Conniff Meets Butterfield

All The Things You Are

Conniff Meets Butterfield
Columbia CL 1346
1959

From the back cover: The initials B. B. What do they mean to you?

If, quick-as-a-wink, you say Billy Butterfield, and you're classified as masculine in gender, even our man Billy might suggest that you must either be obsequious or kidding.

Let's face it: Our Billy isn't in the same league with BB, the fabled Bardot of French cinema. (He's older, that's why.) And he's not in the same financial bracket with that "other" BB, Barney Baruch. (Hates those drafty old park benches.)

But if you are at all at ease in the jazz combos, the initials should quickly translate themselves subliminally and sublimely into the name of Billy Butterfield, the Brobdingnagian-toned trumpeter from Middletown, Ohio. And this album, in which Billy teams with arranger Ray Conniff, presents a full-sized demonstration of their brilliant musical talents.

Because Ray Conniff is a renowned musical innovator who specializes in crisp, fresh and intelligent sounds, and Billy Butterfield never sounded better, the pairing has produced an album that is, musically speaking, as easy and pleasing an alliance as similar musical ententes by Messrs. Rodgers and Hammerstein or Lerner and Loewe.

Actually, Connie met Butterfield long before this recording session in New York City. These cats go back to the famous Bobcats of Bob Crosby, a little more than 20 years ago.

Born in Attleboro, Mass., Ray was taught to play trombone by his dad, who also taught him the rudiments of arranging, aided by a mail-order course. In 1936, after two years' gigging in and around Boston, Ray was added to the legendary Bunny Berigan band. And if you've seen reading Hear Me Talkin' To Ya by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, you know that group was like, musically and socially. How times have changed, Anyhow, it wasn't until Ray joined the Artie Shaw band that he came into his own as an arranger, turning out such precious baubles as 'S Wonderful, and Prelude in C-Sharp Minor. You still hear these numbers today. During his four-year hitch with Shaw, Ray could find time to study arranging at the Juilliard School of Music and fill in with radio shows. He joined the Harry James crew as an arranger – no trombone _ after World War II service.

Apart from his aptitude for sizzling big band arrangements, Ray also has a gift for orchestrating and conducting pop tunes for such performers as Johnnie Ray, Don Cherry, Guy Mitchell and Rosemary Clooney. Singin' The Blues, with Guy Mitchell, was a Conniff soundtrack that made a noise a few seasons back. (Ray also has recorded as a singer. And not bad, at that.)

Billy Butterfield's career is intertwined with that of Conniff's. He was A growing lad of about 20 when he came into prominence as Bob Crosby's "new" horn. His fame spread still father when he and bass player Bobby Haggart wrote What's New. Like Ray, Billy also was a mighty cog in Artie Shaw's music machine and doubled as a member of the famous Gramercy Five. He followed this with a chair in Benny Goodman's band and, after serving in the armed forces, became one of the most sought-after sidemen in the land. This happy circumstance enabled Billy to pick and choose his own spots, and he preferred to play for the radio bands in New York. After being prevailed upon once again to travel – this time with his own band – Billy came back to New York and settled down to being one of jazzdom's most renowned horsemen, thank to that wide-open tone, a no-nonesense sound that is undiluted by watery voices that have trickled into the trumpet bells of some less gifted musicians. – Notes by Fred Danzig

Beyond The Blue Horizon
You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby
All The Things You Are
Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'
Time On My Hands
Something To Remember You By
What A Diff'rence A Day Made
South Of The Border
Can't We Be Friends
Rosailie
A Love Is Born
I Found A Million Dollar Baby