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Friday, August 24, 2018

Joe Williams With Songs About That Kind Of Woman

Joe Williams With Songs About
That Kind Of Woman
Arranged and Conducted by Jimmy Jones
Photo: Bob Ritta
Forum SF 9033
A Division Of Roulette
1960

Available from online vendors so I will not be posting a sample. Presented here to share this version of the original Forum cover.

That Kind Of Woman
Candy
You Think Of Everything
Stella By Starlight
Louise
It's Easy To Remember
I Only Want To Love You
Cherry (Arranged by Frank Foster)
Why Can't You Behave
Here's To My Lady
When A Woman Loves A Man
Have You Met Miss Jones

Flautista! - Herbie Mann

Flautista
Herbie Mann Plays Afro-Cuban Jazz
Cover Photo: Garrett/Howard
Art Direction: Sheldon Marks
Verve Records MG V-8336
1959

Personnel:
Herbie Mann, Flute and Bass Clarinet
Johnny Rae, Vibraphone and Marimba
Carlos Valdés, Conga Drum
Jose Luis Mangual, Bongos
Santos Miranda, Drums and Timbales
Knobby Totah, Bass

Available from online vendors so I will not be posting a sample. Presented here to share the cover art and jacket notes excerpt.

From the back cover: The wedding of jazz melodies and harmony with Afro-Cuban rhythms is a process that has evolved during the past decade as a result of concerted efforts on both sides of the since-removed musical fence. While Machito, Tito Puente, Joe Loco and others found a new stimulus in the incorporation of jazz concepts, simultaneously jazz-men from Kenton and Rogers and Rugolo to Charlie Parker were becoming increasingly fascinated by the rhythmic challenges of Latin and Afro-Cuban music. (The terminology remains a little haphazard: many musicians use "Latin American" and "Afro-Cuban" as a virtual synonym but prefer the latter term.)


The advent of Herbie Mann on this scene is of more recent origin and has evolved from an occasional flirtation into a full-time romance. Born in April 1930 in Brooklyn, Mann studied clarinet, later developing a reputation as a jazz tenor saxophonist. He had dabbled with the flute, but had no idea of playing jazz on it when he was asked to team up with Mat Mathews, the Dutch accordionist whose quintet he joined in January 1953.

At that time Herbie had heard Jungle Fantasy, a strange and enchanting record featuring the flute of the last Esy Morales. For two or three years, after working with Mathews during most of 1954, he tried to develop the jazz ideas he had previously confined to the saxophone and the seemingly irreconcilable values of the Morales approach.

Gradually he became aware that of the various recorded efforts he was dedicating to the flute, those with the exotic rhythmic undercurrent invariably became the most popular. Among then was the much-requested Evolution of Mann in his pervious Verve LP, the MAGIC FLUTE set (Verve MG V-8247). As a direct result of the plugging of these items by Symphony Sid and other disc jockeys, he assembled an Afro-Cuban combo for a one-night stand at Birdland. Before long he found himself in demand for dates of this type, as well as for recording sessions of which his composing and arranging talents were required to be slanted in the Afro-Cuban direction.

The outcome of these developments, naturally, was Herbie's decision to form his own Latin-type band on a permanent basis. "I realized what had been staring me in the face all along," he said recently. "The flute, in the mind of the average layman, has more direct association and logical place when it's linked with this type of music. When I played straight four-four jazz on flute, they couldn't quite see that the instrument and the music belonged to each other. But this new approach was a way of appealing to the jazz audience and at the same time bringing in a large fringe element of people who normally wouldn't have been receptive to jazz."

Herbie's group opened early in June 1959 at Ralph Watkins' Basin Street East, a plush club off Lexington Avenue in Manhattan that had only recently been converted from an earlier existence as Casa Cugat. Presumably able to hang on to some of the crowd who had frequented it during the Cugat era, and at the same time bring across many of those who had dug him at Birdland, Herbie was an immediate hit at the club and has since returned there several times. By now he is also firmly associated with the Afro-Cuban groove that his career as a jazz tenor player seems like something in another, long forgotten world. – Leonard Feather (Author of The Encyclopedia of Jazz)


From Billboard - November 30, 1959: Flautist Herbie Mann and a group of Afro-Cuban rhythm men get together for an occasionally interesting album of Afro-Cuban music featuring Mann's flute work. But mostly it is rather uninspiring. Tunes are almost all originals, except for the oldie, Duke Ellignton's and Juan Tizol's "Caravan".

Todos Locos
Cuban Potato Chips
Come On Mule
The Amazon River
Caravan

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Unrestrained! - Jo Ann Miller

Unrestrained!
Jo Ann Miller
Benn Arden & His Palmer House Orchestra
Musical Arrangements & Piano by Dick Marx
Photography: Bob Witt
Audio Fidelity AFLP 1864
1958

From the back cover: Jo Ann Miller has the good fortune to be endowed with not only good looks and intelligence, but the kind of creative instinct that would probably succeed at anything. Her rise in show business has been nothing short of meteoric, having gathered in the space of three short years a list of professional credits that would do an old timer proud.

Born in Texas, Jo Ann attended Texas Woman's University, where she majored in art. Having no eyes for show business at the time, she decided to study archaeology, and came to New York City's Columbia University for post graduate work in this subject. During her first summer in the city, some friends invited her to help out in various chores in a summer stock theater they ran. One night, when bandleader Tommy Dorsey caught her in a show, he invited her to join his band. Jo Ann started with a series of one-night stands. She interspersed her singing with more summer stock work, and eventually landed engagements at some of the country's top hotels and night clubs. She has appeared at the Fontainbleau and Americana Hotels and Night Clubs in Miami Beach, the Empire Room at Chicago's famous Palmer House, at the Black Orchid in Chicago, the Statler Hilton Hotels in Dallas, Cleveland and Detroit, and the Monteleone in New Orleans.


Good Little Girls
Woe Is Me
Gimme A Pigfoot
St. Louis Blues
When The World Was Young
Baubles, Bangles, Beads
Look To The Rainbow
Nobody's Sweetheart Now
New Orleans
House Of The Rising Sun
Am I Blue
None Of My Jelly Roll
There'll Be Some Changes Made

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Bobcats On Parade - Bob Crosby

Bobcats On Parade
Bobcats On Parade
Bob Crosby And His Orchestra
Marches In Dixieland Style
Cover Photo by Jerry Tiffany
Notes by Burt Korall
Tiger on Cover Photo - Courtesy of Bankograph Co., Importers
Musical Instruments on Cover Photo - Courtesy of Emenee Industries
Coral Records CRL 57061
1957

From Billboard - May 27, 1957: All 12 of these Crosby bands are on a Dixie marching kick. Four were cut this year with some of the big sidemen of the late '30s reassembled. The others feature the smaller Bobcats' crew and were waxed more than seven years ago. Contrast in fidelity is very marked. Cover, showing toy tigers blowing band instruments is good for the impulse trade, and this, with the prominent display display of Crosby's name, should pull a share of sales. Worth a try.

From the back cover: Four of the selections were recorded on the West Coast recently, January 24, 1957, with a band of full complement: four trumpets – Conrad Gozzo, Frank Beach, Johnny Best and Charlie Teagarden; trombones – Sy Zentner, Elmer Schneider and Eddie Kusby, four saxes – Eddie Miller, Babe Russin, Jack Dumont and Dean Eckels; Matty Matlock, clarinet; Clarence Karella, tuba; Al Pellegrini, piano; Morty Corb, bass; Nappy LaMare, guitar and Jack Sterling on drums... The tunes: Memphis March, Skipping' John, Bobcats On Parade and Happy Valley Trek. Look for solos by Charlie Teagarden, Matlock and Eddie Miller, the power-house strength of the band and some wonderful drumming by Jack Sperling. In spite of the size of the band, it is to be noted that the music retains the vigor and many of the accouterments of the small band... Take note of the typical dixie ensembles...

Bobcats On Parade
King Cotton
Hands Across The Sea
High School Cadets
The Thunderer
Skippin' John
Memphis March
Washington Post March
The Stars And Strips Forever
El Captain
Semper Fidelis March
Happy Valley Trek