The Middle East, after hours

Mention the Middle East nowadays and it’s hard, if not impossible, to not conjure up images of shoulder-fired grenades, the hulks of burned-out cars, barrels and barrels of blood - and our monkey-headed president grinning through it all. It wasn’t always this way. The Middle East may never have been the safest, most stable place, sure. But, decades ago, the average American - the pages of National Geographic open in voluptuous color before him - was allowed to at least persist in his more outdated notions about the Middle East, Oriental mystique fully intact.

Well before Abu Ghraib meant anything to you or me, there were snake-charmers, harems, and the Dance of the Sultans. And, naturally, there were records about snake-charmers, harems, and the Dance of the Sultans. Three of them are below.

1. The Glenrays, Egyptian Nightmare (Perry)
The Glenrays remind us that a minor key, a wordless chorus, and a sinuous saxophone line are all you need to turn bluesy instrumental burlesque into Saharan gold.

I can’t find mention of this single anywhere. I’d guess it was from ’63 or ’64, though. The Glenrays were a rocking instrumental combo with a few 45s on Minneapolis’s Gaity/Perry family of labels, surveyed brilliantly on the Bloodshot! compilations from Norton records. “Egyptian Nightmare” is actually pretty sophisticated fare by the label's standards; this was a label whose output tended to reflect the tastes of the more troglodyte element of Minnesota’s teen populace.

2. The Johnny Lewis Trio and Millie, Snake Hips (Coral)
Since the 1960s, saxophonist Johnny Lewis has lead jazz combos in the Pacific Northwest. His funkier '70s years have been fairly well chronicled, courtesy of Luv ‘N’ Haight’s reissue of Lewis’s sole 1972 LP entitled Shuckin’ ‘n’ Jivin’.

“Snake Hips” is his earliest and, in my opinion, most interesting recording. It sort of creaks around in search of some lost Rudolph Valentino movie set. There’s Millie - in unearthly duet with a grim-sounding electric organ - who tickles our temporal lobes and draws us skillfully into her vision of Little Egypt. There’s Millie's scream of terror at the conclusion. And there are castanets. I’m not sure what “Snake Hips” are. It's clear, though, that they're way groovier than the North African desert could ever be.

3. The Lombardo Twins and Combo,Arabian Drums (A)
About as authentically Arabic as a chartered gondola ride down the Euphrates, but that’s not the point. Or maybe it is the point.

Dee Richards here puts her glottis to spellbinding use with a series of shrill ululations that shattered ashtrays in lounges across Hoboken in 1964. The whereabouts of Lombardo Twins or Dee Richards remain a complete mystery.

Not entirely obvious, but the record label in question seem most likely to have been known, simply, as A Records. Scan of the label below is from the obverse of the record.