Themes To Remember - Stanley Wilson

 

87th Precinct

Themes To Remember

Stanley Wilson And His Orchestra

Decca Records DL 74481

1964

From the back cover: Stanley Wilson is superbly skilled in the art of creating this kind of music backdrop on television. As music director of the huge Revue Studios, he supervises and conducts more scoring sessions that anyone in the history of Hollywood. It's a big job, but Stanley Wilson's background prepared him for it.

He switched from pre-medical studies to music while still in college, and studied arranging and composition while playing a hot trumpet in jazz bands for three years. By the time he was twenty-five, he had become the arranger for Freddy Martin's orchestra and a number of top radio shows.

Stanley Wilson got into movie work with MGM, doing arrangements for a number of musicals featuring Jeanette MacDonald, Jimmy Durante, and Lauritz Melchior. He rose to musical director at Republic Pictures, and for the last decade has been the music man at Revue. His television credits include writing and conducting the theme music for such top shows as Alfred Hitchcock, G. E. Theatre, Wells Fargo, M-Squad and others.

Teakwood Nocturne

87th Precinct

Premiere

Wide Country Theme

Somewhere A Bird Is Singing

All In My Mind

The Virginian

Monaco

Lydia

Markham Theme

Tomorrow

Trailmaster Theme

Persuasive Percussion - Command Quadraphonic

 

The Breeze And I

Persuasive Percussion

Cover Photo & Design: George S. Whiteman

Command Quadraphonic CQD 40000

A Product of ABC Records, Inc.

1971

I'm In The Mood For Love

Whatever Lola Wants

Misirlou

I Surrender Dear

Orchids In The Moonlight

I Love Paris

My Heart Belongs To Daddy

Taboo

The Breeze And I

Aloha Oe

Japanese Sandman

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing

Dixieland Jazz Party - Bobby Donaldson

 

Farewell Blues

Dixieland Jazz Party

Bobby Donaldson

Supervison: Ozzie Cadena

Recording: Rudy Van Gelder

Cover Photo: Popsy

Cover Design: Levy A. Agency

Savoy Record Co., Inc. 

Savoy MG 12128

1959

Personnel:

Bobby Donaldon - Drums, Leader

Rex Stewart - Cornet

Emmett Berry - Trumpet

Buster Bailey - Clarinet

Vic Dickenson - Trombone

Red Richards - Piano

Bucky Pizzerella - Piano & Guitar

Al Lucas - Bass & Tuba

From Billboard - March 30, 1959: Very listenable Dixieland type versions of some jazz and pop tunes played by a fine group of jazzmen, including Bobby Donaldson, R. Stewart, E. Berry, B. Bailey, V. Dickerson and others. The sound is good, the stereo separation is wide and the tunes are played with the style you would expect from these musicians. Selections range from "C Jam Blues," and "Farewell Blues," to "Surrey With The Fringe On Top," to "People Will Say We're In Love."

C Jam Blues

Farewell Blues

Surrey With The Fringe On Top

Oklahoma

Oh What A Beautiful Morning

People Will Say We're In Love

Le Grande Rompe

A Salute To Hamp - Teddy Charles

 

Airmail Special

Salute To Hamp

Flyin' Home

Teddy Charles Salutes Linel Hamptom

Teddy Charles And His Sextet

Bethlehem Records BCP-6032

1959

From the back cover: Some people may mutter, baffled self-question, "Teddy Charles and Lionel Hampton?... how far apart can two jazz vibists be?" Yet there is a connection just because they are two jazz vibists and the fact that a nine year old Charles became interested in the vibes when he heard Hampton on the Benny Goodman quartet recordings. Although they are far apart today, stylistically, Teddy still had admiration for Hamp. He says, "I was once misquoted in an article concerning who I thought was best in the various aspects of playing the vibes. I thought then, and still do today, that insofar as swinging goes, Hamp is champ."

To me, there is a further validity in this salute because Charles does not attempt to mimic Hampton or try to recreate the selections in the manner Lionel first did them. Teddy says, simply, "I just wanted to do some numbers identified with Hamp in different phases of his career."

This approach and his choice of such high caliber musicians as Zoot Sims, Art Framer, Bob Brookmeyer and Hank Jones to share the solo space with him, the effectively uncluttered arrangements of the sextet numbers, the informality of the quartet and trio tracks, the loose swing of the rhythm men (Addison Farmer and Ed Thigpen or Charlie Smith); all these are factors which contribute to make this one of the most delightfully relaxed jazz records in a long while – and by relaxed, I don't mean in the Perry Como manner.

Of the musicians in this set, Bob Brookmeyer and Art Farmer have both played with Teddy Charles quartets, at different times, and Addison Farmer has also been with several Charles units. Brother Art is the only one to have played with Lionel Hampton; he was with the band form the fall of 1952 to the fall of 1953.

The sextet, comprised of Brookmeyer, Sims, Charles, the two Farmers and Thigpen, divide its time between two swingers and two ballads.

Airmail Special - Hamp did it with the Benny Goodman sextet as Good Enough To Keep in 1941; his own big band recorded it in 1946 is done here in a swiftly causing manner with two choruses apiece by Sims, Brookmeyer, Farmer (note his quote from Bud Powells' Wail) and Charles. The piano comping for Teddy is by Brookmeyer.

Flyin' Home - Hamp recorded it with Goodman in 1939; his own band made it twice, in 1941 and 1944 has had the phrasing of its line slightly altered by Teddy who has given in a soppy flavor. Sims has the bridge in the first chorus. Brookmeyer does some interesting things with the Flyin' Home figure during his sixteen bars and after Farmer finishes out the second chorus, the horns set a riff behind Charles as he solos. Sim solos simultaneously with time out only for the four soloists to divide the bridge.

Midnight Sun, the pretty ballad first down by Hampton in 1947, is sensitively handled by Charles in a single-line statement with the ensemble alternately set against him and underneath as a carpet. The only other soloist is Sims, who has the first bridge.

Stardust, whose strongest connection with Hampton stems from the famous concert recording of 1947 (in the company of Charlie Shavers, Slam Stewart, etc.), begins in the most arresting way with a sustained background against which Bob Brookmeyer flows from his own introduction into tan exhilarating exposition of the theme. It is carried along by a more literal, but none the less beautiful, Farmer and a heart-throbbing Sims. A short interlude segues quickly into a thoughtful Charles. (Brookmeyer backs him on piano again)

The one trio track is from the sextet date and finds bassist Framer and drummer Thigpen backing Charles in Gone Again, the number which vocalist Wini Brown scored heavily in the Hampton recording of 1947. Teddy alternates his four-mallet technique with the single line here as Addison's big-toned bass is a strong asset.

On the quartet numbers with Hank Jones, Addison Farmer and Charlie Smith, the four-mallet technique is really utilized. The few other vibists who employ it do so only for comping and use root positions of the chords. Teddy approximates a saxophone or trumpet section by the use of voice leading.

Hamp recorded On The Sunny Side Of The Street with an all-star group in 1937; his vocal ("rich as Rockyfellow") is well remembered. Charles does not sing here (although you may hear him humming to himself at different times throughout the album) but he does present an unaffected version of the song. Hank Jones has the bridge on the second chorus before Teddy takes it out with some rich voicings.

Hampton was on the 1936 Goodman quartet recording of Stompin' At The Savoy and Moonglow. The Charles quartet delineates them in the same manner as Sunny Side Of The Street. The interplay between Teddy and Charles Smith reminds me of 52nd Street clubs in the mid-forties for some reason. (Teddy says that I must have been drinking a very watery Scotch while listening to this track).

Blue Hamp, an original blues by Charles, has suggestions of both Hamp and Teddy in its line. The solos are by Teddy, Hank and Addison.

It was mentioned earlier that Charles became interested in the vibes through hearing Hampton. This was about the extent of Lionel's specific influence on Teddy. Who then were his inspirers? Leonard Feather, in his generally valuable Book Of Jazz (Horizon), erroneously stated, "To a fusion of what he has drawn from an intelligent inspection of the quadrumvirate (Norvo, Hampton, Jackson, Gibbs) Charles has added a musical maturity that stems from extensive studies with Hall Overton... Actually, Charles influences are not vibistic but derive rather from Charlie Parker and Bud Powell. These he has tempered with his own ideas, many of which were helped to blossom through his studies with Overton as Feather pointed out.

Teddy once wrote an article in Metronome (now Music USA) in which he spoke of musicians as "wiggers" (the ones who emphasized the cerebral) and "wailers" (ones who concentrated more on swinging). In some of his most experiment moments, Teddy has still found time to "wail" and here, in the simple format, he pays attention to "wailing" while not forgetting to "wig it" too. Perhaps he could be classified  as a "wailing wig". Whatever his category, Teddy can stand on his own feet as some good blowing jazz – Ira Gitler

Airmail Special 

Midnight Sun

Stardust

Flyin' Home

Gone Again

On The Sunny Side Of The Street

Stompin' At The Savoy

Moonglow

Blue Hamp

Two Much! - Ann Richards & Stan Kenton

 

My Kinda Love

Two Much!

The Fantastic Voice Of Ann Richards

Backed By The Wailing Big Band Of Stan Kenton

Produced by Ed Yellen

Capitol Records T1495

1961

From the back cover: As Stan says, when we recorded this album we had just come back from a road tour, and believe me, it was about the most exciting eight weeks I've ever spent. This is a young, enthusiastic group, all musicians who are not the least bit blasé about what they are doing and who really like to be heard.

I felt that if we could turn loose the same amount of energy and excitement in the studio that we had built up to on tour, we could have something really worth hearing.

I know that I felt really inspired; and Stanley's such a great leader that he was able to draw the same response from these fine guys that live audiences did – maybe even more. You''ll have to judge the results, of course, but I know this approach certainly made sessions a lot of fun for all of us.

Take Gene Roland's treatment of No Moon At All, for example. Here was a tune we had been doing every night at concerts and dances. It started out as a two-chorus hand arrangement, then we began improvising on it, with me singing two and a half choruses first with just the rhythm section, then the band coming in for two more.  We all got a kick out of doing it the same way for the album.

I Got Rhythm is a tune I've done in clubs to an instrumental trio arrangement. Bill Holman took it and made it a "funky" big-band thing just beautifully. I think it comes off exceptionally well. So does his Don't Be That Way.

Johnny Richard's arrangement of My Kinda Love is wonderful and fresh. He originally wrote the introduction for trombones, then Stanley decided to let me sing it instead. It turns out to be a nice, unusual king of thing.

Johnny's moody treatment of Suddenly I'm Sad is just beautiful, but his swinging All Or Nothing At All is my favorite tune int he album – that's personal, of course, and you may or may not agree. Thanks to Wayne Dunstan, It's A Wonderful World gave me a lot of chance for improvisation, and that was certainly fun. I've always wanted to do a little of the kind of shouting you'll hear in Bill's The Morning After. And I'm sure you'll know my feeling for Nobody Like My Baby and I Was The Last One To Know when I say Stanley arranged them. Actually, this was all a ball – "Two Much" for Stanley and me, for all the boys in the band and for you, too, I hope.

From Billboard - January 9, 1961: The Stan Kenton crew has given a number of top jazz singers to the world, including Anita O'Day, June Christy and Chris Connor. Thrush Ann Richards could join these outstanding thrushes through her remarkable performance on this new album. She shows off an exciting style and a warm manner of handling a tune that is all her own, yet in the jazz tradition, even down to her scat singing. And she is backed solid by the Kenton crew all the way. Tunes include "It's A Wonderful World," "No Moon At All" and "All Or Nothing At All."

It's A Wonderful World

The Morning After

I Was The Last One To Know

My Kinda Love

I Got Rhythm

No Moon At All

Don't Be That Way

Suddenly I'm Sad

Nobody Like My Baby

All Or Nothing At All

Drum Sum - Buck Clarke

 

Drum Sum

Drums Sum

The Buck Clarke Quintet

Supervision: Ralph Bass

Cover: Don Bronstein

Recorded November 8, 1960, at Bell Sound Studios, New York

Argo LP 4007

Personnel: 

Buck Clarke - Bongos and Conga

Charles Hampton - Piano, Alto and Baritone Saxophones and Flute

Clement Wells - Vibraharp

Fred Williams - Bass

Roscoe Hunter - Drums

From the back cover: On these sides can be heard a remarkably variegated program of music, under the direction of a comparatively unknown but unquestionably promising young leader.

Buck Clarke was born 28 years ago in Washington, D.C., a city well-known as the birthplace of Mercer Ellington and his father. He has been playing bongos for 12 years, having enjoyed his professional indoctrination as a teenaged member of a carnival band, in which he had a working day running from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

After two years working as a single in New Orleans and a couple of years in the army, he worked with the Arnett Cobb combo, later returning to Washington and jobbing around locally. He is talented in many manual directions, for a while he was at the Smithsonian Institute, employed as an artist on the exhibits staff.

It was at a showing of his paintings of jazz musician s that Buck also unveiled his first combo, a trio featuring the present bassist, Fred Williams and a vibraharpist. A little later he hired a drummer, and the following year early in 1959, the protean Charles Hampton added many new dimensions to the group as it became a quintet.

It would be pretentious and inaccurate to claim that this beguilingly versatile unit presages the development of a Washington style of jazz. There is no evidence that the nation's capitol has had or ever will have a local style or improvisation or composition. It is sufficient that musicians in or from this city, beginning with Duke and other pioneers like Claude Hopkins all the way through to modernists like Bill Ports, Frank West, Osie Johnson, and Charlie Byrd, have made it an important center of creativity in the jazz idiom.

Much of the personality of the Buck Clarke quintet stems from the versatility of Charles Hampton, who contributes invaluably to its broad range of sounds by playing piano, alto saxophone, baritone sax and flute. Hampton, 30, is from Greenville, S.C. He began studying piano in 1946, spent three years at the Howard U. School Of Music, and later studied oboe at the Modern School Of Music, whose earlier students had included the above-mentioned Messers, Wess and Byrd.

The other constituent in the front line, Clement A. Wells, Jr., a skillful vibraharpist is the newest member of the quintet. Born in 1928, he studied trumpet and piano as a child, but became fascinated by the vibes on seeing Lionel Hampton, and says his greatest thrill was playing with him once at the Howard Theater. After high school he formed a combo, but in 1947 he took a day job in the post office. In the army in 1951-3 he played alto horn. He later went back to the stamp emporium but gladly gave up the gig on joining Buck's group in May, 1960. He names as his favorites Hamp, Milt Jackson, Cal Tjader and his predecessor in Buck's group, Don McKenzie.

Bassist Fred Williams, 30, took up music while serving in the air force, playing in Europe with USO shows and later gigging in New York for a year before returning to Washington and studying at Howard.

Roscoe Hunter, also a 30-year-old Washingtonian, has been playing professionally since 1949. He names Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, Shelly Manne and Art Blakey as the drummers who have inspired him most. – Leonard Feather

Woody'n You

Don't Get Around Much Anymore

Funk Boots

Darben, The Redd Foxx

Bag's Groove

Blues For Us

Georgia

Drum Sum

Buckskins

I Got Rhythm

Stax Of Sax - Herb Geller

 

Nightmare Alley

Stax Of Sax

Herb Geller Quintet

Produced by Herbert Marx

Cover Design: Sy Leichman

Photograph: Charles Varon

Jubilee Records JLP 1094

1958

From the back cover: Herb Geller is out of the West Coast School with East Coast qualities integrated. He was born in Los Angeles. He has spent most of his career there. He is now home-based there. That 'cool atmosphere' is apparent in Herb's playing, in the feeding of harmonic lines, in the approach to improvisation.

But there is other background and history quite evident. There is the zest of the East, the vivid sound of New York. Herb worked in New York from 1949 to 1953. He was influenced by Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Rollins. There are elements of their techniques and approaches to modernity in Herb's style. He observed and absorbed.

The rhythm in Stax Of Sax swing. From beginning to end, that beat, though subdued and deliberate, has a drive and freedom that is warm and moving. At times calm and effortless, it bubbles up to a dynamic and energetic feel.

Herb Geller's alto has a technique that is flexible and personal. He has a verve and a lift. The atmosphere he creates is alive and finely defined. His sound is clean and firm.

This group achieves a solid teamwork on these sides. The man on vibes is Vic Feldman. He's been around the scene with Woody Herman and is also heard on the Peter Gunn TV Show. Walter Morris is the pianist. His solos are relaxed, his execution sensitive and tasteful, his musical thoughts filled with effective harmonies.

Anthony Valley, the drummer, has a swinging drive that lays down a solid beat at all times. Leroy Vinnegar, heard so often with Shelly Manne, is one of the most melodic bassists in the country.

From Billboard - April 20, 1958: This is a truly swingin' five-track set. Geller comes into his own on this effort. Influence from Parker and Rollins, as mentioned in Mort Goode's readable notes, is clearly evident, tho he does come up with several refreshing and original ideas of his own. Vic Feidman is featured on vibes and adds much to the selections. Walter Morris, piano; Anthony Vazley, drums and Leroy Vinegar (great as usual on bass) complete the quintet. "It Might As Well Be Spring" is a good demo track.

Nightmare Alley

A Cool Day

The Princess

Change Partners

It Might As Well Be Spring

Chamblee Music - Eddie Chamblee

 

Whisper Not

Chamblee Music

Eddie Chamblee

EmArcy Mercury Records MG 36124

1958

From the back cover: For those who have heard the Eddie Chamblee orchestra during its peregrinations with Dinah Washington during the past  year or so, the music on these sides will have been expected and eagerly awaited. For others, less familiar with Chamblee's work and possibly even unaware that Miss Washington happens to be Mrs. Chamblee, these performances will come as a pleasant surprise. For the type of approach represented by what is here designated as "Chamblee Music" makes a return to a brand of combo jazz too rarely heard in recent years: a solidly swinging, harmonically unpretentious form that avoids the pitfalls of rock and roll while incorporating some of its atmosphere of rhythmic excitement.

Edwin Leon Chamblee was born February 24, 1920 in Atlanta, Georgia; the name stems from a French Huguenot strain in his ancestry. The son of a gifted mathematician who was later to become the president of a large life insurance company, Eddie attended Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago, where one of the younger students was the future Mrs. Chamblee. He had received a saxophone as an 18th birthday present from his father; by the time he had decided to take it up vocationally, he had gained enough familiarity with the horn to plunge immediately into top-rank professional work. Throughout the 1930s he toured all over the midwest with his own band. After the Army took him in 1941 he found himself with the 93rd Division Band, playing in the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines. After his discharge in the spring of 1946 he organized a new orchestra, one of whose members was drummer Osie Johnson. After disbanding for a while to join Lonnie Simmons' group in Chicago, he started recording and touring with another new group of his own in 1949; then, in 1954, came an offer to join the barnstorming brigade of Lionel Hampton.

Later that year, Eddie was in the band bus in New Mexico when it was involved in a accident that took one life and severely injured many members of the band; his own foot was crushed, but, along with most of the other victims, he was able to resume work with the band three months later and was soon off the first of two European tours.

Eddie left the Hampton horde in January, 1957. On February 23 he and Dinah were married; since that time he has been on the road with his now septet, accompanying her, playing tenor sax solos and occasionally joining her in a vocal duet.

Dinah had a hand in picking the material for this initial album by Eddie. The personnel comprises Eddie Chamblee on tenor sax; Johnny Coles or Joe Newman on trumpet; Julian Priester, another Hampton alumnus, on trombone; Charlie Davis, from Chicago, on baritone sax; 21-year-old Jack Wilson from Fort Wayne, Indiana, on piano; Richard Evans on bass; Osie Johnson or Charlie Persip on drums.

On the first side you will hear Flat Beer, a happy, up-tempo unison blues theme with solos for tenor, trombone and piano; a rolling treatment of Sometimes I'm Happy, with Eddie carrying the melody initially; a revival of the 1937 Eddie De Lange standard At Your Beck And Call; a hard-swinging And The Angels Sing that controverts everything Ziggy Elman had to say on this theme in the old Goodman band; and a gently but firmly rocking Tea For Two, with solos by tenor, trumpet, baritone, bass and piano.

On the second side Eddie's staccato approach recalls Al Sears of the old Ellington band as he swings the melody in a long meter on Without A Song; Whisper Not, composed and arranged blu Benny Golson, is a more relaxed track that does justice to a theme rapidly approaching the status of a modern jazz standard. The Victor Young perennial Stella But Starlight enables Eddie to incorporate Ben Websterish touches into his fine melodic interpretation; and the final track brings us out just the way we came in, swinging the blues at medium-bright tempo, with what Quncy Jones might call "a sanctified sound." It might be said that of these performances, in which honesty and simplicity are more evident than retention or selfconscious virtuosity, that the taste of flat beer is conspicuously absent and that the mood might more fittingly be likened to sparkling burgundy. – Leonard Feather, Author of "The Book Of Jazz"

Flat Beer

Sometimes I'm Happy

At Your Beck And Call

And The Angles Sing

Tea For Two

Without A Song 

Whisper Not

Stella By Starlight

Chamblee Special

Portraits In Bronze - Bessie Griffin

 

Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child

Excerpts From Robert "Bumps" Blackwell's

Portraits In Bronze

A Unique Combination Of Gospel & Jazz

Bessie Griffin And The Gospel Pearls

Producer: Robert "Bumps" Blackwell

Arrangements: Robert Blackwell and Jerry Long

Engineers: Don Thompson and Thorne Nogar

Cover Design: Pate/Francis & Associates

Photography by Barry Feinstein

Liberty Premeir LSS-14002

1961

The Gospel Pearls

Delores Addison

Jerry Moss

Patricia Byrant

Felma Johnson

Thelma Lewis

Eddie Lee Kendrix

Joe Clayton

Featured Musicians

Eddie Lee Kendrix - Piano

Billy Preston - Piano & Organ

Joe Clayton - Congo

Bob West - Bass

Charles Backwell - Drums

Lord, In The New Jerusalem

Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child

Children Don't You Get Weary

I Shall Not Be Moved

Swing Low

Swing Down Sweet Chariot 

I Believe

Lord Don't More The Mountain 

Jericho Walls

Bye And Bye

1962 Jazz Mission To Moscow

 

The Sochi Boatman

Jazz Mission To Moscow

Featuring Top Jazz Artists On Their Return From Tour Of Soviet Union 1962

Produced by Jack Lewis

Recording Engineer: Ed Begley

Recorded at Webster Hall, New York, July 12, 1962

Coolpix SCP 433

Personnel:

Tenor Sax - Zoot Sims

Alto Sax & Clarinet - Phil Woods

Alto Sax & Flute - Jerry Douglas

Baritone Sax - Gene Allen

Jimmy Maxwell & Markie Markowitz - Trumpet

Trombone - Willie Dennis

Piano - Eddie Costa

Bass - Bill Crow

Drums - Mel Lewis

From the back cover: The Men by Dom Cerulli - Co-Editor, The Jazz Word (Ballantine)

First of all, before anyone runs off to the FCC or the Better Business Bureau, let it be noted that there are two "ringers" in this group of swingers. Markie Markowitz and Eddie Costa did not make the trip. But they substitute for trumpeters Joe Newman and pianist John Bunch who did make the trip, but who stayed abroad to visit. Markie and Eddie are such kindred musical spirits that their presence on the date enhances the jazz feeling of the album.

Leader and arranger Al Cohn didn't make the trip. He remained at home to write music and blow tenor sax in leading clubs in the east. At 36, Cohn is one of the record world's most sought-after arrangers. His tours of duty include stellar service with the bands of Georgie Auld, Woody Herman, and Artie Shaw, among others. He currently is co-leader of the swinging Al & Zoot quintet. Zoot Sims was the tenor jazz soloist on the Goodman tour band, a chair he held back in 1944 and again in 1946. He is 36, and has played professionally with name bands since the age of 16. He was one of Woody Herman's original "Four Brothers," and his swinging tenor is in constant demand for jazz record dates. Phil Woods, 30, has brought his alto in scores of modern jazz groups, among them George Wallington, Thelonious Monk's big band, and Quincy Jones. With altoist Gene Quill hi co-leads the Phil & Quill Quintet, and writes charts for jazz records sessions.

Jerry Dodgion, 29, is a Californian who has played with Gerald Wilson, Benny Carter, Red Norvo, Benny Goodman (in 1959) and Gerry Mulligan's big band. He is a versatile and imaginative musician, an asset to any reed section. Gene Allen is 33, and a master of the baritone and other low reeds, including the bass clarinet. His solid sound has been in the groups of Charlie Thornhill, Sauter-Finegan, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman (in 1959) and the big band of Gerry Mulligan.

The brass team is headed by Jimmy Maxwell, who joined Goodman's trumpet section in August, 1939, and stayed three years. Now a top-notch studio man, Jimmy is among the most recorded trumpet men in popular music. Marky Markowitz, 38, has a glorious open horn sound. His background includes stints with Woody Herman's 1946 Herd, Boyd Raeburn's band, Jimmy Dorsey, and Buddy Rich, among others. Trombonist Willie Dennis, 36, played with Goodman's band at the Brussels World Fair. An excellent modern jazz man, his experience includes work with Elliot Lawrence, Claude Thornhill, Woody Herman, and scores of small groups.

The rhythm section is sparked by the drums of Mel Lewis, a superb big band drummer. Mel, just 33, has swung such big bands as Boyd Raeburn, Stan Kenton, Terry Gibbs, and Gerry Mullingan. Bassist Bill Crow, 35, has had a variety of jazz experience ranging form big bands like Claude Thornhill and society dance bands to small group work with Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan. Pianist Eddie Coata, 31, also plays driving vibes. His background included work with Woody Herman, Hal Farlow, and Kai Winding, among others.

The Mission by Leonard Feather - Author of The Exncylopedia Of Jazz (Horizon)

There have been few events in the history of twentieth-century music more auspicious than the Benny Goodman band's tour of the Soviet Union. Its meaning, of course, extend far beyond music. One fact stood out inescapably and rewardingly: the visit served to destroy once and for all the illusion that jazz is taboo in the Soviet Union.

Everywhere I went in Moscow and Leningrad the truth stood out in sharp relief: the USSR, like every other country whose inhabitants have ever listened to jazz, has a solid cadre of devotees to whom this music is a symbol – not of freedom, as so many have wishfully claimed, but rather of a simple musical ideal towards which they have long, been inclined.

The youngsters in the Central Sports Arena Palace in Moscow who called out the names of Zoot Sims and Phil Woods as the solos began; the alto saxophonist whose apartment I visited in Leningrad, and on whose living room wall were placed side by side photographs of Lenin and Cannonball; the Intourist guide who pleaded with me for tickets to the concert because they had all been sold out weeks in advance; the arguments among Moscow Jazz Club members as to who would be the logical choice for the next visit, Miles Davis or John Coltrane; these and a thousand other incidents reflected the long-latent enthusiasm that the Goodman visit had brought into focus, an enthusiasm that had been mounting rapidly (and with official Soviet Government sanction) for at least two years and had already been expressed through the staging of Soviet jazz festivals in Tartu, Tallinn and Leningrad.

There can be no doubt that the reception accorded to Zoot, Phil, Willie Dennis, Mel Lewis and the rest during those memorable six weeks was the most convincing expression to date of a fact of which we in the jazz world have long been proud: our music brings a little more love into the world.

Mission To Moscow

The Sochi Boatman

Midnight In Moscow

Let's Dance

Russian Lullaby

Red, White And Blue Eyes

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

West Side Story - Manny Albam

 

Finale

Manny Albam And His Jazz Greats

Play Music From West Side

Decca Records DL 4517

1957

From the back cover: About Manny Albam – One of the top arrangers-composers in the jazz field. Started career as a baritone-sax playing in the forties, and played with Bob Chester, Georgie Auld, Charlie Barnet and Charlie Ventura. He started writing while a sideman in these bands, and finally gave up playing in 1951, when the demand for his services made it impossible to continue doing both. His scores for Woody Herman, Count Basie, Charlie Barnet and Charlie Ventura plus numerous small ban and vocal assignments have brought him to a position of stature in the field. The last few years, he has spent more and more time recording, developing works of length and depth, and has become active in the pop and show fields.

Also from the back cover: The music which Mr. Bernstein composed for the "West Side Story" depicts the tension, turbulence and torment of adolescence. When this adolescence occurs amid the concrete and exhaust fumes of New York tenements, we can, more likely than not, expect chaos, yet not without a particular humor.

When I sat and listened to the prologue to this opera-ballet at the Winter Garden, it was obvious from the first few bars that this was to be a musical with an unhappy theme and probably an unhappy ending. This struck me as being different from any "musical" (other than opera) that I had up to this point seen or heard. The ballet music and "special" material never left doubt as to the effect that Mr. Bernstein wished to have his listeners feel. The prominent theme was unrest with an almost equal amount of musical whimsy. The jazz-like thematic structure showed the troubled adolescent, whereas the almost religious quality of the love ballads showed the innocence and sensitivity which is almost always found beneath the tough outer armor of the same person. The jazz is dissonant (not all jazz that one encounters is dissonant) to a degree of creating, in all who hear, a feeling of foreboding and disquietude. And, in beautiful dramatic contrast, the tenderness of the ballads (with just enough occasional dissonance so that the listener, is always aware of the makeup of the characters) shows us that young love oversteps the bounds of juvenile unrest.

In creating a jazz version on the music from this score, I became aware of the thematic sense of it in the form of material that a jazz player could draw from in order to have his message read to the the hearer. In some instances I found it necessary to regiment the songs into a form with which the soloists would feel free to apply their own ideas and yet retain the flavor of the original. As this idea developed it became obvious that I would have to orchestrate the ballads as simply as possible to provide the proper contrast which Bernstein originally felt. The songs "Maria" and "Somewhere" were orchestrated with absolute simplicity and "Tonight" with a bit of swing to it, because in its original quintet form, the characters "Riff" and "Bernardo" were there to interpolate their remarks into the piece. The "Jet Song"< the song of the "Jets", a juvenile gang (not the high-speed flying machines), is blues-like in structure. I thought of "I Feel Pretty", originally a happy waltz, as a happy swinging score with the soloists having their say in the matter. "Something's Coming" finds a bright-tempted arrangement in order, as the song depicts future unrest among the cast. I used the tempo change as a device to further the instability of the meaning of the number. "Cool" is a slower-grooved vehicle for the orchestra which allows the muted trumpet to have a cooling influence upon the hearer. In the final score, "Finale", which is a potpourri of some of the previous melodies and introduces us to "America", a rousing Latin-American tune, and "One Hand, One Heart" (which was scored for three trumpets and bass violin with a small hint of "Somewhere" by the trombone brought back as an afterthought), it was my intention to warp up the various moods of the score into one number by restating some of the other songs.

I owe a great deal to the musicianship of every player in the final analysis of the sounds heard herein. The soloists and "part players" alike share with Leonard Bernstein, who provided the impetus with his highly imaginative and provocative score, the spotlight for the production of this album. – Manny Albam

Prologue And Jet Song

Something's Com'ng

Cool

Maria

Tonight

I Feel Pretty

Somewhere

Finale (Includes "I Feel Pretty," "America" and "One Hand, One Heart")