California Dreaming - Wes Montgomery

Without You

California Dreaming
Wes Montgomery
Arranged and Conducted by Don Seabesky
Produced by Creed Taylor
Director Of Engineering: Val Valentin
Recorded September 14, 15, 16, 1966 at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder
Cover Design: Any R. Lehman
Cover Photo: Ken Whitmore

Verve V-8672 & V6-8672
1966

Personel:

Guitar: Wes Montgomery, Al Casamenti, Bucky Pizzarelli
Piano: Herbie Hancock (appearing through the courtesy of Blue Note Records)
Trombone: Wayne Andre, John Messner, Bill Watrous
Trumpet: Mel Davis, Bernie Glow, James Nottingham
Alto Sax, Flute, Piccolo: Ray Beckenstein
Alto & Baritone Sax, English Horn, Clarinet: Stan Webb
Bassoon, Clarinet, Tenor Sax: Walter Kane
French Horn: James Buffington
Vibes, Castanets, Scratcher: Jack Jennings
Tuba: Don Butterfield
Bass: Richard Davis
Percussion: Ray Baretto, Grady Tate

From the inside cover: Wes Montgomery is the greatest, most "happening" musician in the whole world. The greatness of his talent can be measured by the soulful eloquence with which he states his message... He is in the very best sense of the word a "method player." He gets to the heart of the music by expressing himself from within – totally.

Wes was the key member of a talented group known to the jazz world as the Mastersound. His two brothers Buddy and Monk, were also members of the quartet. Their first dates were in and around the Montgomery hometown of Indianapolis, but soon, "back home again in Indiana" was only a place to be from. Their fine playing took the Mastersound to the West Coast and then to national recognition and prominence – proving that the family that plays together stays together. And this beautiful family stayed together for a long while until it was time for Wes to step out on his own. With the family's blessing, incidentally. Notes by Johnny Magnus KMPC, Los Angeles

California Dreaming
Sun Down
Oh You Crazy Moon
More, More, Amor
Without You
Winds Of Barcelona
Sunny
Green Peppers
Mr. Walker
South Of The Border

Hi-Fi Hits In Popular Classics - Hermann Scherchen

Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1

Hi-Fi Hits
In Popular Classics
Vienna State Opera Orchestra
Conducted by Hermann Scherchen
Cover: Don Bradley from Shostal
Westminster Long Play Hi-Fi Records
XWN 18888

From the back cover: Hermann Scherchen is acknowledged as one of the world's great conductors and is renowned for the wide range of his repertoire. He has been acclaimed as great an interpreter of Beethoven, Handel, and Bach as he has of many modern composers. His Westminster recordings of all nine Beethoven symphonies and the twelve "London" symphonies of Haydn are considered milestones in the history of recorded music.

Hermann Scherchen's early reputation was earned as conductor in Riga, Berlin, Frankfort, Winterthur, and Konigsberg. An outspoken anti-fascist, he left Germany in 1932, and settled in Switzerland. Since the end of World War II he has conducted in all the leading European cities, most recently in Rome, London, Paris, and Vienna, and in South America. In addition to his activities as a conductor Scherchen is well-known as an author, having written authoritative books on music, including The Nature Of Music and Handbook Of Conducting.

Khachaturian: Sabre Dance
Rimsky - Korsakoff: The Flight Of The Bumble Bee
Ravel: Bolero
Enesco: Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1
Rossini: William Tell Overture

Transfiguration Of Hiram Brown - Mose Allison

Baby, Please Don't Go

A Modern Jazz Premiere
Transfiguration Of Hiram Brown
Piano and Vocal Stylings
Mose Allison
Columbia STEREO CS 8240
1960

From the back cover: With this album, Columbia introduces to you one of the most exciting new jazz personalities, Mose Allison. Born in Tippo, Mississippi, Mose began playing the piano in grammar school, trumpet in high school, and from what I can gather, the singing and composing ends of it have been with him ever since he can remember. His early heroes were Nat "King" Cole and Louis Armstrong.

Like most of the younger generation of jazz musicians, Mose received a great deal of his training from digging jazz records. His college years were spent at the University of Mississippi and later at Louisiana State, where he received his B.A. Degree in English; the time in between the two schools was spent in the Army. In 1958, he was the runner-up in Down Beat's international Critic's Poll, new pianist category. During the past several years, he has been playing with such notables in the jazz field as Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and many other. Recently Mose was part of an all-star group on the Columbia album "Swinging Guys and Dolls" (CL 1426 / CS 8223).

Present personnel of the Mose Allison Trio includes Addison Farmer on bass and Jerry Segal on drums.

Transfiguration Of Hiram Brown

According to Mose, "Transfiguration of Hiram Brown Suite" is a serious-comic fantasy based on a perennial theme. Hiram Brown is the naive provincial who dreams of a life of opulence in the city. He goes there, is overwhelmed and disillusioned, longs for his youth, realizes that this too is an illusion, despairs, goes through a crisis and is "transfigured."

This is Mose's own interpretation.

He hopes that this Suite can be enjoyed from a variety of viewpoints and, most of all, that it swings.

Some of the material contained here was written many years ago, and some written especially for this album. (The opening theme, for instance, was written ten to fifteen years ago.) The Suite is a fusion of different elements. The first three parts are the country; the middle section the city; the last part, the denouement. There is no need here for a musical description of the tunes on side 2 since they are all standards and all of you who are above the milk-for-breakfast age will have heard these familiar tunes before. But here something new has been added; the vocal and piano spice of Mose Allison, one of the brightest new voices in jazz. – Notes by Two Macero

Transfiguration Of Hiram Brown Suite
• Barefoot-Dirt Road
• City Home
• Cuttin' Out
• Gotham Day
• Gotham Night
• Echo
• The River
• Finale

How Little We Know
Baby, Please Don't Go
Make Yourself Comfortable
'Deed I Do
Love For Sale

Moog! - Claude Denjean

Venus

Moog!
Claude Denjean and His Moog Synthesizer
Producers: Claude Denjean & Dominique Lamblin
Engineers: Jean-Claude Egreteau (Paris); Andre Perry Studios (Montreal)
Recorded at Sofrason Studios, Paris and Andre Perry Studios, Montreal
Color Photograph: Grundig France, Realization Studio Petri
Black and White Photograph: R. Rompre
Phase 5 Stereo Spectacular SP 44155
London Records, Inc.
1970

Na Na Hey Kiss Him Goodbye
Nights In White Satin
Sugar, Sugar
Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
House Of The Rising Sun
Everybody's Talkin'
Venus
Come Together
Bridge Over Trouble Water
Lay Lady Lay
United We Stand
Proud Mary

¡Mexico, Alta Fidelidad! - Conjunto Medellin de Lino Chavez

La Petenera

¡Mexico, Alta Fidelidad!
An Adventure In High Fidelity Sound
Conjunto Medellin de Lino Charvez
And Other Mexican Folk Ensembles
Cover Photo courtesy of American Arlines
Vanguard Recording Society, Inc.
VRS-9009

El Pijul - Conjunto Medellin de Lino Chavez
El Zapaterado - Conjunto Medellin de Lino Chavez
La Petenera - Trio "Cielito Lindo" from Tamazunchale, state of San Luis Potosi
Coplas a mi Morena - Conjunto Medellin de Lino Chavez
El Querreque - Trio "Xilitla" from Xilitla, state of San Luis Potosi
La Bruja (The Witch) - Conjunto Medellin de Lino Chavez
El Siquisiri - Conjunto Medellin de Lino Chavez
El Caballo - Trio "Chahuixtle", from the region between Tuxpan and Chicontepec, state of Veracruz
La Bamba - Conjunto Medellin de Lino Chavez
La Rosa - Trio "Chahuixtle"
El Cascabel (The Little Bell) - Conjunto Medellin de Lino Chavez
El Fandanguito - Trio Fernadez from Maria Andrea, state of Puebla
El Tilingo Lingo - Conjunto Medellin de Lino Chavez

Dancing A Dream - Carmen Cavallaro

Desafinado

Dancing In A Dream
Carmen Cavallaro
The Poet Of The Piano
Decca STEREO DL 74383
1963

From Billboard - November 16, 1963: The maestro-band leader-pianist has enjoyed success over the years with his piano and band in society music settings and here is another set, attuned for listening and dancing, and featuring piano with a rhythm-only accompaniment. "There Goes My Heart," "I Had The Craziest Dream," "It's Magic" and "Desafinado," are samples.

I Had The Craziest Dream
There Goes My Heart
Desafinado
Everything I Have Is Yours
In The Still Of The Night
Dancing On The Ceiling
I Can Dream, Can't I?
But Beautiful
If I Give My Heart To You
I've Got A Pocketful Of Dreams
It's Magic
Let's Face The Music And Dance

Drums A Go-Go - The Hollywood Persuaders

Drums A-Go-Go

Drums A Go-Go
The Hollywood Persuaders
Packed and Sold by Original Sound Sales Corp.
OSR-LPM 5013

Drums A Go-Go
Last Night
Forget It
Thunderbird
Eve Of Destruction
Tijuana
Satisfaction
Hollywood A Go-Go
Rush Street
Persuasion
Sunset Strip

North Beach

Gemini - The Barrie Moore Combo

Double Agent Jones

Gemini
The Barrie Moore Combo
The Southern Contemporary "9000" Series
Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc.
MQLP 9016
1972

Gemini
Cambridge Springs
Side Glance
Autumn Weather
Jaunty One
Pretty Miss
Double Agent Jones
Thanks A Bunch!
Groovy Little Puppet
Pot Luck
One Up
Midwinter Morn

Sammy Davis, Jr. Sings - Laurindo Almeida Plays

Speak Low

Sammy Davis, Jr. Sings

Laurindo Almeida Plays
Produced by Jimmy Bowen
Engineer: Lowell Frank
Art Directions: Ed Thrasher
Cover Photo: Tom Tucker
Laurindo Almeida appears through the courtesy of Capitol Records
Reprise Records STEREO RS-6236
A Division of Warner Bros. Records, Inc.
1966

From Billboard - December 10, 1966: The masterful guitar work of Laurindo Almeida brings out the best in a restrained Sammy Davis. The songs are soft and familiar – "Two Different Worlds" "The Shadow Of Your Smile" and "Speak Low" – and the results are soothing.

Here's The Rainy Day
Two Different Worlds
The Shadow Of Your Smile
Where Is Love
Every Time We Say Goodbye
I'm Always Chasing Rainbows
We'll Be Together Again
Joey, Joey, Joey
The Folks Who Live On The Hill
Speak Low

Germany Sings - The Botho Lucas Chorus

Stardust

Germany Sings
The Botho Lucas Chorus
Produced for the U.S.A. by Dave Dexter, Jr.
Capitol Photo, Department: George Jerman
Capitol ST 10389
1965

Kuss mich (Kiss Me)
Traum, wenn du einsam bist (Dream)
Abends in der Taverne (At Evening In The Tavern)
Lass' die Welt darüber reden (Wake The Town And Tell The People)
Wenn der weisse Flieder wieder blüht (When The White Lilac Blooms Again)
Donkey Serenade
Ganz leis' erklingt Musik (Softly The Music Plays)
Stardust
Heute Nacht beginnen wit die Reise (Sentimental Journey)
Schlaf' mein Liebling (Goodnight Sweetheart)

Hawaiian Golden Hits - The Royal Hawaiian Guitars

Hawaiian War Chant

Hawaiian Golden Hits
The Royal Hawaiian Guitars
With The Merry Melody Singers
Mercury Records MG 20693 & SR 60693
1962

From Billboard - July 14, 1962: The traditional approach to island music is offered by an ensemble which features Hawaiian guitars backed by rhythm. Tempos are bright and the arrangements are eminently suitable for dancing. Selections all have Hawaiian associations as in "Song Of The Island," "Little Brown Gal," "Sweet Leilani," "Hawaiian War Chant" and "Blue Hawaii."

Hawaiian Wedding Song (Ke Kali Nei Au)
Song Of The Island
Little Brown Gal
Sweet Leilani
Moon Of Manakoora
When Hilo Hattie Does The Hilo Hop
Hawaiian War Chant (Ta Hu Wa Hu Wai)
Blue Hawaii
U A Like No A Like
Sophisticated Hula
Lovely Hula Hands
Bali Ha'i from "South Pacific"

Among The Stars - Renee Raff

Among The Stars

Among The Stars
Renee Raff
Arranged and Conducted by Billy Byers
Executive Producer: Herman D. Gimbel
Produced by Barry D. Oslander
Engineer: Phil Macy
Re-Mixing Engineer: William Hamilton
Cover Art: Charles Blodgett
Liner Notes: Sara Cassey
Audio Fidelity Stereodisc AFSD 6142
1965

Jacket cover photographed in front of the Al Hirshfeld mural at the Fifth Avenue Cinema, N.Y.C.

Audio Fidelity Records produced and released the world's first Stereophonic High Fidelity record (Stereodisc) in November 1957.

From the back cover: "There are lots of girl singers, but very few who sing." Renee Raff is a girl who sings, and sings very well indeed.

Although this is her initial album, there is a wealth of music to suit the desires of those who search after singing riches, and one important reason why is the innate sense of musicianship which Miss Raff displays throughout. Unquestionably, this is due in part to her academic background - first piano lessons at age seven; piano and voice training... Royal College of Music, London; jazz piano, Julliard School of Music with John Mehegan.

If some selections hare are refreshingly new to you, it was a deliberate plot. In the album's planning stages, it was first decided to use six standard and six originals, but the original material submitted was so perfect for Miss Raff's talents, that eight were used (Several others were turned down, reluctantly.) The Material covers a wide range, from sophisticated Noel Coward, to jazzman Gerry Mulligan with lyrics, to Jan Piereweit, a South African (Miss Raff's home) folk song.

Arranger Billy Byers has made subtle use of the fact that Miss Raff is an obviously jazz-oriented performer. His inventive arrangements have left ample room for delivery while sustaining the mood of each tune, whether soft ballad, or swinging up-tempo. The musicians, too, provide the framework to enhance this feeling; consider the solid support of Ossie Johnson and Milt Hinto, the flawless piano of Hank Jones (Starting Tomorrow) or the shining flute obligatos of Jerome Richardson (Let There Be Love). A splendid voice in a splendid setting.

Starting Tomorrow
Let There Be Love
In The Interim
Willow Weep For Me
Jan Pierewiet
Please Don't Leave Me
Among The Stars
He Lied
Mad About The Boy
April's Fool
Little Girl Blue
Butterfly With Hiccups

Swedish Modern Jazz - Arne Domnerus

Round About Midnight

Swedish Modern Jazz
Arne Domnerus and His Group
Recorded in Sweden
RCA Camden CAL-417
1958

From the back cover: One of the wonders of the postwar jazz world has been the sudden rise to dominance in European jazz of Sweden, a country which could scarcely have been found on the jazz map before 1946. The first suggestion that Americans had of Sweden's jazz potential occurred in the late Forties when the Swedish clarinetist Stan Hasselgard came to this country. Here, it seemed, was the first clarinetist who could challenge Benny Goodman's long rule as top man on that instrument. So good was Hasselgard, in fact, that Goodman found himself in the unique position of being the only other clarinetist that Goodman has ever featured

Hasselgard's career was nipped in the bud when he died in a tragic auto accident, but even in the few brief months that Americans heard him, his presence served to turn attention to Sweden as a jazz source. And there proved to be jazz aplenty there.

Not just jazz in general, either, but a rather special kind of jazz that the Swedes have since made uniquely their own. It is based on the Swing Era of jazz, the first jazz period of which the Swedes were strongly aware. (This has let to two striking characteristics of jazz in Sweden: there are no Dixieland or Traditionalists bands to speak of and there are an amazing number of clarinetists who play like Benny Goodman.) From Swing, the Swedes moved readily to Bop and the later refinements of Bop. No other country is quite so oriented toward modern jazz as is Sweden.

But it is apparently not in the Swedish nature to abandon anything that is good simply because something new and attractive has come along. So they have clung to swing even while the embraced bop and, in consequence, most Swedish jazz has a swingingly modern quality that is found only occasionally elsewhere.

When the jazz world's attention was directed toward Sweden by Hasselgard's talent, one of the first major figures it encountered was Arne Domnerus who has maintained his position throughout the Fifties as one of the top three jazzmen in a country brimming with able jazz musicians. Domnerus began playing alto saxophone when he was a teenager (he was born in Stockholm in 1924) and one of his earliest experiences was in a young amateur band which included Rolf Ericson, a trumpeter, who has played with Woody Herman and Charlie Barnet; Simon Brehm, who became a pioneer Swedish bass star; and pianist Gosta Theselius (who arranged the two full band selections in this collection). By the time he was seventeen, Domnerus was leading a band in a restaurant in a small town in Laland, possibly the most frigid apprenticeship that any potential jazz star has undergone.

For the next ten years he was heard in various Swedish bands playing both alto and clarinet. When he formed his own band in 1951, one of his sidemen was old colleague Ericson; another was baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin who has since become, with Domnerus and pianist Bengt Hallberg, one of the most widely hailed Swedish jazzmen. Despite a rising tide of able young Swedish jazz musicians, Domnerus has held his place as the country's finest alto saxophonist, attested by the fact that for seven successive years he has been the winer on that instrument in the annual poll for the Swedish All Stars.

In these selections, Donmnerus is heard on alto saxophone in all but three instances (Relax, Lady Be Good and Creole Love Call on which he plays the clarinet). In his early days, when the alto was his only instrument, his style was patterned on the smooth, sweeping flow of Benny Carter. Later he fell strongly under the influence of Charlie Parker but now, as these performances show (the first side was made in 1957, the second in 1956), he has evolved an extremely effective fusion of Parker and Carter which is thoroughly in the vein of the general swing-cum-modern feeling of Swedish jazz as a whole.

On clarinet he gives evidence of some fascination with Jimmy Giuffre's deliberate walking style in the lower register on Relax but he can also move into the upper register with authority as he does in the latter stages of this number and in Lady Be Good. On this last number, in fact, he build his solo from a casual, subdued entrance to a wailing intensity that marks him as one of the major talents on what is a relatively neglected instrument in jazz today.

Aside from his instrumental versatility, Domnerus is shown in three lights here. Side One features his Quartet (Domnerus; Gunnar Svensson, piano; Georg Riedel, bass; Egil Johansen, drums) in the free and easy improvisatory atmosphere of original compositions or of tunes which are well established favorites as take-off points for jazz excursions. The quartet selections on Side Two are mostly ballads, given a sensitive balladic treatment. The last two numbers on this side, Take The "A" Train and Creole Love Call, are both by Domnerus' orchestra, a compact organization created by the addition of only three men to the Domnerus Quartet: Bengt-Arne Wallin, trumpet, and Rolf Blomqvist and Lennart Jansson, saxophones.

On the two orchestra performances, the work of Wallin, one of the younger, upcoming Swedish jazz stars, is of special interest, particularly on Creole Love Call in which he shows that he has a strong personality of his own, that he is no more a slavish imitator of Williams than the arrangements of these two tunes from Duke Ellington's repertory are slavish imitations of the Ellington handling of them.

The emphasis that Domnerus puts on Ellington in his full band selections (accented by his inclusion of a third Ellington tune, Don't You Know I Care, by the Quartet) indicates another of the influences that has gone into the production of the warm, swinging, alertly provocative playing of this unusually fully developed jazz star, a star whose brilliance now shines beyond his native Sweden to light up the jazz corners of the world.

From Billboard - April 28, 1958: Domnerus displays his talented way with alto sax, augmenting the quartet of Side 1 to a provocative septet on Side 2. "Frenesi," "Blue Moon" and "Gone With The Wind" stand out, with $1.98 tag a lure. Recorded in Sweden, sound is excellent.

Topsy Theme
Relax
Frenesi
For Dave
Lady Be Good
Round About Midnight
Blue Moon
I Got Rhythm
Didn't You Know I Care
Gone With The Wind
Take The "A" Train
Creole Love Call

Sentimental Journey - Florrie Parrish & John Louis Kell

Sentimental Journey

Sentimental Journey
Florrie Parrish & John Louis Kell
Cover Artist: Wally Metts
Engineer: Grover Dunn
Sonora Records LP-SR-132-1170
Sonora Sound Productions - Chattanooga, Tennessee

Organist ("Jail Story"): Betty Mosley
Guitarist: Dewell Everett
Pianist ("Sentimental Journey"): Betty Mosley

Vocal Background on "Ninety and Nine":
Mrs. Betty Jones
JoAnn Ezell
Irene Day
David Knight
John Louis Kell

Organ: Maner Music Co.

From the back cover: On this album, all the unwritten rules that have apparently governed the success of long-play albums have been broken. We have mixed religious, country, popular and patriotic songs together. The selections are longer than usual and are unedited. On Side A you will hear what has kept an old lady whose head has been busted five different times and who has has very little hair on her head, who has missed five funerals in her immediate family, still smiling. If you listen closer, I am sure that you will discover Florrie's favoritisms song. It is worth the price of this album.

Introduction - John Kell
Sentimental Journey
Supertime
Amazing Grace
Jail Story
Scarlet Ribbons
There'll Always Be An Englan
Ball Game
Prayer Meeting
Ninety And Nine
Evening Prayer

Sleepy People - Claude Thornhill

Snowfall

Sleepy Serenade
Claude Thornhill and His Orchestra
Cover Photo: Milton H. Greene
Design Records DLP 50

From the back cover: The era of the "big bands" in America developed many fine young bandleaders and many original musical styles. None was easier to dance to, more pleasant to listen to and in better taste than the music of Claude Thronhill. Word that Claude's band was at the Glen Island Casion in New Rockelle, New York, then the cradle of the most popular bands in America, was enough to draw teen agers and older folks alike from as far away as Philadelphia to the smart rendezvous. Unlike so many other orchestras of that day, Thornhill had developed a style that was completely unique. It was the practice of many new musical organizations to pattern their style after that of the then "king" of popular dance music, Glenn Miller. Thornhill dared to be different. In doing so, he developed a style and sound that became known throughout the nation as "one finger piano." His smooth blending of reeds and mellow trombones modulated against the mildly etherial tinkle of an almost muted piano presented a sound that was once described as "musical Aphrodisiac." Thousand of dancers came to dance and fall in love to the siren call of the melliferous tones wafted from the bandstand. Claude, a brilliant arranger in his own right, also staffed men like the highly versatile and talented Jack Olsen to produce the sound that captured the heart of dancing America. We have attempted, in this album, to offer the very best of the Thornhill melodies. "Snowfall" a Thornhill composition, is also his theme song. Many consider it the most beautiful of all orchestra themes. – Roy Freeman

Sleep Serenade
Night And Day
Love Tales
Where Or When
Humoresque
Snowfall
Polka Dots And Moonbeams
Early Autumn
Lover Man
Traumerei