(Rock & Roll, Surf) Mel Taylor and The Magics - In Action - 1966, MP3, 320 kbps

In 1962, members of the seminal instrumental surf band The Ventures discovered Mel Taylor performing as the house drummer at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood.
He'd worked as a session musician, recording with artists such as Herb Alpert and Buck Owens, among many others.
It's also his drumming you hear in the opening strains of Bobby 'Boris' Pickett's 'Monster Mash'.
Mel was drummer for The Ventures until his death in 1996, at which point he was replaced in the lineup by his son, Leon.
Somewhere amidst all the world tours and hundreds of recording sessions, he managed to release his fine 'In Action' LP in 1966. Gotta dig those groovy flutes...

Mel Taylor has been the drivin' drummer man on over one hundred hit records during the past three years. So you've heard him; make no mistake about that. But you've never heard him like this. You've never heard him exploding in the middle of a pop-rock group that is his group - the men, the instruments, the arrangements that he knows can make the great sound today.
Unlike most groups that have to gig around together in joints for a long time before they develop the talent and experience to cut it on record, Mel put together his group specifically for recording purposes. He collected the finest young musicians in Hollywood, laid his ideas right on the line, and the next thing you knew they were all there in the studio making tracks - Mel Taylor and the Magics.
This is music you've never heard before - rock-solid rock that is built around Mel's drums and percussion, that stretches from flute highs to electric-bass lows, that includes sax, piano, electric organ, bass and two electric Mosrite guitars. But the total effect is more than the sum of its parts, because some of its parts are doing things, musically and electronically, that just haven't been done before. Maybe you'll be able to figure out everything that's happening; probably you won't. But it won't hang up your ears or your feet. You're going to listen hard and happy, and you're going to dance like you've been personally plugged into the Magic action.
A quick look at the program will reveal the names and numbers - five of the big all-time standards re-arranged into the sound of today, five current rock hits that are now given the new Mel Taylor sound, plus a couple of cherries on the shake, two newies written just for the record.