I'm Wild Again - Frances Faye

 

Love For Sale

I'm Wild Again

Frances Faye

Orchestra Conducted by Russ Garcia

Engineer: Thorne Nogar

Cover Design: Burt Goldblatt

Bethlehem Records BCP-23

1955

Trombone - Herbie Harper, Tommy Pederson and "Two Others"

Piano - Jerry Wiggins

Guitar - Al Hendrickson

Bass - Red Mitchell

Drums - Chico Hamilton

From the back cover: To say that Frances Faye has a distinctively fresh approach to music is to understate the case, as those who have heard her "in person" performances will attest. Yet, for some undetermined reason, this freshness has gone unexplored by the record industry. It remained until now to capture the real Frances Faye on record. Here at last is the fabulous Faye style – light, casual and always entertaining – properly recorded and supported by musicians whose interpretive "know how" provides an excellent balance for her unique delivery. Certainly no novice to the entertainment field (she's been singing for years) that is the first record date which, in her own words, has "made me happy"! The tunes presented here are, for the most part, time tested standards. Yet each rendition has its own appealing twist without loss of the vitality and melodic warmth which have earmarked these tunes for immortality. The highlight of this performance is the "medley" – a collection of fine tunes of varying tempos which Miss Faye serves up in dividend portions, ranging from a complete and heartwarming reading of "Little Girl Blue" to a quick ending three word quote from "Bewitched". To me knowledge this is the first time that such an important part of a club entertainer's repertoire has been so successfully recorded. This is an exact demonstration of Miss Faye's relaxed and intimate club format and might well serve as a standard for subsequent ventures.

The orchestral compositions is unique enough in itself but it's virtually a pioneer framework to showcase vocal talent. Four trombones and a standard rhythm section provide a scintillating backdrop for the over-all impact of this album, as well as some high caliber solo performances that are, in fact, an added bonus to an already stellar attraction. The trombones are in the capable hands of Tommy Pederson, Herbie Harper and "Two Others". Herbie is heard on "These Foolish Things" and "Out Of This World", on both of which he supplies 16 bars of inventive and melodic trombone. "I've Got You Under My Skin" presents variation on the familiar "Dancero" theme and features the distinctive trombone  of one of the "Two Others". On "September In The Rain" they put together a four way trombone break with Herbie taking the first chorus, Tommy the last and the middle sixteen split between the "Two Others".

The rhythm section of Jerry Wiggins' piano, Al Hendrickson's guitar, Red Mitchell's bass and Chico Hamilton's drums is a perfect combination of unity and subtlety – rocking the ensemble throughout, yet equally polite during the vocal passages. While Al and Chico are almost entirely confined to section work, Jerry and Red contribute some tasteful by-play on "Somebody Love Me". 

Special kudos are in order for Russ Garcia who arranged and conducted the entire musical score. His invaluable contribution is readily apparent. 

Toreador: This seldom heard melody by Mary and Norman Kaye is given the full Latin-American treatment with Chico Hamilton from start to finish.

They Can't Take That Away From Me: Here's the Gershwin standard done here in medium tempo with a blues-like obligato by Jerry Wiggins.

All Of A Sudden My Heart Sings: This is Frances Faye "selling" a song in the full use of the term. The trombone choir is perfectly adapted to this tune and the result is unusually dramatic and interesting.

Love For Sale: Once again the Latin-American motif lends itself to this Cole Porter standard. Of all the tunes selected for this date, this is the only one in which Miss Faye sings the infrequently heard verse.

Here, then, is a milestone in vocal recording. This is a happy combination of the ideal vocalist working under ideal circumstances to give us the full benefit of both. Frances Faye is a real trouper in every sense of the word, and it is to her undying credit that in this age of singers of every kind and description, her gimmick-less formula is sturdy enough to warrant this album. Listen to Frances Faye – you'll see what we mean. – Joe Quinn

Toreador

They Can't Take That Away From Me

He's Funny That Way

I've Got You Under My Skin

All Of The Sudden My Heart Sings

Somebody Loves Me

September In The Rain

These Foolish Things Remind Me Of You

Love For Sale

Merely: Little Girl Blue / Where Or When / Embraceable You / Exactly Like You / I Don't Know Why / My Funny Valentine / Bewitched

Clear Out Of This World

For Cat Dancers Only - Harry Geller

 

For Cat Dancers Only

For Cat Dancers Only

Harry Geller and His Orchestra

RCA Victor LPM 3228 (10" disk)

1954

From the back cover: If your floor can stand it, start rockin' with the beat; if the rafters are strong enough, start swingin' from 'em – it's a sure bet you'll want to when this music comes jumpin' your way. You can swing, hop, stomp or rock – give it any name you will – but in the midst of these rampaging notes how can you possibly sit quiet and unconcerned? Long hair or crew cut, you gotta move, you just have to feel the rhythm. There's no getting away from it, it'll send you reeling back for more. And man, it's gonna make you feel the craziest, it's gonna turn you into the coolest of cats.

During the past few years in the popular musical work, in the midst of shouters, neurotic balladeers and overstored orchestras, there has been an ever-increasing public acceptance of what is commonly called "rhythm-blues" material – in many ways a throwback to the exciting blasts of the dance bands of the thirties – but basically music with a beat, a swingin', heavily underscored rhythm, more than lightly touched by a real feeling of the blues. It is a combination which is actually hypnotic in its swift-moving insistence; it is dance music such as this country has not heard since the halcyon days when everyone was blowing loud and clear. It is music for cat dancers only – although, needless to say, even the cats who don't dance will welcome these bold, brassy notes. And, on the chance you're not up on your jazz parlance, a cat is anyone who digs the righteous stuff, and a cat dancer, not someone dressed in feline disguise, but a cat who can make his feet move with music.

Up from the South this music came. For, like jazz – of which it is at least a cousin – it is basically of Negro stock. For a good many years this type of music has blanketed the southern reaches of the country where, incidentally, it has long outshone the more common type of pop ballad and lush instrumental. But, in line with the experimentation which has been occupying the popular music field, rhythm-blues material has become increasingly called upon as dance music – it has, in fact, been taken over by such as Buddy Morrow and transformed into popular dance hits. Here, in the the talented hands of Harry Geller, is an entire album of music for cat dancers, an album with an infectious beat, an album that rocks and swings and rocks some more.

In case you haven't been browsing through your Hot Discography lately, it's important to know that Harry Geller has been associated with some of the top swingin' bands of all time. He played first trumpet and arranged for Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller, among others, and is now not only an orchestra leader of real distinction but a recording director as well. His downbeat, as is evidenced by the selections in this album, is sure and solid, the kind that can swing the most lethargic of cats. Whether Harry is pounding out Take It All, Rock-O-Joy or Zonk, the cats are movin'. But in reality, this is not restricted merely to cats, for in the midst of this kind of music, everybody's swingin'.

Much to the chagrin of those who have been championing vociferous vocalism, music with a beat is returning. In the teen-age malt shop, in coke bars and hamburger joints – in fact, in every location where there is a phonograph or juke box and the younger set congregates, there is an increasing expenditure of energy and nickels for the kind of music to be heard in this album. And, at that, it's not very surprising. There are no emotional problems to cope with – except one of overpowering hypnosis – nothing to do by abandon oneself to the joys of the moment.

Cats, of course, are not restricted to those of teen-age propensities; anyone can be a cat. All that is required is the outlook of youth, a willingness to stop and listen, a delight in being swung. For, although this is music for cat dancers only, its real secret is that it is equally valid, equally enjoyable as pure listening. And, man, if you can't dance to it, let's see you try to keep your feet still! – Jack Lewis and Bill Zeitung

Rock-O-Joy

Please Don't Take

Stacker Lee

The Cats Walk

Ballin' Boogie

Zonk

Pink Champagne

Take It All

Something Else - Shirley Bassey

 

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Shirley Bassey

Something Else

Arranged, Produced & Conducted by Johnny Harris

Executive Producer: Noel Rogers

Engineer: Ed Offord assisted by Alan Hunter

Catered by Pauline Gorman

Miss Bassey's gowns by Douglas Darnel

Encouraged by Segio Novak

Recorded at Admission Studios, London

Sleeve Designed by Art Direction

United Artist Records UAS-6797

1971

From Billboard - July 24, 1971: This strong program of artistic as well as highly commercial performances of some of today's top songs serves as a potent chart topper of her recent "Is Really Something" LP. With super support from the Johnny Harris arrangements, the stylist brings her own unique and exceptional touch to such as "Pieces Of Dreams," "Love Story," "Until It's Time For You To Go," and "Breakfast In Bed."

(Where Do I Begin) Love Story from Paramount pictures "Love Story"

Till Love Touches Your Life (Theme from the motion picture "Madron")

Easy Thing To Do

Until It's Time For You To Go 

It's Impossible (Somos Novas)

What's Done Is Done

Pieces Of Dreams (from the United Artists motion picture "Pieces Of Dreams")

Breakfast In Bed

Excuse Me

Bridge Over Trouble Water

I'm Not There

I'd Like To Hate Myself In The Morning (And Raise A Little Hell Tonight)

Shirley Bassey Is Really Something

 

Spinning Wheel

Shirley Bassey Is Really Something

Produced by Johnny Harris & Tony Colton

Executive Producer: Noel Rogers

Art Direction: Frank Gauna

United Artists STEREO UAS 6765

1970

Something

Spinning Wheel

Yesterday I Heard The Rain

Sea And Sand

My Way

What About Today?

You And I

Light My Fire

Easy To  Be Hard

Life Goes On

What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?

Yesterday When I Was Young (Hier Encore)

College Songs - All-American Collegiate Choir

 

For Boston

College Songs In Hi-Fi

All-American Collegiate Choir

Parade Records SP 314

Notre Dame Victory March

By Cayuga's Water

For Boston

Sweetheart Of Sigma Chi

Little Brown Jug

Old Nassau

Oh Wisconsin

Fair Harvard

Rambling Wreck From Georgia Tech

Gaudeamus Igitur

Landlord Fill The Flowing Bowl

Change Of The Century - Ornette Coleman

 

Free

Change Of The Century

Ornette Coleman

Recording Engineer: Bones Howe

Cover Photo: Lee Friedlander

Supervision: Nesuhi Ertegun

Atlantic STEREO SD-1327

1960

From the back cover: Some musicians say, if what I'm doing is right, they should never have gone to school.

I say, there is no single right way to play jazz. Some of the comments made about my music make me realize that the modern jazz, once so daring and revolutionary, has become, in many respects, a rather settled and conventional thing. The members of my group and I are now attempting to break-through to a new, freer conception of jazz, one that departs from all that is "standard" and cliché in "modern" jazz.

Perhaps the most important new element in our music is our conception of free group improvisation. The idea of group improvisation, in itself, is not an all new; it played a big role in New Orlean's early bands. The big bands of the swing period changed all that. Today, still, the individual is either swallowed up in a group situation, or else he is out front soloing, with none of the other horns doing anything but calmly waiting their turn for their solos. Even in some of the trios and quartets, which permit quite a bit of group improvisation, the final effect is one that is imposed beforehand by the arranger. One knows pretty much what to expect.

When our group plays, before we start out to play, we do not have any idea what the end result will be. Each player is free to contribute what he feels in the music at any given moment. We do not begin with a preconceived notion as to what kind of effect we will achieve. When we record, sometimes I can hardly believe that what I hear when the tape implied back to me, is the laying of my group. I am so busy and absorbed with I play that I am not aware what I'm doing at the time I'm doing it.

I don't tell the members of my gourd what to do. I want them to play what they hear in the piece of themselves. I let everyone express himself just as he wants to. The musicians have completely freedom, and so, of course, our final results depend entirely on the musicianship, emotional make-up and taste of the individual member. Ours is at all times a group effort and it is only because we have the rapport we do that our music takes on the shape that it does. A strong personality with a star-complex would take way from the effectiveness of our group, no matter how brilliantly he played.

With my music, as in the case with some of my friends who are painters, I often have people come to me and say, "I like it but I don't understand it". Many people apparently don't trust their reaction to art of to music unless there is a verbal explanation for it.

In music, the only thing that matters is whether you feel it or not. You can't intellectualize music; to reduce it analytically often is to reduce it to nothing very important. It is only in terms of emotional response that I can dundee water what we are doing is successful or not. If you are touched in some way, then you are in with me. I love to lay for people, and how they react affects my playing.

A question often asked of me is why I play a plastic alto. I bought it originally because I needed a new horn badly, and I felt I could not afford a new brass instrument. The plastic horn is less expensive, and I said to myself, "Better a new horn that one that leaks". After living with the plastic  horn, I felt it begin to take on my emotion. The tone is breathier than the brass instrument, but I came to like the sound, and I found the flow of music to be more compact. I don't intend ever to buy another brass horn. On this plastic horn I feel as if I am continually creating my own sound.

From Billboard - June 6, 1960: Ornette Coleman, the alto sax man whose style has aroused violent debate, shows on this waxing that he has both imagination and taste, as well as a controversial style. This is the best album he has made to date, and tho there are many pretentious solos, there are also many smart, hip ones that are worth a listen. Coleman has much on the ball when he cares to show it. With The alto man are Don Cherry on trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. Best sides are "Ramblin," and "Una May Bonita."

Ramblin'

Free

The Face Of The Bass

Forerunner

Bird Food

Uma Muy Bonita

Change Of The Century

Benny Goodman & Paris Listen To The Magic

 

Under Paris Skies

Benny Goodman & Paris

Listen To The Magic

Produced by Loren Becker and Robert Byrne

Art Director: Daniel Pezza

Recording Engineer: C. R. Fine

Stereo and Monaural Mastering: George Piros

Command ABC Records STEREO RS 921 SD

1967

From the inside (gatefold) cover: This is Benny Goodman complete. Every nuance of his clarinet technique and of his unique sound is heard with unblemished clarity. At times, the close-up reality of these recordings is almost incredible.

And this is the definitive Benny Goodman – Benny Goodman reorder to his own precise specifications. To achieve this, Command gave Goodman a completely free hand in the recording studio. Command's experienced engineering staff was placed at his disposal. Microphone set-ups, positioning of musicians, balances were all adjusted under Goodman's direction until he heard the sound exactly as he knew it should be.

The group that Benny leads is made up of musicians who are part of an inner core of men on which he draws whenever he puts a combo together. When they recorded these pieces, they were playing at the famous Rainbow Grill on the 65th floor of the RCA Building in New York, a room that looks out over a breathtaking view of Manhattan and the far hills of New Jersey.

Joe Newman, on trumpet, was one of the stars of the big band with which Goodman toured the U.S.S.R. He was in Count Basie's band all through the Nineteen Fifties until he settled in New York in 1961.

Urbie Green, on trombone, was added to Goodman's Rainbow Grill gourd for these recordings. He played with the Goodman band in the film, The Benny Goodman Story, and in 1957 led a touring version of the Goodman band. He earned his big band spurs in the 'Forties and 'Fifties with Gene Group and Woody Herman.

Bernie Leighton played piano in the Goodman band 'way back in 1940 and was also a member of the Goodman sextet then. Since then he has been a very active piano soloist in New York as well as a conductor and accompanist for numerous singer.

Attila Zoller, guitar, was born in Hungary and made a reputation in Europe as a jazz musician before coming the Untied States in 1959. He played for three years with Herbie Mann's group and has also led his own combos.

George Duvivier is acknowledged, but the demands for his services, to be one of the most brilliant bassists playing today. For many years he accompanied Lena Horne but for the past decade he has spent most of his time in New York as  busy freelance musician.

Joe Marshall is a drummer who has built an enviable reputation with several small groups, including Goodman's.

From Billboard - November 4, 1967: Benny Goodman's clarinet work is legendary and Command's sound technique gives it a potent reality. The package is pegged on the rhythm of Paris and Goodman is in his stride as he goes through "April In Paris," "I Love Paris," "Under Paris Skies" and others of equal delight.

How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm

Autumn Leaves

I Love Paris (from "Can Can")

A Man And A Woman (from the movie "A Man And A Woman")

C'est Magnifique (from "Can Can")

Petite Fleur (Little Flower)

I Wish You Love

Mimi

C'est Si Bon

Under Paris Skies

I Will Wait For You I (from the movie "The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg")

Nat Cole At JATP

 

Blues

Nat Cole At JATP

Originally Produced under the Personal Supervision of Norman Granz

Recorded Live at a Jazz At The Philharmonic performance in July, 1944

A&R Research & Coordination: Jack Maher

Remastering Engineer: Dave Green

Director of Engineering: Val Valentin

Cover Art: Jon Henry

Art Direction: Acy Lehman

Design: Don Saffer & Bob Nastasi

VSP Verve VSP-14

1966

Piano - Nat Cole

Tenor Saxophones - Jack McVea & Illinois Jacquet

Trombone - J. J. Johnson

Trumpet - Shorty Sherock

Guitar - Les Paul

Bass - Johnny Miller or Red Callender

Drums - Lee Young

From the back cover: Time will prove Nat King Cole to be one of the most talented and accomplished artists ever to work in the popular music field. His unique vocal talents were acclaimed not only by his many fans, but also by the vast majority of his fellow musicians and performers. But singing was only one of his accomplishments. Long before he devoted himself exclusively to singing, Nat Cole was one of the finest of jazz pianists. In this album you can hear a small sampling of that instrumental ability. The recordings heard in the LP were originally cut in July of 1944. This date coincides closely with the golden days when Nat Cole fronted his own trio and nightly exhibited his unique creativity at the keyboard, as well as his highly individual singing.

Since these recordings were originally cut and issued on 78 r.p.m. discs, their recording quality may not be up to today's standards. Modern electronic techniques, however, have been used to improve the sound and surface quality of this LP.

Blues

Rosetta

Tea For Two

Bugle Call Rag

Golden Award Songs - Werner Muller

 

Moonlight And Shadows

Golden Awards Songs 

Werner Muller and His Orchestra

Recorded by Deutsche Grammophon Polydor Series

Decca Records DL 78887

1959

Memories Of You

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Deep Purple

Moonlight And Shadows

Sunrise Serenade

Serenade In The Night

My Blue Heaven

Autumn Serenade 

Begin The Beguine

Mexicali Rose

Bewitched

Orchids In The Moonlight

The Big Bay Band's Latin Beat - Francis Bay

 

Mambo No. 5

The Big Bay Band's Latin Beat

Featuring Tunes by Perez Prado and Others

Conducted by Francis Bay

Recorded Live at The Brussels World's Fair

Engineering and Artistic Direction by Peter Plum, Elite Musical Productions

Produced by Dave Hubert

Cover Photography by Ray Avery

Product Design by Leon McFadden

Omega Disk OSL 20

Mangos

Mambo Jambo

Patricia 

Tequila 

Rambalero

Cherry Pink

Mambo No. 5

Guaglione 

April In Portugal

Topaz

Charlie's Choice - Charlie Barnet

Murder At Peyton Hall

Charlie's Choice

Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra

RCA Camdem CAL-389

1957

From the back cover: During the quarter of a century that Charlie Barnet has been a band leader, his compulsion for organizing and breaking up bands has been matched only by his tendency to get married (he is occupied with wife Number Ten as this is written). The bands have held to an amazingly high level of swinging quality but, like his marriages, they were never quite successful enough to please Charlie.

The band heard in this collection is usually referred to as "that great band Barnet had at the beginning of the Forties." In point of fact, it was the first of Barnet's really great bands, the first successful jelling of something he had been working toward for more than a half a dozen years. Both his career as a full-time professional musician (starting as a sideman with Frank Winegar's Pennsylvanians at the Village Barn in New York) and his serious interest in jazz began in 1930. Within a couple of years he was leading a band of his own but for a long time it remained a band without a focus.

His first band was built around a library which he bought from Jan Garber for $20 (Garber was giving up a relatively free-swinging style to under take is very successful road-show version of Guy Lombardo), During the next few years, the Barnet band played enough routine ballads to pave Tin Pan Alley six feet deep. But Charlie's jazz interests were also getting sufficient display so that his band became the first white band to play the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem – he got the booking in 1934 as a last-minute substitution for Benny Carter, who couldn't make it.

All through the Thirties, Barnet was an ardent admirer of Duke Ellington's band and, after Count Basie reached New York in 1936, he added Basie to his immediate sources of inspiration. He was reaching out for both Ellington harmonic blend and Basie's superb swinging rhythm and in 1939 he finally found himself with both the men who could play on this level and an ideal showcase – the Famous Door on Manhattan's jumping 52nd Street.

That was when Charlie Barnet moved out of the shadows and into the front line of the jazz world. And it was during this most yeasty period in the Barnet career – from December 1939 to August 1941 – that these recordings were made.

Side 1

Blue Juice, written by one of Barnet's best arrangers during the Forties, Dale Bennett, carries a suggestion of the Ellington influence in the blaring muted trumpet opening. But when Barnet comes in on soprano saxophone, his style is quite different from that of Ellington's soprano saxophonist, Johnny Hodges. Barnet's soprano is very much like his tenor – his staccato, jabbing, angular attack seems to bite off notes and spit them out. Originally an alto saxophonist and later better known on tenor, Barnet started playing soprano when Billy May wrote a soprano saxophone part into his arrangement of Compton Turnpike for the Barnet band.

You're My Thrill features a vocal by Lena Horne, one of numerous future singing stars who worked with the Barnet band (Kay Starr, Frances Wayne, Fran Warren, Trudy Richards and Mary Ann McCall were others). Even at this early stage in her career, Lena's strong projection is evident despite some unresolved consonant trouble.

Murder At Peyton Hall is typically Barnet in its mixture of horseplay and rampant swing. It opens with shots, a shriek, and then on comes the Basie influence with Barnet's soprano saxophone pouring out swooping, soaring passages. Peyton Hall was an apartment-hotel in Hollywood where Barnet lived.

It's A Wonderful World, one of the tunes on which Jan Savitt's reputation was built, brings on Mary Ann McCall singing with light, unforced, swinging phrasing, with a solid ensemble arrangement surrounding her.

I Hear A Rhapsody is a fine example of Barnet's ballad style of this period as his soprano saxophone leads the reed section and guitarist Bus Etir takes one of his dedicated, carefully evolved unamplified solos. The singer is Bob Carroll, a chest-out, shoulders-back type.

Spanish Kick, otherwise the Habanera from Carmen, more than lives put to its title. Barnet, playing tenor saxophone, not only kicks – he punches, jabs, jumps and goes through an amazing display of fast musical footwork.

Side 2

Good For Nothin' Joe is all Lena Horne, showing that ability to build a song with logic and ease which has since become an essential part of her matured artistry.

Winge Over Manhattan, an early effort at composing for a jazz band by Billy May, is a tone poem of sorts built around the traditional big band use of soloists. In the reed passage toward the end, you will hear the germ of a later Barnet hit Skyliner.

Lois, written and arranged for Barnet, gives him an opportunity to show how a tenor saxophone cal be played in a style that manages to be simultaneously balladic and earthy.

Wild Man Of The Fish Pond is another product of Barnet's days at Peyton Hall. This rocking bit of gutbucket commemorates the lighthearted revels that were sometimes held in Peyton Hall's outdoor swimming pool (the fish pond) and Charlie's role as master of the revels. He was, as a California expression of that time had it,  "a wild man" or, as later generations would have it, "real crazy." The label, in the more alliterated form of "The Mad Man," has stuck to him ever since.

Haunted Town, in this Bud Estes arrangement, provides a lovely, warm introduction to Lean Horne's vocal – "the best side Lena made with us," says Charlie.

Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie is all up tempo Barnet tenor, gulping, stuttering, whirling and loaded with references to a Barnet stylistic source that is sometimes overlooked – Lester Young. – John Wilson

Charlie Barnet's Orchestra

Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie (December 1939); It's A Wonderful World (February 1940): Lyman Vunk, Billy May, John Owens, Bob Burnet, trumpets; Spud Murphy, Don Ruppersburg, Bill Roberson, trombones; Charlie Barnet, Kurt Bloom, Jimmy Lamare, Skippy Martin, Gene Kinsey, saxophones; Bill Miller, piano; Bus Etri, guitar; Phil Stephens, bass; Cliff Lehman, drums.

Wings Over Manhattan, Wild Mab Of The Fish Pond (September 1940): Bernie Pravin, Sam Skolnik replace Burnet and Owens on trumpet; Leo White replaces Martin on saxophone.

I Hear A Rhapsody (October 1940): Ford Leary added on trombone; Conn Humphreys replaces Kinsey on saxophone.

Good For Nothin' Joe, Haunted Town, Blue Juice, You're My Thrill (January 1941): Bob Burnet and Esposito replace Skolnik and May on trumpet.

Lois, Spanish Kick (June 1941): Bob Burnet, Bob Price, Cy Baker, Mickey Bloom, trumpets; Bill Robertson, Ford Leary, Tommy Reo, Spud Murphy, trombones; Charlie Barnet, Kurt Bloom, Conn Humphrey's Ray Hopfner, Jimmy Lamare, saxophones; Bill Miller, piano; Bus Etir, guitar; Phil Stephens, bass; Cliff Leeman, drums.

The Brothers Nash - Ted & Dick Nash

 

Cuban Verandah

The Brothers Nash

Ted and Dick Nash

Jazz Unlimited Series

Producer: Simon Jackson

Engineer: John Neal

Cover Art: Don Nelson

Liberty Records LJH 6011

1956

The Brothers Nash was recorded in Hollywood during December, 1955 and April, 1956.

From the back cover: Back in Somerville, Massachusetts the Nash brothers were born – Ted, on October 31st, 1922, Dick, on January 26th, 1928. But with the untimely death of their parents, the two boys were separated and brought up independently. In spite of growing up as they did with many miles between them, they still found the same innate attraction of music and they both went about developing int. 

Ted had original aspirations to became a classical flutist, but he switched to tenor in his early teens. The opportunities seemed to be more in the jazz field, and he wound up on the road with a succession of dance bands. After his hitch in the service he joined the Les Brown group, where he rapidly made an important name for himself. His distinctive tenor solos are the high points of many of the old Les Brown records. You know, in those days it was often the vogue for young jazz aspirants to copy the choruses of their idols note for note. Bu with Ted's solos that wasn't so easy. Most of his would go right on up, clear off the horn. The best way to get the fingering for some of these flights was to pick up a copy of his book, "High Harmonics," which introduced a new technique for upper register fingering.

After getting married, Ted decided to settle in California and worked the recording and studio scene. When Billy May was about to record his new band and looking for a few major soloists, he called immediately on Ted. The studios have used his distinctive talents, also... after all, he's a pretty valuable man to have around with his background on flute, piccolo, clarinet, and all the saxes from soprano through baritone.

With Dick it was not much different. His first horn was a trumpet, which he played at ten with a Vermont boarding school band. Looking for an instrument which would better suit his particular embouchure, he switched to baritone horn. Bu brother Ted, sent him one for Christmas, he was one his way. He studied later with John Coffey, of the Boston Symphony, then followed Ted on the road with a series of dance bands which included Sam Donahue, Glen Gray, and Tex Beneke, and after the Service he was with Billy My for a year.

Marriage in Los Angeles seemed to be the happy combo for Dick, too, and here in California he's made his home. Currently, he's on the staff of CBS Radio Orchestra, and very happy about it. It gives him the chance to relax and develop his full-bodied, exciting style. This is a young man who is now looked upon as one of the new stars of modern trombone.

This, then, is in the nature of a new beginning for two brothers who have made names for themselves independently and are united at last in California with their music. Here, they have pooled their extreme musical talents and come up with an album of rare taste and quality. The music here is a pleasure to listen to. It combines clean, crisp sounds with good jazz. It is sometimes more delicate, sometimes forceful. Often quiet – more often exciting. And always conceived and executed with good taste.

The sound the group gets is amazing. Six men manage to sound like a group twice its size. They make it seem easy. Piano and guitar (Jimmy Rowles and Tony Rizzi) work first as a unit then as independent voices. Bass and drums (Harry Babasin and Roy Harte) are ever-present but never flamboyant. Dick's trombone is joined by Ted, at one time or another, on alto, tenor, soprano, baritone, flute, alto flute, piccolo, clarinet, and bass clarinet to give a startling aural exhibition – and did I say only six in the total aggregation?

Much of the group's balance and continuity are due to the subtle arrangements of Frank Comstock, Chuck Kopely, Bob Harrington and Jim Emerson. – Don Nelson

I Remember You

We'll Be Together Again

Juntos

Prelude To A Kiss

Theme From "The Bad And The Beautiful"

I Could Write A Book

Back In Your Own Backyard

For Heaven's Sake

Cuban Verandah

The Nearness Of You

Night Soliloquy

You Are Too Beautiful