90's Flashback: Zumpano Does Burt

For Christmas I received two gifts that will hopefully enhance my ability to post more music for sharing. No, it's not drums! I now have an external hard drive with 320 Gig capacity (actually only 298G of real space) to store my music. I've been storing all the albums I've been snatching, and I usually burn then delete live shows that are received in WAV or FLAC format because of it's size. Now I can pick and choose whether I want to keep it on my hard drive without worrying about filling up my drive. The other item is Instant Music, which is capable of recording analog sources such as cassettes and LP's onto the computer via the USB. I also have a stand-alone CD recorder connected to the stereo that works great, but I'm hoping this new toy will help cut back on discs and possibly a quicker method to transfer music straight to the hard drive (but, you have to remember that transferring tape or LP is in real time).

Since I'm hoping to eventually convert most of my concert tapes to CD, I thought I would start with an interesting radio recording that's been collecting dust on my cassette shelf since 1999.

Zumpano formed in 1992 in Vancouver and featured lead vocalist/guitar player Carl Newman. Carl may be familiar to most as the frontman for the New Pornographers who formed in 1997, and for his solo project, A.C. Newman. On this recording, Zumpano performed semi-live in the studio on the now defunct CBC radio show Radiosonic which was a fantastic program that featured interviews, in-studio sessions and live concert recordings. A dream come true for a concert taper geek, like myself. All the concert footage was decent FM quality, it's too bad I recorded most of the shows on cassette. This unique recording is an all-Burt Bacharach special, with Zumpano playing an all-Burt set to the delight of anyone that appreciates the complex time signatures and frequent modulation of Bacharach pop classics. It's clear that Zumpano is a group of very talented musicians that should be further explored if you don't already own their two CD's, Look What The Rookie Did (1995) and Goin' Through Changes (1996), both these discs are highly underrated and should be considered power-pop classics.

I've posted mp3's of the songs, minus the interview portions. If you want the whole session complete with host Leora Kornfeld's lovely voice in FLAC format (that converts to uncompressed WAV), download it from dimeadozen where it's presently posted (need to be a member).

ZUMPANO - CBC Radiosonic, Vancouver, BC- January 26, 1999
Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa
Anyone Who Ever Had A Heart
What the World Needs Now
Always Something There To Remind Me
Little Red Book