The voice-over man from a thousand commercials, Ken Nordine registers in your subconscious instantly: Wait, I know that guy! Smooth as an ice sculpture and ringing with "the voice of our sponsor," Nordine has personified a... more »uthority since the 1960s. It's disorienting at first to hear the way Nordine lets go on this record with a Beat-inspired, mellifluous-sounding, Dr. Seuss-like exploration of the meanings of different colors. Many of the pieces are parables on racism and human behavior, but they're also totally silly, and meant to be. Recorded in the late 1960s, the 34 tracks manage to be sort of psychedelically goofy but charming at the same time. "Absolute gray is the grayest gray / That's the same distance from absolute white as it is from absolute black," Nordine almost-sings to a delightful, freeform studio backing of hip jazz. All your mix tapes will be very happy that you've bought this strange record to flavor them with. --Mike McGonigal« less
The voice-over man from a thousand commercials, Ken Nordine registers in your subconscious instantly: Wait, I know that guy! Smooth as an ice sculpture and ringing with "the voice of our sponsor," Nordine has personified authority since the 1960s. It's disorienting at first to hear the way Nordine lets go on this record with a Beat-inspired, mellifluous-sounding, Dr. Seuss-like exploration of the meanings of different colors. Many of the pieces are parables on racism and human behavior, but they're also totally silly, and meant to be. Recorded in the late 1960s, the 34 tracks manage to be sort of psychedelically goofy but charming at the same time. "Absolute gray is the grayest gray / That's the same distance from absolute white as it is from absolute black," Nordine almost-sings to a delightful, freeform studio backing of hip jazz. All your mix tapes will be very happy that you've bought this strange record to flavor them with. --Mike McGonigal
An unparalelled, seminal work of spoken word poetry.
06/11/1998
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Ken Nordine's free-form associations on the topic of colors is delivered in a soothing, smoky 50's jazz-lounge voice and set to a busy jazz accompanyment. This is a real treasure for anyone who is interested in spoken word, psychadelia, beat poetry, advertising copywriting, radio advertising, and even graphic design. This guy is the mad master of visual metaphor. Buy it !!"
How can i possibly sum up this man's uniqueness in 1 line...
Johnny Heering | 06/19/1998
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Ken is a true original, blending the lost arts of true storytelling with wit, pathos and sheer idiotic charm. He is above all others, a master wordsmith and poet. I saw this artist perform live in London at Laurie Anderson's 'Meltdown festival 1997'. If you EVER get the chance to see some of this work performed live, with Ken backed by his orchestra or Jazz artists, then do so, It will be like nothing you expect. OK - i'll try... Imagine William S Boroughs crossed with Ivor Cutler by way of.... er..... Hong Kong Phooey? ... and you 're still nowhere near it....The Colurs album should be sampled randomly and in bite sized amounts.... be patient and the silliness will slowly infect your soul... When you are ready, check out Word Jazz Vol 1 for a taste of the bigger Nordeine picture..Finally, if Volume two ever surfaces, can someone send me a copy?Pick a colour, any colour and smile.. My personal choices are , Beige, Puce, Russet, maroon and Orange...."
In the beginning, or long before that.
Johnny Heering | Bethel, CT United States | 01/20/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Ken Nordine was commisioned by a paint company to write several commercials about colors. He recorded the spoken word ads backed by free form jazz. The commercials got so much acclaim, that he decided to record an album where he redid the spots (without mentioning the name of the paint company this time), adding many more colors. All the pieces are around a minute and a half long. Some of the tracks can be taken as social commentary, but most of them are just Nordine having fun saying whatever a particular color makes him think of. The CD adds ten bonus tracks to the original album, for a total of 34 (Nordine says he recorded 44 in all). This is a fun album, if you like music that is a little "out there"."
"There's the month of June....MAROON."
arb | 07/28/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album truly is weird as heck, but man, I love it anyway.
"Colors" is a strange little jewel of a relic from the mid-1960s, featuring the deep-voiced Ken Nordine reading groovy poetry over jazzy instrumentals. Each, um...song (if you can call them that?) is about half a minute long and tells a little story about every color imaginable, from Black and White to Azure, Beige, and Muddy. Many of the colors are personified: Olive and Russet are trendy hipsters, Puce suffers from low self-esteem, Crimson is a bit of a psychopath. Other songs, such as "Flesh" and "Gold" are witty social commentary.
One of my favorite things about "Colors" is that the tracks can be used to add something pleasantly surreal and unexpected to mix CDs and iPod playlists.
But this is definitely an album to own, not just download from the Internet--because to truly appreciate the "Colors" experience, you've also got to have the album art, which features a bizarre gameboard and plenty of pop-art illustrations."