Jazz Dance Session

Beat Drum Beat

Jazz Dance Session
The Alan Swain Orchestra
Orion High Fidelity Records
LP 101

From the back cover: All life is movement to Chicago Choreographer Gus Giordano, whose own life is. He graduated straight from the University of Missouri to Broadway, where summa cum laude is a matter of talent and timing. On Broadway as a featured dancer he shed himself of any ivory-towered conception of the dance. Performances in such hits as Wish You Were Here, Guys And Dolls, and Damn Yankees gave him some raw jolts and exciting ideas. He left the neon embrace of New York to evoke some glitter of his own. With his fine flare for mixing and matching music and movement, the glitter has reached the explosive stage. In three years he has (1) become the leading modern jazz choreographer and teacher in the Middle West, (2) originated a TV jazz-dance series, (3) taught his free-style technique for the National Association of Dance Masters (Chicago), the Texas Association of Dancing Teachers, the Hinote Dance Festival and at dance conventions from Little Rock and Indianapolis to Denver and in-between, (4) found a bailiwick as a choreographer for industrial films, summer musicals in upstate New York and at Music Theatre, Highland Park, Illinois one of the top summer theaters in the U.S. Now, with this album ("there is a basic need for blending the dance and music experience,") Gus Giordano has added a body beat to the hot-cool tree of jazz, one that will set any pulse bouncing.

A drum-led combo led by Bobbie Christian on timpani-timbales and Maurie Laurie on drums and bongos fashioned some new "beat" crystals in this ten-selection album that may cause some reflection in the less-progressive jazz circles. Both Bobbie and Maurie are almost lyricists with percussion instruments and are in constant demand as recording artists. In the filigreed department of the quintet is Alan Swain, well-known Chicago bandleader and jazz pianist who wrote and arranged all of the selections. Trumpet spicing is by Dick Judson, most recently with Les Elgart and Warren Time, staff musician at CBS television who has made the rounds with Ray Anthony. The flute-like sound on several of the numbers is Warren playing his trumpet without a mouthpiece.

Cha-Cha Tropicale
Drums For Hire
Blues For Drums
Jazz Mambo
Drums Allegro
Frankie And Johnny Cha-Cha
Beat Drum Beat
Hoot-Nanny
Leap Frog (March)
Lazy Bongos