OF the six songs included on Chuck Mangione's 1975 album, Bellavia, the only one you can buy in digital form these days is the title cut. And it's probably the least inspired, least interesting least daring song on the entire album. As a collective work, Bellavia is rapidly heading toward the lost treasure, endangered species territory.

And that's a shame, because there is so much really good music on this album that I've spent the past hour or so agonizing over which song to feature in the post itself (I'll try to upload a couple more in the comments). There are big band aspirations throughout the album's mix of hard bop with a tinge of latin thrown in here and there. Mangione's group itself is a quartet, featuring a very talented Gerry Niewood on several reed and woodwind instruments, the gifted Joe LeBarbera (of Bill Evans' last trio) on drums and a very capable Chip Jackson on bass, but the quartet is backed by an orchestra that demonstrates a good bit of musical dexterity on songs like Come Take a Ride With Me and Listen to the Wind.

I've chosen Carousel, because it showcases Niewood's reed work, which, throughout the album, provides an excellent counterpart to Mangione's flugelhorn and serves, more than anything else, to give the album its hard bop sensibilities. Like this album, Niewood is one of those under-appreciated musicians who are capable of elevating the play of the people around them.

But, I could just as easily have chosen the other two cuts mentioned above, or the torrid Torreano, the closing cut on the album, as the featured song for this post. It's really the album as a whole that makes it stand out. As I said, the title cut, Bellavia, is pale and vapid in comparison.

There is some animosity between the Universal Music Group, now owners of the A&M catalogue, and the people formerly involved with A&M, so I'm not optimistic about seeing even a proper digital release of Bellavia, let alone the remastering that it deserves, so we'll have to content ourselves with some digital transcriptions of what is likely the last remaining piece of wax in the universe even remotely suitable for the purpose.