Crazy Rhythm - Don Lee

Caravan

Crazy Rhythm
Don Lee
Jubilee 1067

A Product of Jay-Gee Record Co., Inc.
1958

From the back cover: The Debut Of An Intriguing Accordion Sound And Musical Versatility

It may sound a bit crazy but I just don't recall ever hearing an accor- dion play anything but 'happy' music.

Oh I know that there are times when the instrument takes on a sort of tear-in-the-beer-garden sentimentality . . . but even then, some- how, it's a bouyant and bouncy and brisk, though it's always had the feeling of old-world built in. The accordion always seems to be around when it's waltz-time or polka-playing or hop-along happiness.

Or it has been... up to DON LEE and "Crazy Rhythm." Don has gotten a new 'happy' sound out of or into the squeeze-box that is as modern as the electronics he uses to create a satisfying excitement. He has combined a montage of his musical talents (Don is playing each and every insrument you hear on these sides) with a solid knowledge of the magic of electronics (Don engineered the multiple recordings and jelled the 'tracks'). The sound is fresh and imaginative and creative.

Don't get the idea that this is a one-man band testing a lot of not-quite finished musical abilities. Don is practiced and perfect. His arrangements are clean and crisp and qualitative. He is stimulated and stimu-courses in harmony and theory at Michigan State University. Some of that side of his abilities shows up in three tunes included in "Crazy Rhythm": "Echo, Echo, Echo," "Cordy Boogie" and "Barc-A-Roll."

When Don was 18 he had a large-sized history to recount. He'd had a lot of radio and TV appearances and had been featured at hotels like The Hilton in Chicago when it was the Stevens, The Sherman, The Palmer House in Chicago, The New Yorker in New York.

That's about the time (Don was 18) he opened his first accordion studio in Lansing. A year later there was a second one in Mason, Michigan. They are now Michigan's largest exclusive accordion studios and have become famous around the Mid-west because of their 'Accordion Orchestra.'

His knowledge and training in electronics goes back almost as far as the beginnings of his accordion training. Actually, it started when he was 12 and his sound-engineering has a basis in the experimentation and pioneering Don has done with the professional equipment he has been accumulating since then.

"Crazy Rhythm" sounds off the debut of an intriguing talent who has added the dimension of electronics to an excitement of performance. This 'track-record' (these multiple recordings have been multiplied as high as twelve times on some of these tunes) is not ‘child's-play.' It's professional and promising and prodigious.

In the language of the hipster, "Crazy Rhythm" is 'crazy, man, crazy-y-y-y-!... (English Translation: it's Happy, Hearty and Hear-Marked for a hitherto un-new sound). – MORT GOODE

Crazy Rhythm
Caravan
Lover
Cordy Boogie
Lady Be Good
Exactly Like You
Echo Echo Echo
Barc-A-Roll
Charmaine
After You've Gone
Stumbling
Bells Of St. Mary's