New Sounds At The Roosevelt - Larry Elgart

 

Blue Thursday

New Sounds At The Roosevelt

Larry Elgart and His Orchestra

Ballroom At Home

Photo: Carl Fischer

Recorded in New York City, January and April, 1959

Recording Engineer: Ernest Oelrich and Bob Simpson

RCA Victor LSP-2045

From the back cover: The sounds enclosed by this album jacket are as distinguished as the Aston-Martin shown on its cover.

As the album title indicates, these are NEW SOUNDS AT THE ROOSEVELT. The fresh big band sounds are those of the Larry Elgart crew. The Roosevelt, of course, is the prominent New York hotel.

The facts of the invasion of the Roosevelt by the Elgart band are a revelation in themselves. For thirty years the Guy Lombardo band maintained residence at the hotel, playing sweetly to faithful audiences. The first band to replace Lombardo's was Larry Elgart's. And the average age of the audience dropped substantially, as young dance band fans flocked to hear the Elgart sound.

It is a polished, disciplined, jazz-oriented sound. The band's library isn't overpopulated with aged stock arrangements retained from the Prohibition era. Instead, Larry Elgart has compiled an array of modern, appealing arrangements, representing the efforts of some of America's best composer-arrangers.

For this album, for example, the well-known jazz tenor saxophonist Al Cohn contributed four originals: April, Blue Thursday, Cool-Aid and Let My People Swing. Trombonist Wayne Andre, formerly with Kai Winding's septet, delineated the Walkin' path, a route familiar to jazz soloists. Roger Middleton arranged the happy sound of Mountain Greenery. A member of the Elgart band's reed section, tenor saxophonist John Murtaugh, contributed several arrangements, too, including Yearning and Lagonda.

For balance, such reliable standards as Sleepy Time Gal, Wabash Blues, I Cried for You, Honeysuckle Rose, If Love Is Good to Me and Mountain Greenery were judiciously included.

The band's sound is as tasteful as its book, thanks to Elgart's mature direction. The 37-year-old saxophonist (he's featured on alto and soprano here) does not believe in relying on gimmicks. While other bandleaders futilely search for devices to lure dancing audiences, Elgart lures them effortlessly, simply by emphasizing good taste.

This is a band with broad potential appeal. It is a band for dancers; its rhythmic pulse is firm and its melodic expression is constant. It's a band, too, for jazz-oriented listeners. The arrangements are subtly provocative; the performances are crackingly precise without being mechanical. There's plenty of jazz flavor present. For just one ex- ample, dig the Miles Davis-ish atmosphere on Walkin'.

There aren't the sounds of the Count Basie band, because Larry isn't competing with Basie. They are among the most aware sounds in the dance band business today, however. They are the product of Larry's acutely perceptive nature, his ability to anticipate the desires of a dancing audience seeking modern sounds.

And he's a bandleader in the best sense of that term.

His band has an identity of its own. As both leader and soloist, he fronts the band effectively, too. Although many bands are led by figureheads, personable leaders without considerable musical ability, the members of the Elgart band respect, and are inspired by, Larry's proficiency on several reed instruments. He's best known as an alto soloist, but his efforts on soprano here indicate that he's one of the few musicians who can perform in non-strident fashion on that instrument. Finally, he's well qualified to select first-rate instru- mentalists to serve in the band.

The results of such efforts, aims and artistry are obvious.

The band doesn't manhandle ballads. It doesn't emasculate bluesy strolls. It doesn't manufacture excitement through technical facility alone; a collective spirit makes each performance memorable.

It's encouraging to learn that in this stereo age there is at least one band able to resist the temptation to create sound effects instead of music. The wide range of the Elgart book is tailor-made for the potential of stereo sound, without any distortion or tricks required. What emerges when the best in high fidelity reproduction technique is applied to the sound of the Elgart band is a thoroughly musical, genuinely moving experience.

If this swinging sound could dent the Lombardo empire at the Roosevelt, it's certain to prove as successful in penetrating other challenges, major or minor, wherever it is heard.

The new sounds at the Roosevelt could grow old at that respected location. But Larry Elgart won't permit it. He'll see to it that they remain new next year, too.

He knows he's in command of a very big band. – HUGH M. HEFNER (Editor and Publisher, Playboy Magazine)

Let My People Swing

Yearning (Just For You)

You Should Have Told Me

I Cried For You

Honeysuckle Rose

If Love Is Good To Me

Mountain Greenery

Cool-Aid

Sleepy Time Gal

Lagonda

April

Wabash Blues

Blue Thursday

Walkin'

Born To Be Blue - Beverly Kenney

 

It's A Blue World

Born To Be Blue

Beverly Kenney

Miss Kenney's gown designed by Ceil Chapman

Decca Records DL 8850

From the back cover: Beverly Kenney came into music after music had come to her. Not in one blinding flash, but by degrees, she became convinced that she had to sing. However, getting beyond inclination, no matter how intense, is perhaps most important, and upon graduation from high school, Miss K. took her first faltering step in the direction of the music business.

That first job was hardly startling or glamorous, and in fact, has its humorous overtones. Playing a role known for its anonymity and forced good cheer, our budding chanteuse sang birthday greetings to little girls and big men, alike, over the phone for Western Union.

A short time passed and Beverly followed the warm weather to Florida, hoping for something a little better for her career among the palms, hotels and clubs along amusement strip, better known as Miami Beach. At a party she attended shortly after arriving in town, an agent listened, liked what he heard, and arranged a booking for her at the Black Magic Room, a boite of intimacy and a flavor particular to Miami.

Attaining a degree of success, Beverly worked in Florida until fate smiled and she received an invitation to join the Dorsey Bros. Orchestra. The invitation was accepted with enthusiasm, but the affiliation was not meant to be lasting.

"Tommy and Jimmy liked me," Beverly told me, "but they thought I was too much of a stylist for the band. After a few months on the road, I left, and returned to New York."

Sometimes loss can be turned into gain, and one finds when one is not seeking anything in particular. In the case of Beverly Kenney, this pertains.

"When I got back to New York," she explained, "I started working with jazz groups... (ed. note – Shearing, Don Elliott and Kai Winding)... It felt good. I found it easy to relate to jazz. And jazz can be a wonderful teacher if you keep your ears open."

Listen she did, and mostly to the influential Stan Getz, whose sound, even flowing time and linear manner integrated into solo statements that have had far-reaching effect, and in truth, were partially instrumental in ushering in the "cool era" in modern jazz in the late Forties.

When questioned about Getz, Beverly said: "I began listening to Stan when I first became conscious of jazz about six years ago. His sound and phrasing, the way he tells a story in his solos feel right to me."

In her vibrato-free sound and concept of time and phrase, Beverly substantiates her affinity for jazz, particularly of the modern persuasion. And like any jazz practitioner of worth, she tries to combine the storyline and the musical contours of a song into a sum of meaningfulness.

"What I have always wanted in my work is the completeness and balance that is Billie Holiday," she replied when asked about the ultimate in singing. "Billie is an experience; she feels, translates, puts it on the line, and you never forget what she has said."

Obviously, Beverly is aware of the necessity for an artist to personalize experience, to communicate, but more than that, she impressed me with her own need to do so. "If a singer does not leave something of herself/himself behind after a performance; if an audience doesn't feel as if something has happened, the singer is failing somewhere along the line. One must always work for communication."

In line with her desire to illuminate material, Beverly expressed, with reticence, the hope that time would bring finality to her work and the recognition that all artists long for. One grows from the other in an inevitable pattern, and if the potential is there, time usually takes eare of the rest. Since coming to the attention of the public through her, first records and a number of appearances in and around New York – circa 1955-24 year old Beverly Kenney has found the reception for her work of the generally warm variety. Critics Nat Hentoff and Barry Ulanov and DJ Al Collins have, all in their own way, given her encouragement. These and other men in the field have spoken of the singer's great potential.

Sensitivity, a captivating sound that is youthful yet hints at experience, and the basic honesty of her singing, recommend her. Too, there is the drive to be complete, to speak "the truth" in her singing, whatever her medium, pop or jazz, and this, in the final analysis, is more important than anything else. With such singleness of purpose, it is unlikely that she will be denied.

In this, Beverly Kenney's second Decca showcase, the selection of songs more than reflects her musicianly tastes. All of them stand up both in the melodic and lyric areas. I am especially partial to Go Away, My Love, written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. Beverly says that Beyond The Next Hill is her favorite. "I have always wanted to do the tune," she commented. "It says something, and does it beautifully."

Miss K. is accompanied, or to be more precise, cushioned by orchestras conducted and arranged for by Hal Mooney and Charlie Albertine. The unit under Mooney's direction spots Charlie Shavers, trumpet; or Stan Webb, woodwinds; strings and rhythm. Albertine's orchestra is composed of four trombones, strings and rhythm.

When questioned about the backgrounds, Beverly quickly responded: "I found it most comfortable working with Hal and Charlie. Both are talented and knowing; their accompaniment was helpful, never overbearing. I was out there free, singing these romantic/ blue tunes the way I wanted to.)

A special nod to Ellis Larkins at the piano who appears on all selections. – Burt Korall

Side One

1. BORN TO BE BLUE
With Orchestra Directed By Charlie Albertine

2. ISN'T IT A PITY

With Orchestra Directed By Hal Mooney

3. FOR ALL WE KNOW

With Orchestra Directed By Charlie Albertine

4. IT ONLY HAPPENS WHEN I DANCE WITH YOU 

With Orchestra Directed By Charlie Albertine

5. AGAIN
With Orchestra Directed By Hal Mooney

6. I WALK A LITTLE FASTER 

With Orchestra Directed By Charlie Albertine


Side Two

1. GO AWAY, MY LOVE!
With Orchestra Directed By Hal Mooney

2. BEYOND THE NEXT HILL
With Orchestra Directed By Hal Mooney

3. IT'S A BLUE WORLD
With Orchestra Directed By Charlie Albertine

4. VANITY
With Orchestra Directed By Hal Mooney

5. SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY
With Orchestra Directed By Charlie Albertine

6. WHERE CAN I GO WITHOUT YOU
With Orchestra Directed By Hal Mooney

Like Yesterday - Beverly Kenney

 

A Sunday Kind Of Love

Like Yesterday 

Beverly Kenney

Decca Records DL 8948

Personnel on: Any Old Time, And The Angels Sing, More Than You Know, The Dipsy Doodle

Jerome Richardson - Woodwings

Ed Shaughnessy - Drums 

Bill Pemberton - Bass

Chuck Wayne - Guitar

Stan Free - Piano and Trumpet (Free appears on trumpet during And The Angels Sing only)

Personnel on: What A Difference A Day Made, Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe, Tampico, Sentimental Journey

Johnny Rae - Vibes and Percussion ("a flautist")

Ed Shaughnessy - Drums

Bill Pemberton - Bass

Chuck Wayne - Guitar

Stan Free - Piano

Personnel on: Undecided, A Sunday Kind Of Love, Somebody Else Is Taking My Place, I Had The Craziest Dream

Eddie Bert - Trombone

Al Klink - Tenor Sax (a trumpeter")

Ed Shaughnessy - Drums

Bill Pemberton - Bass

Chuck Wayne - Guitar

Stan Free - Piano

From the back cover: Yesterday – The yesterday of swing, the big bands and instrumental soloists and vocalists so much a part of that interval, remain an unusually vivid memory for many of us. Perhaps time has done its work, and all seems a little more glamorous than it actually was. But even for those who were in on only a portion of it, the years between the crash-through of the Benny Goodman band in 1935 and the last gasp of the big bands in the latter years of the Forties had their unforgettable moments. The jitterbugs that danced in the aisles of the Paramount Theatre to the surging pulse of the Goodman gang; the fans who traveled up to the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem to "dig" the swingin' Chick Webb band and its vocal star Ella Fitzgerald; and those struck by the orchestra led by "That Sentimental Gentleman of Swing," Tommy Dorsey; they remember.

The devoted "Sighing Slaves of Sinatra," who stood in line, regardless of weather or parental objection, for a look at their idol; the fellows and gals who "cut" school to hear Harry James' horn speak of Sleepy Lagoon and Flatbush Flanagan, or Helen Forrest sing her love songs as the band undulated behind her; and those who followed the temperamental Artie Shaw, his progressive orchestras and policies; they remember.

Aficionados who spent evenings and early mornings listening to the "Rockin' Chair Lady," Mildred Bailey, usually in the company of husband Red Norvo and other great jazz stars, in 52nd Street Clubs; others who stomped and hollered to the Barnet band in its many editions; the faithful who applauded the crisp, rolling, often explosive sounds of the Kenton, Herman and Brown crews and their appealing thrushes; and later, the couples who swayed to the danceable, expressive Thornhill band that featured vocalist Fran Warren; they, too, remember.

For the young, it was all part of growing up; for others, a little older, a time that was free if not easy; for all, a period looked back upon with warmth. The music and those that made it ... the key to a flood of memories.

Beverly Kenney was three years old when Benny Goodman became the "King of Swing." She was six-in 1938 – when Billie Holiday, her biggest vocal influence, recorded Any Old Time with Artie Shaw; and only a teen-ager as the era came to a close in the late Forties. Though not really part of this time, she is a result of what happened during those years.

Roots...for Beverly

When Lester Young stepped out of the Count Basie reed section to solo on those many memorable nights two decades ago, it is unlikely that he had any idea his manner of expressing himself would become the foundation for a whole generation of instrumentalists and a number of singers to build upon. Pres merely raised his horn and "told his story," with little thought to its effect.

Billie Holiday admired the man she named "The President," and used him on many of her greatest record dates "because he played music I like." Lester and his "Lady Day" were close. As she further shaped her vocal style, it became obvious that Pres' presence on the scene had been noted.

Indebted to Billie Holiday, Beverly Kenney has said: "Billie was the ultimate; she put it out on the line every time she sang. I can never forget her."

But all her roads lead to Pres.

Stan Getz, one of the enigmatic tenorman's most devoted disciples in the Forties, who went on to develop an extension of the master's style, has been, by Miss Kenney's admission, the most significant force in shaping her vocal expression. "When I first began singing," she told me, "Stan's sound and phrasing charmed me. I felt his way on the tenor should be mine as a singer." Beverly's vibrato-free sound and concept of time and phrase only further underscore where she comes from, stylistically.

Yesterday... Today

Like the gal singers recalled by the songs in this program, Beverly Kenney has been a band singer. Unlike these singers, she found recognition after leaving band singing-with the Dorsey Bros. A girl who enjoys relaxed musical circumstances, small band accompaniment has proven generally more appropriate to her needs. "I believe working with a small band allows a singer to be more flexible; there's more freedom to move around, to improvise on material," she quietly explained.

Beverly had her wish on these sessions. The accompanying units were small and composed of sympathetic players; the writing for them, by ex-Chris Connor accompanist/arranger Stan Free, flowing and relatively uncomplicated.

"This being a memory-type album that reaches back to the days of swing for material," said Free, "I wrote for the flavor of the time, adding a touch or two or three of my own. We felt that by merely suggesting the era when the songs were popular would be more honest and realistic than trying to recreate the time and 'the' performance itself.

"I tried to give Bev a cushion of sound to lean on while making the charts as 'conversational' as possible," he continued. "I designed the arrangements to compliment my artist, and to keep things relaxed. The instrumental soloists spoke in short bursts, reflecting 'the now' of what they felt within each tune. However, there was some reminiscing done in the blowing-on my 'fills' and background noodling-but we generally avoided playing 'old' for effect."

Beverly fills out the picture: "The songs in this program mean a lot to me; they're mementos of the days when my ears first opened to music, mementos of the nights, a tiny radio tucked under my pillow, I listened to singers and bands on late evening 'remotes.' Realizing I was following up great performances on each of these songs, I took the only course open to me. I sang each song as I felt it at the time. That's all any singer can 'honestly' do." – BURT KORALL, Co-Editor, THE JAZZ WORD (Ballantine)

Side One 

UNDECIDED
Made famous by ELLA FITZGERALD with Chick Webb. and his orch.

SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY
Made famous by DORIS DAY with Les Brown and his orch. 

I HAD THE CRAZIEST DREAM
Made famous by HELEN FORREST with Harry James and his orch.

AND THE ANGELS SING
Made famous by MARTHA TILTON with Benny Goodman and his orch.

MORE THAN YOU KNOW
Made famous by MILDRED BAILEY with such Jazzmen as Artie Shaw, Ziggy Elman, Teddy Wilson and Cozy Cole. 

THE DIPSY DOODLE
Made famous by EDYTHE WRIGHT with Tommy Dorsey and his orch.
Later became the theme for the band headed by Larry Clinton who wrote and arranged it for Dorsey.


Side Two

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MADE
Made famous by KAY STARR with Charlie Barnet and his orch.

SOMEBODY ELSE IS TAKING MY PLACE
Made famous by PEGGY LEE with Benny Goodman and his orch.

A SUNDAY KIND OF LOVE
Made famous by FRAN WARREN with Claude Thornhill and his orch.

ANY OLD TIME
Made famous by BILLIE HOLIDAY with Artie Shaw and his orch.

HAPPINESS IS A THING CALLED JOE
Made famous by FRANCES WAYNE with Woody Herman and his orch.

TAMPICO
Made famous by JUNE CHRISTY with Stan Kenton and his orch.

The Cool School - June Christy

 

Looking For A Boy

The Cool School

June Christy

Produced by Bill Miller

Capitol Records T1398

1960

From the back cover: Sharing the schoolroom for this session is the Joe Castro Quartet – a group of musicians as versatile and talented as June herself. Joe Castro is heard on piano and cellists, Leroy Vinnegar on bass, Larry Bunker on drums and Gib Fender on guitar.

Give A Little Whistle

The Magic Window

Baby's Birthday Party

When You Wish Upon A Star

Baubles, Bangles And Beads

Aren't You Glad You Are You

Kee-Mo Ky-Mo

Scarlet Ribbons

Looking For A Boy

Small Fry

Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead

Swinging On A Star

Anyone Can Play Bongos - Willie Rodriguez

 

Anyone Can Play Bongos

Anyone Can Play Bongos

Selections Featuring Bongos With Big Band

Music Examples / Oral Instructions

Willie Rodriguez with Chuck Sagle and His Orchestra

Cover Photo: Columbia Records Photo Studio - Henry Parker

Epic STEREO BN 583

1960

Introduction - Willie Rodriguez
Description Of The Bongos - Correct Position For Holding Bongos
Basic Bongo Rhythm - General Description
Detailed Basic Rhythm For Left Hand
Detailed Basic Rhythm - First And Third Beat For Right Hand
Detailed Basic Rhythm - Second Beat For Right Hand
Detailed Basic Bongo Rhythm - Fourth Beat For Right Hand
Summary Of Right Hand
Summary Of Basic Rhythm For Both Hands
Slow Bongo Rhythm
La Paloma (Play-A-Long)
Medium Tempo Bongo Rhythm
Mañana (Play-A-Long)
Fast Bongo Rhythm
It's A Good Day (Play-A-Long)
Final Remarks
Dream
Robbins' Nest
Moonlight In Vermont
Bongo Scheherezade
La Paloma
Mañana
It's A Good Day

Ye-Me-Le - Sergio Mendes

 

Easy To Be Hard

Ye-Me-Le

Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66

Produced by Sergio Mendes

Arranged by Sergio Mendes

Engineer: Larry Levine

Studio: A&M Recording Studio

Orchestra Arranged & Conducted by Dave Grusin

Guitar: Oscar Castro Neves

Cover Painting: Ivan De Morales

Art Direction: Tom Wilkes

Photography: Jim McCrary

A&M Records SP 4236

1969

Wichita Lineman

Norwegian Wood

Some Time Ago

Moanin'

Look Who's Mine

Ye-Me-Le

Easy To Be Heard

Where Are You Coming From

Masquerade

What The World Needs Now

Collaboration - The Modern Jazz Quartet with Laurindo Almeida

 

Concierto De Aranjuez

Collaboration

The Modern Jazz Quartet

With Laurindo Almeida

Recording Engineer: Ray Hall

Cover Design: Marvin Israel

Supervision: Nesuhi Ertegun

The painting by Juan Gris appears on the cover by courtesy of the publishing house of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

Atlantic STEREO 1429

1966

The Modern Jazz Quartet is composed of: John Lewis, piano; Milt Jackson, vibraharp; Percy Heath, bass; Connie Kay, drums. The Quartet is augmented on this LP by guest artist Laurindo Almeida, guitar. Laurindo Almedia appears through the courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.

From the back cover: Collaboration, as the term is used in music, generally means a sharing in some intellectual creation. Very often, especially in recent years, it has denoted a bringing together of elements not customarily seen or heard together. The joint labors of love in which John Lewis has been involved have included collaborations with symphony orchestras at home and abroad; with an American saxophonist, a Belgian guitarist, a Danish violinist, a German trombonist; with traditionalists, boppers and avant-gardists; with anyone, in short, whose talents have made a strong impression on his singularly perceptive ear.

The teaming of The Modern Jazz Quartet with Laurindo Almeida began as a project for the 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival. Until that time the MJQ and Almeida had never worked together; they had been based on opposite coasts and their paths had never crossed.

Almeida at that time was basking in a reputation that had reached him in a curiously indirect manner. Born in Sao Paolo, Brazil, he had come to the U.S. while still in his twen- ties and gained recognition as featured guitarist with the Stan Kenton orchestra. Living near Hollywood, he was accepted among musicians as a master of the classical Spanish concert guitar and among jazzmen as an artist eager to experiment in the blending of jazz and Latin idioms. His first recordings of Brazilian themes with a jazz combo were made in the early 1950s, but it was not until a decade later, when the bossa nova movement upset seismographs throughout the United States, that his name became nationally known through a series of performances of popular songs reshaped to fit the new fad.

John Lewis knew and respected Almeida not simply as a purveyor of Brazilian music, but as a performer with a far broader range of interests. "After we played together in Monterey," Almeida says, "John invited me to tour with the Quartet as guest soloist. We left the United States in February 1964 and stayed together until early June."

"We started in Milan and spent almost a month in Italy and Sicily. We worked in some of the smaller towns where hardly any other American groups had been heard. Later we played in Switzerland, Belgium, France, England, Germany, Scandinavia, Yugoslavia; and also three cities in Spain. I hadn't been in Spain since just before the Civil War, in 1936."

"It was different from so many of these European tours; no rushing. We took four months to play 50 concerts. We enjoyed working together, and had time to really see the countries we visited and get to know their people. The greatest night of the whole tour, for me personally and for the Quartet too I believe, was Paris. The audience there was just magnificent."

"The reaction seemed to indicate that the audiences were pretty well divided between classical and jazz fans. We were able to play whatever we liked. And of course by the time we came home and made this album we knew one another well enough to give the best possible performance of all this material."

With the exception of Foi A Saudade, all the numbers heard here were played by Almeida and the MJQ during their tour. Their repertoire, by composers ranging from 18th Century Germany to 20th Century North and South America, hints at the breadth of their mutual interests.

Silver is a composition characteristic of the jazz-oriented side of John Lewis. There is more than a suggestion of the blues; there are tempo changes, and at one point, going into the slower last movement, there is a tricky retard that called for particularly close listening on the part of all five participants.

Trieste revisits territory that should be familiar to most Lewis students. It was recorded by the regular MJQ per- sonnel in the Lonely Woman album (Atlantic 1381). Though the new version starts almost exactly like the original, many differences develop along the way. There are several curious and fascinating historical overtones. The tango rhythm harks back to Rudolph Valentino and the 1920s, though this is a tango that sometimes swings in a totally contemporary sense. At one point John Lewis' solo evokes the 1930s with touches of Earl Hines and Fats Waller; and Laurindo's interplay with Milt Jackson toward the end may remind students of early jazz guitar that the timbre (and time) of Eddie Lang will never be out of date. Note also the ponticello effects (playing on the bridge of the guitar) added by Laurindo for color.

Valeria is part of the original music Lewis wrote for the motion picture A Milanese Story. It was heard in the original soundtrack album (Atlantic 1388), played by an international group that included a string quartet. The introduction and coda wrap the new performance in a dark, brooding flamenco mood, with Connie Kay's clave effects adding a contrastingly light percussive note. Almeida plays a mainly rhythmic role while Lewis and Bags contribute some of the most propulsive straight-four jazz of the session.

The Bach Fugue In A Minor remains faithful to the composition from the first note almost to the last, but the special requirements of this instrumentation are put to total use as Almeida, Jackson, Lewis and Heath are all involved at one point or another in the weaving of the counterpoint. The qualification in the above phrase "from the first note almost to the last" is an allowance for the little cadenza that comes unexpectedly at the end. Here, for just a moment, we find Bach dipping into Bags' bag. "This is one number," says Laurindo, "that used to bring down the house wherever we played it. Performing it was a great delight for us all."

One Note Samba was first played by Almeida with the Quartet at Monterey. Partly ad lib, partly routined by Lau- rindo, it is the only track in the album not arranged by John Lewis. The dual authenticity of this performance, with Jackson's and Lewis' solos backed by Almeida's comping and Connie Kay's steady bossa nova pulse, demonstrates ideally the marriage of the two musics.

Foi A Saudade (the title means "There was a longing") is a fast bossa nova by Djalma Ferreira, best known as composer of Recado, one of the first bossa novas brought to this country after the tremor hit us. "Europe loves the bossa nova," Almeida reports, "and I am very fond of the writing of Ferreira. He came here from Brazil early in 1964 and now lives not far from me in the San Fernando Valley." Almeida's solo, mainly in single note style, is a highlight. The melody has a flavor that is as much Spanish as Brazilian, perhaps because of the importance of a flat ninth in the second bar (D Flat against a C7), which is not a common element in the typical bossa nova.

Of the Concierto de Aranjuez Almeida says: "This is one part, the adagio movement, of a three-part work by Joaquin Rodrigo, the blind Spanish composer of contemporary music. I met Rodrigo in Los Angeles when Segovia played one of his works. He is a sort of modern Albeniz. By now many jazz lovers know him, of course, because Miles Davis and Gil Evans included this Concierto in their Sketches of Spain."

A sense of stately beauty is evoked both by Rodrigo's thematic structure and by the performance of Almeida and the Quartet. Here the synthesis of talents reaches its zenith of sensitivity, and for Almeida at several points it becomes a technical as well as an emotional triumph. Lewis adapted the orchestration for the Quartet while leaving the guitar part untouched.

"I am very proud of this performance," says Almeida. "It is one of the best things I ever did." His quiet pride is shared by the four men who played this brilliantly conceived and superbly executed work for warmly receptive audiences all over Europe. The Concierto reminds us that this album represents an amalgamation not only of personalities, but of cultures, of nations, of musical emotions.

The meeting of the MJQ and Almeida has been a collaboration in a sense more comprehensive than any that would have been feasible a decade or two ago, when the idioms represented here would have been two or three disparate worlds, total strangers to each other. – LEONARD FEATHER

The Modern Jazz Quartet can also be heard on the following Atlantic LPs: A Quartet Is A Quartet Is A Quartet / The Modern Jazz Quartet, Quartetto di Milano, The Hun- garian Gypsy Quartet (1420); The Sheriff (1414), The Comedy/Guest Artist: Diahann Carroll (1390); European Concert, Volume Two (1386); European Concert, Volume One (1385); Lonely Woman (1381); The Modern Jazz Quartet & Orchestra (1359); Third Stream Music / The Modern Jazz Quartet & Guests: The Jimmy Giuffre Three & The Beaux Arts String Quartet (1345); Pyramid (1325); The Modern Jazz Quartet At Music Inn / Guest Artist: Sonny Rollins (1299); One Never Knows (1284); The Modern Jazz Quartet (1265); The Modern Jazz Quartet At Music Inn / Guest Artist: Jimmy Giuffre (1247); Fontessa (1231).

The European Concert is also available in a two-LP set (2-603).

Silver

Trieste

Valeria

Fugue In A Minor

One Note Samba

For A Saudade

Concierto De Aranjuez

Good Vibrations - Hugo Montenegro

 

Tony's Theme

Good Vibrations

Hugo Montenegro

Produced by Joe Reisman

Whistler: Muzzy Marcellino

Recorded in RCA's Music Center Of The World, Hollywood, California 

Recording Engineer: Mickey Crofford

RCA STEREO LSP-4104

1969

From the back cover: The thing for a composer-arranger-conductor-recording artist to do is find a sound, style or lick that is uniquely his own and separate himself and his orchestra from all the others. OK, Hugo Montenegro has done this. He did it with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. His usage of the ocarina, the electric violin and a whistler was really tricky. That sound fooled most of us – we didn't know what it was, but we liked it.

Mr. Montenegro told me that the "sound" he used for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was one he researched a long time. He said he recorded over 200 different kinds of woodwind instruments, flutes, recorders, whistles, pipes, etc., before he finally decided that the ocarina was the sound he wanted. Therefore, it stands to reason that he must have done similarly involved research and experimentation to come up with the combination of electric violin and Muzzy Marcellino (the whistler, or rather, a whistler). Let's face it. You don't just jump up and say out of the blue: "I'll do that tune with an electric fiddle and a whistler!"

Anyway, the unique problem that Hugo Montenegro has is that he likes to research and experiment with all his music. He doesn't want to take what is a valid idea for one tune and, because it was successful, blow it up out of proportion and force it to fit every tune he does. This "freedom" to experiment is always a problem to any successful recording artist because the recording industry and the public tend to embrace the result of experimentation – the sound, the style, the lick, or whatever-instead of the motivation that caused it to be created. We always believe in the miracle instead of why or where from which it comes.

In this album Hugo Montenegro has come up with some new licks as a result of research and experimentation. The big concept, I think, is his utilization of voices. In popular music of late the "group" vocal backing behind the lead singer has become as important and involved artistically as the lead or melody. Hugo has taken the vocal backing of rock, folk rock, bossa nova, etc., and brought it up front, producing an interesting and exciting vocal effect. Because of the spirit in which it was created, GOOD VIBRATIONS can definitely be felt from this album.

Good Vibrations

Classical Gas

Another Place, Another Time (theme from the television production, "The Outcasts")

Tony's Theme (from the Twentieth Century-Fox release, "Lady In Cement")

A Future Left Behind (theme from "The Big Valley")

Lady In Cement (from the Twentieth Century-Fox release, "Lady In Cement")

Happy Together

Lullaby From "Rosemary's Baby" (from the Paramount picture, "Rosemary's Baby)

Knowing When To Leave (from the Broadway production, "Promises, Promises")

Night Rider

Love Is Blue

Thomas Morley - Elizabethan Madrigals - The New York Pro Musica Antiqua

 

Miraculous Love's Wounding

Thomas Morley (1557 - 1603)

Elizabethan Madrigals - Canzonets - Balletts

The New York Pro Musica Antiqua

Conducted by Noah Greenberg

With Incidental Virginal Interludes played by Blanche Winogron

Counterpoint/Esoteric CPT 520 (S-2397 - 5520)

1966

THE PRIMAVERA SINGERS

RUTH DAIGON - Soprano

LOIS ROMAN - Soprano

RUSSELL OBERLIN - Counter-Tenor

ARTHUR SQUIRES - Tenor

CHARLES BRESSLER - Tenor

BRAYTON LEWIS - Bass

THE PRIMAVERA SINGERS of the NEW YORK PRO MUSICA ANTIQUA, formed with the purpose of faithfully presenting the neglected works of Medieval. Renaissance and Baroque music, have performed in concerts of vocal and instrumental music of this period. Noah Greenberg, the conductor of The Primavera Singers, was instrumental in the founding of the New York Pro Musica Antiqua, and leads an active musical life as a choral director, composer, and teacher in that city. He has been a student of the Renaissance period for many years and has done much to heighten interest in this music among musicians and music-lovers.

Blanche Winogron has appeared as a Virginalist in concert and on radio. She has devoted many years to the study and performance of early keyboard music and has begun to record the literature for this beautiful instrument. Her set of Virginals were made especially for her in 1936 by John Challis of Detroit, and is a faithful reproduction of the seventeenth century English Virginals.

From the back cover: Thomas Morley was one of the leading musical figures in Elizabethan England. A pupil of the great William Byrd. "founder" of the English Madrigal School. Morley distinguished himself as a composer, theoritician, organist and publisher.

From the sparce facts that remain concerning Morley's life, we know that he was born circa 1557 married in 1587 and took his degree of B. Mus. at Oxford in the next year. He became organist at St. Paul's. London. a short time after this and left that post when sworn in as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1592. The records at St. Helen's (where Morley's children were baptized) indi- cate that Morley lived in the parish of Little St. Helen's. Bishopsgate. between 1596 and 1601. as did William Shakespeare. Morley's health was poor during these years and it is believed he died in the year 1603.

Morley and his contemporaries were strongly influenced by the Italian School but their works were unmistakably English in flavor. The music this master has left us images all we know and love about Elizabethan England: its great exuberance, its elegant tragedy and its "kindly lust."

SIDE ONE

From – the First Booke of Balletts to Five Voyces. 1595.

SING WE AND CHANT IT
While love doth grant it.
Not long youth lasteth.

And old age hasteth. 

Now is best leisure 

To take our pleasure. 

All things invite us 

Now to delight us. 

Hence, care, be packing! 

No mirth be lacking! 

Let spare no treasure 

To live in pleasure.

From – Canzonets or Little Short Songs to Three Voyces. 1593.

CEASE. MINE EYES. cease your lamenting.
In vain you hope of her hard heart's relenting.
Drop not so fast. O cease your flowing!
O drop not where no grace is growing!
She laughs, she smiles, she plays with joy and gladness 

To see your grief and sadness.

O love, thou art abused!
Was ne'er true love so scornfully thus used!

From –  the First Booke of Balletts to Five Voyces. 1595.

NOW IS THE MONTH OF MAYING,
When merry lads are playing
Each with his bonny lass
Upon the greeny grass.
The Spring, clad all in gladness. 

Doth laugh at Winter's sadness. 

And to the bagpipe's sound
The nymphs tread out their ground. 

Fie then! why sit we musing. 

Youth's sweet delight refusing? 

Say, dainty nymphs, and speak.

 Shall we play barley-break?

Virginal Interlude – BARAFOSTUS DREAME (ANON.)

From – the First Booke of Canzonets to Two Voyces. 1595.

MIRACULOUS LOVE'S WOUNDING!
Even those darts, my sweet Phyllis,
So fiercely shot against my heart rebounding. 

Are turned to roses, violets and lilies,
With odour sweet abounding.

From – Madrigalls to Foure Voyces.... the First Booke. 1594.

NOW IS THE GENTLE SEASON FRESHLY FLOWERING, 

To sing and play and dance. while May endureth. 

And woo and wed, that sweet delight procureth.

THE FIELDS ABROAD with spangled flowers are gilded. 

The meads are mantled, and closes.
In May each bush arrayed and sweet wild roses. 

The nightingale her bower hath gaily builded. 

And full of kindly lust and love's inspiring. 

'I love, I love,' she sings, her mate desiring.

Virginal Interlude – GALIARDA (MORLEY.)

From – the First Booke of Canzonets to Two Voyces. 1595.

I GO BEFORE. MY DARLING.
Follow thou to the bower in the close alley.
There we will together
Sweetly kiss each other.
And like two wantons dally.

From – the First Booke of Balletts to Five Voyces. 1595.

LADY. THOSE CHERRIES PLENTY.
Which grow on your lips dainty.
Ere long will fade and languish.
Then now, while yet they last them.
O let me pull and taste them.

A Dialogue to Seven Voyces

PHYLLIS. I FAIN WOULD DIE NOW. 

O to die what should move thee? 

For that you do not love me. 

I love thee! but plain to make it. 

Ask what thou wilt and take it. 

O sweet, then this I crave thee, 

Since you to love will have me, 

Give me in my tormenting, 

One kiss for my contenting. 

This unawares doth daunt me. 

Else what thou wilt I grant thee. 

Ah Phyllis! well I see then 

My death thy joy will be then. 

O no, no, no, I request thee
To tarry but some fitter time and leisure..
Alas. death will arrest me
You know before I shall possess this treasure.
Temper this sadness.
No, no, dear, do not languish.
For time and love with gladness
Once ere long will provide for this our anguish.
(CLAIRE HOLMES. Assisting Artist... Alto)

SIDE TWO

From – the First Booke of Balletts to Five Voyces. 1595.

MY BONNY LASS SHE SMILETH
When she my heart beguileth.
Smile less, dear love, therefore, 

And you shall love me more. 

When she her sweet eye turneth, 

O how my heart it burneth! 

Dear love. call in their light. 

O else you'll burn me quite!

LO. SHE FLIES WHEN I WOO HER.
Nor can I get unto her.
But why do I complain me?
Say. if I die. she hath unkindly slain me.

Virginal Interlude – IRISHE DUMPE (ANON.)

LEAVE THIS TORMENTING AND STRANGE ANGUISH, 

Or kill my heart oppressed. Alas, it skill not!
For thus I will not.
Now contented,
Then tormented.
Live in love and languish.
Virginal Interlude

GOE FROM MY WINDOW (MORLEY.)

From – Madrigalls to Foure Voyces... the First Booke. 1594.

CLORINDA FALSE, ADIEU, THY LOVE TORMENTS ME. 

Let Thyrsis have thy heart since he contents thee.
O grief and bitter anguish!
For thee, unkind, I languish!
Fain I. alas, would hide it.
O but who can? I cannot, I, abide it.
Adieu, adieu, leave me, death now desiring. Thou hast, lo, thy requiring.
Thus spake Philistus on his hook relying,
And sweetly fell a-dying.

Virginal Interlude – CAN SHEE (ANON.)

From – the First Booke of Balletts to Five Voyces. 1595.
FIRE! FIRE! MY HEART!
O help! Ay me! I sit and cry me.
And call for help. but none comes nigh me!
O. I burn me! alas!
I burn! Ay me! will none come quench me? Cast water on. alas. and drench me.

At The Drop Of A Hat - Michael Flanders and Donald Swann

 

A Reluctant Cannibal

At The Drop Of A Hat

Michael Flanders and Donald Swann

Angel Records S 35797

1957

From the back cover: TWO AUTHORS, with no previous reputation as entertainers, performing their own numbers on an empty stage for two hours would seem ideal compulsory viewing in that private hell reserved for wicked theatre managers.

Yet Michael Flanders and Donald Swann have received enthusiastic and unanimous approval for their farrago, "At the Drop of a Hat". Before it arrived on Broadway, it had enjoyed a long run at London's Fortune Theatre from January 24, 1957 to May 2, 1959-759 performances, plus a special week's engagement at the 1959 Edinburgh Festival. London critics described the show as "the neatest... smartest... brightest... wittiest... most civilized... scintillating... exquisite in every respect," etc.

Both in their early thirties, Flanders and Swann write at the piano and test the result on friends, relations, even passing window-cleaners. As authors they were responsible for much of the success of Laurier Lister's "Airs on a Shoestring" which ran for over 900 performances at the Royal Court Theatre, "Penny Plain," "Fresh Airs" and other London revues.

But they found that many of their songs, written in their own personal idiom, were only suited to their own style of performance, with- out staging. "At the Drop of a Hat" is the result: they feel that in a way, they have been rehearsing it all their lives.

They met at Westminster School where they collaborated on a revue in 1940. Both went on to Christ Church, Oxford, where Flanders acted and read History ("Greensleeves"); Swann was at the piano in Sandy Wilson's undergraduate revues and read Modern Languages. After a spell at the Oxford Playhouse, Flanders served in a destroyer on convoy to Russia and Malta and was torpedoed off Africa ("The Hippopotamus Song"). Swann was with the Friends Ambulance Units in Greece. An attack of polio in 1943 left Michael Flanders in a wheel-chair, which he considers a perfect mask for constitutional laziness, and he turned to radio and TV where he has made over 1,000 broadcasts and where he evolved the intimate style of commentary that he uses in the show ("Song of Reproduction"). His translation of Stravinsky's "Soldier's Tale" is now the standard English version and his concert performance of it with Peter Ustinov and Sir Ralph Richardson was a surprise sell-out. Donald Swann, one of the best light pianists in England, is much in demand as composer, musical director and accompanist.

In performances bluff, bearded Flanders and diffident, bespectacled Swann have been described as "Falstaff singing duets with Hamlet." They write in Flanders' contemporary studio ("Design for Living"). Swann is married and has two daughters ("Misalliance"); Flanders is not ("Madeira").

Success has not changed them, they are still the same arrogant, self- opinionated pair they always were. Flanders has made it clear that he will not accept a Peerage unless Swann gets a Bishopric.

BROADWAY DOFFS ITS HAT!

"Lively, witty, literate, ingratiating, explosively funny, and excellent, excellent companions for a daffy and delightful evening." – Walter Kerr, N. Y. HERALD TRIBUNE

"A two-man revue continuously bubbling with offbeat pleasure... wit, charm, heartsease, and immaculate timing... There is nothing on Broadway I would rather see twice." – Kenneth Tynan, THE NEW YORKER

"Utterly delightful... beautifully civilized entertainment. The songs are a joy, the commentary is sparkling." – Richard Watts, Jr., N. Y. POST

"Outrageously funny... merry, sharp and adult." – Frank Aston, N. Y. WORLD TELEGRAM & SUN

"As engagingly funny a pair as any nation need ask for or any theatre season expect... Sharply satirical... gaily whimsical... sophisticated. They can be most lively when most deadpan, and most deadly when most daft." – TIME

"Fun from London... highly funny... Two for a fine show." – NEWSWEEK

A Transport Of Delight

Song Of Reproduction

Greensleeves

In Teh Bath

A Gnu

Songs Of Our Time

  Philological Waltz

  Satellite Moon

  A Happy Song

A Song Of The Weather

The Reluctant Cannibal

Design For Living

Tried By The Centre Court

Misalliance

Maderia, M'Dear?

The Worn Pom

Hippopotamus