Smorgasbord - Bobby Enevoldsen

 

How Low The Tune

Smorgasbord

Bobby Enevoldsen

Featuring: Robert Howard, Don Heath, Marty Paich, Red Mitchell & Larry Bunker

Producer: Simon Jackson

Engineer: John Neal

Cover Design: Dale Hennesy

Jazz Unlimited Series

Recorded in Hollywood, California - November 25th and 29th, 1955

Liberty Records LJH 6008

Personnel:

Bob Enevoldsen - Tenor Sax, Valve Trombone, Bass

Marty Paich - Piano, Accordion, Organ

Larry Bunker - Vibes, Piano, Drums

Red Mitchell - Bass, Piano

Howard Roberts - Guitar

Don Heath - Drums

From the back cover: "Smorgasbord" is a delightful album. The title is so intriguing because it is so descriptive and applicable. According to Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, "Smorgasbord" is a Scandinavian word meaning "a variety of appetizers served before the main meal". Mr. Enevoldsen is Scandinavian (Danish to be exact), and this is his album, but that's only the first parallel. The arrangements, also Mr. Enevoldsen's are interestingly varied: and the songs run the gamut from the old to the new from soulful beauty of the ballad, "My Ideal", to the almost raucous blues of "Bob's Boy", and, then to the up-tempoed "You're In Love". The musicians themselves offer even more variety to the sum total, because four of them double and triple on instruments: Red Mitchell on bass and piano; Mary Paich on piano, organ and accordion; Larry Bunker on drums, vibes and piano; and Bob, himself, on tenor saxophone, valve trombone, and bass. So you see, it's really a smorgasbord of jazz. And it's all very stimulating. In too many jazz albums today there's a regrettable lack of judgement and care. you listen and know that the entire twelve sides were conceived, arranged and recorded with in a two or three day period. This is an excellent method for a company to release six or seven albums every month; but it's also an excellent method of not talking advantage of talent and good musicianship. "Smorgasbord", fortunately, is not this kind of album. Each composition obviously carefully arranged and rehearsed. And the end result is more than worth the time and effort consumed in getting the desired sound.

Bob Enevoldsen is undoubtedly one of the most versatile musicians I've ever known, and I feel very complimented that I've been asked to write the notes for his first Liberty album. His talent is so multi-faceted that it's difficult to know just where to start, so I may as well being very prosaically at the beginning. He was born in Billings, Montana in 1920. His mother concentrating on the piano; his father on the other stringed instruments, woodwinds and brass. It's no wonder that at the age of seventeen Bob was a one-man orchestra having inherited the combined aptitudes of both his parents. He graduated from high school and in 1942 received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Montana. After four years in the army, he settled in Salt Lake City where he taught school, held down the second clarinet chair in the Salt Lake City Symphony conducted by Maurice Abravnel, and took a post-graduate course in theory, harmony and composition at the University of Utah under Dr. Leroy Robertson. It was inevitable that he'd make the trek to Hollywood. West Coast sounds from Shorty Rogers and Gerry Mulligan and their contemporaries were starting to seep across the country. Bob had to be a part of it. And in the five year's he's been in California, he's become a very important part. His work on the valve trombone with Shorty and Gerry and Shelly Manne and Marty Paich has won him awards in Downbeat and Metronome; his playing of the tenor saxophone and the reed instruments has won additional critical praise; his excellence as a bass violinist (an instrument he started to study only a brief four years ago) keeps him constantly busy at the recording studios; and perhaps most importantly of all, he has developed into one of the town's most creative and original arrangers.

Besides the fact that he's completely schooled instrumentalist, which becomes unmistakably schooled instrumentalist, which becomes unmistakably apparently as you hear him play, the most impressive charm of Bob's music is its humor. He has a faculty of injecting a wonderful whimsicality into many of his solos. And then he can turn right around and suddenly become quite morbid if the occasion calls for it. You'll begin to realize with each additional playing of "Smorgasbord" that the arrangements were far from haphazardly pieced together. You'll begin to understand with there's an amazing wedding of the mood of the composition and the mood of the interpretation.

This is Bob Enevoldsen. I think if you met him you'd like him as much as you're going to like the highly pleasing music in this album. – Bobby Troup

From Billboard - October 20, 1956: Enevoldsen and his cohorts appear to be having great fun and it's contagious. It's not profound or provocative jazz, just good, pleasant listening, insuring at least a fair sale. The leader himself plays tenor, trombone and bass. Larry Bunker plays drums, vibes an piano; Red Mitchell, bass and piano; Marty Paich, piano, accordion and organ. Howard Roberts is on guitar, etc... all competent West Coast modernist.

Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead

Swingin' On A Star

Swinger's Dream

My Ideal

How Long The Tune

John's Jumble

You're In Love

Thinking Of You

No Time For Love

Mr. Know-It-All

Oh! Look At Me Now

Bob's Boy