Search Manic Mark's Blog

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Caribbean Nights - Lush Strings

 

Night In St. Thomas

The Gaiety And Romance Of Caribbean Nights
A Musical Cruise To The Fun Filled Islands Of The Caribbean
Tropical Rhythms - Lush Strings
Recorded under the direction of D. L. Miller
Cover Design: Chic Laganella
Somerset STEREO FIDELITY ALBUM SF-29300

Guantanamera
Ocho Rios
Mentiras
Night In St. Thomas
Shipboard Romance
Yellow Bird
Cantina San Juan
Tus Besos
Casino Antigua

Accordeon de Paris - Francois Chantal

 

Adieu Lisbonne

Accordeon de Paris
Music Of The French Cafe with Francois Chantal
Coronet Records CX 52

Gamin De Paris
Place Pigalle
Le Gondolier
La Mer
Arriverderci Roma
Padre
Complainte Des Infidèles
Julie La Rousse
Avec Celui Qu'on Aime
Historie D'un Amour
Adieu Lisbonne

I've Never Been Scared In A Race Car - Richard Petty

 

The Cost Of Racing

"I've Never Been Scared In A Race Car"
Richard Petty
And The Roaring Sound Of NASCAR in STEREO
STP Corporation is proud to present this special album in thanks for your help in the fight against Muscular Dystrophy
Allendor LTD.

Italiano - Frankie Avalon

 

Cappuccino

Italiano
Frankie Avalon
Produced by Marcucci & Faith
Consultants for Italian lyrics: Carlo Menotti and Argentina Brunetti
Cover Photo: Gene Trindl
Cover photo taken at Via Veneto - Hollywood, California through the courtesy of Ambrose Pasquini, Prop.
Jacket Design: Chic Laganella
Chancellor CHL-5025
Distributed by Am-Par Record, Corp.
1962

From Billboard - March 10, 1962: Avalon hops on the international market band wagon in this collection of popular Italian tunes. He sings with ease and showmanship in Italian and English on a group of pretty melodies, including "You're Breaking My Heart," "Capuccian," "Solo Tu," Non Dimentlcar" and "Just Say I Love Her." Avalon improves vocally with every album.

Italiano
No Ti Scordar Di Me
Anema E Core
Non Dimenticar
Don't Ever Leave Me
Just Say I Love Her
Zingarella
You're Breaking My Heart
Solo Tu
Tornerai
You're My Rose
Capuccina

Presenting The Buddy DeFranco - Tommy Gumina Quartet

 

On Green Dolphin Street

Presenting The Buddy DeFranco - Tommy Gumina Quartet
Recorded October 17 and 18, 1961, in Chicago
Mercury Records STEREO SR 60685

Personnel:

Buddy DeFranco: Clarinet
Tommy Gumina: Accordion
Bill Plummer: Bass
John Guerin: Drums

From the back cover: The partnership started in a curious manner. Buddy was looking for a pianist to play a date with him. Frank DeVito, his drummer, suggested that an accordion might make an interesting substitute. DeFranco reacted much the way Chief Justice Warren might if he were asked to join the John Birch Society. But he was finally convinced, first verbally by DeVito and later musically buy Gumina, that this was not an ordinary accordion player. Unlike most exponents of the instrument, generally held in low esteem by jazzmen, Gumina has the harmonic sense and rhythmic feeling of a genuine modern swinging musician.

The result was not just an isolated gig but a partnership that has persisted and progressed, reaching a new plateau of togetherness with the taping of the quartet's first Mercury album.

To recapitulate in the backgrounds of these two strikingly sympathetic artists: DeFranco was born in 1923 in Camden, New Jersey; Gumina in 1931 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Camden being virtually a suburb of Philadelphia, it was in sessions around Philly that Buddy first began to attract attention. While still in his teens, he won a Tommy Dorsey amateur contest and worked in the bands of Scat Davis, Gene Kruppa and Ted Fio Rito. At 20 he joined Charlie Barnet; in 1944 he began his first stint with the Dorsey band, remaining until 1946, then worked for a while with the fine Boyd Raeburn orchestra of '46 - '47, after which he rejoined Dorsey for a year. Aside from a year with Count Basie in 1950 - '51, he has led various groups of his own since then. Since 1955 he has been a Southern California. In recent years he has been very active as a participant in college jazz clinics and concerts.

Gumina, like DeFranco, was in his twelfth year when he began studying seriously. He credits much of his success to Andy Rizzo, an accordion teacher whom he describes as the greatest who ever lived, and with whom he spent five years studying in Chicago. After beginning as a solo recitalist at the age of 14 and clubbing around Milwaukee, he was heard by Harry James, with whose band he was seen in television and on tour from 1952 - '55. He then went on the road as a single act, and in 1956 started a combo of his own, which worked successfully in Las Vegas lounges.

Completing the quartet for the present session were Bill Plummer, 23, from Boulder, Col., a promising bassist who has been heard with Paul Horn and other combos around Los Angeles; and drummer Johnny Guerin, 21, from San Diego, discovered by Buddy at a college clinic.


From Billboard - March 17, 1962: The combination of Buddy DeFranco with the Tommy Gumina Quartet adds up to a very pleasant pairing. The clarinetist and accordionist perform a flock of standards and a few originals in showmanly fashion here. DeFranco swings heartily and Gumina handles the accordion in swinging jazz fashion too. Tunes include "When Lights Are Low," "Street Of Dreams" and "Gone With The Wind."

When Lights Are Low
Street Of Dreams
Runaway
Never On Friday
Gone With The Wind
'S Wonderful
On Green Dolphin Street
Scrapple From The Apple
Playin' It Cool
You Are Too Beautiful

The Country Hit Parade - All Star Artists

 

Old Moon

The Country Hit Parade
18 Top Country Hits by All Star Artists
Starday Records SLP 110

From the back cover: Starday Records has selected the eighteen most popular country songs of the year and they have been recorded by top vocalists and musicians with the sound and arrangement which made the songs so successful.

Under Your Spell Again
Old Moon
Family Man
Black Land Farmer
Tell Me Why
Who Shot Sam
I Ain't Never
Johnny Reb
I Got Stripes
Country Girl
Jimmy Brown The Newsboy
The Battle Of New Orleans
Soldier's Joy
Nothing But True Love
Partners
Poppin Johnny
Igmoo
Three Bells

The Wide, Wide World Of Jazz - Dave Garroway

 

Havana After Dark

Dave Garroway Presents
The Wide, Wide World Of Jazz
RCA Victor LPM-1325
1956


From the back cover:

Flying Down To Rio
Tito Puente and His Orchestra
Side One comes up first with Flying Down To Rio by the Tito Puente band – a solid, but not heavy, mambo sound with a strange, exotic flavor given it by one tiny change in the chorus.


Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
Lee Wiley with Deane Kincade's Dixieland Band
There are probably only a dozen jazz singers who have their own individual sound, quite apart from the sounds that other have made before them, and surely Lee Wiley is one of these. On Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans, and on everything else she does, there is a marvelous texture to her voice, something like running your hand over a piece of fine Harris tweed – and both tickle. Many another singer is just discovering the importance of the sense of the words in a lyric. Lee has known about words for some time now. Cutty Cutshall give her some delightful, sensuous help in the background.


California, Here I Come
Barbarar Carroll Trio
I think that, head over heals, Barbara Carroll is the freshest most creative pianist in the bushes today. Her themes are always simple and directly stated, and then, when she goes into variations on them, it becomes a fascinating exercise for the listener to follow, and to relate the variation to the theme. There is a great precision and crispness about her thinking and originality that makes the listener a happy one. And with all this, she never stop swingin' – never! My favorite pianist, you may gather.


Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen
"Peanuts" Hucko's Swing Band
The wonderful old band sounds of '35-'42 are here photographically recreated with a spirit the tmakes you think for a moment you have put on the Goodman Carnegie Hall record – and, of course, the fidelity is something else again. There's a brilliant trumpet interlude that cane be used to shave with if you run out of other sharp things. Song writer Frank Loesser may be somewhat surprised at what happens here to his lovely waltz from "Hans Christian Andersen."


Manhattan Serenade
Helen Ward with "Peanuts" Hucko's Swing Band
I've said for a long time that if I wanted to investigate somebody for a $50 loan, I'd rather hear him sing one standard theme than talk to him for half an hour. It's this way with Helen Ward. Her essential honesty shows up in her voice like a headlight. I don't think she could wrap a note if she tired, and I hope never to find out otherwise. Her warmth on this fine Louis Alter tune is admirably backed by some poetic trumpet.


Chicago Breakdown
Deane Kincaide's Dixieland Band
Deane Kincaide and his Dixie Gentlemen, including Billy Butterfield, Cutty Cutshall, "Peanuts" Hucko, Lou Stein and Cliff Leeman, take off on this Jelly Roll opus, and don't quit till all the sheep are in the corral, if that's where you put sheep. In addition to all the most correct dixie phrasing, there creeps in a n astounding and amusing modern phrase a few times. Spice on the cake; cold beer in the glass.


Spain
"Peanuts" Hucko's Swing Band
A pristine yet warm chorus by "Peanuts" get them off the ground and the trumpet is merely exquisite with it's bittersweet tone. Incidentally, this fine arrangement, along with the other three for the Hucko band, was written by Charlie Shirley.


Paris Without You
Barbara Carroll Trio
After the title catches your throat, you are free to sink back in comfort for the "other" Barbara Carroll. Listening to her Debussyesque musings seem almost sacrilegious – as though we were violating her privacy without permission. A great tune to practice writing lyrics for.


A Foggy Day In London
Helen Ward with "Peanuts" Hucko's Swing Band
One of the Gershwin giants and Helen Ward's open-faced approach that is so refreshing in these days of the gimmick singers – the ones who are around to annoy us just to the breaking point, and then drop out, to be replaced the next week by even more weird ones.


Kansas City Stomp
Deane Kincaide's Dixieland Band
Featuring some trumpet-clarinet unison work by Butterfield-Hucko that is so precise you are left wondering if there were two instruments there. There are.


Stars Fell On Alabama
Lee Wiley with Deane Kincade's Dixieland Band
One of Lee's greatest. She thinks so too – and the lady is quite a critic. Notice the surprising sweetness in her higher notes. Sometimes I feel she is singing through a fine lace handkerchief.


Havana After Dark
Tito Puente and His Orchestra
I've never been there, but if it's like this number, I'd better not waste any more time getting to it. A hard, bright mambo – and do those dancers have as much fun as they seem to?


From Billboard - January 5, 1957: Jazz for the masses, with Garroway, who emcees NBC-TV's "Wide, Wide World" show, contributing a relaxed, I don't know anything about jazz but I know what I like" type commentary. Effective and varied talent lineup includes Tito Puente ork, the great Lee Wiley with Deane Kincaide's Dixieland Band, Barbara Carroll Trio, Helen Ward with (Peanuts) Hucko's Swing Band and Billy Butterfield. Tunes carry show's travel theme – "Flying Down To Rio," etc.

Country & Western Hits Nashville Style

 

Ring Of Fire

Country & Western Hits
Nashville Style
Producer: Bill Beasley
Assistant Producer: Ted Jarrett
Recorder: Sam Phillips Studio, Nashville
Engineer: Billy Sherrill
Compatible Mastering: Columbia Recording Studio, Nashville
Cover Design: McPherson Studio, Nashville, Tennessee
Wonder Sound MS 508

Don't Let Me Cross Over
Not What I Had In Mind
Lonesome 7-7203
Still
Act Naturally
We Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds
Roll Muddy River
Take A Letter Miss Gray
Six Days On The Road
Ring Of Fire


Friday, October 9, 2020

Red Norvo Trio

 

Honeysuckle Rose

Red Norvo Trio
Rondo-lette High Fidelity A28
A Product of the Rondo Record Corporation
1958

From the back cover: "Red" Norvo, one of the foremost figures of modern jazz, was born Kenneth Norville, March 31, 1908 at Beardstown, Illinois. Norvo started taking piano lessons at the age of eight. While in high school, he took up the xylophone, and then left home at the age of seventeen for Chicago where he launched his career as the leader of a seven piece marimba band entitled The Collegians. When this group broke up, he joined Paul Ash's orchestra, and followed that with a tour of vaudeville in a solo act in which he played the Poet and Peasant overture and did a tap dance. During the summer of 1929 he led a band in a Milwaukee ballroom, and then enrolled at the University of Detroit. He returned to the music business some four months later in Minneapolis, working at Station KSTP, and then returned to Chicago as a staff musician at NBC with Victor Young.

While working on a radio series with Paul Whiteman over NBC, he met Mildred Bailey, then a singer with Whiteman's band. They worked together in Chicago, and then married and came to New York with Whiteman. Red left Whiteman in 1934 and settled in New York where he had his own piano-less octet at the Hickory House on 52nd Street. The personnel of the band included Eddie Sauter on mellophone, Herbie Haymer on tenor sax and Dave Balfour on guitar.

Norvo expanded the band in 1936 to 12 pieces with Mildred Bailey as vocalist. This band recorded regularly for Brunswick from 1936 to 1939 and could be deemed to be pre-eminent in the presentation of Norvo's soft subtle brand of swing music. Norvo remained active as a bandleader from 1940 to 1944, but his wife worked separately during most of this time. In 1943 Norvo had an all-star combination with Shorty Rogers, Eddie Bert and Ralph Burns. In 1943 also, he shifted from xylophone to vibraphone. For the last fifteen years he has played the latter instrument almost exclusively. In 1944 he formed a new band including Aaron Sachs on the clarinet, Remo Palmer, guitar and Clyde Lomdardi, bass. Norvo then gave up bandleading and joined Benny Goodman early in 1945, and then spent all of 1946 with Woody Herman's orchestra. In 1947, he settled in California. Although divorced from Mildred Bailey he continued to be on friendly terms with her and they recorded occasionally together until her death. After freelancing in Hollywood for some time, Norvo returned East in 1949, leading a sextet which included Tony Scott, Mundell Lowe and Dick Hyman.

Norvo's next important move was to adopt a trio format in 1950 with Tal Farlow and Charlie Mingus (later Jimmy Raney and Red Mitchell). His trio records have been acclaimed as the most striking examples of subtlety and finesse in modern, chamber-music style jazz. In January, 1954 he made his first overseas tour in the Jazz Club USZ, Unit.

Norvo was the first musician to show the possibility of adapting jazz to the xylophone. Prior to Norvo the instrument had been considered a novelty only by jazzmen. His first group of recorded solos were for Brunswick in 1933 and this was followed by a long series of recordings with swing groups, first with Jack Jenney, Artie Shaw, Charlie Barnet, Teddy Wilson (1934) and Bunny Berrigan, Jack Jenney Johnny Mince, Chu Berry, etc. (1935). He is considered not only to be a peerless musician in his own right but has show incredible ability to select as sidemen, musicians who were destined to become famous. During the past several seasons Norvo has played Las Vega appearing at the Sands and Tropicana hotels.

Blue Room
Exactly Like You
Rose Room
These Foolish Things
East Of The Sun
This Can't Be Love
September Song
Honeysuckly Rose
Sweet Georgia Brown
Ay Ay Ay
Oh Lady Be Good
Confessin'

Stanley Paul And His Orchestra At The Pump Room

 

The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (I Will Wait For You)

Stanley Paul And His Orchestra At The Pump Room
Arranged and Conducted by Kenny Black
Produced and Directed by Henry J. Macie
Cover Design and Illustration by Bob Toben
Marco STEREO 130

From the back cover: For such reasons, it's gratifying to find a prodigy who bucked the jinx – who kept right on giving off sparks. Now meet Mr. Stanley Paul, who unbelievably is celebrating a quarter-century in show business yet is still something less than thirty years old. To achieve this, he first had to make his professional debut at four, which is difficult enough. And he also has had to remain a professional for 25 years which, in many ways, is even more difficult.

But all this he has done, accumulating triumphs at such clubs as New York's Embers and Basin Street East, on TV and radio, home and abroad, along the way. And as the record shows, musical prodigies who make good wind up playing the fabulous Pump Room of Chicago's Ambassador East Hotel


Rose Of Washington Square
Lara's Theme (Doctor Zhivago)
A Wonderful Day Like Today
Do It Again
The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (I Will Wait For You)
Selections from "Fiddler On The Roof" (Sunrise, Sunset; Matchmaker, To Life, Fiddler On The Roof)
Mame
I Can't Give You Anything But Love
Samson & Delilah
Back In Your Own Back Yard

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Peg O' My Heart - Robert Maxwell

 

What Is This Thing Called Love

Peg O' My Heart
Robert Heart
His Harp And Orchestra
Produced by Harry Meyerson
Decca STEREO DL 74563
1964

From the back cover: Hard on the heels of his first smash album, Robert Maxwell now offers you an exciting new album that incorporates all of the same solid appeal of "Shangri-La" and much more.

This is your assurance of the most distinctive and stimulating music being heard today; music with a unique flavor all its own. This can be credited to Robert Maxwell's artistry on the harp and his distinctive arrangements.

Robert Maxwell is a member of that distinguished group of musicians whose names have become synonymous with the instrument they play. It is his virtuosos ability to adapt the staid harp to all tempos and moods of popular music that created the special Maxwell sound.

That sound comes through strong and clear in this, his latest album triumph Peg O' My Heart is calculated to raise the Maxwell reputation yet another peg... even amongst those who already respect his great musicianship.

A top composer with two of the greatest hits ever – "Ebb Tide" and "Shangri-La" – maestro Maxwell has included in this collection an extra dividend of his newest composition: Little Dipper and Lonely Love. In addition, he has selected a group of lovely standards – and given each one of his own special handling... a languorous tempo for What Is This Thing Called Love and Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Lady... a slow bluesy feel on "Don't Get Around Much Anymore... the striking rock/waltz arrangement of Tammy... and of course the strong insistent beat of the title song Peg O' My Heart.

These songs, and other, are guaranteed to provide untold hours of the most pleasurable listening, and that promise has strings attached... the strings of Robert Maxwell's inimitable harp.


From Billboard - August 8, 1964: Few musicians have done more to popularize the harp than Robert Maxwell. Now on his second pop single hit, harpist Maxwell is being "dug" by many who thought the harp was used only by guys named Marx and Gabriel. Backed by orchestra, Maxwell offers "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," "Adios," "Peg O' My Heart," Sophisticated Lady" and others.

Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Manha De Carnaval
As Time Goes By
Adios
Lonely Love
Peg O' My Heart
Tammy
You Belong To My Heart
What Is This Thing Called Love
Little Dipper
Sophisticated Lady
One O'Clock Jump

Starlight Piano - Andre Previn

 

It's A Most Unusual Day

Starlight Piano
Andre Previn and His Orchestra
Cover Photo: Columbia Records Photo Studio
Harmony
1967

I'm In The Mood For Love
Laura
What Am I Here For
It's A Most Unusual Day
I Remember You
Stella By Starlight
It's Easy To Remember
Falling In Love Again
I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)
That Old Black Magic

Someone To Watch Over Me - Frank Sinatra

 

The Nearness Of You

Someone To Watch Over Me 
Frank Sinatra
Cover Photo: William Read Woodfield
Harmony HS 11277
Electronically Re-Channeled For Stereo
Manufactured by Columbia Records / CBS, Inc.
1973

Someone To Watch Over Me
I Couldn't Sleep A Wink Last Night
I Have But One Heart (O Marenariello)
Stella By Starlight
The Nearness Of You (Orchestra under the direction of Axel Strodahl)
Put Your Dreams Away (For Another Day)
All Of Me
The Girl That I Marry (From "Annie Get Your Gun")
I Love You ("Ich Liebe Dich" Op. 5, No. 3, by Edvard Grieg)

Kaleidoscope - Nancy Wilson

 

Ain't No Sunshine

Kaleidoscope
Nancy Wilson
Arranged and Conducted by James Mack & Phil Wright
Executive Producer: David D. Cavanaugh
Associate Producer: Nancy Wilson
Photographer: Neil Brisker
Art Direction: John Hoernle
Capitol Records ST-852
1972

The Greatest Performance Of My Life
If I Were Your Woman
I'll Get Along Somehow
Let It Be Me
To Be One You Love (from the film "The Anonymous Venetian")
Mr. Bojangles
Ain't No Sunshine
Everyone Knows
Once In My Lifetime

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Quiet Nights - Kitty Kallen

 

Moonglow

Quiet Nights
With Kitty Kallen
Arranged and Conducted by Manny Albam
Budd Granoff Productions, Inc.
Design by Moskof-Morrison, Inc.
20th Century Fox Record Corporation TFM 3151
1964

From the back cover: The arrangements by Manny Albam and the accompaniment of Mel Lewis, percussion, Jim Hall, guitar and Richard Davis, bass, embellish and enrich Kitty's outstanding performance. The choice of these men for the album was no accident. They are without peer in modern jazz circles.

This then is the latest album of a genuinely sincere and talented performer whose work has received the highest praise from record buyers (over 18 million discs sold) and night club goers (Chicago's Palmer House and New York's Persian Room, among many others). Just put it on your record player, relax and listen. You'll soon discover why. – Lawrence Stewart


Quiet Nights
Let Me Love You
The Girl From Ipanema
If Someone Had Told Me
Moonglow
Nothing's Going On Below The Border
Speak Softly To Me
It's Not For Me To Say
Charade
Just Say I Love Him
The Nearness Of You
I Wish You Love





My Favorite Things - Dave Brubeck Quartet

 

My Favorite Things

My Favorite Things
Dave Brubeck Quartet
Produced by Two Macero
Cover Photo: Jerome Ducrot
Columbia CL 2437
1966

Personnel:

Dave Brubeck - piano
Paul Desmond - alto sax
Joe Morello - drums
Gene Wright - bass

From the back cover: A lot of my friends tell me I should be angry when the modern boys fool around with my music. I think a lot of my friends aren't being very smart about this. When Dave Brubeck fools around, he isn't fooling.

For me, this whole My Favorite Things album is deeply enjoyable and highly flattering. I'm indeed grateful to Dave Brubeck. – Richard Rodgers


From Billboard - February 6, 1966: A batch of Richard Rodger's most delightful tunes, interpreted in the swinging quartet. One of the smoothest, most popular groups today, they have a sure-fire seller here. Fans will flip over Brubeck's solo intro to "My Romance," and Paul Desmond's alto sax in in beautiful form.

My Favorite Things
Over And Over Again
Why Can't I
Little Girl Blue
This Can't Be Love
My Romance
Circus On Parade
The Most Beautiful Girl In The World

Aloha From Haunani

 

The Beauty Hula

Aloha From Haunani
Decca STEREO DL 74705
Arranged and Produced by Charles "Bud" Dant
Cover Photo: Marc Brady
Decca Records, A Division of MCA, Inc.
1966

The Beauty Hula (Haoheno Kela No Beauty)
Maui Moon
Hawaiian Honeymoon
Kuu Leialoha
Kaneohe Hula
Aloha, Until Tomorrow
E Maliu Mai (Hawaiian Love Call)
My Little Grass Shack In Kealakekua, Hawaii
Hawaii Nei
Tanga Tika (Tagni Tika)
I Will Remember You
I Wish They Didn't Mean Goodbye

Song For Swingers - Buck Clayton

 

Moon Glow

Songs For Swingers
Buck Clayton With His All-Stars
Columbia CL 1320
1959

From the back cover: Buck Clayton, in his long career, has never chosen any of these roads to success. His artistic integrity remains as unquestioned by his fellow musicians as by the critics. He has won an almost unanimous and unqualified professional respect by remaining true to himself. During the '50s, particularly, he has also won the admiration of a discriminating and constantly growing public. In the course of a 1958 broadcast entirely devoted to Buck's recordings, the French critic, Hugues Panassie, cited him as one of the finest jazz artists of this era. It is an opinion widely shared in Europe, where Buck is certainly as honored as he is in his own land.

Buck first came into prominence when he joined Count Basie's orchestra in 1936. His sensitive solos made an immediate and important contribution to the triumphs of that spirited ensemble. After two years in the Army, and two seasons with Jazz at the Philharmonic, he free-lanced in and around New York, where he was much in demand for recording sessions. In 1949, he made the first of several trips to Europe when he toured France with a small band.

Throughout this period, his story is one of constant growth as a musician. Already renowned for his work with a cup mute while with Basie, he showed considerable creative development, as well as an extension of power and range, when he returned to civilian life in 1946. Today, his handsome open tone, delicate muted sound, expressive vibrato and exemplary instrumental command, are impressive in themselves, but they are all at the service of a very fertile musical imagination. The warmth and lyrical quality of his phrases, and the flowing continuity of his solos, give an unusual impression of grace and ease in a period when speed and complexity often seem to be the major objectives. In short, Buck's trumpet style is synonymous with good taste.

Also from the back cover: His band's personnel is an unusually homogenous one. All of the horns are veterans of the Count Basie orchestra. Dickie Wells was a member for ten years between 1938 and 1950. His imaginative style, and formidable range and control, remain altogether outstanding. Buddy Tate took Herschel Evan's place with Basie in 1939 and stayed until 1949 – far longer than any other tenor sax player. In view of Basie's discerning taste in tenor players, this should be recommendation enough, but since that period Buddy has developed an even more distinctive style. Earl Warren was also with Basie for nearly ten years between 1937 and 1950, as lead alto. Because of the leader's predilection for tenor, Earl was seldom heard as a soloist, but on this record he is featured on both alto and clarinet. A versatile musician, he also plays oboe, flute and tenor. Emmett Berry, an accomplished trumpet player, was with Basie from 1945 to 1950. He is the ideal complement for Buck and shares solo work equally with him. Buck takes the last trumpet solo on each number, as well as those in the first choruses of Night Train and Sunday.

Al Williams who plays piano in the well-integrated rhythm section, came from Chicago to New York, where he has free-lanced from some years. Quickly adaptable to any jazz environment, he has previously recorded with Jimmy Rushing, Cozy Cole and Vic Dickenson. Gene Ramey arrived in New York with Jay McShann's Kansas City Group. Experienced in a wide variety of jazz combinations, including Basie's, he is a bassist as much admired by musicians as he is underrated by the audience. Herbie Lovelle, on drums, is the youngest member of the octet and the nephew of Arthur Herbert, himself a well-known drummer. During his nine years of professional activity, Herbie has worked with Lips Page, Lucky Millinder, Teddy Wilson, Earl Hines, Jimmy Rushing and Sam Taylor.


From Billboard - May 25, 1959: Buck Clayton and such wonderful mainstreamers as E. Berry, B. Tate, E Warren, D. Wells, A. Williams, H. Lavelle, and G. Raymond have put together an exciting LP that has a chance for solid sales. Clayton is his usual outstanding self of trumpet, and the other men help him tremendously. Some of the tunes are standards, such as "Mean To Me" and "Moonglow," and there are other items of interest to jazz fans like "Night Train" and "Swingin' At The Copper Rail."

I'm not sure why the review includes a title (Swingin' At The Copper Rail) that is not listed on this album.

Swinging At The Copper Ball
Outer Drive
Swingin' Along On Broadway
Night Train
Mean To Me
Buckini
Moonglow
Sunday

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

The Hits Of Nancy & Lee - Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood

Some Velvet Morning

The Hits Of Nancy & Lee
Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood
Produced by Lee Hazlewood
Arranged and Conducted by Billy Strange
Engineers: Eddie Brackett in Hollywood and London; Jim Malloy in Nashville
Recordist: Winston Wong
Cover Concept and Photo: Ron Joy
Reprise STEREO 6273
Warner Bros., Seven Arts Records, Inc.
1968

You've Got That Lovin' Feelin'
Elusive Dreams
Greenwich Village Folk Song Salesman
Summer Wine
Storybool Children
Sundown, Sundown
Jackson
Some Velvet Morning
Sand
Lady Bird
I've Been Down So Long (It Looks Like Up To Me)

20 Golden Moments Of Magic Strings

 

Love Me Forever 

20 Golden Moments Of Magic Strings
Diplomat Records D 2429

I Talk To The Trees
Musetta Waltz
Love Me Forever
Rachmaninoff 2nd Concerto
Debussy's Reverie
Moonbeams
Love In My Heart
Your Love
Absinthe Frappe
Merry Widow Waltz
They Call The Wind Marie
Gypsy Love Song
Fiesta El Madrid
Vilia
One Lonely Night
One Fine Day
Rose Of The World
Kiss Me Again
Orpheus
Claire De Lune

Dedicated To The King! - Chuck Jackson

 

Hound Dog

Dedicated To The King!
Chuck Jackson
Produced  by Stan Green
Cover Photo and Design: Burt Goldblatt
Wand WDM 680
A Division of Scepter Records, Inc.
1966

Hound Dog
Heartbreak Hotel
Don't Be Cruel (To A Heart That's True)
Jailhouse Rock
Teddy Bear
Love Me Tender
Crying In The Chapel
Don't
I Forgot To Remember To Forget You
It's Now Or Never

Annie Get Your Gun - Mary Martin & John Raitt

 

Doin' What Comes Natur'lly

Annie Get Your Gun

Mary Martin & John Raitt
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
Book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields
Production directed by Vincent J. Donehue
Production designed by George Jenkins
Costumes designed by Dorothy Jenkins
Musical Direction by Louis Adrian
Produced by Edwin Lester in association with Richard Halliday
Capitol Records High Fidelity Recording W913
1957

From the back cover: Introduced on Broadway in 1946 and later appearing on the screen, Annie Get Your Gun reached a vast new audience in 1957, in the production that is showcased here. It played to packed houses in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and was selected by NBC for a lavish television spectacular. There are two reasons for the enthusiastic response greeting this new version of the show, and their names are Mary Martin and John Raitt. These stars are the principals in the familiar story of Annie Oakley, a buckskin-clad girl wandering out of the backwoods with a squirrel rifle over her shoulder, ready and able to "shoot it out" with the world. Once discovered as the dead-eye delight that she was, she toured the world, hitting the mark wherever she went. Only with handsome young Frank Butler, a professional marksman of note, did she enjoy less than total victory. She won the match, but lost her heart. They married, toured together, and eventually he gave up his career to manage hers.

The roles of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler are here recreated in song by Mary Martin and John Raitt, two of American's outstanding theater personalities. Miss Martin's recent triumphs include South Pacific on the stage, and her remarkable stage and TV performance of Peter Pan. Mr. Raitt hit the top as Bill Bigelow in the Broadway production of Carousel followed by a long run in The Pajama Game, a role that he also transferred to the screen.


Overture
I'm A Bad, Bad Man
Doin' What Comes Natur'lly
The Girl That I Marry
You Can't Get A Man With A Gun
Moonshine Lullaby
They Say It's Wonderful
My Defenses Are Down
I'm An Indian Too
I Got Lost In His Arms
I Got The Sun In The Morning
Anything You Can Do
There's No Business
Like Show Business

Monday, October 5, 2020

Chamber Music Of The New Jazz - Ahman Jamal

 

New Rumba

Chamber Music Of The New Jazz
Ahmad Jamal Trio
Album Production: Dave Usher
High Fidelity (Electronically altered to simulate stereophonic)
Cadet Records CA-602

Piano: Ahmad Jamal
Bass: Israel Crosby
Guitar: Ray Crawford

From the back cover: Ahmad Jamal, though only twenty-five, is probably the most original musical talent to come out of Chicago since the war, although born and educated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With the recent issue of his first LP record he has strengthened his position as an integral part of the new jazz. It has been Jamal's job to show, in his own special way, that the new style can be as delicate and subtle as a glass thread. It is amusing to notice, in this respect, that Errol Garner influenced Jamal in the beginning; however, judging from recent releases, we wee that the distinct style of the young master is now influencing Garner himself.

If we stress the delicacy of Jamal's style, we do not mean that this quality is absent from his contemporaries, they all have it in varying degrees, but no one has pushed the quiet tone to it's limit as he has done, for example, in the opening strains of his Perfedia, or Will You Still Be Mine, and his records on Okeh, which made him famous. His recent releases on Argo seem to point to a second Jamal phase, a new development of the quietly rhythmic. In passing it might be said that his first LP has one side superior to the other, the one with I Get A Kick Out Of You, Jeff, Darn That Dream.

In this accent on the delicate beat Jamal is as different from his contemporaries as Mozar trio is from Beethoven's ninth symphony. In introducing the light lyric, one might almost say the "pastoral" tone, into the new jazz has found a style as original as any of his contemporaries. The predominance of the big register, played softly but with great rhythm, and in simple swing patterns without a great deal of chording and fireworks, is probably the leading formal aspect of his style. His combo, whose most noticeable feature is a guitar doubling for a high-pitched bongo effect, also has a distinct style. This bongo effect is very successful. At its best, it is like listening to bubbling brook on a jazz kick.

In addition to the new style is a great mood in Jamal. His contemporaries are spectacular and complicated in comparison to the quiet joy, the fairylike simplicity and ease of this young pianist. In his tremulous lyrics we find something of a friendly child, something natural and clear. This music, however, is not cheaply relaxing. Its simple beauty is born of a tender sadness, the wonderment of a lost child in short, this music has the rarest form of vibrancy and joy, the kind that knows of tragedy.

At this point Jamal is just starting his musical career. He has been recording for four years and is now only twenty-five years old. He is highly regarded by fellow musicians, like Dave Brubeck, and has the same agent as Louis Armstrong. He has played in many of America's finest night clubs, from coast to coast, including our own Blue Note. Talking with Jamal on the eve of his recent departure for Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and then New York, one had the impression of talk gin to a large child, yet to someone far beyond simple innocence. At times he seems at once young and a century old. Soft-spoken, grave, calm, and ascetic who does not even smoke. He still has something of the elegant and precious about him that is not at all puritanical – he talks with a light humor, but keeps about him a quiet dignity and strength most impressive in this age which counts so heavily on the spectacular. His personality is reflected in his music, which in its clarity, calm and subtle joy, deserves to be called the chamber of contemporary jazz. – Herbert C. Lust


New Rumba
A Foggy Day
All Of You
It Ain't Necessarily So
Medley
I Get A Kick Out Of You
Jeff
Darn That Dream
Spring Is Here

The Deputy Sings - Allen Case

 

Someone To Watch Over Me

The Deputy Sings
Allen Case
Orchestra under the direction of Frank DeVol
Columbia CL 1406
1958

From the back cover: Judging by his background, it might seem that Allen Case has made such versatility the keynote of most of his twenty-five years. He grew up in Dallas, Texas, spent two years at Southern Methodist University, and then forsook books for buskin in the form of a job on a daily TV variety show in Dallas. It was the first time Case – a shower baritone until then – was paid for singing. Eight months later he quit and moved to New York, where he got a tryout on Arthur Godfrey's morning show. He stayed on that program five weeks, when switched to nightclubs in Miami, Florida and Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Case returned to New York to appear in the musical, "Reuben, Reuben," and later, another musical,
"Pleasure Dome" both of which closed out of town. He then went on tour with "Damn Yankees" for a year. Another year was spent back in New York, in "South Pacific," the Broadway "Damn Yankees," club dates, another casualty called "The Carefree Heart," and a few more appearances on the Godfrey show. Early in 1958, he made a guest appearance on the "Jack Parr Show." A small part in a movie led to roles in several TV Westerns: "Wagon Train," "Gunsmoke," "Have Gun Will Travel," "The Rifleman" and "Sugarfoot," Returning to New York for the off-Broadway musical success "Once Upon A Mattress," he left that to do "The Deputy," one of the brightest new shows on television, in which he is seen with Henry Fonda.

"The Deputy Sings" present Allen Case in yet another role, that of a young man interpreting a dozen songs written by this century's most outstanding popular composers. Rodgers and Hart's Bewitched, George and Ira Gershwin's Someone To Watch Over Me... these are some of the songs whose creative inventiveness demands that they by sung with wit, understanding and a complete grasp of musical values. And it is just these values that "The Deputy" – Allen Case – brings to them.


Bewitched
The Very Thought Of You
Don't Blame Me
Again
Someone To Watch Over Me
These Foolish Things
I'm Always Chasing Rainbows
I Only Have Eyes For You
My Romance
For All We Know
That Old Feeling
I'll Be Seeing You

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Romantic Zither - Ruth Welcome

 

Laura

Romantic Zither
Sophisticated Solo Stylings by Ruth Welcome
Produced by Andy Wiswell
Capitol Records
High Fidelity Recording ST 1527
1961

From Billboard - March 20, 1961: A group of lovely standards are played with warmth and feeling here by Ruth Welcome on zither. Her use of the instrument creates a tender and romantic feeling on such tunes are "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing," "Red Sails In The Sunset," "As Time Goes By" and "Far Away Places." A set that makes for appealing mood music.

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
Red Sails In The Sunset
I Love Paris
As Time Goes By
True Love
Laura
Far Away Places
Embraceable You
Theme From Limelight
I'll See You Again
At The Eleventh Hour
They Didn't Believe Me

Favorite Selections By Johnny Ukulele

 

Jungle Song

Favorite Selections By Johnny Ukulele
Featuring the instrument for which his is named and famed
Produced by Bill Miller
Capitol Records High Fidelity Recordings T 1425
1960

From the back cover: Uku is an Hawaiian word meaning "insect" – lele means "to leap." The Islanders long ago gave the four string instrument its name because the action of the performer's fingers reminded them of a jumping bug. And yet, through the years, the ukulele has been strummed more often than really played, with the result that it has come to be regarded all too frequently as a mere toy.

Johnny Ukulele does not "strum." He plays. His technical ability and musical inventiveness are beyond compare, and under his fleet fingers the ukulele becomes a full-fledged instrument with a charming, distinctive sound.

Featured in this album as soloist with a fine rhythm group, Johnny presents a varied selection of melodies ranging from the traditional to the contemporary. Such tunes as Maui Chimes, Hawaiian Wedding Song and Wailing capture the romantic charm of Johnny's Hawaiian ancestry. His versions of Tea For Two Cha Cha and The Third Man Theme bring to mind more modern but equally romantic pictures.

The career of Johnny Ukulele has been long and colorful. Born on the "Big Island" of Hawaii, Johnny came to the U.S. mainland at the age of fifteen. His desire to become a musician was so strong that within a few years he was singing and playing guitar in the country's biggest theaters. In those days he was billed as "Chief Cold Moon," part of an Indian act. After he left the act he continued to play the top houses as a single. Johnny has remained ever since a feature attracting in all phases of the entertainment world. He has become especially well known in recent year through numerous radio, television, and night club appearances. During his long tenure with the Harry Owens Show he acquired the name "Johnny Ukulele." His real name is Johnny Kaaihue.

Interesting sidelights to Johnny's career include the fact that he is an avid and excellent swimmer. He has competed against such aquatic notables as Johnny Weissmuller and Buster Crabbe. In addition to his own successful career as an entertainer, Johnny is directly responsible for another top entertainment attraction: the Mary Kaye Trio. He is the father of Mary and Norman Kaye.


From Billboard - September 5, 1960: Johnny Ukulele, whose real name is Johnny Kaaihue, and who also happens to be the father of Mary and Norman Kaye, is one of the top exponents of ukulele in the world. On this set he shows off his remarkable technique with attractive performances of some Hawaiian tunes as well as "Tea For Two," "Third Man Theme," and other pop-type efforts. He is backed by an instrumental group on most of the selections.

Ua Like No A Like
Maui Chimes
Hawaiian Wedding Song
Jungle Song
Blue Hawaii
Tea For Two Cha Cha
Hawaiian War Chant
Wailana (Drowsy Waters)
The Third Man Theme
Kohala March
Hawaiian Music Box
Black and White Rag

More Of Les - Les Paul

 

Blue Skies

More Of Les
Les Paul and His Trio
Photo: Stuart Becker
Decca Records DL 8589
1957

From the back cover: When he was still a youngster, Les began to feel an affinity for the guitar. However, he discovered many limitations in the ordinary guitar, and began to experiment with the more complicated, infinitely more sensitive electric guitar – of which he has become the country's outstanding exponent. Les Paul has one of the largest collections of guitars and chooses the instrument best suited to each song he plays. With these varied instruments he has initiated more guitar sounds and unique effects than any group of guitarists in America. In addition, he does his own arranging and editing – usually at home in New Jersey, in the wee hours of the morning.

As the strings of Les' guitar sing out the plaintive Hawaiian songs, you are magical transported to a "Hawaiian Paradise," It is not difficult to imagine dark-eyed girls swaying to the rhythm of the ancient hula; their hands telling a romantic story; their flowered leis symbolizing the gaiety of the island. Hawaii is truly "My Isle Of Golden Dreams," whose very air is drenched with the heady perfume of exotic flowers.

Born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Les played in a school band there and, at the age of 14, took his first step toward a musical career. He was heard on radio in Racine, Wisconsin, and it was not long before word of his fast-maturing musicianship spread to Chicago. The Chicago World's Fair of 1933 gave Les an opportunity to branch out on his own as a featured entertainer at one of the exposition's many attractions. The engagement led to many network appearances.

The turning point in Les' career came in 1937, when he began an association with the famous Waring organization which lasted for three years. It was at this time that the Les Paul Trio came into being. Its popularity was such that it became a regular feature on the Waring shows. The group has become one of the busiest in the country, with a reputation that is still growing.


Guitar Boogie
Blue Skies
Begin The Beguine
Dream Dust
Dark Eyes
Steel Guitar Rag
Hawaiian Paradise
My Isle Of Golden Dreams
Song Of The Island
Sweet Leilani
To You Sweetheart Aloha
Aloha Oe

Ernie Heck At The Fabulous Fairmont

 

Sophisticated Swing

Ernie Heckscher At The Fabulous Fairmont
Verve Records MG V-4020
1958

From the back cover: High atop Nob Hill stands the Fabulous Fairmont, a symbol of the grace and elegance that is San Francisco. In the magnificent Venetian Room, where the top stars of the entertainment world appear nightly, Ernie is now in the tenth year of his record breaking engagement. Dancers and visitors from all parts of the world have acclaimed his matchless rhythm and the versatility of his superb orchestra.

From Billboard - October 27, 1958: Ernie Heckscher, for the past decade the nabob of Nob Hill, is heard in a characteristic set of hotel-styled dance medleys which have kept them filling the floor at San Francisco's Fairmont. Based on the brisk business enjoyed by his earlier package, the 29 standards packed into this album will attract a healthy share of the society band buying clan.

Fine and Dandy
Can This Be Love
You've Got That Thing
You Do Something To Me

I Can't Get Started
There's A Small Hotel
Josephine

It's Only A Paper Moon
Will You Still Be Mine
You're So Amusing (But So Confusing)

Wunderbar

The Continental

I Won't Dance
I'm Just Wild About Harry
Black Bottom
When The Saints Go Marching In

Button Up Your Overcoat
You're The Cream In My Coffee
If You Knew Susie
Chicago

Sophisticated Swing

Love For Sale

Music, Maestro, Please!
At Sundown
My Heart Belongs To Daddy

Rica Pulpa

Who Cares
Dirty Lady
No! No! Nora!