Discussion In Percussion - Mike Simpson

Open Discussion

Discussion In Percussion
Mike Simpson and Orchestra
Perfect Presence Sound Series
Mercury Recording Director: David Carroll
Mercury Records PPS 6004
1961

From the inside cover: The illustrious improvisations and stylists of American popular music – instrumentalists and vocalists – as well-known to the followers of the mass media. The informed jazz fan, for example, can name-drop with the rapidity of a Max Roach drum passage, reciting the accomplishments of guests from Jelly Roll Morton to Cannonball Adderley. The devotees of pop singing know every nuance their preferred singers practice.

In the mad rush toward fame, the successful artist binds his public to him. What the loyalists too often forget in forging their alliance is that few stars exist in a vacuum. The best of them require an arranger to showcase their talent and musicians to frame that talent. Without these aides, the featured performer is as alone and vulnerable as Red Grange would have been without blockers.

In Chicago, when musicians are hand-picked to perform in a record session, when they're selected on the bases of reliability and skill, Mike Simpson inevitably is among them. As a composer, arranger and master of many instruments, Simpson has become indispensable among Windy City musicians.

He is the invaluable studio musician.

In this Discussion In Percussion outing, Simpson's composing, arranging and performing talents are apparent throughout. It is a challenge few musicians could have met. Simpson, however, was more than ready for it, in fact, his diversified career in music has inadequately prepared him to fulfill any professional task.

Born in Winters, Texas – a rural community in the west-central part of that sprawling state – in 1916, Simpson's inspire a definite interest in music. By the time he was 12, he was ready to explore it on his own. He shinned shoes and saved money. For $35 he purchased a clarinet, began studying and joined a band comprising various country merchants.

When his family moved to Dallas, Simpson studied several horns, from tenor saxophone to trumpet to tuba, in high school he began working dance dates with local bands. In 1932, he joined Doc Russ' territory band – a band that also fostered the talents of Jack Teagarden and Windy Manone – and participated in the road routine. When the bank panic gripped the nation, Simpson was in New Orleans, stranded.

The next stop were the territory bands of Chief Gonzales and Harry Diekman and a circuit that included St. Paul, Memphis, Nashville and Louisville. Gradually, Simpson – who was specializing in alto sax in those days – acquired experience.

While he was with Diekman's crew, Simpson received an offer to join Art Kassel's band. Overwhelmed by the swing era, Kassel had turned from jazz-influenced music to Guy Lombardo style. Simpson accepted Kassel's offer, despite his doubts regarding the band's approach. For four years, he recorded and hit the road with the Kassel crew, playing alto, tenor, baritone, clarinet, trumpet and trombone along the way.

After the prolonged stint with Kassel, he study theory with Leo Sowerby in Chicago and Joseph Schillinger in New York (he remembers that the latter's system called for 20-30 hour of homework per lesson).

In 1939, Gene Kruppa was organizing a band, The ex-Benny Goodman drummer invited Simpson to a rehearsal and offered him a post with the band. Simpson accepted, joining the band in Baltimore, but after Schillinger objected and intra-band friction proved annoying, he decided to call a halt to the on-the-road career.

After a brief return to Texas, he resisted Chicago and resumed studies. Once he was assured that his classical background was broad enough, he rejoined the legion of performers, working with Jimmy McPartland's band at the Three Deuces, with Jack Teagarden's band at the Blackhawk and as performer and composer for the Chicago Theatre (when its stage shows, now extinct, were the city's most impressive).

During WWII, Simpson spent more than three years in the Navy Air Corps. At war's end, he married Nova Coogan, than vocalist with Boyd Raeburn's band, and returned to his Chicago Theater post. Seeking post-war peace, he abandoned music and brought and Indiana farm after a few months at home. But, as he recalls, he raised corn that even the crows wouldn't touch.

He arranged for the floor shows produced by Dorothy Hild at the Edgewater Beach-Hotel and played with several Chicago bands – in an effort to support the farm. In 1950, he decided that farming wasn't for him. He began freelancing, working as a member of the pit bands for several national companies of Broadway musicals, including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Porgy And Bess. He arranged and played for Ralph Marterie on several of that leader's Mercury singles and LPs.

In 1952, Simpson joined the staff of CBS in Chicago, serving as a mainstay of the music contingent at the CBS outlet – WBBM – for eight years. He headed the jazz combo on the station's Jazz In The Round TV show (a splendid jazz effort that couldn't rise above sustaining status and, as a result, perished), was a vital cog on several live-music AM radio shows and continued to fill key chairs at record sessions.

When live music faded on the station, Simpson decided to head out on his own again. He did so in July, 1960. Since the, he's been offered more jobs that he can fill. Among them have been a slew of TV and radio commercial assignments, transcription and record dates and arranging chores.

The recording of a one-minute spot announcement can be more demanding than a half-hour TV show. Simpson has discovered. Major advertisers often utilize large bands – occasionally more than 30 pieces in size. The companies involved are hyper-critical; they demand precise projection. And, to complicate matters, some firms cut as many as 20 different versions of the same spot – for various regions of the country. But these sessions, which last from one to eighteen hours (some begin in the morning and continue to late evening completion), are lucrative for the musicians who can meet the rigid requirements involved. Simpson is one such musician, respected by his cohorts for his versatile talent.

Ample evidence of his success is the rambling red brick ranch house, surrounded by heavily wooded countryside, in which Simpson and family reside in Half-Day, a pastoral suburb miles from the hectic atmosphere of Chicago itself. Country gentleman, Simpson purchased the shell of the house in '59 and did considerable work on it himself. One son, Manliff Michael, 18, is a student at Harding College in Arkansas; he doesn't plan a career in music. Two daughters – Veda, 10 and Randy, 7 – are studying piano. A pari of sleek cats, Home and Sweetie, prefer to dig.

It's a rare setting and a calm, rewarding life. Simpson didn't discover it on a platter; as the jazz cultists say, "he paid his dues," with years on the road and intensive study – almost 30 years of experience in a vast array of settings.

When this Mercury assignment was rewarded to him, Simpson was ready.

His aim in it was to present sensible interplay between instruments – interplay that would be musically interesting in terms of both specific patterns and overall continuity. In order to accomplish this – to assure the best possible performance – he recorded the LP in four sessions, to give each selection proper attention. He chose the musician with great care, because his arrangements included a slew of difficult matters of tempo and required a devotion to precision. Although he organized the music with board audience in mind, he refused to descend to the banalities so often pawned off in the name of popular music. One example of the meticulous Simpson approach; he delayed the recording 10 days to await the return from California of reed man Howard Davis, a musician whose presence, in terms of Simpson's lofty standards, was essential. Such concern is rare. The results of Simpson's demanding nature – heard here – are evidence enough that such insistence produces first-rate music.

Participating Musicians:
Reeds - Mike Simpson, Howard Davis, Harold Dessent, Victor Vallenari and Lawrence Baileys
Trumpets - Dom Geraci, Rudy Stauber and Porky Panico
Bass Trumpet - Cy Touff
Trombones - Art Sares, Herbert Wise and George Jean
Bass Trombone - Bill Corti
French Horn - Rudy Macciocchi
Tuba - Vince Florino
Piano and Organ - Ken Harrity
Bass - John Frigo
Guitar - Earl Backus
Percussion - Frank Rullo, Howard Agster, Bobby Christian and Jerry Slosberg
Pork Panico arranged Three Little Words and She Didn't Say Yes; all other arrangements by Mike Simpson

From Billboard - December 26, 1960: Mercury will make a major effort in the new percussive sound field with five new Perfect Presence Sound Series albums (popular) and one Living Presence Sound Series album (classical) highlighting its January release schedule.

The label is also planning to introduce a de luxe opera-package album, a new International Series, an a full line of its regular ($3.98) label items.

Announcement followed the firm's recent Midwest distributor meeting here, during which Irving Green announced the label had had a 15 per cent sales increase over 1959, and one of the best years in Mercury's history.

Albums included in the Perfect Presence series include Xavier Cugat, "Viva Gugat"; Frederick Fennell, "Fennel' Conducts Victor Herbert'; Richard Hayman, "Harmonica Holiday"; Mike Simpson, "Discussion In Percussion"; and Pete Rugolo, "Ten Trombones Like Two Pianos." The de luxe line will retail at $4.98 for monaural and $5.98 for stereo.

Say Si Si
Too Marvelous For Words
Takes Two To Tango
It's A Pity To Say Goodnight
Three Little Words
Can't We Talk It Over
Listen To The Mocking Bird
She Didn't Say Yes
Open Discussion
After I Say I'm Sorry
What Is There To Say
Hawaiian War Chant