Dick Contino At The Fabulous Flamingo In Las Vegas

Flying Home

Dick Contino
At The Fabulous Flamingo In Las Vegas
Mercury Records SR 60079
1959

Dick Contino - Vocalist, Accordion, Emcee
Don Stanly - Bass
George Everback - Drums
Thomas Maxfield - Piano
Joe Passalaqua - Guitar

From the back cover: Dick Contino and his gang of fun making musickers run thru a rollicking typical 40-minute set, such as they do nightly about six months of every year in the fun capitol of the world, Las Vegas. The ex-Fresno butcher boy, who rose to fame on Horace Heidt's magic carpet, compresses into one set herein all the hits which he's synonymous with "Mr. Accordio" wallops every emotional chord, ranging instrumentally from the torrid "Lady Of Spain" to the haunting "Edd Tide." He gambols vocally through backroom hit's like "Peg O' My Heart" and bounces right back with such a heart-crashing working of "Baby, Baby, All The Time" that it threatens to put the Bobby Troup standard into the immortal class.

Because this band works three to six months on the back-bar stage of the Flamingo lounge, the tight little sextet purvey a brand of sharps and flats that's especially contagious. Dig the crowd reaction as proof before, during and after each number.

Featured on the most knocked-out arrangement of "Nature Boy" ever recorded at race-track tempo is Jimmy (Little Red) Blount, a trombone player whose in orbit all during the session.

Lady Of Spain
Ebb Tide
Swinging On A Star
Come Back To Sorrento
Peg O' My Heart
Peggy O'Neil
Flying Home
Ciribiribin
Begin The Beguine
Baby, Baby, All The Time
Nature Boy
Arrivederci Roma