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Friday, March 11, 2022

'Till End Of Time - Florain ZaBach

 

Ain't Misbehavin'

Till The End Of Time
Played and Conducted by Florian ZaBach
Photo by Don Bronstein
Mercury Records MG 20305
1958

From the back cover: I the popular music field, a successful violinist is about as common as an elephant with a ballet troupe.

So the undeniable success of Florian ZaBach is worth looking into.

When you listen to this album,  you'll get a rough idea of what makes him click. ZaBach makes a violin talk – or sing. Every note has meaning. He can produce sounds that are happy sounds or blue sounds, gay sounds and sad sounds.

Just as it take two to tango, it also takes two to make a violinist – the musician and the violin. ZaBach and his violin are a team. He owns a truly magnificent instrument – a 225 year-old Guarnerius. He bought it in 1953, plucking down $75,000 for it. (Even as you and I, he arranged for time payments – spreading them over a 20-year period.) It was made in Cremona, Italy in the year 1732 by Joseph Guarnerius, an artist that some violinists, including ZaBach, consider to be a better violin-maker than Stradivari. And it was once used by the famous virtuoso, Paganini.

"It has soul," say ZaBach.

So you have a violin with soul and a violinist who can make that soul come alive in the ZaBach-Guarnerius duet.

And the results is obvious on this latest album. In the 12 standards that he plays here, he runs the gamut of emotion. He uses the violin like a voice, sometimes singing joyously, sometimes crooning softly, sometimes torching out notes like a blues singer.

Till The End Of Time
The Very Thought Of You
My Blue Heaven
I Married An Angel
The Waltz You Saved For Me
Ain't Misbehavin'
Tenderly
Lovely To Look At
Cuddle Up A Little Closer
I Can't Give You Anything But Love
Anniversary Waltz
When Your Hair Has Turned To Silver

Chipper At The Sugar Bowl - Chip Fisher

 

Teenage Blues

Chipper At The Sugar Bowl
Chip Fisher
With Leroy Kirkland's Band
Produced by Eddie Heller
RCA Victor LPM-1797
1958

From the back cover: At long last the vaunted Ivy League has a singer it can call its own!

Chip Fisher, known to his many friends as "Chipper," is a senior at Dartmouth College, where once Eleazar Wheelock gave away five hundred gallons of New England rum to appease the Indians.

Chip went to Dartmouth from Darien High School in Darien, Connecticut. Near the school, as in almost every American town, is the Sugar Bowl, a favorite meeting, eating and music place for all the Darien teenagers, especially on Saturday afternoon after a football game. Chipper used to go to the Sugar Bowl all the time (he still does, as a matter of fact) to knock off a tune or two for the kids who are forever asking him to sing. It was the enthusiasm of the Darien teenagers for Chip that drew the attention of the A&R people at RCA Victor to this personable lad.

Chipper first became interested in country music when he was thirteen-year-old choreboy on a Granby, Colorado, ranch. An Apache Indian by the name of Andy taught him to play the guitar and the words to a song, One More Ride. This tune, incidentally, is still one of Chip's favorites in proper Western style. When he returned to Granby the following summer, he brought with him a forty-dollar guitar bought with ranch earrings of the previous year. The bug had bitten hard.

At twenty-one, Chip is already an assured performer, a Dartmouth flash who loves his music as much as his girls, who sings, play and writes his own songs. And they're good songs too, as a few spins on your phonograph will show.

Teenagers, and many, many other folks too, dig "Chipper" the most! How about you?

Sugar Bowl Rock
Tel Me
Did You Ever See A Dream Walking
I'm In Love
Teenage Blues
Oh Ye Louise
I Love Your Pony Tail
Here Goes Again
She Do But She Don't
Tell The World 
Young-Hearted Little Darling
I Want You To Be My Own

Take One! - Donna Hightower

 

Maybe You'll Be There

Take One!
Donna Hightower
Produced by Dave Cavanaugh
Photos by Bill Ray - Black Star
Capitol Records T1133
1959

From Billboard - January 19, 1959: Donna Hightower's highly stylized delivery shows to best advantage on slower blues and ballads. Within the limits of that defined range, her performances are capable and sometimes unique. Some of her finest work is "Maybe You'll Be There," "C'est La Vie" and "Baby Get Lost." Top grade backing is supplied by a combo directed by Sid Feller which includes Joe Wilder, Mundell Lowe, Hank Jones, George Duvivier and Don Lamond.

Perfidia 
Maybe You'll Be There
Lover, Come Back To Me!
There I've Said It Again
Because Of You
Please Don't Take Your Love Away From Me
C'est La Vie
Too Young
Baby, Get Lost
I Get A Kick Our Of You
Anytime, Anyway, Anywhere
Trouble In Mind

Rockin' Sax And Rollin' Organ - Sam Taylor & Dick Hyman

 

Cuban Carnival

Rockin' Sax And Rollin' Organ
Sam (The Man) Taylor & Dick Hyman
MGM Records E3553
1957

From the back cover: Sam (The Man) Taylor was born in Lexington, Tennessee in 1918... was raised in Gary, Indiana... attended Alabama State College... started instrumentalizing on the clarinet, but shifted to tenor sax, his speciality, while in college... got his start as a sideman in the band of Sherman (Scatman) Crothers, later appeared with the Cootie Williams and the Cab Calloway Orchestras... currently specializes  in TV and radio work, varying the routine with frequent appearances on the stage of theaters and night-clubs in the New York area.

MGM Albums by Sam (The Man) Taylor include:
E3492 - Music For Melancholy Babies
E3473 - Music With The Big Beat
E3380 - Out Of This World
E3292 - Blue Mist

Dick Hyman was born in New York City in 1927... graduated from Columbia College in 1948... free-lanced with many orchestras and singers... joined Benny Goodman in the maestro's European tour in 1950... currently on NBC staff as a conductor, pianist and organist, in addition to leading his own trio, famous to records fans through such MGM hits as "Theme From The Threepenny Opera"... has recorded with LeRoy Holmes, Joni James, Mary Mayo and a host of other stars in addition to producing his own hit recordings... Dick's trio has won the Cashbox Award (jukebox operators' trade magazine) several times.

MGM Long Playing Albums by Dick Hyman include:
E3537 - 60 All Time Great Songs - Volume 3 (piano)
E3536 - 60 All Time Great Songs - Volume 2 (piano)
E3535 - 60 All Time Great Songs - Volume 1 (piano)
E3494 - Hi Fi Suite (The Leonard Feather - Dick Hyman Orchestra)
E3483 - Red Sails In The Sunset (organ)
E3379 - Beside A Shady Rock (trio)
E3329 - The Unforgettable Sound Of The Dick Hyman Trio
E3280 - The Dick Hyman Trio Swings

(I'm Left With The) Blues In My Heart
Congo Mombo
Look Up
Around The Horn
Drummer Boy Blues (Parts 1 & 2)
The Peanut Vendor (El Manisero)
Walk With Me
Chilo-E (Song Of The Swamp)
I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)
Cuban Carnival
Wow!

Thursday, March 10, 2022

Things Are Swingin' - Peggy Lee

 

Lullaby In Rhythm

Things Are Swingin'
Peggy Lee
Orchestra Conducted by Jack Marshall
Producer: Dave Cavanaugh
Capitol Records T1049
1958

It's A Wonderful World
Things Are Swingin'
Alright, Okay, You Win
Ridin' High
It's Been A Long, Long Time
Lullaby In Rhythm
Alone Together
I'm Beginning To See The Light
It's A Good, Good Night
You're Getting To  Be A Habit
You're Mine You
Life Is For Livin'

Ella And Her Fellas - Ella Fitzgerald

 

Don-Cha Go 'Way Mad

Ella And Her Fellas
Ella Fitzgerald
Decca Records JDL 6036
Made by Teichiku Records Co., Ltd., Japan
1957

You Won't Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart) - Louis Armstrong with The Bob Haggart Orchestra
That's The Way It Is - Ink Spots
Stone Cold Dead In The Market - Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five
I Gotta Have My Baby Back - Mills Brothers
Sentimental Journey - Eddie Heywood and His Orchestra
The Firm Fram Sauce - Louis Armstrong with The Bob Haggart Orchestra
It's Only A Paper Moon - Delta Rhythm Boys
Dream A Little Dream Of Me - Louis Armstrong with Sy Oliver and His Orchestra
Baby, It's Cold Outside - Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five
A-Tisket A-Tasket - Chich Webb and His Orchestra
Would You Like To Talk A Walk - Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra
Don-Cha Go 'Way Mad - Sy Oliver and His Orchestra

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Uncle Ben's Heihe Rhythmen Gus der Karibik

 

Rumba Tamba

Uncle Ben's
Heihe Rhythmen Gus der Karibik
Musik aus der Karibik, gespielt von der Aruba-Steelband
6803122

Personnel:

Elcano Romney Bandleader & Tenor Pan
Billy Williams - Double Tenor Pan
Cornelius Richardson - Campana
Bienvenido Pantophlet - Bass
Fred Duinkerk - Double Second Pan
Eric Victoria - Quintos
Eddy Dunlock - Cellos
Earl Kersout - Drums
Jose Hughes - Tambarine
Efraim Antonio - Double Second Pan

Rumba Tamba
Pajarito 
Latino
Barcode
Reggae a kino
John Jones
Oh, Señora
Bill-Kino
Soul Train
Perfidia
Mama Ban

Love Songs By Russ Columbo

 

Sweet And Lovely

Love Songs By Russ Columbo
Reprocessed with High Fidelity Equipment
This reissue produced by Bill Grauer, Jr. and Orrin Keepnews
Collector's Series
Recorded in New York, 1931 - 1923
RCA Victor LPM-2072
1959

From the back cover: The career of Ruggerio Eugenio di Rudolpho Columbo was brief but meteoric. His fabulous success was compressed into only four of his twenty-six years. Columbo got his big break with Gus Arnheim's band at the Cocoanut Grove – the same circumstances that had previously launched Bing Crosby. He clicked almost immediately and achieved radio stardom virtually overnight. Although he made several movies and appeared in stage shows at movie houses, it was his voice that primarily accounted for his fame. This album contains a representative sampling of the style and repertoire that propelled Columb to the top.

Unlike such contemporaries as Crosby and Rudy Vallee, who later made successful adjustments to the passage of time, Columbo is always remembered as the personification of dark and handsome youth. For, on September 2, 1934, he was killed in an accident so fantastic that it would never be accepted as credible in fiction. The facts apparently were these: Russ was chatting with a photographer in the latter's studio. The photographer, about to light a cigarette, struck a match on the barrel of an antique French pistol. In some manner, the flame of the match set off an ancient, long-forgotten charge still in the gun. The bullet that was fired ricocheted off a table and struck Columbo in the forehead. He died almost instantly. In this bizarre fashion the man whose voice had launched a thousand dreams passed into legend.

Call Me Darling (Call Me Sweetheart, Call Me Dear)
Sweet And Lovely
Just Friends
Where The Blue Of The Night (Meets The Gold Of The Day)
You Try Somebody Else
You're My Everything
All Of Me
Time On My Hands (You In My Arms)
Save The Last Dance For Me
Living In Dreams
Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear
Paradise

With All My Heart And Soul - Dottie West

 

Don't Keep Me Lonely Too Long

With All My Heart And Soul
Dottie West
With vocal accompaniment by The Jordanaires 
Produced by Chet Atkins
RCA Victor LPM-3693
Recorded in RCA Victor's "Nashville Sound" Studio, Nashville, Tennessee
Recording Engineer: Jim Malloy
1967

From the back cover: As an entertainer, Dottie West never ceases to amaze people. She performs with all the finesse of a polished pro, and yet, there'a a simplicity about her that makes her performance down-to-earth and real. She radiates warmth and a genuine friendliness. By the end of her show you feel like you know her personally, and you do! That's just the way she is all the time.

Dottie should not be overlooked as a songwriter either, for she holds her place with the best of them. She and her steel-playing husband Bill composed her first bit hit, Here Comes My Baby, which helped her win a Grammy Award for the Best Female Performance in Country Music for the year 1964! Among her friends and fellow artists, Dottie is regarded as one of the truly "great people" in our business, as well as one of the truly great talents.

At home she plays the role of wife and mother of four children with such proficiency it's hard to imagine that she has any career other than being a housewife. (Just between you and me, I'm pretty sure there are more than twenty-four hours in her day.) – Jennie Seely, Monument Records

Paper Mansions 
Don't Touch Me
No One To Cry To
A Way To Survive
Don't Keep Me Lonely Too Long
Loving On Borrowed Time
Almost Persuaded 
The Tip Of My Fingers
With All My Heart And Soul
It's Teardrops Time
Someone Gotta Cry
How Many Lifetimes Will It Take?

Will Success Spoil Mrs. Miller?

 

The Girl From Ipanema

Will Success Spoil Mrs. Miller?
Orchestra under the direction of Fred Bock
Produced by Lex De Azevedo
Cover Photo / Capitol Photo Studio - Ken Veeder
Capitol Records T 2579
1966

From the back cover: I'm sure you will find this album equally as fascinating as the first (Mrs. Miller's Greatest Hits).

As Martin Bernheimer, the noted music critic for the Los Angeles Times told me: "Gary, Mrs. Miller is in a class all by herself."

I first heard the charming Mrs. Miller some four years ago at radio station KMPC in Hollywood, when she sang the station's jingles for me... inside out! She soon became a popular favorite on the station... so naturally, I was very pleased when a famous record company also realized her abilities and put out an album displaying same. 

Y'known, I'll never forget one brisk October evening in Los Angeles."

Gary Owens
KMPC, Hollywood

* The brisk October evening Mr. Owens refers to, was when he fell asleep during a speech he was making.

Strangers In The Night
Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home? (Arranged by Lex De Azevedo)
Somewhere, My Love
A Groovy Kind Of Love (Arranged by Lex De Azevedo)
Melody (Arranged by Lex De Azevedo)
The Girl From Ipanema (Arranged by Lex De Azevedo)
Yellow Submarine (Arranged by Lex De Azevedo)
Every Little Movement (Arranged by Lex De Azevedo)
Moon River
Second Hand Rose
Sweet Pea
Monday, Monday

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Carnegie Hall - Hubert Laws

 

Passacaglia In C Minor

Hubert Laws
Carnegie Hall
Produced for CTI Records by Creed Taylor
Album Photographs by Dean Brown
Album Design  by Bob Ciano
Recorded at Carnegie Hall January 12, 1973
Engineers: Carmine Rubino & Frank Hubac
Remixed & Mastered by Rudy Van Gelder
CTI Records  CTI 6025

Personnel:

Flute - Hubert Laws
Bass - Ron Carter
Piano / Electric Piano - Bob James
Guitar - Gene Bertoncini
Vibes - Dave Friedman
Drums - Freddie Waits & Billy Cobham
Bassoon - Dave Miller

Windows/Fire And Rain (Medley)
Passacaglia In C Minor

Monday, March 7, 2022

My Baby Loves To Swing - Vic Damone

 

Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't (Ma' Baby)

My Baby Loves To Swing
Vic Damone
Cover Photo: Capitol Photo Studio - George Jerman
Capitol Records T 1811
1963

From Billboard - January 5, 1963: Here are a dozen "baby" songs – although they're not about little girls. Using a variety of stylings (smooth ballads, bossa nova, blues, etc.) Vic Damone serenades with "Baby Won't You Please Come Home," "You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby." "My Melancholy Baby," and other strong oldies. Smooth ork backing is provided by Jack Marshall, and the album is a good waxing for middle-road stations. Damone fans should go strongly for it.

I'm Nobody's Baby
Everybody Love My Baby (But My Baby Don't Love Nobody But Me)
You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby
Alright, Okay, You Win
My Melancholy Baby
Let's Sit This One Out
My Baby Loves To Swing
My Baby Just Cares For Me
Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't (Ma' Baby)
Baby, Baby All The Time
Baby Won't You Please Come Home
Make This A Slow Goodbye

The Jazz Pickers - Harry Babasin

 

De Ge


Harry Babasin And the Jazz Pickers
With Special Guest Star Terry Gibbs
Cover and Liner Photography: Dave Pell
Cover Portrait: Eva Diana
Engineer: Dayton Howe
Mode Records, Ltd. MOD LP 119
Recorded July, 1957 - Hollywood, California 

Personnel:
Harry Babasin - Cello
Terry Gibbs (Courtesy EmArCy Records) - Vibes
Dempsey Wright - Guitar
Ben Tucker - Bass
Bill Douglas - Drums

From the back cover: Harry Babasin is a veteran bassist, having stepped into the music majors following his graduation from North Texas State College in 1941. His success on the bands of Gene Krupa, Boyd Raeburn and Charlie Barnet established him as one of the best jazz players on the big band circuit. Before concluding his "tour of the road" Harry joined Woody Herman's famous "Four Brothers" band (the second herd) and became a part of the fondly remembered history of the great aggregation.

Upon his return to the West Coast and a more placid way of life, Harry joined the growing ranks of jazz musicians employed by the motion picture studios. During this interval in his life, Harry worked with the Benny Goodman sextet in a movie called "A Song Is Born," and, finding a cello on the set, began experimenting between takes on the smaller and more articulate version of his own instrument. Long an admirer of another great jazz cellist, Oscar Pettiford, Harry conceived the idea for the Jazz Pickers – a string jazz ensemble featuring the pizzicato technique.

Down Beat's West Coast representative, John Tynana, heard about the Babasin experiments, and encouraged the leader to make up a book (arrangements or standards and originals) which would make the group a salable item to club owners in the Los Angeles area. Firm in the conviction that the public will buy an integrated unit with jazz roots, Babasin and Tynan turned their respective talents to making the Jazz Pickers a reality.

The welcome addition of Terry Gibbs to play the vibes parts for these sessions is an extension of Harry's plan for the group. The basic quartet of cello, guitar, bass and drums is augmented by a fifth and possibly sixth book, written for selected instruments such as Terry's vibes which, through his great talent, adds a sparkle that few recorded groups have attained. Terry's complete individuality and faultless technique have long since established him as one of the greatest exponents of his instrument in jazz. 

The other Jazz Pickers are hand-picked musicians who have satisfied Harry's dual demands of technical excellence and the less tangible quality of an intrinsic feeling for jazz in such a subtle setting. Guitarist Dempsey Wright, Bassist Ben Tucker, and Drummer Bill Douglas have welded their talents into a strong rhythm block on which the improvised structures rest.

Five of the eight tunes heard in this set are Harry Babasin originals, especially arranged to project the personality of the group, as were the three standards also chosen. Under the guiding hand of Harry Babasin, the Jazz Picker produced these sides.

From Billboard - January 20, 1958: Softly swinging modern spotting cello, guitar and bass creating identifying group sound, functional writing with substantial solos by guest star Terry Gibbs, vibes, Babasin, cello; propulsive rhythm playing – notably drummer Bill Douglas – could well beguile the modern buyer. Try "De Ge" as demo band.

Thou Swell
Wingo
Basin Street Blues
Pee Wee
De Ge
Hoppy
These Foolish Things
On Bear Hill

Jazz Recital - Charlie Byrd

 

Homage To Charlie Christian

Jazz Recital
Featuring The Spanish Guitar Of Charlie Byrd
Supervisor: Ozzie Cadena
Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder
Savoy Record Co. MG 12099
1957

Personnel:
Tom Newsom - Flute & Tenor Sax
Al Lucas - Bass
Bobby Donaldson - Drums

From the back cover: Charlie Byrd was born in 1925 in Suffolk, Virginia. Began playing at age 10 under the tutelage of his father and played with local bands during his high school and Virginia Polytechnic Institute college days. During World War II he served in the 424 A.S.F. Band touring Europe, and settled in New York after his discharge. He played with Sol Yaged, Barbara Carroll, Joe Marsala and Freddie Slack group until late 1949 when he became interested in the classical guitar.

After his marriage in 1950, Charlie moved to Washington D.C., his current home, to devote full time to study of classical technique and has been teaching there and performing in concerts and on club dates since then. After taking an audition with the great Andres Segovia in New York, Charlie was invited to spend the summer of 1954 in Sienna, Italy, studying with the Master. Charlie has played in recitals in Washington and other eastern cities since then and has received excellent reviews from area critics for all. In addition, several of his compositions have been utilized in the modern dance idiom. His "Theme From Hamlet" received critical acclaim, and Byrd's work inspired Katherine Dunham to call him up from Washington for her Broadway opening last season. Another selection was prepared for Danny Kaye and will be used on future shows.

Let's quote Charlie Byrd on what he is trying to do with the Spanish guitar: "I'd like to see the guitarists of today using more of the vast store of knowledge that has been piled up by the great lute players and guitarists of the past 400 years. Men like Dowland, Milan and Weiss wrote and played very complicated things that have not been surpassed to this very day! The Pick technique of the guitar allows rapid scale type passages and a sharp attack for rhythm, but doesn't have nearly as much variety and beauty as the Finger Technique. Finger playing on the unamplified Spanish guitar shows the delicate tonal colors of the guitar, which is its strongest feature!"

"Without taking any credit from the great jazz guitarists of today, WHY must the guitar be confined to single line playing and rhythm accompaniment. I first had to develop the finger classical style technique before I could use it as I have on this album to play jazz.

If my guitar is going to take an important place as a solo instrument, it MUST be broadened! Leave the sax sound to the sax and PLAY the guitar! Its capabilities were proven centuries ago." – H. Alan Stein

From Billboard - May 13, 1957: Title, to a degree, is a misnomer. This is not jazz in the salable or pure sense. However, package has much charm derived from Byrd's unamplified, unaccompanied playing on ballads. He touches on some of the less obvious, compelling tonal aspects by using classical finger style on his Spanish guitar. Byrd turns to electric guitar and more standard jazz approach on two tunes. LP is not likely to reach a wide audience.

Prelude
My Funny Valentine
Little Girl Blue
My Heart Stood Still
Interlude
Spring Is Here
A Foggy Day
Spanish Guitar Blues
Chuck-A-Tuck
Homage To Charlie Chirstian