Around The World In Jazz - England - Buddy Featherstonhaugh / Harry Hayes

 

Around The World In Jazz - England

Around The World In Jazz

England

Buddy Featherstonhaugh and The Radio Rhythm Club Sextet

Harry Hayes and His Band

RCA Victor Popular Collector's Issue LPT 3034 (10-inch disk LP)

1953

From the back cover: Jazz With A British Accent 

Jazz, which until recently was regarded in this country exclusively as an export product, has gained increasing recognition during the past few years in its imported form. Because of the success in America of such artists as George Shearing and Marian McPartland, English Jazz in particular has enjoyed the respect of American jazzmen and the enthusiastic support of the American public.

The two artists featured in the present collection, though virtually unknown in this country, have enjoyed long and successful careers in England careers that date back even before George Shearing was known in his native land.

Rupert Edward Lee ("Buddy") Featherstonhaugh, born in Paris, in 1909, of an English father and a Scottish mother, acquired his first saxophone in 1924 while in Eastbourne College in England, and became prominent a few years later as tenor sax soloist with the celebrated Spike Hughes recording outfit. A solo he played on one of his early records was copied note for note by Joe Garland in a later record of the same tune (Buddy's Wednesday Outing) by Mills' Blue Rhythm Band. This was doubtless the first example on record of an American jazz soloist imi- tating an Englishman.

Buddy played and recorded in most of the top English bands, including Ray Noble's; he was a featured soloist with the British band formed by Louis Armstrong on the latter's first visit to England; he played on a number of Benny Carter's English recordings.

In his spare time, Buddy achieved some fame as an auto racing driver for Whitney Straight, and was the first Englishman in ten years to win a European Grand Prix. During the war he formed a band in the RAF, which became the BBC Radio Rhythm Club Sextet. This is the group heard in the present recordings.

* * *

Harry Hayes, like Buddy, worked with both Benny Carter and Louis Armstrong during their tours, and has long been considered the English counterpart of Carter on the alto sax. Like Buddy, too, he is a Melody Maker poll, winner (first place on alto from 1942 through 1948).

Harry played with many name bands before the war, among them Ambrose, Maurice Winick, Geraldo, and Harry Roy. During the war he enlisted with the Welsh Guards. After demobilization, he formed his own band to play at Churchill's Club in London.

On his long series of records for RCA Victor's English affiliate, Harry featured such musicians as Kenny Baker, England's top trumpeter; George Shearing, who played piano and wrote many arrangements for many sides; and Norman Stenfalt, a leading pianist and arranger who used to vie for honors with George. Stenfalt's Three o'Clock Jump, in this group of performances, is a good example of his work. – Leonard Feather - Associate Editor, Down Beat

Buddy Featherstonhaugh and The Radio Rhythm Club Sextet

One O'Clock Jump

Soft Winds

Stevedore Stomp

Seven Come Eleven

Harry Hayes and His Band

One, Two, Three, Four, Jump

No Script

Three O'Clock Jump

Horn A-Plenty - Bobby Hackett

 

Horn A-Plenty

Horn A-Plenty

Bobby Hackett

Trumpet Solos

Commodore Records FL 20,016 (10 inch LP)

1951

Side One - 1

Personnels:

JACK TEAGARDEN, Trombone; BUD FREEMAN, Tenor Sax; PEE WEE RUSSELL, Clarinet; JESS STACEY, Piano; BOBBY HACKETT, Cornet; EDDIE CONDON, Guitar; GEORGE WETTLING, Drums; ARTIE SHAPIRO, Bass. (April, 1938)

Side One - 2

BOBBY HACKETT, Cornet; PEE WEE RUSSELL, Clarinet; BUD FREEMAN, Tenor Sax; GEORGE BRUNIES, Trombone; JESS STACEY, Piano; EDDIE CONDON, Guitar; GEORGE WETTLING, Drums; ARTIE SHAPIRO, Bass. January, 1938)

Side One - 3, Side Two - 1, 4

BOBBY HACKETT, Trumpet; PEE WEE RUSSELL, Clarinet; ERNIE CACERES, Baritone Sax; LOU MCGARITY, Trombone; EDDIE CONDON, Guitar; JESS STACEY, Piano; GEORGE WETTLING, Drums. (September, 1944)

Side Two - 2, 3

BOBBY HACKETT, Trumpet; MIFF MOLE, Trombone; PEE WEE RUSSELL, Clarinet; ERNIE CA- CERES, Baritone Sax; EDDIE CONDON, Guitar; GENE SCHROEDER, Piano; BOB CASEY, Bass; JOE GRAUSO, Drums. (April, 1944)

Embraceable You

Jada

When Day Is Done

New Orleans

Beale Street Blues

I Must Have That Man

Skeleton Jangle

Brad Gowans And His New York Nine

 

Brad Gowans And His New York Nine

Brad Gowans And His New York Nine

RCA Victor LJM-3000 (10 inch LP)

1954

Brad Gowans - Trombone

Billy Butterfield - Trumpet

Arthur Rollini - Tenor Sax

Joe Dixon - Clarinet

Paul Ricci - Bass Sax

Joe Bushkin - Piano

Tony Colucci - Guitar

Jack Lesberg - Bass

Dave Tough - Drums

From the inside (gatefold) cover: The selections in this album were all recorded on April 10, 1946, by a band especially assembled under the tutelage of the celebrated master of the combined valve-and-slide trombone, Brad Gowans. Only two of these sides Jazz Me Blues and Singin' the Blues have ever been released before; in all eight is heard some of the most remarkable jazz of any period, the result of a session which produced startlingly original work in both solos and ensemble.

If anyone set out to prove just how inventive good jazz can be, these sides would offer the most convincing evidence. Take Brad Gowans and Billy Butterfield, two of the best brass men in the business; throw in a considerable amount of Arthur Rollini at his best; add a dash of Joe Dixon and Paul Ricci; and serve with a superlative rhythm section-the results could not be anything but the most exciting.

In addition to his status as one of jazzdom's great trombonists, Brad Gowans is possibly the country's number one baseball fan, a fact which offers sufficient explanation for the sporting title of his recording group. It is also interesting to note, if only in passing, that the session was led by Gowans attired in his habitual baseball cap, an accoutrement which may or may not account for the music's complete abandon. With a long background of great recordings he has cut sides with such musicians as Eddie Condon, Bud Freeman, Bobby Hackett and Art Hodes – Brad finally came into his own when he assembled this band for the eight sides heard here. Blowing a combination valve-and-slide trombone of his own invention – he is undoubtedly the only musician playing a bastard instrument of this kind-he brought to the present aggregation not only his marvelously driving style, but an ensemble spirit that sparked everyone else to feats of greater virtuosity.

Almost equally responsible for the excitement of these sides is Billy Butterfield, a trumpeter who blows both hot and sweet, and whose style and tone have made him one of the most sought- after sidemen in the game. His marvelous lead work on Poor Butterfield a Gowans original which, incidentally, contains a tasty Rollini solo reminiscent of Bud Freeman's on The Eel – is at least equalled by the poetic way in which he attacks the lovely Carolina in the Morning.

It is, indeed, difficult to single out any particular soloist in this all-star aggregation. Joe Dixon's clarinet, especially in Clari-jama, is both aggressive and restrained; and Paul Ricci's bass sax lends a different flavor to every side. The rhythm sec- tion is solid throughout, with Joe Bushkin contributing several of his fanciful solo flights, and with Dave Tough-this was, in- cidentally, his last date-backing everyone with the beat that made him one of the greatest, and most underrated, of drummers. In all, this is the sort of jazz one is not privileged to hear very often rugged, but disciplined; exhilarating and com- pletely relaxed. It was a session in which all the participants were equally inspired, one in which they created, singly and together, some of the most memorable jazz of recent years. – BILL ZEITUNG

Poor Butterfield

I'm Coming Virginia

Jazz Me Blues

Stompin' At The Savoy

Singin' The Blues

Clari-jama

Carolina In The Morning

Jada

Classics In Jazz - Bobby Sherwood

 

Classics In Jazz

Classics In Jazz

Bobby Sherwood

Capitol Records H320 (10 inch LP)

From the back cover: Bobby Sherwood is a musician's musician... a fine arranger, he also blows great trumpet and saxophone and plays sensational guitar. Born in Indianapolis of parents who were vaudeville stars, Bobby's whole life has been spent in show business... did a banjo act in blackface when he was nine... later formed his own trio to work with Ken Murray at the Los Angeles Paramount Theatre... then into radio and motion picture music... a stint with Artie Shaw's band... in 1942 formed his own band. This collection displays the versatility of that wonderful aggregation of the 1940's...a band with two outstanding characteristics: First, a solid "drive," always apparent... second, a matchless precision in performance – rhythm, brass, and saxes blend, phrase and "feel" together perfectly. Truly one of the great bands of all time!

SHERWOOD'S FOREST recorded June 18, 1946 in Los Angeles, California: Bobby Sherwood, Mannie Klein, Jack Walker, Don Dean, John Gabel, Ray Downs, Trumpets; Herbie Haymer, Seymour Press, Henry Facometta, Martin Glaser, Dave Cavanaugh, Merle Bredwell, Saxes; Wesson Cope, Phil Layton, Bob Leaman, James Marshall, Trombones; Ike Carpenter, Piano; Bart Edwards, Bass; Keith Williams, Drums; Bass Hutchinson, Guitar.

A progressive treatment of a modern descriptive piece. Orches- tration is full and performance sets a new standard. This is the first selection Sherwood recorded for Capitol.

SWINGIN' AT THE SEMLOH recorded December 2, 1943 in New York City: Bobby Sherwood, Trumpet and Guitar; William Moore, Bob Higgins, Charles Cognata, Eddie Greene, Trumpets; Albert Chait, Bob Leaman, Dave Clark, Trombones; Eddie Lucas, Ray Beckenstein, David Pell, Evan Aiken, Franklin Myers, Saxes; Joe Geneli, Bass; Ray Harte, Drums; Harold Becker, Piano; Charles Hutchinson, Guitar.

Bobby Sherwood is featured on unamplified guitar throughout this original, which has become a classic for all guitarists - incidentally the Semlôh was a ballroom located in Salt Lake City.

COTTON TAIL recorded October 30, 1945 in Los Angeles California: Bobby Sherwood, Eddie Greene, Keith Williams, Bobby Burns, Bob Haddick, Trumpets; Ken Matlock, Bob Leaman, Don Kelly, Trombones; Les Webel, Eddie Lucas, Herbie Haymer, Saxes; Joseph McAnarney, Clarinet; Garth Rasmus- sen, Baritone; Eddie Kalfas, Bass; Hollis Sulser, Piano; Bass Hutchinson, Guitar; Melvin Patterson, Drums.

Real wild jazz in breakneck tempo- outstanding Sherwood trum- pet, two choruses of Joe McAnarney's lightning-fast clarinet and superb Herbie Haymer tenor sax.

WALKIN' AND TALKIN' recorded October 30, 1945 in Los Angeles, California: Bobby Sherwood, Eddie Greene, Keith Williams, Bobby Burns, Bob Haddick, Trumpets; Ken Matlock, Bob Leaman, Don Kelly, Trombones; Les Webel, Eddie Lucas, Herbie Haymer, Saxes; Joseph McAnarney, Clarinet; Garth Rasmussen, Baritone; Eddie Kalfas, Bass; Hollis Sulser, Piano; Bass Hutchinson, Guitar; Melvin Patterson, Drums.

Relaxed rhythm – nonchalant, yet full-throated trumpet - and a discing that displays the Sherwood band's precision.

THE ELKS' PARADE recorded May 5, 1942 in Los Angeles, Cali- fornia: Bobby Sherwood, Gene Morgan, Bob Goodrich, Clyde Hurley, Trumpets; Bill Covey, Willy Martinas, John Hamilton, Bud Carlton, Champ Webb, Saxes; King Jackson, Joe Yukl, Trombones; John Cyr, Drums; Jud Denant, Bass; Bass Hutchin- son, Guitar; Gene Plummer, Piano.

A "parade" number comparable to the famous "South Rampart St."... alto sax as played by Bill Covey combines rhythm and tone Willy Martinas' clarinet and the Sherwood trumpet build with the band into a real "flag-waver"– great tenor sax by Johnny Hamilton.

BUGLE CALL RAG recorded March 17, 1947 in Los Angeles, California: Bobby Sherwood, Bob McKinzie, Frank Beach, Claude Bowen, Trumpets; Dave Cavanaugh, Herbie Haymer, Joe Koch, Art Herfurt, Claude Lakey, David Pell, Saxes; Phil Washburn, Ralph Pfiffner, Walter Benson, Ray Sims, Trom- bones; Bass Hutchinson, Guitar; Harold Becker, Piano; Keith Williams, Drums; Herman Stutz, Bass.

An unusual interpretation of the bugle call theme – Sherwood plays the trumpet down in the low register and effectively spots the half-valve technique.

POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL recorded November 13, 1944 in Los Angeles, California: Bobby Sherwood, Eddie Greene, Don Anderson, George Wendt, George Thow, Trumpets; E. V. Covey, M. L. Carlton, Eddie Lucas, Joe Philips, Harry Schuchman, Saxes; L. L. Nichols, Piccolo; Joe Yukl, Jack Jenney, Bob Leaman, Trombones; Stan Wrightsman, Piano; Bass Hutchinson, Guitar; Artie Shapiro, Bass; John Cyr, Drums. 

A solid beat from rim to edge, paced by John Cyr's great drums. Bobby's powerful horn provides the solo spots.

MAKIN' WHOOPEE recorded December 4, 1944 in Los Angeles, California: Bobby Sherwood, Eddie Greene, Bobby Burns, Don Anderson, Bill Waddilove, Trumpets; Bob Leaman, Bert Johnson, Al Thompson, Trombones; Joe McAnarney, Bob Graettinger, Herbie Haymer, Eddie Lucas, Harry Schuchman, Saxes; Don Tosti, Bass; Bass Hutchinson, Guitar; John Cyr, Drums; Fritz Becker, Piano.

A change of pace demonstrating the moderate tempo treatment of a fine standard. Again, Bobby Sherwood's identification is his full-toned trumpet.

Great Jazz - Various

 

Great Jazz

Great Jazz

Galaxy Series Longplay 4831

From the back cover: CARLOS WESLEY "DON" BYAS, tenor saxophonist, was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma on October 21, 1912. His mother played the piano, his father, the clarinet. He had his own group at college in 1930 and was with Eddie Barefield in Los Angeles in 1935. He worked with Don Redman, Lucky Millinder, Eddie Mallory and Andy Kirk. He was with Count Basie in 1941 and at the Yacht Club with Coleman Hawkins. In 1944 he was with Dizzy Gillespie's quintet and in 1946 worked with Don Redman in Europe. Byas remained and toured the continent and made a European tour with Duke Ellington in 1950. He finally settled in France. He is known for the big tenor sound in the Hawkins school but with his own modern characteristics added, rhythmically and melodically. 

BENJAMIN FRANCIS WEBSTER, tenor sax, was born in Kansas City, Missouri on February 27, 1909. He studied violin and piano but mainly taught himself on saxophone. He made his professional debut as a pianist in a band in Enid, Oklahoma; played piano with Dutch Campbell, alto and tenor sax with Gene Coy, then worked with Jap Allen, Blanche Calloway and Andy Kirk. He came to New York City in 1932 with Bennie Moten. In 1933-34, he played with Benny Carter and Fletcher Henderson, and later with Willie Bryant, Cab Calloway, Stuff Smith. He became best known through a long intermittent association with Duke Ellington which began in 1935 and he was with the Duke continuously from late 1939 until 1943 and again for a few months in 1948. In the mid-'40s he worked mainly with local bands in Kansas City. After his last departure from Ellington he toured with his own combo.

Webster belongs with Coleman Hawkins and Chu Berry among the titans of the tenor saxophone. He is of the "old school" in the sense that his tone is big and warm, his style vivid and forceful. He is of a timeless school, inasmuch as his work has been respected and eulogized by adherents of every jazz faction.

COLEMAN HAWKINS, tenor saxophonist, was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, on November 21, 1904. He started on piano, later cello and then the tenor sax. He attended Washburn College in Topeka. He worked with Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds on tour in 1922-1923, coming to New York with her. He made his first records with Fletcher Henderson in June, 1923, and during his decade with this band became the first (and for a while the only) jazzman to attain fame as a tenor saxophonist, his monopoly on the instrument later being challenged by Bud Freeman, Chu Berry, et al. Having earned a world-wide reputation, he left Henderson in 1934, worked in England with the bands of Jack Hylton and Mrs. Jack Hylton, then toured the continent on his own, making many records, with Benny Carter, Django Reinhardt and others. He returned to the United States in 1939 and formed a nine-piece band which, on October 11th, recorded 'Body and Soul' for Bluebird. This became his biggest hit and established him as a national jazz name. Hawkins' role as a pioneer in his field was one of incomparable importance. He brought to this hitherto-ignored instrument a full-blooded warmth of tone, a buoyancy of rhythmic feeling that put him head and shoulders above the handful of tenor artists who attempted to challenge his dominance in the 1930s. By the early '40s there were innumerable great tenor sax soloists on the jazz scene; by the late '40s it had become the most-used, most abused instrument in jazz, with the advent of the "honking" and other freak styles appealing to race and blues audiences, but Hawkins, whose big tone was no longer fashionable after the advent of the Stan Getz "cool school," remained a superb musician whose performances on slow tempi were still vital and compelling.

STANLEY GETZ, tenor sax, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 2, 1927. He started on bass in New York City, then bassoon. He attended James Monroe High School in the Bronx and played in the All City Orchestra. When he was 15, he played with Dick "Stinky" Rogers, went back to school, and then into bands again at 16 with Jack Teagarden, Dale Jones, Bob Chester. He played with Kenton from 1944 to 1945, then briefly with Jimmy Dorsey Benny Goodman. He worked with Randy Brooks, Buddy Morrow and Herbie Fields and then moved to California in 1947 where he worked with Butch Stone and also had his own trio at the Swing Club in Hollywood. In September, 1947, he joined the new Woody Herman band in rehearsal and remained until 1949. Getz, Zoot Sims, Serge Chaloff, Herbie Steward, (later Al Cohn) comprised the celebrated "Four Brothers" in the tone of that name which was recorded by Woody Herman and that gave the band its identifying sound. Getz rose to prominence with Woody Herman's record of "Early Autumn". He led a quartet with Al Haig on piano. In 1951 he toured Scandinavia and in 1952 he did NBC studio work. in New York City but soon returned to leading his group, usually a quintet. One of the great interpreters of ballad material, a sound style-setter in the post-bop "cool" era and a fine technician, Getz was internationally recognized as the top tenor sax man of the 1950s.

CHARLIE VENTURA (Charles Venturo), saxophonist and band leader, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 2, 1916. He was the fourth of 13 children. He started playing the C melody sax in 1931 and was greatly influenced by Chu Berry. He worked in his father's hat factory, and from 1940 to 1942 at the Navy Yard, jamming frequently with Bill Harris, Dizzy Gillespie, "Little Jazz" Eldridge, "Buddy" De Franco. He played tenor with Gene Krupa in 1942 to 1943 and again from 1944 to 1946 and also with Teddy Powell from 1943 to 1944. He had his own band from 1946 to 1947 and from 1947 to 1949 he led a series of small bop combos that earned him great popularity as a leader. He made frequent use of bop singing, often in unison with his own horn. He had his own big band gain for a year, but gave it up in February, 1951. He ran his own night club, the Open House, outside of Philadelph December, 1950 until the summer of 1954. He was featured in the "Big Four" with Buddy Rich, Chubby Jack Napoleon from August, 1951, was then with Gene Krupa trio from January to June, 1952, during which tinted Japan with Krupa. Since that time he has his own combos. Though Ventura is mainly known as a tenor saxophonist he has often been heard on soprano, alto, baritone and bass sax.

THEODORE MALCOLM "TED" NASH, tenor saxophonist, flutist, piccolo player, etc. was born in Somerville, Massachusetts on October 31, 1922. His mother was a concert singer. Nash, who had no formal training other than school, went on the road at the age of 17. He is best known as the featured soloist with Les Brown in 1944 to 1946 and Jerry Gray, 1947 to 1952. However, he has been heard (mostly on records) with dozens of name hands while living in Los Angeles, among them Bob Crosby, Dave Barbour, Pete Rugolo and Ray Anthony He has also worked frequently in movie studios.

Don Byas

September Song

They Say It's Wonderful

Ben Webster

Honeysuckle Rose

Coleman Hawkins

Ole Man River

Wrap Your Troubles

In Dreams

Stan Getz

Don't Worry About Me

And The Angels Sing

Charlie Ventura

Dark Eyes

Big Deal

Ted Nash

Over The Rainbow

Annie Laurie

The Metropolitan Pops Orchestra Plays Instrumental Version of Bob Dylan Favorites

 

Bob Dylan Favorites

The Metropolitan Pops Orchestra

Plays Instrumental Versions of Bob Dylan Favorites

Produced and Arranged by Alan Lorber

Director of Engineering: Val Valentin

Cover Art: Peter Max

Cover Design: Michael Malta

Metro Records STEREO MS-597

1966

From the back cover: It may seem a strange, mixed bag at first; "What's the work of a fiery, wild-haired composer, high-priest of the beatniks and teeny-boppers doing – being played by, for heaven's sake, the Metropolitan Pops Orchestra?" The fascinating answer is right here in the grooves of this record. A sampling will make you feel that Mr. Dylan and the Metropolitan Pops were practically made for each other.

Like A Rolling Stone

It Ain't Me Babe

It's All Over Now Baby Blue

She Belongs To Me

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

One Too Many Mornings

Positively 4th Street

All I Really Want To Do

Mr. Tambourine Man

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Piano Rhapsodies Of Love - George Greeley

 

Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini

Piano Rhapsodies Of Love

George Greeley - His Piano and Orchestra

R-6092

From the back cover: Although the word "rhapsody" can be traced to Homer, it has been a popular label only since the nineteenth century, only indeed since Liszt. It was he, with his Hungarian Rhapsodies, who turned the term for a mere fragment into the definition of a richly set medley. And a piano rhapsody, in particular, has since his time always evoked the image of a master at the keyboard: a man of classi- cal training and virtuosity, a man with personal style. Such is certainly the description of George Greeley. Educated at Columbia University, the University of Southern California, and the Juilliard School of Music, Greeley also took private instruction under Ernst Toch in California. It is to Toch especially he feels most indebted for his knowledge of form and his attitude toward composition. When it comes to playing the music of other composers, Greeley says, "I try never to violate the composer's intention." With regard to Ravel's Pavane pour une infante defunte, for example, which has been popularized as "The Lamp Is Low," Greeley returned to Ravel's original piano score, published in 1899. Ravel himself had orchestrated the piece nine years later, and Greeley was also influenced by that treatment in the coloration of his own. "The tune always dictates the style of the arrangement. In Rachmaninoff's 18th Variation on a Theme of Paganini and in Debussy's Clair de lune I merely orchestrated the piano part. And what I play on the piano is exactly what was published." When a classical theme is widely known as a popular song, however, Greeley feels at liberty to make whatever modifications he wants. And both of the Chopin works here are his own recensions. Sometimes he blends both the old and the new to give an old standard brand-new excitement. The traditional air "Greensleeves" has once again received a traditional orchestral setting, with the suggestion of Elizabethan lutes and hautboys. But the tempo is hardly traditional: strictly measured, slightly up-tempo, it creates an amusing picture of minstrels who march, not wander, through jolly Old England. "Mardi Gras," the concluding section to Ferde Grofé's Mississippi Suite, begins with Greeley retaining Grofé's syncopated rhythms of the Twenties. But then there is a transition to a contemporary tempo and Greeley's distinctive phrasing. Grofé has always called "Mardi Gras" his favorite work, and he should certainly favor this arrangement.

How to handle the melodic line in performance is a matter that perplexes every musician. Gide frequently fretted about it in his journals and finally concluded he wanted it "deeply embedded in the friendly atmosphere created by the other voices, which evoke a constantly shimmering immaterial landscape." George Greeley defines the problem differently. Originally a rhapsody was a song; therefore the problem is to treat the piano as though it too could breathe and sing. When a song has a lyric, Greeley says "I read the lyric and play the tune as though it were singing. I impose the tune loosely on the orchestra." It is this melodic interpretation, this holding-back in the rhythmic phrasing, which keeps the image of the pianist always before one as he listens to a Greeley record. The virtuosity of the man never escapes us.

Nor do his energy and versatility. For the 1963-64 TV season he is writing and conducting the music for a CBS Sunday night series, "My Favorite Martian." It means scoring a new show every six days for a minimum of twenty-six weeks. During the same months he will also give a series of ten concerts on the West Coast. And, hopefully, he will be thinking about another album. He has cut twelve LPs in the past five years. This is his first on Reprise, the first of a new series. And it's a great beginning. –LAWRENCE D. STEWART

Smile (Theme from "Modern Times")

The Lamp Is Low (Pavane)

Blue Star (The Medic Theme)

Clair De Lune

The Dream Of Olwen

Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini (18th Variation, Opus 43)

Mardi Gras  (Mississippi Suite)

My Reverie (Debussy's Reverie)

No Other Love (Chopin's Etude In A Major)

Greensleeves

Chopin's Nocturne in E Flat

Whirlwinds - Deodato

 

West 42nd Street

Whirlwinds

Deodato

Produced by Eumir Deodato for Kenya Music, Inc.

Recorded at Record Plant East, New York

Sound Engineer: Carmine Rubino

Assistant Engineers: Richard Apuzzo, Kevin Herron

Cover and Inside Photos: Alen MacWeeney

Liner Photo: Frank Laffitte

Special thank to John Tropea (big help), Carmina (never tiring sound engineer), Oscar (all copies),  Elliot Donald, Barry, Mary Beth, Arlene, Bud, Gary, Cliff, Bert and all the very important people

MCA Records MCA-410

1973 (from disc label) 1974 (from jacket)

Guitar - John Tropea

Bass - John Giulino (all tracks), Tony Levin (center section and solo on "Moonlight Serendade")

Congas & Bongos - Rubens Bassini

Percussion - Gilmore Digap, Rubens Bassini, Eumir Deodato

Trumpets - Mary Stamm, Alan Rubin, John Faddis, Victor Paz, John Eckert, Larry Spencer

French Horns - Jimmy Buffington, Brooks Tillotson

Trombones - Urbie Green, Sam Burtis (solo on "Havana Strut")

Tuba - Tony Price

Flutes & Saxophones - Romeo Penque, George Marge, Phil Bodner, Artie Kaplan, Joe Temperley

Violins - Emanuel Green, Irving Spice, Michael Spivakowshy, Harold Kahn, Harry Glickman, Paul Winter, Marvin Morgenstern, Max Ellen, Carmel Malin, Norman Carri

Violas - Al Brown, Selwart Clark

Cellos - Alan Shulman, Charles McCracken

Gloria Lanzarone

Arco Basses - Russel Savages, Alvin Brehm

Moonlight Serenade

Ave Maria

Do It Again

West 42nd Street

Havana Soul

Whirlwinds

The Ramsey Lewis Trio In Chicago

 

What's New

The Ramsey Lewis Trio In Chicago

Supervision: Jack Tracy

Engineer: Ron Malo

Cover Phot: Bill Claxton

Recorded April 30, 1960, during performance at the Blue Note, Chicago

Argo LP 671

Ramsey Lews - Piano

Eldee Young - Bass

Red Holt - Drums

From the back cover: MENTION the Blue Note to any jazz fan, especially one who lives around Chicago, and you're likely to be answered by, "Wasn't that a shame!"

Because just a few weeks after this album was recorded there, the club that for more than a decade had hosted every top name in jazz had to shut down. The entertainment center of Chicago moved from The Loop across the river to the Near North side, and the Blue Note was left isolated, head still high but without a nickel in its jeans.

A lot of us who had been regulars at Frank Holzfeind's establishment ever since he first opened remembered the big years and were unhappy. Years when it was just about the only game in town, and you could walk in an hear Basie or Kenton or Woody or Brown or James or even Elliot Lawrence Or Charlie Parker with strings or Lester Young carefully picking his way through the audience after a set to head back to the dressing room where the gin was poured in larger than one-ounce quantities.

Or the one bill some years ago that featured Maxine Sullivan, Doc Evans' band, Slim Gaillard's trio, and a young, good-looking pop singer named Harry Belafonte. Or Charlie Ventura in the halcyon days with Jackie and Roy singing those wild lines and drawing crowds of the size that Miles and Jamal do now. Or Lee Wiley and Bobby Hackett, or Red Norvo, or Lennie Tristano, or Duke Ellington playing the annual Christmas parties at which kids who could barely walk heard their first big band and were big-eyed. Or Sarah Vaughan coming in time after time, year after year.

It was one helluva club, believe me, and if you never made it there you missed something..

Ramsey Lewis got there just under the wire and it was almost like old times the Saturday night we recorded him. Al greeted you at the door and Frank was already in his office (first table to the right as you walked in), martini at hand.

The audience was of healthy size, and it included a couple of disc jockeys who dropped in to see what was happening and a night life columnist who used to fall by almost every night for a quick blast before being subjected to such. indignities as having to review Liberace.

The trio was comfortably set up on the big bandstand that was really designed for Kenton and Basie and those-type housewreckers.

Not much happened the first set. Ramsey and Eldee and Red were con- scious of the recording mikes and were playing safe. They skated easily through Bags Groove and Greensleeves and two or three more, sounded good, got a nice hand, and that was about it.

The next two sets were something else. The trio forgot about the mikes and began playing to the audience. They had no difficulty establishing the warm rapport they almost always get with people, and thus nourished by sincere applause and attention, they opened up.

This 38 minutes of music is the cream of those two sets. By the fourth set the crowd had thinned considerably, the piano was drifting noticeably out of tune (Ramsey and Oscar Peterson not only play pianos, they almost destroy them at a single sitting), and the party was just about over.

You judge for yourself how good the music is. I am of the opinion it's the best the group has ever sounded on records. Happy, dynamic, swinging, colorful, it is the sort of trio you are not likely to forget once you hear it.

At the end of the evening, Frank, fresh martini held in steady grip, men- tioned idly, "You know, in all the years we've been going, no one has ever cut an album at the Blue Note before. Ramsey's will be the first.".

It will also be the last. But it's a good one, and that's the way it should be. – Jack Tracy

Old Devil Moon

What's New

Carmen

Bei Mir Bist Du Schon

I'll Remember April

Delilah

Folk Ballad

But Not For Me

C. C. Rider

The Piano Musi Of Henry Cornell - Doris Hays

 

The Piano Music Of Henry Cowell

The Piano Music Of Henry Cowell

Doris Hays

Produced by Ilhan Mimaroglu

Cover Photography: Dave Whitten

Liner Photo of Doris Hays: David Gahr

Liner Photo of Henry Cowell: Courtesy of BMI Archives

Art Direction and Cover Design: Lynn Breslin

Recording Engineer: George Piros - Atlantic Recording Studios, New York, N.Y.

Finnadar Records SP 9016

Distributed  buy Atlantic Recording Corporation

A Warner Comminications Company

1977

From the back cover: The vitality of a musical culture is apparent from the way its traditions are investigated, tested, tinkered with and generally overhauled. Henry Cowell was one investigator who influenced countless composers and listeners through his compositions, his teaching and numerous concert tours around the world performing his piano music.

Henry Cowell was born in Menlo Park, California, in 1897. He began his experiments in sound production at the keyboard, using fists, forearms and palms to produce masses of adjacent seconds which he called tone clusters. His earliest-known piece using clusters is entitled Adventures in Harmony, completed when he was about fifteen. From that time into the thirties, Cowell wrote dozens of pieces using tone clusters in a surprising variety of ways. Sometimes the cluster is pictorially program- matic, as the ostinato bass clusters imaging the pulse of waves in The Tides of Manaunaun; or is used as accenting tone mass, in Advertisement; or, for special colorative effects, as in The Voice of Lir.

Cowell also explored possibilities provided by the strings of the grand piano: damping strings at various nodes for timbre and Bitch change (Sinister Resonance); scraping and rubbing the windings of bass strings (The Banshee); and strumming and plucking strings (Aeolian Harp).

Henry Cowell began concertizing outside of the U.S. in the twenties; he gave his first concert in Europe in 1923. It was after a successful visit to Russia in 1928 that the Russian government published Tiger and The Lilt of the Reel, a first in publishing for an American in Soviet Russia. In mid-1950s Cowell and his wife toured the Middle and Far East under State Department and The Rockefeller Foundation auspices. He composed symphonic works which carry the spirit of his impressions of oriental scales and rhythmic modes gathered during these trips and from childhood influences of Chinese and other cultures in California-Ongaku, the Madras Symphony, Persian Set, Concerto for Koto.

The relationship of dissonance to consonance and the functions of overtones in harmonic theory which Cowell had explored instinctively. in his early tone cluster pieces, he then organized into carefully formulated ideas, published in the twenties as New Musical Resources, which was reissued in 1969 by Something Else Press, In 1927 he began the New Music Edition, a quarterly that published compositions of many composers who are now considered among the finest of this century including Berg, Chavez, Copland, Vivian Fine Ives, Dane Rudhyar, Ruggles and Ruth Crawford Seeger. He taught at the New School for Social Research in New York City. His wide acquaintance among living composers made of him a continuing contact center and information exchange on several continents.

Henry Cowell died December 10, 1965, at his home in Shady, New York."

The Voice of Lir (ca. 1918): "Lir of the half tongue was the father of the gods, and of the universe. When he gave the orders for creation, the gods who executed his commands understood but half of what he said, owing to his having only half a tongue; with the result that for everything that has been created there is an unexpressed and concealed counterpart, which is the other half of Lir's plan of creation." John Varian*

One of the wittier pieces, Advertisement (1914, revised in 1959) is Cowell's representation of Times Square, its lights, car horns, crowds and general bustle. In the middle of the piece, two passages of fist clusters are repeated ad lib, as one might see the signs flashing above the busy streets.

Anger Dance (ca. 1917) contains several passages to be repeated a number of times as a rather repressed fury builds.

Amiable Conversation (ca. 1914)-an (un) amiable such in a Chinese laundry, with the three-level pitch intonation of the Cantonese speech common in San Francisco when Cowell was a child. Tone cluster repartee moves back and forth between right and left arm.

The Tides of Manaunaun (1912): "Manaunaun was the god of motion, and long before the creation, he sent forth tremendous tides, which swept to and fro through the universe, and rhythmically moved the particles and materials of which the gods were later to make the suns and worlds."-Varian.

"In Aeolian Harp (ca. 1923) chords are silently depressed by the left hand, the right hand fingers strum across that string area inside the piano and the chord tones sound without a percussive hammer stroke. Strings are also plucked, and by placing or strumming the strings both behind the dampers and in front of them nearer the string pins, different timbres are obtained. It's a fairly strong wind that blows over this lyre.

This is the first disc interpretation of The Hero Sun. It was published in 1922 as part of Three Irish Legends, along with The Tides of Manaunaun and The Voice of Lir. "The gods created all the suns and sent them out into space. But these suns instead of lighting the universe, congregated closely together, enjoying each others' society, and the universe was in darkness. Then one of the gods told the suns of a place where the people were living in misery on account of the lack of light, and a strong young sun rose and hurled himself out into the darkness, until he came to this place, which was our earth; and the Hero Sun who sacrificed the companionship of the other suns to light the earth is our Sun." – Varian.

In Tiger (ca. 1928) chords built on major sevenths and massive tone clusters are the basic sound elements. Many of the techniques of cluster sound are used: both forearms fully extended with the hand to play all keys within a four-octave span in passages marked ff-ffff; flat of hand, fists, silently depressed chords of sympathetic vibration following ferociously loud clusters.

The Six Ings (Copyright date, 1922) are among the most delicate pieces Cowell wrote, if Seething and Frisking and Scooting can be called delicate because of their framework which, like an eloquently simple setting of a polished stone, however unimportant the stone, allows it a certain preciousness.

Dynamic Motion (1914) is one of the more abstract sound structures Cowell built. Opening measures make use of sympathetic vibration with silent depression of a chord, then sharply detached and accented subsequent chords related to overtones of the first chord. The sound result is light pings of overtones released indirectly, as pungent odors momentarily wafted. At one extremely loud point where a cluster is repeated by the left hand palm sixteen times, the composer calls for the right fist to press down the left hand for each repetition, which lends a certain intensity to the sound.

The Harp of Life (ca. 1925): "In Irish mythology the God of Life, who was called the Dagna, possessed the Harp of Life, whose sound-post extended above the ridge of heaven, while the pedal-stool was beneath hell; and the strings were stretched across time and space, and into eternity; and with each tone the Dagna played upon this mighty instrument, something came to life in the universe."-Varian.

What's This? (ca. 1915), published as First Encore to Dynamic Motion, is almost as short as the question,

Sinister Resonance (ca. 1930) opens with the lowest strings of the piano finger-damped at various points to produce different pitches. By damping strings in various ranges of the piano at different points along their lengths, varying overtones are augmented or suppressed and the timbral character is changed.

Fabric (ca. 1917): Within each measure in 2/4 time, three contrapuntal lines weave a texture of contrasting rhythms, dividing the whole two beats into 6 parts along with 3 parts and 8 parts in the other voices; or other combinations such as 7 to 5 to 8 parts, or 6 to 4 to 9 parts. Cowell used his own notation (various note heads) which indicated these divisions by the part of a whole note they represent, not by the usual subdivisions by halves (i.e. whole, half, quarter, eighth) which becomes confusing when odd numbers such as half-note triplets are to be represented. Cowell proposed 2/3 notes, 4/5 notes, etc.

An antinomy is a contradiction between principles each taken to be true, says Webster's. In Antinomy (ca. 1914) it occurs between clashing forearm clusters in chromatic and tonal scale passages, polyharmonic passages between hands and among curiously contrasting passages in this cemented structure.

The Trumpet of Angus Og (ca. 1922) contains hand platches on the white keys, clusters outlining the interval of a fifth, much as a child first handles the keyboard. Cowell subtitled the piece The Spirit of Youth.

The Banshee (ca. 1923), Irish haunt, wails and moans at the coming of death. These sounds, believe it or not, come from the rubbing of finger tips, scraping of finger nails and strumming of fingers and flat of hand along the windings of the bass strings inside the piano, plus an occasional string pluck in the middle range. The damper pedal is being held throughout-here by Güngör Bozkurt.

Maestoso (1938, published 1940 in New Music Edition, recorded here for the first time) uses secundal harmony as an inner voice, played by the fingers between outer octaves in the treble. The piece is a seldom example of Cowell's use of small clusters with finger technique, and a pointer for the direction his music took in later years away from the mystical muddiness of broad piles of massed seconds.

The Lilt of the Reel (ca. 1928) uses forearm and palm clusters as fattened tonal chords. As in the Irish dance, the music hurries and slows at points, but reverts always to the steady whirling 6/8. – Notes by DORIS HAYS

*In the titling and publication of his compositions Henry Cowell sometimes used John Varian's fanciful images for those listeners who required a programmatic association for his sound structures. John Varian's descriptions are quoted here by the kind permission of Associated Music Publishers Inc.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Doris Hays lived in Chattanooga until she was 21. Her earliest serious music study was with Harold Cadek in Chattanooga. Other teachers included Friedrich Wührer, Hedwig Bilgram and Oskar Koebel at the Munich Hochschule für Musik where she studied from 1963 to 1966 on a fellowship from the Bavarian Ministry of Culture. She also studied with Paul Badura-Skoda at the University of Wisconsin as a Zella Armstrong Fellow for Advanced Music Study. She discovered Henry Cowell while looking through the library of Ellsworth Snyder in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1967, and has been playing Cowell's piano music in her concerts ever since.

In 1971 she won First Prize in the Inter- national Competition for Interpreters of, New Music at Rotterdam. She has given many concerts for broadcasting stations and festivals in Holland, Germany, Italy and Yugoslavia, including the Como Festival, the Gaudeamus Composers' Week, and the May Festival with the Residence Orchestra at The Hague. Her performances in the United States include concerts on a number of university campuses, and lecture-recitals about repertoire and playing techniques of contemporary piano music.

She taught at the University of Wisconsin, Cornell .College, and Queens College of CUNY. In the autumn of 1975, she was Artist in Residence with the Georgia Council for the Arts. Doris Hays is also active as a composer and in 1976 organized and co-directed a concert series at the New School for Social Research in New York, called "Meet the Woman Composer." Since 1969 she has made her home in New York City.

Side One

1. THE VOICE OF LIR (4:29) 

2. ADVERTISEMENT (1:35) 

3. ANGER DANCE (1:33)
4. AMIABLE CONVERSATION (0:49) 

5. THE TIDES OF MANAUNAUN (3:00) 

6. AEOLIAN HARP (2:20) 

7. THE HERO SUN (3:40)
8. TIGER (3:14)
9. SIX INGS (8:05) a. Floating
   b. Frisking c. Fleeting d. Scooting
   e. Wafting
   f. Seething

Side Two

1. DYNAMIC MOTION (3:30) 

2. THE HARP OF LIFE (5:20) 

3. WHAT'S THIS? (0:51)
4. SINISTER RESONANCE (2:55) 

5. FABRIC (1:18)
6. ANTINOMY (3:20)
7. THE TRUMPET OF ANGUS OG (3:40)
8. THE BANSHEE (3:20)
9. MAESTOSO (3:32)
10. THE LILT OF THE REEL (1:55)