Alone With You - Irv Orton

Hickup-Pickup

Alone With You
Composed and Conducted by Irv Orton
Producer: Chris Bob Hayward
Cover Photography: Garrett-Howard
Engineer: Ted Keep
Liberty Stereo LST 7016
1958

From the back cover: Irv Orton was born July 22nd, 1912 in Rochester, N.Y. and shortly, thereafter, began his musical training. His grandmother was his first piano teacher.

Regarding his formal musical education: Majoring in piano, he was graduated cum laude from Syracuse University in 1934. Fellowships enabled him to pursue graduate study for an additional year at Syracuse and two years at Juillard in New York City.

Versatile is the adjective that best describes his musicianship. He is equally at home in the concert or the jazz field – with small vocal groups, large choir, instrumental combo, or full orchestra. His melodies and arrangements include every musical mood.

Orchestration or melodies by Irv Orton are part of the repertoire of the biggest names in the popular musical world – Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Phil Harris, Helen O'Connell, Dick Haymes, Eddie Cantor, etc.

Misty Miss
Inner Thoughts In An Outer Office
Aphrodisia
Twilight Waltz
Bar None
Twelve O'Clock Gal In A Nine O'Clock Town
The Wine Of The Moon
Hickup-Pickup
Warm Storm
Small Talk And A Dance
Paradise Lost
Alone With You

Relaxing With The Niagarans

If I Could Be With You

Relaxing With The Niagarans
March, 1964, Niagara Therapy Mfg. Corp.

Promotion for Niagara Cyclo-Massage Furniture

From the inside cover: These are the people on our album. We think they are quite talented. They're real, top professionals! Jeanne Baxter has been singing on radio and television for years and is a well-known night-club singer in Pittsburg. She's been our Niagara Song-girl for over seven years and has attended our conventions in Bermuda, Havana, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Las Vegas, etc.

Reid Jaynes is, in our book, absolutely tops at piano, Just listen to this man and we think you'll agree. Reid is probably Pittsburgh's busiest pianist. Not only does he work steadily at the top supper clubs but he's always hustling off to play for a fashion show, fill in at a concert, or back up some top personality at one of the television stations. He's a "regular" with Niagara, too, and has traveled more than a few thousand miles taking in our company meetings.

Hershey Cohen is very famous around Pittsburgh. The folks have his horns... he has quite a collection. He's also a bandleader and kind of "calls the shots" for our little group. He's logged quite a lot of Niagara miles, too.

Hershey, Reid and Jeanne are the nucleus of our musical group. For this recording session, we moved in a few additional troops to help them out: Henry Sciullo is on drums; Rich Munoz has the bass; and Marty Faloon is steering that wonderful guitar you hear on "You'll Never Know".

If I Had It My Way
I Had The Craziest Dream
Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries
You'll Never Know
Honest And Truly
Bye Bye Blackbird
I'll Be Seeing You
Cherie
I'll See You In My Dreams
I'm A Fool To Want You
If I Could Be With You
It's Been A Long Long Time
Dream

An Evening At Dino's Lodge - Jack Elton & Steve La Fever

I'll Be Around

An Evening At Dino's Lodge
Jack Elton and Steve La Fever
Cover Photography and Design: Phil Howard
Recorded in Hollywood 1961
James Economides Jr., Engineer
Ultimate Records URM-6101
Distributed by Ardco - Hollywood, California

From the back cover: Jack Elton has a unique, fresh and completely modern approach to the piano; however, to this he adds the technique and background of a thoroughly schooled classical musician. He attended Baldwin Wallace College in Ohio, The American Conservatory of Music in Fountainebleu, France, and The National Conservatory of Music in Geneva, Switzerland. He has developed a pianistic style that commands attention.

Another reason we feel you will find the twelve songs in this album played with such freedom and taste is the articulate support given by bassist Steve La Fever. Steve studied at the University of Southern California and with Herman Reinshagen, probably the world's greatest living exponent of the Double Bass. Having worked with many leading Jazz Groups, Steve, like Jack, is equally... and happily... at home playing any type of music and consequently spends many hours before the recording microphones of the Motion Picture, Television and Recording Industries in Hollywood.

Tonight
You're My Girl
I'm Beginning To See The Light
One Finger Melody
Stella By Starlight
Lullaby Of Leaves
Chaser
Speak Low
The More I See Of You
I'll Be Around
Blue Moon
Wee Small Hours

Limbo - Joe Houston

Everybody Limbo

Limbo
Joe Houston
Crown Records CST 319
1963

A good rockin' set featuring a lively "garage-band" sound. Original retail price: 99¢

Limbo World
Limbo Lou
Rockin' The Limbo
Out On A Limbo
La La Limbo
Everybody Limbo
Limbo Stick
Limbo Organ
Limbo Blues
Limbo Baby

The Enchanted Guitars Play The Songs Of Kris Kristofferson

Me And Bobby McGee

The Enchanted Guitars
Play The Songs Of Kris Kristofferson
Pickwick International SPC 3580
1977

Help Me Make It Through The Night
The Silver Tongued-Devil
Me And Bobby McGee
Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)
Sunday Mornin' Down
For The Good Times
Jesus Was A Capricorn
Why Me
Who's To Bless And Who's To Blame
The Pilgrim: Chapter 13 (Hang In, Hopper)

Moving Percussion In Pops - Hollywood All Stars

Tiger 

unt

Moving Percussion In Pops

Hollywood All Stars
Dyna-Disc SCH-810
1960

The track "Tiger Hunt" can also be found on Perspective In Percussion - Volume 2

Malaguena
Then There's Bells
Night Train To New Orleans
Cuckoo Cha Cha
Roller Coaster
Tiger Hunt
Baubles, Bongos
Red River Cha Cha

After Midnight - Helen Grayco

You're My Thrill

After Midnight With Helen Grayco
Orchestra Conducted by Judd Conlon
Vik - A Product Of Radio Corporation Of America
LX-1066
1957

From the back cover: Let me (Tony Curtis) tell you something about Helen, our talented and decorative red-head. Helen treats each song as an individual emotional experience. Her favorite exponents of this type of musical expression are Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. Singing since childhood, it has always been the story in a song and the transmission of its emotional content that have been of the utmost importance to Helen. Certainly this emphasis on getting inside a song makes her lyric rendering the most telling facet of her singing style, and the key to its appeal. You'll gather this, certainly, in her interpretation of Take Me In Your Arms. You'll immediately want to take Helen up on her invitation.

Incidentally, it's amazing to listen to Helen on records, for her voice loses nothing of its intimate, lush, wonderful sounds that so thrilled all of us party fold at my house.

In discussing this album, Helen has informed me that the over-all feeling of the album was given due consideration. "But I mad a point of selecting songs that have a real meaning for me and would, therefore, be more personalized and individual in interpretation," Helen, the craftswoman, explained.

I want to tell you, too, that the arrangements of Russ Garcia provide Helen with comfortable, relaxed surroundings that help to bring out the quality of each particular melody. The instrumentation is slanted toward the soft and mellow and includes alto saxophone (played by Les Robinson), strings and rhythm. The rhythm section is comprised of players active on both jazz and studio levels in California: Jerry Wiggins, piano; Alvin Stoller, drums; Joe Mondragon, bass; Barney Kessel, guitar, and Larry Bunker, vibraharp. Russ utilized the various instruments and sections in relation to the song and the feeling it sets up for him and the singer. On the blue melancholy selections, Mood Indigo and Black Coffee, there is a mood-laden Robinson alto sound. For intimacy, the loose extemporary feeling of just the rhythm section on Glad To Be Unhappy, Midnight Sun, We'll Be Together Again. For wistful, lush background, the predominant use of strings on Last Night When We Were Young. Judd Conlon, who conducts the orchestra on this album, is Helen's vocal arranger, and Helen feels that Judd is largely responsible for her success on records and television. – Tony Curtis

Take Me In Your Arms
Mood Indigo
Glad To Be Unhappy
Every Time We Say Goodbye
While We're Young
Black Coffee
You're My Thrill
Good Morning Heartache
We'll Be Together Again
Last Night When We Were Young
Midnight Sun
You Don't Know What Love Is

Easy Living - Ruth Olay

Easy Living

Easy Living
Ruth Olay
Cover Photo by Garrett-Howard
Furs by Harry Rosoff, Los Angeles
Diamonds by Marvin Him, Beverly Hills
Mercury Records SR 60069
1959

From the back cover: Born in San Francisco but virtually a native of Los Angeles, having lived there from infancy, Ruth was the daughter of a rabbi and a professional opera singer. Though her mother was responsible for her initiation into into a general interest in music, it was through a group of youthful friends that she was attracted to popular music and jazz by the records of Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman.

Ruth spent three years living a double life as secretary and singer. Around the time when her typewriter chores for the noted screen writer Preston Sturgis got under way at Paramount Studios, she began to take singing lessons from Florence Russell, the well known vocal coach. Later, Ruth took her dictation from F. Hugh Herbert and Cy Bartlett during the day and studied music with tireless diligence during the evenings. At long last she decided the time had come to sacrifice the security of her studio work and concentrate on a singing career. After an appearance at an avant garde club known as the Cabaret Concert she earned a recording contract with a small, since-defunct company. More recently she has been heard around the club circuit of Los Angeles, occasionally venturing as far as Chicago and other cities. It was while she was playing the Little Club in Beverly Hills that she signed a personal management contract with Bill Burton, the man who guided Jimmy Dorsey and Dick Haymes along the road to national prominence. A contract with Mercury Records followed. And now, after TV appearances that brought her acclaim as the "Singing Sensation of the Jack Parr show", Ruth Olay displays her remarkable vocal talents in this second Long Play album.

From Billboard - December 8, 1958: Ruth Olay Gets Paar Send-Off

Ruth Olay, of Mercury Records, was given the vocal guest spot on the Jack Parr "Tonight" show and was accorded the "new star" introduction which has proved extremely helpful to others in the past.

The network exposure, the big plug given her album "Olay," and the three offerings sung by the new jazz stylist will undoubtedly whet the appetite of other TV bookers.

Miss Olay, strangely enough, did a much better job on the songs that were not from her album, songs like "New Orleans" and "Easy Living." The former tune, a ballad was afforded fine vocal treatment along with smart backing by Jose Melis and his ork. "Easy Living," however, was her best number. Miss Olay reminds one of Lena Horne and gives the same deep feeling and sincere projection to each tune. More appearances of this type could stir up attention.

Just A-Sittin' And A-Rockin'
Hurry-Hurry
Tess's Torch Song (I Had A Man)
Nocturne For The Blues
Undecided
Easy Living
Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
Never Do
Now You Know
Blue Prelude
Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
I Wanna Be A Friend Of Yours

Informally Yours - The Smart Set

It's Lonesome Old Town

Informally Yours
The Smart Set
Produced by Alvino Rey
Cover Photo: Hal Adams
Warner Bros. Records WS 1258
1959

From the back cover: The selections fit the talent, and they embrace the favorite tunes of a span covering more than thirty years. Frank Loesser and Burton Lane contribute the light and breezy "I Hear Music," taken from the 1941 picture "Dancing On A Dime." From the smash Broadway musical "Brigadoon" comes Alan Jay Lerner's compelling "Come To Me, Bend To Me." The giants of American popular music of the 1930's, George and Ira Gershwin, are represented by "Nice Work If You Can Get It," one of the nation's farvorites ever since Fred Astaire danced light-footed through it in "Damsel In Distress" in 1937. And to wind up the first side, there's the jivy, heart-catching "Five Foot Two, Eyes Of Blue," written by Sam Lewis and Joe Young.

Flip the record over and you have a change of pace: "Lonesome Road," a low-swinging piece that first caught the ear in Rex Allen's picture, "Old Oklahoma Plains." But the blue mood doesn't last long as the Quadling-Howard-Jurgens 1939 hit "Careless" and the silver-lining "Hurray For Love" follow. Oscar Hammerstein II adds his plea of "Lover Come Back To Me." round out a dozen pieces that are ageless: both from the point of view of their popularity, and the listener to whom they appeal.

From Billboard - February 23, 1959: Mildly progressive vocal sound by the Smart Set is heard in listenable advantage on a group of standards. Tunes and tempos are nicely varied. Ork backing complements, and various soloists, Ted Nash, alto; Red Norvo, vibes, etc. are also featured. It's an excellent programming set and for those who like easy-listening albums, this is a good buy. Very charming cover is a displayable item. Fine example of vocal stereo.

The Lonesome Road
Careless (Benny Carter, alto sax)
Hooray For Love (Dick Cathcart, trumpet)
Lover, Come Back To Me (Ted Nash, alto flute)
It's A Lonesome Old Town (Ted Nash, alto sax)
It's All Right With Me
A Sunday Kind Of Love
I Hear Music
Mean To Me (Bob Enevoldsen, tenor sax)
Come To Me, Bend Me
Nice Work If You Can Get It (Red Norvo, vibes; Ted Nash, alto flute)
Five Foot Two, Eyes Of Blue

Up From The Roots - Mongo Santamaria

Sofrito

Up From The Roots
Mongo Santamaria
Recorded at Atlantic Recording Studio, New York, N.Y.
Recording Engineer: Jimmy Douglass
Re-mix Engineer: Gene Paul
Art Direction & Design: Richard Mantel
Atlantic Recording Corporation SD 1621
1972

Personnel:

Mongo Santamaria: Conga Drums
Carter Jefferson: Tenor & Soprano Saxes
Bill Saxon: Alto & Baritone Saxes
Ray Maldonado, Lew Soloff & John Faddis: Trumpets
Felix Watkins: Flute on Para Ti & Sofrito
Papaito Munoz: Conga Drums
Julito Collazo: Bata Drum, Chequere, Conga Drums & Tambourine
Pablo Rosario: Bongos & Bell
Jimmy Johnson plays drums on Jose Outside
Vocals-Solos: Julio Collazo & Papaito
Chorus: Marcelino Guerra, Welfo & Caito

The arrangements on Ebora, En La Habana, Conga, Bata Y Chequere, Me Buele La Muela, Eco Abacua & Pan De Maíz are by Mongo Santamaria.

The arrangements on Para Ti, Virtue, Jose Outside & Forked Tongue are by Marty Sheller.

The arrangement on Sofrito is by Neal Creque

The arrangement on Little Angel is by Eddy Martinez

"Up From The Roots", as a title, probably eludes to the sets creative progression from more traditional "African-folk" arrangements to modern sounding period fusion-jazz arrangements. Therefore, this is one set that should be enjoyed, in order, from start to finish to appreciate the entire concept. Featured above, by-way-of-example, is one of the tracks from the more progressive side, "B".

Ebora (Yeza)
El La Habana (Guaguanco)
Conga, Bata, Y Chequere (Lucum & Mambo)
Me Buele La Muela (Columbia)
Eco (Bembe)
Abacua (Abacua)
Pan De Maiz
Para Ti
Sofrito
Little Angel
Virtue
Jose Outside
Forked Tongue

O'Lyn - O'Lyn Callahan

2001 Space Odyssey

O'Lyn
O'lyn Callahan
Yamaha Records YR-5002

From the back cover: When you combine beauty and talent plus education, and your performance brings raves from critics, it can be said, "You have everything going for you." Miss O'Lyn Callahan, born and raised in Southern California, is that kind of an artist. The beautiful young lady plays with the light jazz style popularized by the Carpenters, but with the depth and sound heard in a Count Basie big-band recording. Her musicianship and education background allows her to feel comfortable performing a wide range of styles certain to please any age group.

She graduated Cum Laude from California State College in Fresno with a Bachelor's Degree in Music, plus a Masters in Classical Organ Performance. While in college, she was the recipient of scholarships from the American Guild of Organists and the Music Patron Association.

In 1973 she was named West Coast Champion in the Yamaha Organ Festival, going on to the U.S. National Finals. Miss Callahan's list of beauty credits began with her years as a majorette in high school, a Junior Miss representative; and a finalist in the Miss California Pageant, winning the Miss Congeniality award. Her hobbies include skiing and tennis.

2001 Space Odyssey
The Summer Knows
Tie A Yellow Ribbon
This Could Be The Start Of Something Big
St. Louis Blues
Quiet Village
MacArthur Park
Irish Medley

Kansas City Suite - The Music Of Benny Carter - Count Basie

The Wiggle Walk

Kansas City Suite

Count Basie & His Orchestra

The Music Of Benny Carter

Forum SF 9032

Vine Street Rumble

Katy Do

Miss Missouri

Jackson County Jubilee

Sunset Glow

The Wiggle Walk

Meetin' Time

Paseo Promenade

Blue Five Jive

Rompin' At The Reno

Vacation In Hawaii - The Hawaiians

Vacation In Hawaii

The Hawaiians
Photography: Shostal, N.Y.C.
Crown Records CLP 5214
1961

Available from online vendors so I will not be posting a sample. Presented here to share this particular issue of the cover art.

If It Happened In Hawaii
Hawaiian Light
South Sea Island
Hawaiian Chant
Swinging Hati
Coconut Chant
Hawaiian Sunset
Swaying Palm Trees
Hawaiian Serenade
Waikiki Hula
Lava Lava

Sparky's Magic Piano

Sparky's Magi Piano

Written and Produced by Alan Livingston

Music by Billy May

Talking Piano by Sonovox

Capitol Records J3254

1961

Sparky's Magic Piano

Sparky And The Talking Train