String Of Trumpets - Billy Mure

 

Dancing In The Dark

String Of Trumpets

Billy Mure 

His Guitar and Orchestra

Everest LPBR 5067

Everest Records - A Division of Belock Instrument Corporation

1960

From the back cover: Although Billy Mure is primarily known as a guitarist as well as a composer-arranger, this crackling new Mure program accents trumpets. It came about as a result of the national success of two Billy Mure songs – Trumpet Cha Cha Cha and String Of Trumpets, and since trumpet is Mure's favorite instrument, he was delighted to do an album of trumpet scores. And Everest's clearly and cleanly balanced sound brings the Mure arrangements into striking life.

Mure enlisted several of the most proficient hornmen in New York – Doc Severinsen, Ernie Royal, Bernie Glow, Charlie Shavers, Yank Lawson, Lou Oles and Mel Davis. Billy Mure was on guitar; Sy Mann, piano; Walter Yost, bass; Alvin Rogers, bongos and among the drummers were Bobby Donaldson, Panama Francis and Cliff Leeman.

All the arrangements are by Billy Mure, and he points out the album is intended to be throughly  danceable and also to provide relaxing listening. "I had a wonderful band to play the arrangements," Mure emphasizes, "and couldn't have asked for more expert trumpet work."

Billy Mure's music career has been steadily rising. Born in New York in 1915, he was a violinist by the age of five, and switched to guitar several years later. He became part of Val Ernie's prominent society orchestra from 1937 to 1943, and played Palm Beach, Florida, as well as such New York rooms as El Morocco, The Versailles and the Waldorf. From 1943 - 46, Mure was in the service and led his own band in Greensboro, North Carolina. Since Greensboro was a gathering place for service musicians before they were assigned elsewhere, Mure had an unparalleled chance to arrange for a wide variety of combinations.

In 1947, Mure joined Radio Station WNEW in New York as a staff musician, and remained there for ten years. He began making albums, featuring his "super-sonic" guitar, and also became much in demand as an arranger. He has written for, among others, Della Reese, Bobby Freeman, Don Rondo, Georgia Gibbs, Brook Benton and Bobby Rydell. Increasingly, Mure also began to compose songs as well, and five of his originals are included in this album. He has also written the themes for two films – Five Against The House, starring Kim Novak, and No Down Payment.

In A String Of Trumpets, Mure utilizes several different combinations of trumpets; throughout, he keeps a steady pulsating beat. His Trumpet Cha Cha Cha, by the way, is now used by dance studios throughout  the country because of its exact timing. As for the trumpeters he chose, Doc Severinsen is a veteran of the New York studios and of name bands before he settled in New York. Ernie Royal, also an alumnus of several bands, is respected as a superior lead trumpeter as is the consistently dependable Bernie Glow. Charlie Shavers has been featured with John Kirby, Tommy Dorsey, and his own units while Yank Lawson achieved renown with the Bob Crosby and Tommy Dorsey bands, and later with groups of his own. Lou Oles and Mel Davis are also considered among the most skilled brakemen in New York.

Billy Mure, in short, selected for the kind of music he presents here a nonpareil "string of trumpets." – Nat Hentoff

You Are My Sunshine

Trumpet Cha Cha Cha

Sentimental Journey

It's Magic

Dancing In The Dark

Time Out For Tea And Trumpets

String Of Trumpets

Bumper To Bumper

Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White

Unison Trumpets

Memories Of You

In The Mood