Spotlight On Sy Zentner

 

Blue Rhythm Ramble

Spotlight On Sy Zentner

Design: Ernest Socolov

Design Spotlight Series DLP-153

1962

Blue Rhythm Jam

Blue Rhythm Blues

Randolph Street Strut

Surrender Dear

Blue Rhythm Ramble

Five Minutes 'Til Closing

Blue Rhythm Bounce 

Blizzard Heard Blues

Go For Baroque 

Papacayo

Idaho

Top O' The Mark

Tyree Glenn At The Embers

 

Lonely Moment

Tyree Glenn At The Embers

Recording Supervision: Joe Guercio

Production: Arnold Meyers

Photos: Chuck Stewart

Roulette R-25009

1957

Harold Baker - Trumpet

Mary Osborne - Guitar

Hank Jones - Piano

Tommy Potter - Bass

Jo Jones - Drums

From the back cover: In this era of the new sound, the cool thought, the far out prophets, and the intellectuals who approach jazz as if it were a problem in calculus, it is nothing short of a pure delight to listen, now and then,, to a musician who is purely and merely trying to make music for music's best sake. Such a musical is Tyree Glenn and such, too, are the members of his mob on this Roulette album. which is refreshing and delightful from the first riff to the last ride-out.

The Tyree Glenn combo herewith herald obviously had no personality problems whatever. Ty and Harold (Shorty) Baker stood shoulder to shoulder on the great Ellington bandstands of a past day. Ty and Jo Hones and Hank Jones explored a thousand ideas and experiments when (as well happen again) they fronted the best music group that small club has ever boasted. Ty and Mary Osborne can remember back to riffs and runs they did in the fabled, misty past when Kelly's Stable was one of the the citadels of jazz.

With old pro's like these, everything simply comes out right. The tunes on this album are as relaxed as the stars who play them. Do they feel it, they play it. Do they play it. It come out right. There's laughter in their music and there's fun in their music and, most important of all, there's real music in their music. It's what music out to be – a joyous and happy and exciting art.

Take, for instance, the riff that Ty has chosen to call "Sinbad The Sailor." This is an itty bitty thing that a fellow named Reinhold Svensseon used to play with Maestro Glenn in Copenhagen for Stockholm or Oslo). Glenn, Jo, Hank et al used to play it as a theme at the Embers. On this record they have filled it out, worked it over and made it into the kind of a memorable bit that many very likely become another "Lullaby Of Birdland."

On these records listen to the wonderful, lifting beat of Jo Jones on every song. Please dig, I implore you, the muted and jaunting horn of Shorty Baker on "What Can I Tell My Heart" and "I Want To Be Loved." Pease pay strict attention to the vital Bank Jones on – for possibly the first time – a purely melodic an musical " How Hight the Moon." Lend an ear to Tommy Potter, one of the most underrated of all rhythm musicians, on "Lonely Moment." And behind all these superb solos I implore you to go back, play them over and dig the subtle unselfish guitar of Mary Osborne.

And now for a word or several hundred words on The Mane Himself. Tyree Glenn is a musician who has no prejudices, no stubborn notions and nothing bugging him whatever. I have heard him play hillbilly music on TV shows, mambo for fun, cornball tunes for money and all the great, elevating solos he has taken on som many classic records. Glenn can play anything, and  anything he pouts his hands to seems to just sort of explode into music.

Personally, I am an old hater of mechanical instruments such as electrified fives, electric organs and what not. But Tyree Glenn somehow manages to wring something out of such instruments which, I well always be convinced, was never there to start with.

This is one helluva man with one helluva combination making, for my money, one helluva record album.

And if you don' think so too, then you're so square you can block your own hat. – Robert Sylvester - Author of syndicated column "Dream Street"

From Billboard - June 24, 1957: Extremely pleasant, tasteful program of "blue lights" jazz scaled to a fairly intimate boîte atmosphere but also most danceable. Glenn is featured mostly on his expressive, talky trombone; some on vibes. Also contributing are Hank Jones, Jo Jones, Mary Osborne, Harold Baker, etc. It's not "modern" but it's not dated, either. Good market for this if it's pushed.

Sinbad The Sailor

What Can I Tell My Heart

Lonely Moment

After The Rain

Until The Real Thing Comes Along

Without A Song

I Thought About You

How High The Moon

Too Marvelous For Words

Soul Bird: Whiffenpoof - Cal Tjader

 

Soul Bird

Soul Bird: Whiffenpoof

Cal Tjader

Produced by Creed Taylor

Cover Photo: Courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History

Cover Design: Winfield Bruder

Director of Engineering: Cal Valentin

Recorded at A&R Recording, New York City - June 1 and 2, 1965 (Engineering by Phil Ramone)

Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey - July 21 and 22, 1965 (Engineering by Rudy Van Gelder)

Verve V-8626

1965

Vibes - Cal Tjader

Bass - Richard Davis & Terry Hilliard

Piano - Paul Griffin & Lonnie Hewitt

Drums - Sol Gubing, John Rae & Grady Tate

Percussion - Armando Peraza (on Reza only)

From the back cover: Does anyone remember the Cal Tjader was one of the primary reasons for the early success of the Dave Brubeck group (then a quintet)?

His imaginative addition to the gourd's charts was, for almost two years, one of the pillars upon which the small aggregation built a reputation for interesting treatments of tunes, both one and new, that made North California the capital of a "new sound" in jazz.

With the group Tjader played everything from drums to tuba, and gave the group sound of happy professionalism and all-contained musicality. On the Fantasy label they recorded a kind of disciplined (at that time, far out) jazz that appeared to the hipper segment of the American jazz-wize record buyer.

In 1951 Cal formed his own group, varying from seven to four pieces, depending on the economic climate that changed almost daily. Working in and around San Francisco, Tjader often farmed himself out to any group that could pay his price and sustain a consistent high level of musical interest. 

Tjader and the Latin American marvel, Tito Puente, would get together sometimes for long, moving sessions that became the talk of the Bay Area. Tjader infused the rhythmic excursions of Puente with a swinging, good humored, solidly-based jazz that started a ten-year trend in both kinds of music.

But Tjader remained an independent in his jazz-attitude. Over the years at every new gig, on each succession of records, the transition of the many-side jazzman could be heard.

A thorough musical who lays any instrument well. Tjader created groups that reflected his current feeling about America's only contribution to eh the world of art. At various times his groups have included tymbalies, bongos, maracas, and any number of strange and exotic instruments. Not for mere effect are these many attempts at different sounds, but on the contrary, they were meaningful attempts at digging into the depths of the rhythmic-harmonic possibilities of jazz.

Now Tjader has reached still another plateau in his musical life, SOUL. What are the consequences of this new emergence?

You have to hear it to believe it. You have to hear the re-assessment of the spirit of jazz as evidenced in Tjader's treatment of SOUL. You have to hear the humor that reflects a compassionate understand of everything that preceded what we call SOUL. You have to hear the head-shaking, groovily funky improvisations that are the roots of SOUL.

Maybe, you've already heard it on Cal's recent big hit single record – Soul Sauce. That was the title of an album, too (Verve V/V6-8614), and one that was also very pillar all over. Cal state something when he moved into his exploration of SOUL. This set continues that musical experience.

Drop the needle lightly on Tjader's newest artful effort, and listen to the most profound realization of what jazz can be, and how deep SOUL can go. – Notes by E. Rodney Jones - WVON, Chicago, Ill.

The Whiffenpoof Song

Soul Bird (Tin Tin Dao)

How High The Moon

That's All 

Soul Motion

Beza

The Prophet

Sonny Boy

Doxy

Samba De Orfeu

Shiny Silk Stockings

Daddy Wong Legs

Don Ellis At Fillmore

 

Hey Jude

Don Ellis At Fillmore

Produced by Brent Dangerfield

Engineering: Phil Macy 

Cover Photos: Jime Marshall

Cover Design: V. Team

Columbia Records G30243

1970

Trumpet and Drums - Don Ellis

Trumpets - Glenn Stuart, Stu Blumberg, John Rosenberg & Jack Coan

Trombones - Ernie Carlson, Glenn Ferris, Don Switzer (Bass) - Doug Bixby (contrabass and tuba)

Saxes and Woodwinds - Fred Selden, Lonnie Shatter, Sam Falzone, John Klemmer & Con Clarke

Guitar - Dennis Parker

Piano - Tom Garvin

Bass - Dennis Paker

Drums - Ralph Humphrey

Conga - Lee Pastora

Percussion and Drums - Run Dunn

From the inside cover: I believe this album marks a milestone in the development of the band. Not only is it the freest within the concepts whit which we are working, but I also believe it is the best band I have ever had, with basically the same guys blowing and rehearsing together for several years. We take pride in being able to play the shit out of things that no other bands have ever attempted.

Final Analysis (Composed and arranged bu Don Ellis).

This was our opening number, and is basically in 4/4 plus 5/4 with an occasional 5/4 and/or 1 1/2 plus 1 1 1/2 (or 3).

Glenn Ferris is the amazing trombonist who has mad quite a reputation for his hair as well as for his playing. (However just before the weekend he shaved off all his hair – the only way we recognized him now is by his playing.)

Jay Graydon plays a solo on guitar with al of the sound coming out of a plastic tube inserted in his mouth.

I follow him on electrophonic trumpet using a Ring Modulator and some octave doublings.

The drum exchanges feature our percussion section with Ralph Humphrey leading, then Lee Pastor on conga, Ron Dunn on drums and me playing the third drum set. (I stared getting into drums serious about a year ago, and decided to write myself into the drum routines so I'd have something to make me practice.

The ending explains itself and is a sort of musical reductio and absurdum stolen from some of the best-known classical composers (who should have known better).

Excursion II (Composed by John Klemmer, arranged by Les Hooper)

John Klemmer is one of the most astounding tenor players I have ever heard. He never ceases to astonish all of us by what he does in the solo cadenza in this piece – and each time he does it differently.

The Magic Bus Ate My Doughnut (Composed and  arranged by Fred Selden)

Fred Selden has been an important meaner of the band for several years now. He first started playing in one of my student rehearsal bands, and as our lead sax player has been contributing some of our most intriguing and exciting scores.

The first section of the Bus is in a pattern of 3/4, 4/4, 3/4, 5/4 and goes to 4/4, 5/4 for a contrapuntal segment between the trumpets, trombones and saxes. Fred plays the alto solo against this pattern. 

The Blues (composed and arranged by Don Ellis)

It always feels good to play the blues. The opening trumpet solo is supposed to be only two bars long, but I got into a thing with the audience this night and it got rather involved. The trio playing the theme is comprised of Sam Falzone, clarinet; Jack Coat, trumpet; and Ernie Carlson, trombone.

Salvatore Sam (Composed and arranged by Don Ellis)

This is the firs of a series of musical portraits I am doing of carious guys in the band. Sam and I have been associated ever since I lived in Buffalo, New York, where he plated in a combo I had. He moved out to California to be with the band and has been with it since the very beginning (except for about a year when he moved back to Buffalo). 

The piece moves from a funky 4/4, 3/4 to a fast 7/8 which has a 6/8 var for every fourth measure.

Sam does his thing.

Rock Odyssey (Composed and arranged by Hank Levy)

Hank Levy was one of the first outside writers to contribute scores to our library. He caught on to the unusual meters amazingly fast, and now conducts college stage bands in Baltimore, Maryland, concentrating on the new rhythms.

All the band agrees that this is one of his most beautiful charts. The first part is in a slow 7/4 and the middle section is in 12/8 divided 2-2-3, 3-3. Listen especially to the exciting cross-rhythms our drummer, Ralph Humphrey, gets going.

Glenn Ferris plays the trombone solo.

He Jude (Composed by Lennon and McCartney, arranged by Don Ellis)

I don't know if The Beatles will recognize their tune, but I wanted to do something different with a melody that everyone could recognize, in the hope that this would also give an insight into how we work with original material.

The opening cadenza is all done live )no overdubbing or editing) and it just how the Fillmore audience heard it.

The effects are all done on solo trumpet using a Ring Modulator and  various echo and amplifying devices.

When we first started doing this arrangement it was fairly straightforward, but as you can hear, it has been getting further out every time we play it.

Jay Graydon (on guitar) gives some tasty and incredible answers to my statement on the second chorus.

Antea (Composed and arranged by Hank Levy)

We've had this chart by Hank Levy in the book for some time, but it wasn't until recently that it really started to jell. It's in 7/4 and the rhythm section really burns.

We find it curious that occasionally when we get a new arrangement it will "happen" immediately, but other tunes will take awhile. Sometimes we'll just keep them in the book, playing them only sporadically with perhaps less than perfect results, but then there will come a night when we pull it out again and this time it will pull together and cook. That is exactly what happened here.

Old Man' Tear (Composed and arranged by John Klemmer)

This is John Klemmer's first arrangement for the band. It is a musical portrait of an old man's life – his joys and sorrows – a very sensitive and warm thing. It is also quite a challenge to play on the trumpet.

Great Divide (Composed and arranged by Don Ellis)

The title comes from the fact that this is a piece in 13/4 divided 3-3-2, 3-2. It was originally commissioned for the stage band at San Jose State College under the direction of Dwight Cannon. It was also originally supposed to be played much slower, but one night sometime ago we played it at a faster tempo and found it and a great closer.

Sam Falzone is on tenor; the fantastic alto solo is by Lonnie Shatter, one of the truly overwhelming technicians on his instrument.

The band was set up flat on the floor of the Fillmore in front of the stage, and at the end you can hear the musicians walking out into the audience and libbing on the theme. This take was from Saturday night and as the musicians walked out playing, the audience started clapping and cheering and stood up. Since we hear on the floor already, this meant that the musicians couldn't see me to get the cues for the last ensemble section which is doen from out in the audience. We were really worried, but at the last minute I ran up on the stage in back of the band and somehow the rhythm section sort of half turned around, looked over the shoulders and we got it together.

Pussy Wiggle Stomp (Composed and arranged by Don Ellis)

We normally don't do encores, but the audience was so groovy, we couldn't resist. I hadn't planned to put this on the album either (since it was already recorded on our "Autumn" album), but we got an imported, different take we felt it had to go on.

This was the absolute fastest we ever tried to play this tune, but the guys all hung on – we were really excited by this time!

Sam Falzone is on tenor, and the drum exchanges are Ralph, Ron and me. The drum routine is a thing that has been developing over the last couple of years, and I really gin it exciting when all three drums are kicking the band in unison.

During the trumpet solo you can hear the Fillmore audience doing the syncopated clapping in 7. This really gassed us, because we fitted this was probably the first time they had ever heard something in fa fast 7 – and it showed how hip they were to be able to pick right up on it and keep it going in time!

Toward the end of my solo I tied to bring the band in, but they missed the cue and as I descend back into the low register wondering why I am going to do now, you can hear our tuba player, Doug Bixby, cry out: "Try again!"

The whole weekend was a real high spot in our lives, and I am pleased that i has ben captured so beautifully on record by Phil Macey and Brent Dangerfield, making it possible for you to shear it with us. – Don Ellis.

Final Analysis

Excursion

The Magic Bus Are My Doughnut

The Blues

Salvatore Sam

Rock Odyssey

Hey Jude

Antea

Old Man's Tear

Great Divide

Pussy Wiggle Stomp

Moonlight Serenade - Tex Beneke

 

Poinciana

Moonlight Serenade

Tex Beneke and His Orchestra 

RCA Tandem CAL-491

1959

From the back cover: "Tex Beneke is the band leader who doesn't walk alone," a Down Beat reviewer wrote in the late Forties. Those were the days when Tex had been entrusted with the invaluable musical library of Glenn Miller and was attempting to carry on in the Miller tradition.

"At every step he is both aided and hemmed in by the shadow of Glenn Miller," the Down Beat commentator continued. "The Miller library and reputation gave him a boost such as few new leaders can hope for. But at the same time his audiences expect him to stay in the Miller tradition which so far as they are concerned wis completely minded several years ago and they've got the wax to prove it."

Thi spas a problem that continued to plague Beneke as long as he led the Miller orchestra. No matter what he did, he was almost bound to be second-guessed by self-confident Glenn Miller fans. One of Tex's innovation was the addition of a penman sting section to the band in 1946 – this was an innovation in terms of the Miller tradition although at the time almost every big band was carrying a string section of some sort. After three years, however, he dropped the section.

"People kept telling me to get back to Miller," Tex said when he did this. "What they meant was, 'Get rid of the strings.' Actually Glenn would have had strings. He planned to use them (he actually did use them in his Air Force Band) and that's why I used them. Besides, nobody can say what Glenn would have ben doing today. He might have been playing bop."

Tex finally solved this vexing problem by dropping theMiller library and style completely and stringing out on his own. The Beneke performances gathered her are from the period just before he declared his independence from the Miller school. You'll notice the billing of the band shows him edging away from Miller – some of the selections (the earlier ones) are by "Tex Beneke with the Miller Orchestra" when the later ones are simply by "Tex Beneke and his Orchestra." (See the labels on this disc).

The amiable Beneke singing and saxophone styles which brought him his first fame with Glenn Miller's orchestra are, as his nickname suggest, a genuine product of a Texas boyhood. When he was born in Forth Worth he was equipped with a set of perfectly ousel given names (Gordon Lee) but his down-home qualities soon had him tabbed as "Tex" and Gordon and Lee were forgotten by all but close relatives. He started playing professionally when he was a teenager, touring with a local band. In 1937, when Miller was struggling to keep together his fist band, Tex was playing with Ben Young's band which worked primarily in the Midwest, Glenn gave up on this first band after a year of effort and in 1938, keeping only three men from the old group, he set out to build a new band.

Day by day, Glenn went through a talent-screening process, listening and asking question wherever musicians gathered together. Gene Krupa, who had just left Benny Goodman, was also putting a new band together at that time and Glenn dropped in at a Krupa rehearsal to see if anybody had any suggestions for musicians he might use. Two of Krupa's men, Dave Schultz an d Claude Lakey, urged him to hear a saxophonist who was in Detroit with Ben Young's band. This was Miller's introducton to Beneke. He immediately phone Tex and within a couple of weeks Tex was in New York for his first meeting with Glenn. Leonard Feather has reported what happened at this encounter:

"Glenn told Tex he could oknlyoay the men $50 a week. With a straight face, Tex said, 'I want to be the highest paid man in the band. Give me $52.50.' Glenn went along with the gag, little dreaming that later it would be taken serious and resented  by some of the other men.

Tex soon proved he was worth the extra $2.50 for he provided the new Miller band with novelty vocals and a swinging tenor saxophone which helped balance the rich, smooth-voiced approach of much of the Miller material.

 Within short order Tex became, next to Glenn, the best-known personality in the most popular band in the country – a band whose popularity never flagged over all the passing years.

When Miller broke up his civilian band and enlisted in the Air Force, Tex toured for a while with his vocal colleagues in the Miller band, Marion Hutton and the Modernizes. But soon he enlisted in the Navy where he was in charge of a pair of service bands. Tex, who has been on the road living out of an automobile almost constantly for more than twenty years, remembers this as "a short, blissful period... stations in one place."

Since he left the service, Tex has gone back to steady touring, first with the Miller-based band and in recent years with a band that is completely Beneki-oriented. In this collection there are direct reflection of the old Glenn Miller band (in both Moonlight Serenade and Sunrise Serenade) and Bill Finegan's arrangement of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Tex recalls his days as a Millerite on Give Me Five Minuets More while the rest of the sections show Tex's approach to the preservation of the Miller style with such successors to Ray Eberle and the Modernaires as deep-voiced Glenn Douglas, Gary Stevens, The Mello Larks and The Moonlight Serenaders. It's a serenading style that seem destine to last as long as there's moonlight – Notes by Frank Talmadge

From Billboard - May 18, 1959: Here's a solid sales item for the low-priced market. Tex Beneke offers a group of standards – some in the Glenn Miller tradition – "Sunrise Serenade," "Moonlight Serenade" – others in a more personalized "Beneke manner." Vocals by Beneke, Garry Stevens and the Mello Larks.

Sunrise Serenade

Give Me Five Minutes More

Stormy Weather

Anniversary Song

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

They Can't Take That Away From Me

Look For The Sliver Lining

Poinciana (Song Of The Tree)

My Young Foolish Heart

Moonlight Serenade

Have A Ball - The Crew-Cuts Plus Bowling Tips By Top Stars

 

Crew-Cuts Have A Ball

The Crew-Cuts Have A Ball

Plus Bowling Tips By Top Stars

Specially pressed by RCA Custom Records CR 129

1960

From the back cover: The Crew-Cuts offer that rare and priceless quality of simplicity with wholesome presentation. This has been to a large degree responsible for their great and still growing popularity. They have won gold records for Sh-Boom, Earth Angel, I Spoke Too Soon and Ko Ko Mo. These boys have toured Europe and played the famous London Palladium.

The Crew-Cuts share a common attachment to music, singing, and, of course, bowling. Other than that their interests are diverse, Rudi Maugeri, baritone and vocal arranger for the group, is a song writer. Pat Barrett, tenor of the group and choreographer enjoys sports. Second tenor, Johnnie Perkins, calls flying his hobby. Ray Perkins, brother of Johnnie, is at the bass of the group. He is a sportswear enthusiast.

The selection on this record are from the Crew-Cuts' al-time favorites. The inimitable styling of the Crew-Cuts has given these songs a mew brightness. The songs should recall pleasant memories to those who were a part of the years in which the songs were made famous. The newer generation will find the same magic that originally made the songs so popular.

The reverse side of this record gives the new as well as the seasoned bowler an opportunity to review the fundamentals of the game and to correct the most common mistakes bowlers make. It's a concise and orderly presentation that every member of the family can use as a guide to better bowling. Two top bowling stars, Charlotte "Rusty" Grubic and John "Huron" Powell, provide the instruction. Both are members of the Ebonite Advisory Staff.

With this record you have received a copy of Ebonite's new "Better Bowling" book. It will clarify many of the points made by the bowling stars.

So, have a ball... Sing along with the Crew-Cuts and learn to bowl better with help of Charlotte "Rusty" Grubic and John "Junior" Powell.

Down By The Old Mill Stream

Kentucky Babe

Show Me The Way To Go Home

When You Were Sweet Sixteen

Cruising Down The River

When The Saints Go Marching In

10 Golden Years - Brenda Lee

 

All Alone Am I

10 Golden Years

Brenda Lee

De Luxe Limited Edition 

Decca Records DL 4757

A Division of MCA Inc.

1966

From the inside cover: Looking back over the years, I sometimes try to reconstruct in my own mind the things that make Brenda the star she is. What makes a star? Essentially, I think you're a star when you become simply too tough to follow. That makes it all very simple, except that it doesn't really explain anything. Of course Brenda Lee is tough to follow. And of course she has the existing, big, full voice that spells star. But there is much more. 

Perhaps one way to say it is that she communicates. She's always in touch with people. Some artist who taste success climb up on a pedestal. That's no good because up there you get removed from your people and the distance makes it hard to keep on communicating.

Brenda Lee has been a star for 10 wonderful years. Barely in her twenties, she is, quite literally, a legend in her time. One very good reason is that she never has let anyone put her on a pedestal. Her natural love for people would never let that happen. She is a home in the most elegant restaurant and in the corner coffee shop, and with the broad range of society, from the common man to royalty itself.

Brenda has performed in more than 30 countries around the world. And she has consistently shown her deep sense of communication by her amazing faculty for getting along with and understanding people she can't even talk to. Wherever she has gone, countries and people seem to fall in love with her almost as soon as she has stepped off her plane and waved hello.

When Brenda arrived at Tokyo's Haneda Airport last year, there must have been at least 500 young people sanding ab out, waiting to see her. They had uniforms on, as school children in many countries do, and they all were wearing blue caps with the initials "B.L.F.C." There was no pandemonium. They were all rather solemn-faced. Downtown, we saw more of the hats. Finally, about a week later, it dawned on us that the letters stood for "Brenda Lee Fan Club." That is the kind of loyalty and love Brenda inspires. 

And appearing in person for those fans was not enough for Brenda. Although she doesn't know a word of Japanese, she learned a Japanese song and recorded it in the native tongue in Tokyo just for her Japanese fans. She has also done the same thing in Germany for her German fans... not just a translation of an American song hit, but a native song for the local audience. Both the Japanese and the German recordings got to be major hits in their countries too.

Yes, Brenda has a wonderfully warm personality, a sown-to-earth approach to life and a very frank dislike of the star treatment. She also has great natural show business instincts, and that too is all part of being a star.

So many young entertainers today are really at a loss when it comes to a performance. Somebody takes them into a studio, they make a record, and overnight, they become a "star." Then somebody else winds them up, turns them loose on a stage, and that's it. But Brenda has always had great sho business reflexes. She seems to be able to do the right thing on a stage instinctively. She has, if I may coin a word, "trouperism." She is a trouper all the way.

Brenda carries around in her memory, a recollection of a story she once read, quoting Frank Sinatra on one of the great axioms of show business: "the one thing you owe your audience is a good performance." She never gorgets that. She'll get fighting mad if she ever gets the idea she has gien a bad perforance. Of course, I can't remember that last time she ever did. But sometimes sound equipment or lighting or something else may go bad. That will set her off because she knows she isn't appearing at her best. It's terrible distressing to her.

Brenda feels a tremendous loyalty to her fans, whether it's the queen of England or farmers and their families attending a Midwest Fair. Last year, Brenda died a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth in London. She felt as much at home in those regal circumstances as she did on an outdoor stage at a Sate Fair, with the rain pouring down. She sang her heart out until the rain short-circuited the microphones.

She simply gives it everything she's got, no matter where she's singing. When Brenda first went to Brazil a few years ago, she was an unknown for the first day. After her first performance, she became the toast of Brazil and was summoned to the Presidential Palace, where that nation's chief executive described her as "the best good-will ambassador the United States has ever had."

Brenda first went to Paris as a supporting act for one week at the Olympia Theater. She was quickly moved up to second billing and held over for five weeks. No wonder. The Paris newspaper, Le Figaro, raved, "Never before since Judy Garland, has anyone caused so much clapping of the hands and stomping of the feet." In the same vine, the Paris-based, American Weekend Magazine, described Frenda as "A new star in the skies of Paris... the new idol of French teenagers." Parisians screamed, almost in unison, "Vive Brenda!"

In Rome, a single TV appearance brought this comment from La Notte: "She established herself as a top star in Italy in just one performance." And so it has gone, virtually the world over, and, occasionally, under the most trying conditions. Once in Philadelphia, she finished 15 agonizing minutes of her night club act after twisting a vertebra out of joint. On another occasion in England, she collapsed from exhaustion in the wings, and never heard the frantic shouting for an encore. In North Carolina, when Brenda was sent to the hospital with heat exhaustion, I had to bring the promoter to her bedside to tell her it would be all right if she missed a show, before she would calm down. That is part of why I call "troperism."

She has won more awards than even I can believe or count, here at home and all over the world. In Europe, in fact, she has been voted the Number One girl singer in 1962, '63, '64 and '65. In Britain, some people even refer to this as "the Brenda Lee era."

To win this kind of popularity, which brings so very many tributes, accolades and awards, a performer simply has to have the broadest kind of appeal. That's definitely another part of Brenda's remarkable success story. She has never been particularly limited to any specific age group. From the time she first appeared on television sitting perched on Steve Allen's piano, she has had the adults, the tots and the teenagers alike in her corner.

And since then, she has shown again and again a sense of being "at home" with almost any kind of song, as long as it's a good song in its own right. She has enjoyed hits with songs ranging from soft love ballads, to standards, to rocking, uptempo things. Brenda simply wants to entertain everyone with her music. And she hopes to widen her appeal as well. One of her future goals is to do a show on Broadway. She has been preparing for that day, by doing summer stock shows like "The Wizard of Oz" and "Bye Bye Birdie," and she loves it.

She would love to take her music to even more places in the world, particularly Eastern Europe. Political barries have never seemed to interfere with Brenda' making friends in those countries. She known they're out there from the hundreds of letters that keep flowing in. Her ability to make and keep friends, even among people she's never even seen honestly seems unparalleled. 

Most of all, I think Brenda loves making records. Since her first attempt at recording, she has come up with what certainly must be a record of some kind... 24 consecutive release on the charts, and many of them two-sided hits as well!

There are several reasons for her success with records. First, without question, is the power and warmth and persuasiveness of her singing voice. She has always had this quality and it has just grown and grown with each passing year.

Brenda is also always listening to records and going to see performers work. The stays in tune with what's going on and she soaks up a great dal by just watching and hearing others. She also seems to have an uncanny ability to pick the right songs for herself. Beyond all that, she has an amazingly talented and knowledgeable record producer in Owen Bradley, who has worked with her almost since her first record.

It's parlay that would be difficult to top. Personally, I don't think it can be topped. And when you add her wonderful, six man backing crew, the Casuals, well, that's it. It has been literally 10 golden years for Brenda. 10 resplendent years of great record hits that still echo with pleasant familiarity, like old friends, whenever they're played. Records like Jambalaya, Sweet Nothin's, I'm Sorry, Fool # One, Dynamite, Dum Dum, All Alone Am I, As Usual, Too Many Rivers, Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home, and many others, add up to Brenda's own Hall of Fame of disk hits. – Dub Albritten

From Billboard - June 4, 1966: Featuring her most memorable hits of the past 10 years, one for each year, Miss Lee has a blockbuster sales item here. From the opening "Jambalaya" to "Sweet Nothin's," "I'm Sorry," "All Alone Am I" and her 1965 hit, "Too Many Rivers" she covers not only a span of music, but her growth in vocal styling. Limited edition should prove a collectors item.

1956 - Jambalaya

1957 - Dynamite

1958 - Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home

1959 - Sweet Nothin's

1960 - I'm Sorry

1961 - Fool #1

1962 - Dum Dum

1963 - All Alone Am I

1964 - As Usual 

1965 - Too Many Rivers

Closer Than A Kiss - Vic Damone

 

How Deep Is The Ocean

Closer Than A Kiss

Vic Damone

Orchestra under the direction of Frank DeVol

Columbia Special Products - Special Archives Series CSRP 8019

From the back cover: Vic began his career in the time-honored way, singing in high-school productions, and made his radio debut when he was fifteen. While he was working as an elevator operator at the Paramount Theatre, he gave an impromptu addition for Perry Como, who urged him to keep on singing, and before too long Vic was starring in the stage show at the same theatre. In between, he had appeared on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" and had been featured at La Martinique, a nightclub famous as a nursery for young singers. His radio career began in 1947, and he made his movie debut in "Rich, Young And Pretty." Then came the Army and, on his return to civilian life, his gold-record version of "On The Street Where You Live." And now here hi is again, with another superior collection of songs, sung with his unfailing charm and taste for the further delight of his countless fans.

Closer Than A Kiss

Out Of Nowhere

I Kiss Your Hand, Madame

We Kiss In A Shadow

Cuddle Up A Little Closer

A Toujours

You And The Night And The Music

Prelude To A Kiss

How Deep Is The Ocean

Day By Day

As Time Goes By

Close As Pages In A Book

The Game Of Love - Vic Damone

It's A Lonseom Old Town

This Game Of Love

Vic Damone

Orchestra under the direction of Robert Smale

Columbia Special Products - Special Re-issue CSRP 8169

From the back cover: At Lafayette High School in Brooklyn, Vic managed to sandwich in amateur dramatic work and glee club singing with his regular curriculum and at the age of fifteen made his first radio appearance on the Rainbow House Show over New York's WOR. About a year after this, Vic got a part-time job as usher at the Paramount Theater in New York with ample opportunites to observe the best singers of the day performing on stage. During one tour as an elevator operator, the young singer got a chance to give an impromptu audition for a passenger named Perry Como, who advised Vic to turn in his uniform and get out and sing.

In 1945, after performing in various servicemen's canteens, local church socials and semi-professional engagements, Damone auditioned for the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scout Show. There he met Milton Berle, who assured him that if he won the contest Berle would assist him in in getting started. After the show, winner Damone was set for an audition at La Martinique, a now-departed New York night club where many vocalists received their first big break. His engagement there lasted eleven weeks and other offers began to arrive. He was soon given his own radio show and a chance to return to the Paramount Theater as a vocalist – the same theater in which he had been an usher less than a year before.

Vic was singed for his first commercial show in 1947, the Pet Milk Program, on which he remained for two years. During that period he also appeared at the Copacabana, the Riviera, the Roxy Theater, and made two more appearances at the Paramount. In 1950, after singing at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York and the Mocambo in Hollywood, Vic signed a move contract, making his film debut with Jane Powell, Wendell Corey and Fernado Lamas in Rich, Young And Pretty.

After two years in the Army, serving both in the U.S. and Europe, Vic returned to the movies with Athena, Hit The Deck and Kismet. A recording artist of the first prominence, he has many best sellers to his credit, including On The Street Where You Live.

Alone Together

My Romance

Ain't Misbehavin'

But Beautiful

The End Of A Love Affair 

The Things We Did Last Summer

Am I Blue

I'll Be Around

It's A Lonesome Old Town

Me And My Shadow

I Like The Likes Of You

A Fellow Needs A Girl 

Fine And Dandy - Debbie Reynolds

Give Me The Simple Life

Fine And Dandy 

Debbie Reynolds

Arranged and Conducted by Jerry Fielding

Dot DLP 3298

1960

From the back cover: The scene in Studio B at United Recorders in Hollywood. The light flashes on to signal preparation for a take. 

Debbie glances into the booth and speaks into the mike: "Ollright, dolling – ve are ready, no?" she says in a devastating imitation of a well-known Hungarian actress. Jerry Fielding gives a solid downbeat; and Debbie and the orchestra romp off into a breathtaking, uninhibited version of the optnding number, A Shine On Your Shoes.

The imitations and the clowning in  which Debbie loves to indulge between takes indicate, of course, the sheer fun which she feels about recording, and the relaxed, bouncy atmosphere she lies best to work in. But it goes further than that – the perfection of her impressions of famous people, right down to the finest shade of intonation and voice quality, is just another example of her passion for perfection in everything she does, and of her uncanny ability to learn by example. In the album Fine And Dandy, this ability shines very clearly through the gymnastic vocal tasks assigned to her by the masterful Jerry Fielding arrangements. Jerry has an annuals quality for an arranger: he writes instrumental backings which are vitally interesting in themselves but also enhance the singer. Furthermore,. he writes for the vocalist little variations and counterpoints with the orchestra. All this is a challenge to an experience performer, and it is the trouper in Debbie that meets the challenge so completely and excitingly. The former French Horn player (Burbank Youth Symphony) shows in this series of performances that her background as an instrumentalist has given her one thing in common – they all swing! Philosophically, they share another attribute: like Debbie, they all look on the bright side, and all are "positive" thoughts that range from considered optimism (Life Is Just A Soul Of Cherries) to sheer exuberance (Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah). 

Between You're The Cream In My Coffee and Ain't We Got Fun, Debbie slinks around the studio like a famous French kitten, and we learn from her pure Parisian accent that "Ah, mon petit chou ; ev'ryteeng ees Fine an' Dondee."

And you know, that's the way it will always be with Debbie – bouncy, relaxed, free, fun, but as near perfect as all that talent and hard work can make it – in short, Find and Dandy.

A Shine On Your Shoes

You're The Cream In My Coffee

Sing Something Simple

Ain't We Got Fun

Give Me

The Simple Life

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

Fine And Dandy

I Want To  Be Happy

Gimme A Little Kiss

Will Ya, Huh?

Pick Yourself Up

Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries

Gotta Have Me Go With You