Reflections - Stan Getz

 

Charade

Reflections
Stan Getz
Arrangements by Claus Ogerman / Lalo Schifrin
Recorded in New York City on October 21, 22 and 28, 1963
Recording Engineer: Phil Ramone
Director of Engineering: Val Valentine

Produced by Creed Taylor
Verve V-8554

From the back cover: The year 1963 may very well go down in the annals of human confusion as the year the people took over the arts.Besides a broad acceptance of folk and country material on the musical front, the American lexicon now contains two descriptive terms that show wide public appeal: pop art and pop jazz. There's no confusing the two of course, pop art is sheer junk while pop jazz is sometimes sheer funk.

Pop art is a kind of distillation of garbage and the muse. In it the artist reworks such prosaic things as beer cans, girdles, auto tires, and auto tubes into new forms and designs.

Pop jazz is a kind of a distillation too. At its very best it is a music that takes all the swing and the power and the heart of jazz and places them in a framework of material and arrangement that will appeal to the widest possible audience.

Stan Getz, of course, is one of the leading artists in the pop jazz movement. He achieved such a position of prominence purely by accident.

One day Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd went into a studio and cut an album of a new musical rhythm called bossa nova. Six months later Getz, and to a lesser degree, Byrd, had records on the best-selling charts. Every radio station in the country was playing Desafinado.

Getz has always had the musical qualities that appeal to the multitude. He plays tenor sax with humor, warmth, great lyricism, and a deep fondness and respect for melody. Essentially, these are the very same characteristics that have drawn a much more diverse and aware public to the folk and country music fields.

In the past Getz has been responsible for some of the most popular jazz ballad performances of all time. Something like a decade ago, he cut a series of sides with guitarist Johnny Smith. One of the titles from this series, Moonlight In Vermont, became an overnight success in the jazz market and today can still be heard occasionally on what are considered the good and middle of the road radio stations. On that recording the guitar-tenor combination caught the nostalgia and simple beauty of the Karl Suessdorf and John Blackburn tune.

Those same qualities of simplicity and nostalgia are equally evident on the newer version of the tune contained on this album. Getz plays lovely, lyric embellishments on the melody against a gentle and most attractive string background arranged by Claus Ogerman.

When Getz was a member of the Woody Herman big band, he recorded a tenor sax solo on the Ralph Burns composition Early Autumn. This, too, caused great excitement within the jazz business and some of that excitement reached the pop audience. But, as in the case of Moonlight In Vermont, the public wasn't quite ready for what was believed an unknown. Today that audience has shown itself ready for such music, and the version of Early Autumn contained on this album should appeal to all kinds of listeners.

The new versions of the tune contained here is a good deal different from the original. Lalo Schifrin has employed voices as a replacement for the big band chords, but the quiet tenderness and the warmth of the originals are most evident. This version ranks with the original.

As a matter of fact, the title of this album is a very definitive description of the contents. Throughout, Getz seems to take each of the tunes – standards, originals, movie theme and recent pop hits-and gives it new perspective. The listener has the feeling that the tenor saxist is reflectively turning the melodic structure over in his hands, turning the melody this way and that, holding it up to the light to discover new shapes and values. He seems to catch new and vital reflections and qualities in the music; a wry twist here, a brooding depth there.

The arrangements are distinctly tailored to the Getz sound and mood. Three of the tracks: the aforementioned Moonlight In Vermont, If Ever I Would Leave You (from the Broadway hit "Camelot"), and the recent Peter, Paul and Mary hit Blowin' In The Wind are from the pen of Claus Ogerman.

This arranger, who scored so mightily with Kai Winding's recording of More, shows the diversity of his talent on these three scores. Moonlight is quietly perceptive with a most effective use of voices. Leave You is arranged in soft melodic framework for Getz with strings, but room is left for Stan to add some very gutsy ballad blowing.

Blowin' In The Wind is a unique version of the Bob Dylan modern folk hit. It's treated with humor, spirit and a solid rhythm sound. There are funky touches in the string orchestration and Stan adds some sardonic bluesy licks of his own.

Besides arranging the rest of the standards on the LP, Lalo Schifrin has contributed two original compositions Reflections and Nitetime Street, and a strong chart for the movie theme Charade.

Reflections is a lovely, liquid ballad that provides Getz with long, lyric, melodic lines. Schifrin has also incorporated a velvet backdrop of voices into the arrangement. Nitetime Street has a soft, purring minor mood that's very much in the Getz groove. The tune also features some fine Kenny Burrell guitar work at a solid walking tempo. In contrast to the other composition, this track has strong rhythm and good muted brass backing.

The Johnny Mercer-Henry Mancini Charade is handled with a deft touch. This, too, has the moody, minor touch. There's a hint of bossa nova in the rhythm and the whole thing is most effective in a soft, significant way.

The dexterity of Schifrin's arranging talent and the fertility of the Getz imagination are evident throughout the rest of the album as well. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most has a bittersweet quality. Love is a fast, swinging bongo-infected version of the standard with voices employed most effectively. Sleeping Bee is another unusual outing. Where the tune is usually handled as a fuzzy, soft kind of adult lullaby, Stan and Lalo give it a sharp, bright explosive treatment. Penthouse Serenade is handled with lushness. It features Stan in front of a tapestry of voices. – Jack Maher Billboard

Moonlight In Vermont
If Ever I Would Leave You
Love
Reflections
Sleeping Bee
Charade
Early Autumn
Penthouse Serenade
Spring Can Really Hang You Up
Nitetime Street
Blowin' In The Wind

Tune In Turn On - Benny Golson

 

The Swinger

Tune In Turn On
To The Hippest Commercials Of The Sixties
Benny Golson
Produced by Tom Wilson
Arranged and Conducted by Benny Golson
Director of Engineering: Val Valentine
Recording and Remix Engineer: Gary Kellgren
Cover Art and Photo: Jon Henry
Cover Design: Acy R. Lehman

Verve V-8710
1967

From the back cover: Bet me that the next person you hear humming "Music To Watch Girls By," doesn't know he's spreading propaganda for Pepsi-Cola. The odds are he doesn't.

Madison Avenue has been giving us The Treatment – the subliminal Musical Treatment. They have been cleverly feeding us such irresistibly catchy tunes that we've been swallowing the message (or massage, depending upon which side of McLuhan you're on), while swinging the melody.

Madison Avenue, capital of the advertising industry, has emerged as the most creative force in Show Business. Television commercials are now rated by critics as fresher and bolder than the programs that surround them. These days, we head for the icebox during the show. We'd rather miss a shoot-out at the Bar-X Ranch than miss a bar of Happiness Is.

Benny blows more than smoke rings, a storm would be more like it, in this Mad Ave. medley. Herein, Benny is the "Swinger," "right any time of the day," and a "Cool Whip" "no matter what shape your stomach's in" – thanks to another pair of sponsors.

Golson has fun and so does the listener who digs the wit and style of his glistening arrangements. The TV themes in TUNE IN... TURN ON are the launch pads for these superbly powered probes into the gravity-free world of Golson's musical imagination.

Benny has been one of the front-ranking names in jazz for the past 15 years. Starting from his early days as saxophonist with the Bull Moose Jackson blues band, Golson has swung through all of jazz's fads and phases. He has played with, and composed and arranged for, such diverse stylists as boppists Tadd Dameron and Dizzy Gillespie, such traditionalists as Johnny Hodges and Earl Bostic, and such avant-gardists as John Coltrane. Some of the most brilliant jazz conceptions were incubated by Benny during his collaboration with trumpeter Art Farmer in their world-famed Jazztet during the late 1950's. As a composer, Golson has already achieved a kind of immortality for "I Remember Clifford," a eulogistic ballad for his friend, trumpet star Clifford Brown.

In this set, Benny would rather swing than switch. Here is the clear, unfiltered taste of a kingsized talent. This is Golson Country! Dig it. – Elliot Horne

Music To Watch Girls By
Wink
The Disadvantages Of You
No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)
Right Any Time Of The Day
Music To Think By
Fried Bananas
The Magnificent Seven

Cool Whip
The Golden Glow
The Swinger
Happiness Is

The Hilltoppers Sing Their Million Sellers

 

Time Waits For No One

The Hilltoppers Sign Their Million Sellers
Souvenir SLP 100
1957

From the back cover: WEBSTER'S dictionary describes the word "style," in part, as "a distinctive or characteristic mode of presentation, construction, or execution in any art." Consequently, it is little wonder all artists strive to attain style, whether it be a Christian Dior or an ambitious group of four college lads at a small southern school.

Dior has it-so have The Hilltoppers, as unique a singing group as ever to appear on show business' ever-changing horizon. No entrepreneur of musical tastes dreamed it up for them-it wasn't born in the vivid imagination of a press agent. It existed from the very moment that Jimmy Sacca, a football player and physical education major, formed a quartet with three other students at Western Kentucky State College in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

They had style from the moment they recorded their first song with portable tape recorder in the college auditorium. This was "Trying," a ballad that was to sweep them to fame in a matter of weeks.

Here then is "Tops in Pops" featuring the great hit songs turned out by The Hilltoppers, appropriately named after Western Kentucky State's athletic teams.

"Trying," written by Billy Vaughn, stunned the Nashville, Tennessee market where it was introduced. The unusual arrangement with its haunting vocal backgrounds soon became a tremendous national hit and completely established the name "Hilltoppers."

All of the songs in this album bear the inimitable mark of this harmonious group. Here you will find the Johnny Mercer-Gordon Jenkins tune of "P. S. I Love You," and Billy Vaughn's "I'd Rather Die Young," and "To Be Alone."

No song with a title like this can make it, said the experts, in talking about "From The Vine Came The Grape." So this, too, became a million record seller as the nation fell in love with this wonderful tale of vineyards in Italy.

The raised-eyebrow brigade had another field day when "The Hilltoppers" recorded George Gershwin's "Love Walked In": but record fans proved it an excellent choice.

The Hilltoppers' "Till Then" is another all-time favorite of the juke box enthusiasts, with its fine melody line and intriguing vocal background. Tin Pan Alley rushed to get the group to record its songs and from this came "If I Didn't Care," by Jack Lawrence, Irving Gordon's "The Kentuckian Song," also "Time Waits For No One," "D-a-r-l-i-n" and "The Door Is Still Open."

You'll treasure this album by The Hilltoppers as an important chapter in musical Americana.

Trying
P.S. I Love You
I'd Rather Die Young
To Be Alone
Love Walked In
From The Vine Came The Grape
Till Then
The Kentuckian Song
If I Didn't Care
Time Waits For No One
D-A-R-L-I-N

The Door Is Still Open

Current Hits Volume 20 - Hit Records 420

 

Current Hits Volume 20

Current Hits

Volume 20
Hit Records 420
Producer: William Beasley
Assistant Producer Ted Jarrett
Recorder & Compatible Mastering: Columbia Recording Studio, Nashville, Tenn.

Engineer: Tom Sparkman
Cover Design: McPherson Studio, Nashville, Tenn.

Tobacco Road
Baby Don't Do It
Making A Fool Of Myself
Little Honda
Ride The Wild Surf

I'm Crying
Dancing In The Street
That's All That's Important Now

Baby Love
From A Window
Have I The Right
Toodle Dee Doodle Dee Doo

Back With More Bill Doggett

 

Back With More Bill Doggett

Back With More Bill Doggett
King 723
1960

The Slush

Slidin'
The Doodle
Bugle Nose
Buttered Popcorn
Two Up
Night Train
Bill's Grill (Cookin')
Goofy Organ
Smokie
Shebar

Anita O'Day Sings The Winners

 

What's Story Morning Glory

Anita O'Day Sings The Winners
Side one arranged by Marty Paich
Side two arranged by Russ Garcia
Verve V-8485
1961

From the back cover:  Anita's tribute to the poll winners, an album idea suggested by Norman Granz, who supervised production of this set, represents further irrepressible proof that Miss O'Day's once dormant career continues to exfoliate and that at her present best she is, as Russ Wilson of the Oakland Tribune has noted, "singing better than she ever has." Her albums for Verve have also succeeded, for the most part, in projecting at least some of the burningly exuberant impact Anita has on an audience in a club. She's one of the very few singers left who really improvises from tune to tune and night to night, and watching as well as hearing her hurl through the challenge of a set can be exhilarating as watching and hearing a first-rate horn man."Jazz to me," says Anita, "is singing what is happening now. When I sing Body and Soul, for example, it's my conception after having heard and lived the song for a long time and then improvising on the basis of what I know of it and what I feel about it right now." In this round of toasts, Anita first establishes the melody and then goes for herself in the second chorus. Anita was unusually pleased with both arrangers, Marty Paich on the first side and Russ Garcia on the second; the co-ordinator, Barney Kessel; and she even insists on accolading the engineer whom she knows only as Mr. Bones (Bones Howe-ed.). She is, in short, quite happy about the date, a situation that is not always the case with the outspoken Anita who is as hotly spontaneous in her conversation as in her singing.

Take The "A" Train for many years was Duke's theme and here is made into a huskily rolling but relaxed express. Tenderly, long identified with Oscar Peterson, indicates Anita's capacity for romanticism. She scats with zestful confidence through the Jimmy Giuffre Four Brothers that helped strongly to identify that Herman Herd. Stan Getz's lyrical solo on Ralph Burns' Early Autumn for Woody Herman first established Stan's reputation. Anita's version is also lyrical and also wholly jazz in its phrasing, beat and even the nature of her sound. Night in Tunisia, a vintage part of Dizzy Gillespie's repertory, was once recorded by Sarah Vaughan as a slow ballad, Interlude. Anita uses a faster tempo more in context with Dizzy's usual handling of the tune. The special lyrics that Anita sings to Four, the song Miles Davis has recorded, were written by Bill Loughborough, best known for the toned drums he invented, the boobams.

Mary Lou Williams' What's Your Story, Morning Glory, was one of the most attractive originals in the Jimmie Lunceford library, and it's an enigma to me why so few stimulated in large part by the subtly multi-linear use Gerry Mulligan put it to in his quartet. Sing, Sing, Sing is to me much more palatable in this version than in its original showboat exist. ence. It turns into a tour-de-scat for Anita that few other contemporary vocalists could sustain. Body and Soul, Coleman Hawkins' psychic annuity, becomes as instrumentalized a vocal as I expect you can find any. where, including pure scat. The Peanut Vendor that helped sell an early version of the Kenton band is treated with swinging wit by Anita along with more resilient scat singing. Frenesi, the song Artie Shaw brought back from Mexico to kick off another stage of his career, has rarely been so warmly revived. But then heat is the element Anita brings to everything she does. She's one of the last really "hot" jazz singers. – NAT HENTOFF

Duke Ellington - Take the "A" Train

Oscar Peterson - Tenderly
Dizzy Gillepsie - Interlude (Night In  Trunisia)
Miles Davis - Four
Stan Getz - Early Autumn
Woody Herman - Four Brothers
Gene Krupa & Benny Goodman - Sing, Sing, Sing
Gerry Mulligan - My Funny Valentine
Artie Shaw - Frenesi
Coleman Hawkings - Body And Soul
Jimmie Lunceford - What's Your Story, Morning Glory
Stan Kenton - Peanut Vendor

How To Develop E.S.P. Vol. 1 - Harold Sherman

 

How To Develop E.S.P. Vol. 1

The Most Amazing Record Series Ever Released To The Public
How To Develop E.S.P.
Extra Sensory Perception – Your Sixth Sense
By Harold Sherman (noted authority on ESP)
Knight Education, Inc. KEI-HS 1

From the back cover: HAROLD SHERMAN, world famous authority on the human mind, author, playwright, TV and radio commentator, first electrified the scientific world with the amazing results of his five months telepathic communications with Sir Hubert Wilkins, famed arctic explorer, while Wilkins was searching for flyers who were lost near the North Pole.

Carefully checked under scientifically observed conditions by Dr. Gardner Murphy, then head of the Parapsychology Department of Columbia University – Mr. Sherman's extra sensory perceptions were found to be over 70% correct. The account of these long distance experiments with the documentary evidence is contained in his book, "Thoughts Through Space."

Mr. Sherman has devoted much of his life to the study of extra sensory perception and is probably the most outstanding authority on the subject.

Unable to personally reach the many thousands of people who have written him with an interest in developing their own E.S.P., he has recorded this material so that each person may practice these techniques in the privacy of his own home and learn. to utilize this wonderful extra sensory power for more abundant living.

Mr. Sherman has authored over 70 published self-help books, many of them best sellers such as "How to Turn Failure into Success," "Thoughts Through Space," "Know Your Own Mind," and "TNT The Power Within You."

Your Extra Sensory Powers
How Messages Are Sent
How Message Are Received
Mental Atmosphere
Mind To Mind
Preparation For Sending
Preparation For Receiving
Long Distance Telepathic Experiments
Feelings In Telepathy
Partners For Mind Communication
Technique For Performing Telepathy

Ken Alford's Dixie Cats at Waikiki

 

Hawaiian War Chant

The Dixie Cats at Waikiki
Producer: Ken Alford
Engineer: Bob Lang
Color Photograph of Royal Hawaiian Hotel:  Werner Stoy (Courtesy of Sheraton Hotels of Hawaii)
Liberty Records LRP 3136
1959

Back cover photo credit: Camera Hawaii, Honolulu

Ken Alford's Dixie-Cats (back cover photo) on the Bandstand of the Banyan Court, Moana Hotel. Left to right: Tom Carter - Piano; "Red" Souza - Clarinet; Ken Alford - Trumpet; Bill Winston - Drums; Al Anderson - Trombone; Ed Frank - Bass; "Banjo Bill" Coker - Banjo and Guitar.

From the back cover: If you were to ponder all the spots in the world least likely to find two-beat in the real tradition, probably the Banyan Court of the Moana Hotel in the center of the golden crescent of Waikiki Beach would be somewhere near the top of your list. For this is the home of the venerable "Hawaii Calls" radio show... the fabled spa of the sun-tan set... the gentle shore bathed by the rolling sea and caressed by the soft trade winds.Yet what is so strange about finding Dixieland music anywhere? The Swedes are wild about it; so are the Poles, the Germans, the Indo-Chinese and just about everyone else. Even the MVD has never been able to convince the Russians that Dixie music is decadent and demoralizing.

So there's really nothing strange about Dixie on the Beach at Waikiki. Its absence would be stranger. For Hawaiian music follows somewhat the traditions and structure of the Dixieland theme. Its tempo is heavily accented two-beat. Of course, the lead is generally played by a steel guitar instead of a horn, but it is accorded the wide range and latitude of the trumpet or cornet chorus.

Ken Alford's Dixie-Cats, headlined in this album, were rounded up by a popular local television cowboy who calls himself "Sheriff Ken." The group had been playing various clubs and military establishments throughout Hawaii for a number of years when cornetist Alford got a call in June of 1957 from the famed Moana Hotel, now a part of the sprawling Sheraton chain.

The Moana wanted to woo the Sunday night tourist crowd in the Banyan Court with something "different." The Dixie-Cats were signed for a brief trial and have been there ever since.

This album is a sample of the 'Cats in performance. Departing from a characteristic program of standard and traditional Dixieland tunes, they have dug into the library of some of the better Hawaiian music, giv- ing it their own treatment. Several selections were written by R. Alex Anderson, Hawaii's foremost living composer, and the father of Dixie-Cat Al Anderson, trombonist.

From the well-known "Hawaiian War Chant" to the not-so-well-known (except in Hawaii) Maui Girl, Ken Alford's Dixie-Cats recreate the exciting melodic nuances and driving rhythm that Dixieland aficionados recognize from pole to pole.

So here are the Dixie-Cats, playing in the Banyan Court of Sheraton's Moana-Surfrider Hotel, hard by the incredibly blue waters of the vast Pacific. The aver- age temperature of the air at Waikiki is seventy-eight degrees; the water seventy-six. If it's cold where you are, and if you like Dixieland, come see us sometime. Make it soon.

Aloha nui loa, Bob Roberts

Hawaiian War Chant
Hula Blues
On The Beach At Waikiki
Little Brown Gal
My Little Grass Shack

Uheuhenne
Mele Kalikimaka
Malihini Mele
Maui Girl
The Cockeyed Mayor of Kaunakakai
My Hawaiian Song of Love
Hilo March

More Hit TV Themes - Nelson Riddle

 

Supercar

More Hit TV Themes
Nelson Riddle and His Orchestra

Produced  by Tom Morgan
Capitol Records ST 1869
1963

Ballad Of Jed Clampett (from "The Beverly Hillbillies)
Bonanza Theme
Moon River (from "The Andy Williams Show")
Stoney Burke Theme
McHale's Navy March
The Dickens and Fenster March
Supercar
Ballad Of Paladin (from "Have Gun Will Travel")
Lucy Theme
Bubble In The Wine (the Lawrence Welk theme)
New Naked City Theme
Dick Van Dyke Theme

The Golden Sound Of Joe Howard

 

The Golden Sounds Of Joe Howard

The Golden Sound Of Joe Howard
Arrangements by Jerry Fielding
King 661
1959

Clarinet - Dominic Fera
Alto - Hymie Gunkler
Alto & Tenor - Buddy Collette
Piano - Ernie Hughes
Bass - Red Callender
Tenor - Pete Terry
Bariton - Marty Berman
Oboe - Champ Webb
Drums - Tommy Romersa

On many selections Joe Howards plays two, three, four and even five parts through the process of multiple dubbing to give the full trombone section sound.

From the back cover: Some years ago, a cheerful young man came out of Batesville, Indiana, with a Sears-Roebuck trombone cradled lovingly under his arm and burning within him a consuming desire to make good in the select trombone set.During the following years JOE HOWARD not only made good, but steadily climbed in musical acceptance until he has reached the rare pinnacle of success reserved for only those who can be called "musical greats." Today the horn of JOE HOWARD is in constant demand for record dates and he is best known for his clean and beautiful "high register work."

Joe has worked with such top-ranked bands as Will Osborne, Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw, Ray Noble and Kay Kyser... and he even ventured successfully into concert work with Igor Stravinsky. In recent years he has confined his work to "studio" dates on the West coast.

The superb arrangements by JERRY FIELDING, one of the fore- most arrangers of our time, are handled by a novel grouping of six woodwinds and a three-man rhythm section, which has subjugated their dazzling individual musical styles to back the golden sounds of Howard's trombone.

TENDERLY - After it's publication, this number became an accepted "standard". Some years later Tenderly took the spotlight again as the theme song for the motion picture, "Torch Song," starring Miss Joan Crawford.

AIN'T GONNA STUDY WAR NO MORE - Long a favorite of choral groups, this number dates back to the Civil War. Though it is usually presented with rousing spirit, Jerry Fielding has ar- ranged it with a subtle treatment for Joe Howard's trombone, to make it sound as new as tomorrow.

I'LL BE AROUND - A song in the upper-middlebrow music technique. I'll Be Around has always been regarded as "something special" in popular music.

MY MAN'S GONE NOW - The American public has always been aware of the beauty in the individual songs of "Porgy and Bess." Here, My Man's Gone Now takes on a new feeling because of unusual arranging and superb rendition.

SPEAK LOW - This number was incorporated in the motion picture version of "One Touch of Venus," starring Miss Ava Gardner, although it made its bow in the stage production in 1943... sung by Mary Martin.

TAKE ME IN YOUR ARMS - The origin of this song is to be found in Hungary, and was later introduced in this country with English lyrics by Mitchell Parrish. It rapidly became an inter- national favorite. Almost every well-known artit has sung or instrumentalized it.

LINDY LOU - The gifted composer, Lily Strickland, is known to contemporary audiences for her song cycles of music depicting various parts of the world in which she lived. As an example, her suite of Bayou Songs shows strongly the in luence of location.

I COVER THE WATERFRONT - One of the greatest popular standards, I Cover The Water- front was first written to exploit a new film starring Claudette Colbert and Ben Lyon. Although first dubious about its success as a torch song, Green and Heyman realized another great success