Opus Number One - Francis Bay

 

Opus Number One

Opus Number One
Tommy Dorsey and Sy Oliver Favorites
Played by Francis Bay and His Orchestra
Cover Design: Mike Johnson
Cover Photo: George Jerman / Photography 2
Omega Records OSL-16

From the back cover: FRANCIS BAY has been quietly perfecting his orchestra for more than five years. They play every week on programs of the Brussels Radio and during the past year they have burst forth throughout Europe as THE most talked about orchestra. Any jukebox in Belgium, France, or England is likely to include two or three records by the Bay Orchestra. His recording of "Eso Es El Amor" is the biggest hit of many latin-styled best sellers during the past few years. The Bay Orchestra recently won the highly coveted "Golden Gondol" trophy in a battle of the bands from all over the world held in Venice. The precision section work and fluid jazz improvisation of the soloists are a product of years of rehearsal and development shared by the same group of musicians with very few replacements in the ranks of the musicians. The result is an orchestra in which the musical rapport between musicians is amazing. All of the members of the Bay Orchestra have invested the greatest care in making a danceable, jazz-flavored, fresh group of recordings, but the driving force that makes the Bay Orchestra function as a musical unit is Francis Bay himself. He already has large following of fans in Europe who know him affectionately as "Francis." Recently his fame has spread to Japan, Mexico, and Canada as well as the United States. People everywhere who have come to appreciate good music are enthusiastic in their praise of Francis Bay because of his most distinctive contribution to popular music... perfection.

Also from the back cover: The shock of Tommy Dorsey's death in November, 1957, is just beginning to wear off and only now are we beginning to look back at his work to measure his achievement. Examining the various Dorsey bands over a 20-year period as it jumped in and out of the public spotlight, gives us a proper perspective of TD for the first time, and only with a backward glance can we begin to understand what his music meant to us.

After threading back through the years in your mind's ear, through the hundreds and hundreds of Dorsey recordings, one vital thing presents itself... and that is that TD's band has an enduring quality.

For some music lovers who may be more jazz-oriented, the early Tommy Dorsey recordings might seem most memorable. Primarily, the early sides were two-beat with a distinct Dixie flavor. They hark back to Tommy's beginnings as a Chicago jazzman and are mindful of Max Kaminsky and Miff Mole and other greats of that era. But in the main, most of us think of TD as the band of the early 40's... the band that had left its Dixieland heritage behind and became a sleek, swinging band in the Jimmie Lunceford tradition. That was the band of the powerhouse jazz, of the screeching brass and driving rhythm. It was the band that played "swing"...a kind of musical corollary to jazz that was good to dance to and good to listen to.

It is this part of the Dorsey band library that Omega has selected to record in thrilling stereo as a musical tribute to TD's memory. Recorded by the Bay Big Band at the Brussels World's Fair as an international salute to American music, the group has captured all of the full-throated, wonderfully rhythmic, musical distinction of the Dorsey band sound. Originally, when these sides were made by Tommy Dorsey, they were recorded when the dance orchestra was looked upon as an organization that reflected top musicianship... a group capable of great flexibility, from playing excellent jazz to swinging a ballad. As they are recorded today, something more is added by the Bay Big Band. These arrangements take on a new flavor with more contemporary solo techniques and advanced ideas about harmony. The pep and vigor of the Dorsey band is still there, but it is brought up to date by providing a free range for the soloists and blendings of brass that ring more modern than the actual ensemble sound of 15 or 20 years ago.

Opus Number One
Daybreak
Love For Sale
This Love Of Mine
Hawaiian War-Chant
No So Quiet Please
There Are Such Things
Well Git It
I'll Never Smile Again
Yes Indeed

Boogie-Woogie - Will Bradley with Ray McKinley

 

Boogie Woogie Congo

Boogie-Woogie
Will Bradley with Ray McKinley
Epic LN 3115
A Product of CBS
1955

From the back cover: When boogie woogie left the piano to become an orchestral form, it was Will Bradley who made it as popular as it is today. The selections in this collection, as famous for their weird titles and odd vocals as for instrumental work, represent the best of his work. They feature one of the finest drummers in the business, Ray McKinley, and the trombone playing of Bradley himself. There is also the piano work of Freddie Slack, considered the best boogie player among white musicians. This, in short, is a hand-picked collection of some of the greatest boogie woogie in recording history, one that can hold its own in any musical library.

Will Bradley was born in Newton, New Jersey, and learned the complexities of the trombone at an early age. After a brief career in a vaudeville unit, he joined a jazz band known as Hilt Shaw's Detroiters. Several months later he left them and went into radio with a vengeance, playing for such conductors as Andre Kostelanetz, among others. Soon thereafter Will Bradley decided that the time had come to form his own band, and six months from the time he set out, he crashed into the musical big-time with that unforgettable best-seller, Beat Me Daddy (Eight to the Bar). That, and other numbers in this collection, made Will Bradley a national favorite, and here are the original settings and recordings of those masterpieces, some of the best music to come out of the boogie form.

Beat Me Daddy To The Bar
Down The Road A Piece
Celery Stalks At Midnight
Flyin' Home
Boogie Woman Conga
Strange Cargo
Scrub Me, Mama With A Boogie Beat
Basin Street Boogie
Chicke Gumboog (ie)
Rock-a-bye The Boogie
Rhumboogie

The Era Of Tommy Dorsey - Members of The Dorsey Orchestra

 

The Era Of Tommy Dorsey

The Era Of Tommy Dorsey
Members of The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
Modern Records Stereo MST 800
1961

On The Sunny Side Of The Street
I'll Never Smile Again
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Everytime I Feel The Spirit
Boogie Woogie
Hawaiian War Chant

Somebody's Knockin' At My Door
Wade In The Water

A Cheerful Earful - Lew Davies

 

On The Sunny Side Of The Street

A Cheerful Earful
Lew Davies and His Orchestra
Arrangements by Lew Davies

Originated and Produced by Enoch Light
Associate Producer: Julie Klages
Art Director Charles E. Murphy
Recording Chief: Fred Christe
Mastering: George Piros (stereo)
John Johnson (monaural)
Command Records STEREO RS 861SD
Grand Awards Record Co., Inc.
1962

From the inside cover: Happiness may be a warm puppy (as Charles Shulz, the creator of "Peanuts" tells us it is).

Or it may be a thing called Joe (as E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen told us in the song they wrote for CABIN IN THE SKY).

But to Lew Davies, happiness is a happy song. By that he does not mean merely a song that has "happy" in the title (although that is often a good clue). A happy song, to him, is a song that has an infectiously happy sound, a sound that communicates to the listener the airy feeling of well-being that we all know is part of those moments of living that we treasure the most.

Happiness can be a lively and a merry experi- ence. Or it can be a reflective, sitting-in-front-of- the-fire contentment. It can have several gradations in between. Lew Davies has touched on all its various points in these delightfully tingling performances.

The starting point for a happy song is rhythm. And you'll find that there are all kinds of happy rhythms as you listen to Lew Davies and his orchestra. There's a bright, happy rhythm that sends you whistling down the street in ZIP-A-DEE DOO-DAH. There's an easy, ambling, happy rhythm that brings on an amiable grin and makes you snap your fingers in ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET. And there's a gentle gossamer rhythm that lifts and swings you gently on CHEERFUL LITTLE EARFUL.

Over these foundations, Lew Davies has created all kinds of happy sounds – perky piccolos and flutes, dancing guitars, clowning xylophones and tuned bongos, merrily swinging saxophones, the big, nudging sounds of deep trombones and the mellowness of an organ or woodwinds.

Lew is the master mixer when it comes to creating a musical emotion that can completely envelop a listener and can actually lift you out of any other mood that you may be in. It was Lew Davies who wrote all those arrangements for the famous PERSUASIVE PERCUSSION series, played by Enoch Light and the Light Brigade – arrangements that sparkled with so much vivid excitement that a whole new world of musical recording was opened up by the recordings. Davies has worked hand in hand with Enoch Light since then, providing the unusual orchestrations that Light has brought to life with such sensational brilliance on the unequalled succession of hit albums that he has turned out.

Lew Davies did not achieve this mastery of musi- cal emotion overnight. Before he teamed up with Enoch Light he had written for the Perry Como Show and for Lawrence Welk and he had been developing his skills with a variety of great bands over a period stretching back to the 1930s.

All this hard-won knowledge and skill has been concentrated in this album toward a single goal - happiness, musical happiness. It's music for danc- ing or it's music for lying back and listening. It's music for reminiscing, for singing-along-with, for toe-tapping or finger-snapping or head-nodding. It's music for practically anything enjoyable that you feel like doing.

But primarily it's music for smiling.

SIDE ONE

IT'S A GOOD DAY. When Peggy Lee wrote the lyrics for this song, she caught that wonderful feel- ing of greeting a beautiful day, of stretching and looking out the window at the most brilliant azure sky, the sun gleaming on grass that never seemed greener, on a world that never looked brighter or cleaner. You can hear Lew Davies translate this feeling into musical terms. First, he sets up a pro- vocative rhythm with Tony Mottola's tight-stringed guitar and Dick Hyman's organ blending brightly. Then, in float the four saxophones - Phil Bodner, Al Klink, Walt Levinsky and Stanley Webb - with a billowing set of phrases that carry us along like a wave. The trombones move in - Bobby Byrne, Bob Alexander, Lou McGarity and Paul Faulise - setting a background from which Doc Severinsen's brilliant trumpet can emerge with an exciting shout. Walt Levinsky swings out on alto saxophone with a solo that leads into a flurry of conversation be- tween Mottola's guitar and the piccolos and organ. The whole thing sweeps and swings and sings along. That's the Davies happy touch.

HAPPY TALK. It's happy talk when you sing the Oscar Hammerstein lyrics but here it's the Davies happy touch that we hear again. But this time it's a little different. It's a little more coaxing, not quite as overpowering. You'll find all kinds of happy ideas here the soft, mellow combination of Tony Mot- tola's guitar and Dick Hyman's organ; the lilting charm of the flute ensemble and the merry little guitar blurbs that back up the trombones.

CHEERFUL LITTLE EARFUL. Whether you have been planning to dance or not, you might as well get ready now. No toes stand still when Lew Davies has the trombones splitting phrases with Artie Marotti's xylophone and Dick Hyman's organ. This sets up a bouncing, inviting rhythm that is carried all through the piece as all the musicians engage in a flowing, criss-crossing conversation that is full of warm laughter and happy thoughts.

EVERYTHING'S COMING UP ROSES. Here's a happy idea a light and airy bossa nova treatment of the swaggering song that Ethel Merman sang in Gypsy, carried out with all the richness that those four trombones can summon up and underlined by the merrily insistent tinkle of a triangle, the softness of the flutes and the smooth, rhythmic pulsation of the organ.

ONCE OVER LIGHTLY. Lightly, but more than once, is the approach to this gay little melody writ- ten by Lew Davies and Enoch Light. It bounces merrily along from the airy flutes at the opening to the piquant piccolo at the end. Notice the variety of effects that Dick Hyman gets from his organ. At first it is brightly staccato, later it is darker but still staccato and, in the second chorus, it spreads out as a warm, soft cushion, blending with the trombones to support the sparkling sounds of the xylophone and the piccolo.

WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK. Four piccolos are lined up to start us whistling on this work. Their perky, pulsing feeling is picked up by the high chords of Tony Mottola's guitar, answered in similar fashion by Dick Hyman's organ and swung in smooth swirls by the saxophones. Doc Severinsen shows how gently jaunty a trumpet can be when he comes in for a muted solo. To wrap it up, Lew Davies has had the piccolos and Tony Mottola on guitar, give us a sly, sliding ending.

SIDE TWO

LET'S ALL SING LIKE THE BIRDIES SING. This is sheer musical fun! You have never heard such coy bird whistles as Lew Davies uses in the intro- duction. And later Dick Hyman shows that his ver- satile organ can even turn bird-like. Flights of birds move in with the flutes in the second chorus. Spurred by a distinctly Lombardo-like bird-call, the arrangement moves to a conversation between Phil Bodner's piccolo and the sassy birds we've been hearing all through the piece, ending with a com- ment that is indubitably the bird.

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN. Airy and casual is Lew Davies' approach to this old favorite. It has a soft- shoe flavor as the flutes dominate the first chorus and then takes on a stronger sound when the trom- bones and saxophones share the second chorus. Dick Hyman shifts to piano for this one.

ZIP-A-DEE DOO-DAH. Hyman is back at the organ to get this bright Disney tune off and dancing. It's the piccolos that give it light and air at first, followed by Doc Severinsen's smooth, flowing trum- pet. The happy excitement is caught by the swinging saxophones, by Tony Mottola's charging guitar and the agitation of the whole band as it rips into the finale.

ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET. Deliberate and sly is the tempo taken by Lew Davies this time. The saxophones and Doc Severinsen's trumpet are stacked against the gruffest of trombone en- sembles while Dick Hyman's piano trickles through. When Dick brings up some memories of Eddy Duchin, Don Lamond goes into a sandpaper soft- shoe sound that can make the laziest of us feel like getting up and doing a slinky shuffle.

PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES IN YOUR OLD KIT BAG AND SMILE, SMILE, SMILE. A suggestion of a slightly cockeyed march brings on Stanley Webb on alto flute to set out the melody on this World War I favorite. There's a special kind of humor in Webb's inflection, both here and in his jaunty solo at the end. Notice, too, the side remarks between the organ and baritone saxophone while the trombones are making their pompous statements.

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN. The cheerer-upper of the Depression days goes high and low in its blithe display of joy. All the sections have snatches of comment to make until Tony Mottola's guitar takes over with some dancing remarks that are shouted back by the brass. Al Klink is the tenor saxophonist who leads into the gusto of the whoop- up ending. Happy days! Happy nights! They're all here again with Lew Davies' happy sounds!

Calypso Bacchanal - Count Bernadino

 

Calypso Bacchanal

Count Bernadino 
Calypso Bacchanal (Calypso Party)
Photograph by Andrew Aitken
Carib LP-2020
1962

From the back cover: The difference between a Calypso singer and a Calypsonian is the difference between Count Bernadino and all the others you have heard. A Calypsonian, while singing and accompanying himself on the guitar will make up lyrics as he goes along, usually to fit the occasion or the mood, and never lose a beat. All of this comes out as if he had been doing it for years, but in truth these lyrics are fresh, new and bright because they were just invented, and both you and the Count are hearing them for the first time. This is the element of surprise which has been delighting audiences at the famed British Colonial Hotel in Nassau for the past year and a half.The Count and his group which includes: John Clark, piano; Little Sparrow, steel pans; Fred Callender, bass: Eddie White, tenor sax and flute; Charles Emlok, alto sax; Lord Lynn, tenor sax; Rudy Pinder, drums and Roy Shurland on maracas introduced Calypso to the Jamaican Room in New York City and later did an extended engagement at the Palladium there. They have recently been at the Eden Roc Hotel, Miami Beach and at almost every important club and resort in the U. S. including Coney Island. Wherever they have performed audiences have recognised theirs as the "real Calypso." Listen now as they do such famous Calypsos as Red Shoes, Water She Garden, Time Marches On and other favorites. Presenting Count Bernadino, a real, live, Born in the Bahamas, genuine Calypsonian.

Come On
Love Alone
Convoy
Mable
Sha-Bop
Go Down To Bimini
Red Shoes
Time Marches On
Back To Back
Chinese Baseball
Water She Garden
Mama Lay, Lay, Lay

Tops In Pops - Halo 50220

 

Tops In Pops

Tops In Pops
All The Latest Recordings
Played and sung just as you hear them on the Radio and TV
Halo Long Play 50220
The "Colorful" Line

Catch A Falling Star
Oh, Oh, I'm Falling In Love
It's Too Soon To Know
Don't
Get A Job
Oh Julie
Sugartime
Sail Along Silvery Moon
Oh Boy
Short Short The Stroll

The Music Of Fats Waller - Ted Heath

 

The Music Of Fats Waller

The Music Of Fats Waller
London Suite & Favorite Songs
Ted Heath and His Music
London Records LL 978
1952

Saxes - Leslie Gilbert, Roy Wilcox, Henry Mackenzie, Danny Moss, George Hunter
Trumpets - Bobby Pratt, Duncan Campell, Stan Reynolds, Ronnie Hughes
Trombones - Wally Smith, Don Lusher, Jimmy Coombes, Ric Kennedy
Rhythn - Ronnie Verrek (Drums), Frank Horrox (Piano), Johnny Hawksworth (Bass), Ivor Mairants (Guitar)

From the back cover: Ted Heath and His Music are accepted as being one of the greatest of all modern swing bands, not only in England, but in America as well. For a British band to invade the home of swing and to be accepted as one of the best is a very unusual triumph indeed. The Ted Heath story is all that a success story should be. He was born in Wandsworth, a not very exciting part of South-West London, full of large Victorian houses and little else, and here, at the age of twelve, he began to learn the trombone. At the end of the first World War he found himself, as many young men did, amongst the numerous ranks of the unemployed, so he took his trombone and busked in the streets. In 1920 he got a job with Jack Hylton's orchestra, moving from there to play with many of the best British bands including those of Ambrose and Sidney Lipton, until he joined Geraldo as first trombone in 1940. At this time he composed two songs which had quite a success, and the royalties from these gave him enough capital to be able to start his own band in 1945. This quickly became one of the most talked of bands in the country, selling a fabulous number of records, introducing singers like Dickie Valentine and Lita Roza, and starting the popular Sunday Swing Sessions which have drawn capacity crowds to the London Palladium for the past seven years.

A number of Ted Heath long-playing records have been issued, all of them amongst the best-selling record- ings of light music, and now once again we have another fine record to show off the bands immaculate and vigorous style that has won them their reputation.

A great band pays tribute to a great artist and composer Thomas Fats' Waller who, before he died in 1943, held a place in the record world comparable with that held by the Heath band now. Indeed, he still does, for tunes like Ain't misbehavin' and Honeysuckle rose are amongst the most popular ever written, and have been played and played without losing any of their freshness and charm.

The main consideration must be given, however, to a work which occupies one side of this record, the London Suite. This is a subdued, thoughtful work that makes a great comparison with Fats' usually more exuberant moods. It has an interesting history. Fats Waller last came to England in 1938 and while he was here he was asked by the Peter Maurice music-publishing firm to write a piano suite for them to publish in this country. As he had a full round of engagements and very little time to spare, this commission was almost not completed. On one of the last days in this country, however, he got down to the job, and assisted by some liquid refreshment, he got over a strong disinclination to write owing to a rather hectic night the day before, and sat down at the piano and wrote these six pieces one after the other during the morning. The next day he recorded them but they were not issued and the music was more or less forgotten.

They were remembered, however, by Ed Kirkeby, Fats' friend and manager, who, when he next came to this country, began to search for any test pressings of the records that might have survived. They were all found but one – Bond Street, and there the matter stood for some time. On his next visit to England Ed Kirkeby happened to visit a music publisher, to see a friend who told him that he had a record lying around which might interest him. It turned out to be the missing Bond Street. So at last the world was able to hear the London Suite complete and recorded by the maestro himself.

Fats Waller has interpreted each of the London scenes, Piccadilly, Chelsea, Soho, Bond Street, Limehouse and Whitechapel in his own particular style, which can only be a personal impression, and may not mean much to anyone else. After all musical impressionism is only matter of fancy and the dictates of the titles. He sees Piccadilly happy piece of music, Bond Street as something rather whimsical, and Whitechapel as a melancholy place. The results, whether accurate or not, are certainly delightful, and give us another glimpse of the more serious Thomas Waller, beneath the boisterous 'Fats'.

Now we can hear these pieces as orchestral arrangements with all the extra colour and movement that an instrumental version is able to give. On the whole, it must be true, that an instrumental group can give more visual colour than a piano by itself, and instrument whose tonal values are not very much under the control of the player. Though one would hesitate to declare any version better than the composer's, it seems safe to say that Ted Heath's rendering takes nothing away and is done with extremely good taste.

The other Fats Wallers that make up the other side of the recording have already been heard in every possible shape and form, particularly such swing classics as Ain't Misbehavin' and Honeysuckle Rose. This last number has probably been featured in more jam sessions than any other tune in existence, while others such as Blue Turning Grey Over You and I've Got A Feeling I'm Falling are not far behind in popularity. Again we have the composer's inimitable version to contend with, and nobody will deny that this is the best. But a treatment of any song by the Ted Heath Music is a matter of interest, particularly to the Ted Heath fan, and must count as being just as important as the melody. Versions of such best-sellers as Dragnet have shown that Ted Heath's is usually the best.

In a mixture of Britain's favourite band playing music by one of the world's best loved entertainers, there should be something to suit almost everybody, and a memorable recording. – PETER GAMMOND

Honeysuckle Rose

Ain't Misbehavin'
Blue, Turning Gray Over You
Jitterbug Waltz
I've Got A Feeling I'm Falling
Alligator Crawl
London Suite: Soho
London Suite: Limehouse
London Suite: Piccadilly
London Suite: Chelsea
London Suite: Bond Street
London Suite: Whitechapel

Learn - Play Bongos - Jack Costanzo

 

Learn - Play Bongos

Learn - Play Bongos
With "Mr. Bongo" Jack Costanzo

Producer: Felix Slatkin
Engineer: Henry Lewy

Cover Design: Pate/Francis & Associates
Photography: Garrett-Howard, Inc.
Liberty Records LRP 3177
1961

From the back cover: JACK COSTANZO HAS TAUGHT: Marlon Brando, Gary Cooper, Carolyn Jones,Hugh O'Brian, June Allyson, Ricardo Montalban, Harry James and many other celebrities from the entertainment world.

HAS BEEN FEATURED WITH: Stan Kenton, Nat "King" Cole, Ray Anthony, Harry James, Nelson Riddle, Billy May, Les Baxter and other top orchestras.

The country's leading bongo player, Jack Costanzo is, more than any other individual, responsible for the bongo's acceptance and great popularity in the United States.

A native of Chicago, Jack showed an early obsession with rhythm. Knives and forks became drumsticks and any reasonably flat surface saw duty as a drumhead. The rhythm also showed up in his feet and Jack found himself a teacher of ballroom dancing at the age of fourteen! It was while dancing to an imported Puerto Rican rhumba band that Jack discovered the bongos. Undismayed by the fact that he could not find bongos in this country, he made his own! Then followed hours of practice and experimenting on this instrument about which little was known and less written.

After his enlistment and subsequent release from the service, Jack continued his dancing, teaching and practicing on the bongos. His first job for pay as a bongo player was with the Bobby Ramos orchestra at the famed Trocadero nightclub in Hollywood. Not long after that he joined Stan Kenton and began making bongo history. Many of Jack's recordings with the Kenton ork are now classics in bongo playing. Bongos became known as an instrument and Costanzo emerged as its leading exponent.

Then, becoming the fourth man in the Nat "King" Cole "trio," Jack further broadened the scope of bongos. More great recordings were forthcoming.

Since that time, Jack has been associated with most of the great names in the entertainment world. For the past several years he has had a successful orchestra of his own. Through his efforts the bongos are now accepted as an exciting musical instrument and are enjoying immense popularity.

Who but "Mr. Bongo" should undertake to teach the instrument he has mastered so perfectly?

IRA COOK – Narrator, is one of Los Angeles' leading personality disk jockeys, holding forth daily on Radio Station KMPC. His very popular show is frequently broadcast world-wide under the auspices of the Armed Forces Radio Network.

Introduction - I Got A Bongo (Excerpt)
El Diablito (Excerpt) - Instruction
El Diablito (Play Along)
Peanut Vendor (Play Along) ("El Manisero")
Somethin' Else (Play Along)
Something Else (Excerp) - Instruction / Three Steps To Heaven (Excerpt) - Instruction
Three Steps To Heaven (Play Along)
Go Bongo - Instruction
Instruction
Bei Mir Bist Du Schon (Play Along)
Dickey, Dickey, Dickey, Dockey

Angela Mia - Vic Damone

 

Arrivederci, Roma

Angela Mia
Vic Damone
Orchestration under the direction of Glenn Osser

Arrangements by Glenn Osser
Photo: Harold Lang
Columbia Records CL 1088
1958

From the back cover: That strange combination of romance, melancholy and melody that makes up the Italian popular song is treated to one of its most sympathetic examinations in this new collection by Vic Damone. Long considered one of the finest singers around, Vic has a special feeling for these songs, and it is evident in his interpretations, which are thoughtful and fascinating. It is all too easy to take songs such as these and wind up with a spongy set of sounds that strive too earnestly after a "Mediterranean" atmosphere, a peril that Vic and conductor Glenn Osser neatly side-step by treating the music with familiarity, affection and a relaxation that is altogether winning.

One of the most immediately noticeable aspects of these songs is their rolling gait, derived perhaps from the old barcarolles, a gait that sends the melodies soaring into a pleasingly romantic atmosphere. Vie Damone, with his Italian heritage, is particularly identified with such songs, and brings to them an easy mastery of their idiom. From the beginning of his career he has displayed a natural fondness for them, and many of them are almost inseparable from his interpretations. In this collection he sings them mainly in English, although including an occa- sional half chorus in Italian, and his approach throughout is keyed to an intimate approach. This is not to say that there are not moments of full- throated lyricism, but his basic idea is that of the serenade rather than the concert.

Among the songs that may be familiar under other titles are Just Say I Love Her ("Dicitencello vuie"), You're Breaking My Heart ("Mattinata") and I Have but One Heart ("O marenari- ello"). Conversely, Non dimenticar may also be known as "Don't Forget," Luna rossa as "Blushing Moon" and Anema e core as "With All My Heart and Soul." Glenn Osser's arrangements and conducting of these songs is keyed to the basic idea of a serenade, and skillfully underlines its romantic Italian character without overwhelming the melodies.

The Damone family arrived in America shortly after the first World War, bringing with it the Italian passion for music that found its outlet at first in home concerts, sung by Vic's father, with his mother at the piano. A houseful of music is contagious, and young Vic sang along, expanding his activities to include school presentations and at fifteen-radio, when he made his first major appearance on Station WOR. Soon thereafter Vic got a job ushering at the Paramount Theatre, where he watched and heard most of the great stars in popular music. Later, as an elevator operator, he made a captive audience of Perry Como, who advised him to take his singing seriously. An appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts was caught by Milton Berle, who promised to help him along with his career, and soon Vic was singing at La Martinique, famous as a spot where many young singers won their first major attention.

In 1947, Vic was given his own radio show, and in 1950, made his movie debut. His records were among the best-sellers every year, and, save for a two-year intermission serving with the Army in the United States and Europe, there has rarely been a time when his records were not among the most popular. Recently he has been seen on his own television show, an easy-going and appealing presentation.

Married to one of the most luminously beautiful young movie stars, Pier Angeli, Vic may have had a special feeling in mind when he recorded these songs; whatever the occasion, his singing is warm, vibrant and velvety, and his interpretations of the songs is richer than ever. This is the charming new collection Damone fans have been waiting for, and the verdict is a resounding Che bellezza!

Angela Mia
Tell Me You're Mine
Arrivederci, Roma
Just Say I Love Her

Non Dimenticar
'O Sole Mio
You're Breaking My Heart
Serenade In The Night
Luna Rossa
I Have But One Heart
Anema e Core
Tell Me That You Love Me

An Evening With Hugh Downs

 

Lord Of All Hopefulness

An Evening With Hugh Downs
Accompanied by Mundell Lowe and His Friends
Epic Records LN 3597
A product of CBS
1959

From the back cover: Perhaps this should be called: Hugh Downs Sings, Too. 

But then, if you're at all familiar with the illimitable Hugh Downs personality as it is uncovered on peerless Jack Paar's Monday-through-Friday late-night Witenagemot, you're not surprised to learn that Hugh sings, too. You probably know about his other sidelines: skin diver, astronomer, antique gun and furniture authority, student of American history, delver into philosophy and psychology, ardent volunteer worker in Mental Health Campaigns (he works with patients at Wards Island State Mental Hospital in New York), studious collector of symphonic recordings, composer, pianist, guitarist, artist, amateur physicist, hi-fi set builder, telescope maker, avid reader, husband and father. He supports all this activity by serving as the unruffled announcer-straight man-actor on the Paar show and host of NBC-TV's daytime quiz show, "Concentration."

(For those who may be keeping unofficial score in some kind of All-Time Universal Man Contest, it should be stated that there is really no race between Hugh and that pre-video universal man, Leonardo da Vinci, the 15th-century painter, sculptor, architect, who was also a musician, engineer, philosopher and scientist. Leonardo, as far as is known, never cut an album of songs for Epic and Hugh has never tried carving marble. So they're not evenly matched.)

THE ALBUM: Every six months or so, Downs makes what he calls his "semi-annual farewell appearance as a singer" on the Paar show. His last such performance led to (1) praise from Burl Ives and (2) this album, which includes tasteful show tunes, superb folk songs (some in the "rouser" vein, others "moody"), sea chanteys, hymns and some apt talk.

"I didn't think I'd ever make 12 songs sound different," Hugh said after it was all over. "But Mundell Lowe is a genius. He turned out arrangements with so much individuality and imagination that I was forced to outdo myself in trying to match his work. If there is any freshness in my numbers, it is all Mundell's doing."

Incidentally, Mr. "Big Daddy" Ives thought Hugh did so well he paid him the highest tribute. "Told me I deserved to wear a beard," said Hugh. "I told him I wouldn't grow one. I had a mustache for five years but I finally did it in. It was sapping my strength."

Actually, Hugh has had vocal training, but he doesn't want to be known as a singer. "I don't want to be known as anything. If someone wants a singer on TV, they can easily find one better than me. If they want Hugh Downs, why, nobody can be Hugh Downs better than I."

THE SINGER: Born in Akron, Ohio, on Valentine's Day, 1921, Hugh made his debut as a radio announcer at the age of 17 when he joined the WLOK staff (part-time) in Lima, Ohio, after graduating from Shawnee High School in nearby Shawnee. While attending Blufton College, he also worked as a church singer, putting to use his voice training. When he sang at his Episcopal Church, he could accept no remuneration. But when Baptist and Methodist churches required his baritone voice, Hugh quickly turned pro. His singing also approached operatic quality. (Never quite reached it, just approached it, you understand.) That adventure occurred after he attended Wayne University in Detroit and worked, again part-time, at WWJ and left to join NBC's Chicago outlet, WMAQ in 1943. He was a disk jockey, interviewer and emcee and, in his spare time, once sang in productions of "Pagliacci" and "Cavalleria Rusticana" at the Eighth St. Theater.

In 1954, after 11 years in Chicago, Hugh arrived in New York to serve as co-star and host of the "Home" TV show with Arlene Francis. (He can, as a result of this work, chat about cooking, sewing and decorating without a blush and with impressive authority when the occasion arises.) He was the announcer on "Caesar's Hour" during the 1956-57 season and was selected by Paar for "Tonight" (now "The Jack Paar Show") in July 1958.

Hugh's electronically-induced popularity hasn't short-circuited his modesty or his humanity. "The thought I keep in mind," he explains, "is that the downfall of the magician begins when he starts believing in his own magic. I'm not in this business for the acclaim, as pleasant as that may be for the ego. This is, for me, total expediency. I just want to make money. If I could earn the money I make now on the condition that I never appear on TV or before the public in any way, I'd do it. The reason is that the fuss people make over you is an insidious thing. It can warp your thinking if you're not careful.

"And I'm not after money for material reasons. I don't even own a car. I just find that in order to feed my curiosity about the world, I need money. And, naturally, I would like my kids to enjoy the world, too."

Hugh lives in a Manhattan apartment with his wife, the former Ruth Shaheen, and their two children, Hugh, 13, and Deirdre, 10. There's also an all-important 15-feet of shelf space on which Hugh keeps an impressive library of record albums.

INSIDE AND UPSIDE DOWNS: On camera, Hugh is an accomplished salesman of floor wax, paint, underwear, headache remedies or carpeting.. Off camera, Hugh relates his enriching pastimes to a serious quest for answers about man's role on earth and his relationship to his universe.

The common thread tying his seemingly varied interests together is Ultimate Truth. His studies of astronomy, physics, psychiatry, music, poetry and history all serve to help Hugh understand with more clarity our reasons for being. Like Socrates, he has disciplined himself "to investigate the reason of the being of everything-of every- thing as it is, not as it appears..."

His interest in cosmology, that branch of philosophy that treats the structure of the universe as a whole, has taken Hugh into the study of atoms and beyond.

"I have studied Einstein's theory of relativity enough to know that I probably haven't the mental equipment to master it. And that is quite a humbling feeling," said Hugh, a 175-pound, near-six-footer whose brown hair, at 38, is gray-tipped around the eartops. "I had believed that the ultimate truths reside in the cosmos, but I'm about to abandon it. I believe they will be found in man. Remember when the atom meant the smallest indivisible particle of a substance? Well, we've smashed the atom and that theory to ridiculousness and this shows me that maybe we are on the wrong track. Maybe the whole basic atomic theory is wrong.

"This is disheartening, but it leads me to believe that perhaps we cannot find the answers in technology. Maybe inner man holds the answer. So I go into other fields. And that has led to my interest in mental health. Maybe probing our minds may be our salvation. I think man's proper study now should be the relationship between the mind and heart."

The universality of Hugh Downs has one blind spot. "I like almost all kinds of music except the pop or hit parade music. That's of no interest to me. But," Hugh added, "I'm a big fan of the Nashville music, the Grand Ole Op'ry. I think Red Foley is one of the greatest singers of all time. And I include him with Caruso. This usually evokes laugh- ter, but I'm serious. His singing represents life and that's what music should do.

"Otherwise, I prefer the symphonic literature. I'm enamored of Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. I have everything Mahler ever wrote. At home, I plan Mahler music festivals that last a month. That's one advantage of our technology. It has made me better acquainted with him, through hi-fi, than the wealthiest concertgoer of his time. You know, someone was trying to sell me a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL. That's quite a car. But I said no, that's the primrose path. I have Mahler's Second on disks and that's what counts."

His fondness for poetry, like his antique gun collection, starts with domestic samples. "It all ties in with my interest in history. I buy guns not because I'm interested in ballistics. It's because they tell something about our history. In poetry, I like the American poets. That sounds chauvinistic, I know, but I just like their flavor, their ways of reflecting our history. Stephen Vincent Benet is one favorite."

That, briefly, is Hugh Downs. A civilized man. – NOTES BY FRED DANZIG

Two Brothers
To Pass Away The Time
I Wonder As I Wander
The E-r-i-e Was A-risin'
Drink To Me With Thin Eyes
The Ride Back From Boot Hill
So Long, Blue Valley
Sweet Li'l Jesus Boy

Look To The Rainbow
The Delaware Light
Scarlet Ribbons
Lord Of All Hopefulness