totally loopy, he's coming from a place where cranking a reverb unit to 11 and playing "Squad Car" is much more than just a genre choice, it's another hip bandwagon to climb aboard. And in the grand tradition of neato instrumental albums the world over, this baby also comes with one very cool cover, too. Somewhere, Hank Marvin and Nokie Edwards must be very proud.