Martini Time - Art Van Damme

Adios

Martini Time
Art Van Damme Quintet
Columbia CL 630
1953

CL 6265 (10 inch)

This album features great cover design and a very hip accordion based easy listening or light jazz approach for the early 50s.

There are elements in the sample that reminds me of Martin Denny's small combo, although Denny was to make the scene several years later.

From the back cover (LP): While the argument about the proportions of a proper martini whirls on, making strange bedfellows and bruised relationships, there is happily no controversy regarding the correct accompaniment for imbibing: nothing could be cheerier than the music of Art Van Damme on accordion, Charlie Calzaretta on vibraphone, Lewis Skalinder on bass, Max Mariash on drums and Fred Rundquist on guitar, the quintet provides some of the most bracing music to be heard, with just the right touch of dryness and a plentiful dash of imagination.

From the back cover (10 inch): Studying the accordion in Norway, Michigan, Art Van Damme worked hard enough so that he was able to make his professional debut at the age of ten. As a child prodigy he played theaters in his home area until the family moved to Chicago. At eighteen, in a city brimming with good musicians, Art organized a instrumental trio for appearances in night clubs. The last Ben Bernie heard him in one of the clubs and asked him to join his orchestra; it was the first time an accordion had been used in the Bernie group. After Bernies' death, Art reorganized his trio in 1942, expanded it into a quartet and later into the present Quintet. In 1944, he joined the musical staff of the National Broadcasting Company in Chicago, making records and transcriptions and in general brightening the wave lengths with his superior kind of musical thought.

Adios
Blue Lou
Cheek To Cheek
Let Yourself Down
My Kinda Love (LP only)
I Hear Music (LP only)
If I Could Be With You
I Didn't Know What Time It Was
The Surrey With The Fringe On Top
Tenderly (LP only)
It's Easy To Remember (LP only)
Madame Van Damme