The Persuasive Trombone Of Urbie Green - Volume 2

The Poor Soul

The Persuasive Trombone Of Urbie Green

America's Greatest Trombonist and His Orchestra
Volume 2

Arrangements by Robert Byrne, Urbie Green, Ralph Burns

Originated and Produced by Enoch Light

Associate Producer: Julie Klages

Cover Design: Charles E. Murphy

Recoding Chief: Robert Fine
Command Records RS 838 SD
1962 Grand Award Record Co. Inc.

From the inside cover: The men in Urbie Green's band represent a fabulous cross-section of veterans of the great bands of the past and the most firmly grounded of the newer musicians. Urbie himself falls somewhere in between these two groups. Too young to have taken part in the heyday of the big bands' successes, he nonetheless has a big band background. He was the last of the star sidemen to emerge from this background when, after he shot to stardom with Woody Herman's orchestra in the early Fifties. Then he settled down in New York in 1954 and quickly established himself as the most versatile studio trombonist in town, playing with bands ranging from Lester Lanin to Benny Goodman and occasionally drawing on his early experience as a Dixieland musician.

The musicians that Urbie Green has chosen for his bands are equally distinguished in their individual fields. His trumpet section is headed by Doc Severinsen, a Command Records star in his own right, who, like Urbie on trombone, has become the outstanding studio trumpet man in New York after a big band background in which he made his name with bands of Tommy Dorsey and Charlie Barnet. The other trumpets also have the highest credentials: Marky Markowitz, whose experience includes terms with Charlie Spivak, Jimmy Dorsey and Woody Herman; Bernie Glow, another onetime Hermanite who has also played with Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman; and Joe Wilder, once of the Lionel Hampton, Jimmie Lunceford and Count Basie bands.

Urbie himself heads up the trombones, of course, and with him are Frank Rehab, whose wide background has included periods with Jimmy Dorsey, Claude Thornhill, the Sauter-Finegan band and Dizzy Gillespie's big band; Chauncey Welsch, a finely schooled veteran of Benny Goodman's band; and one of the more recently arrived stars, bass trombonist Paul Faulise who was with Quincy Jone's orchestra.

In the reed section, the two alto saxophonist are Walt Levinsky, a onetime Tommy Dorsey star, and Bernie Kaufman, who came out of the Benny Goodman saxophone section. On tenor saxophone is Carl Perkel, another of the newer musicians whose work with Lester Lanin impressed Urbie Green so much when he also played with Lanin that he grabbed Perkel for his own band. The baritone saxophone chores are shared by Sol Schlinger, who has blown for both Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey as well as Goodman, Charlie Barnet and Perez Prado, and Stanley Webb whose remarkable versatility among the reed instruments has been demonstrated repeatedly on Command Records.

The pianist is one of the distinctive stylists among the younger men - Eddie Costa, another Herman veteran who makes fascinating rumbling explorations of the lower regions of the piano in some of his solos and is also one of the most brilliant vibraphonists now playing. Sharing the guitar chair are Barry Galbraith, one of the few great rhythm guitarists who lifting drive has helped to spur the bands of Claude Thornhill, Hal McIntyre and Red Norvo, and Artie Ryerson, who includes a spell with Paul Whiteman in his distinguished record.

The bass work is split by the two busiest bassists in New York – Milt Hilton whose big band background involves sixteen years with Cab Calloway as well as stints with Count Basie and Louis Armstrong and Bob Crosby Band. At the drums is the man widely considered one of the finest big band drummers who has ever played – Don Lamond who drove the potent Woody Herman Herd of the middle Forties.

To give his program variety and to provide himself and his musicians with more freedom that can unusually be found in big band arrangements alone, Urbie Green has drawn a sextet from the band which is heard on four selections. It is made up of Doc Severinsen, trumpet, Urbie Green, trombone, Walt Levinsky, alto saxophone, Eddie Costa, piano and vibes, Milt Hinton, bass, and Don Lamond, drums.

All the arrangements for this small group were written by Urbie Green. For the big band, Ralph Burns, once Woody Herman's outstanding arranger, wrote The Street Where You Live, Close Your Eyes, Runnin' Wild and I Fall In Love Too Easily. The remaining big band orchestrations are the work of another veteran of big bands, the great trombonist, Bobby Byrne, who led his own big band and before that was the feature sideman in Jimmy Dorsey orchestra.

While We're Young

It Could Happen To You

No Moon At All

On A Slow Boat to China

Love Letters

Hello Young Lovers

Close Your Eyes

I Fall In Love Too Easily

The Poor Soul

On The Street Where You Live

Skylark

Runnin' Wild