West Side Story - Manny Albam

 

Finale

Manny Albam And His Jazz Greats

Play Music From West Side

Decca Records DL 4517

1957

From the back cover: About Manny Albam – One of the top arrangers-composers in the jazz field. Started career as a baritone-sax playing in the forties, and played with Bob Chester, Georgie Auld, Charlie Barnet and Charlie Ventura. He started writing while a sideman in these bands, and finally gave up playing in 1951, when the demand for his services made it impossible to continue doing both. His scores for Woody Herman, Count Basie, Charlie Barnet and Charlie Ventura plus numerous small ban and vocal assignments have brought him to a position of stature in the field. The last few years, he has spent more and more time recording, developing works of length and depth, and has become active in the pop and show fields.

Also from the back cover: The music which Mr. Bernstein composed for the "West Side Story" depicts the tension, turbulence and torment of adolescence. When this adolescence occurs amid the concrete and exhaust fumes of New York tenements, we can, more likely than not, expect chaos, yet not without a particular humor.

When I sat and listened to the prologue to this opera-ballet at the Winter Garden, it was obvious from the first few bars that this was to be a musical with an unhappy theme and probably an unhappy ending. This struck me as being different from any "musical" (other than opera) that I had up to this point seen or heard. The ballet music and "special" material never left doubt as to the effect that Mr. Bernstein wished to have his listeners feel. The prominent theme was unrest with an almost equal amount of musical whimsy. The jazz-like thematic structure showed the troubled adolescent, whereas the almost religious quality of the love ballads showed the innocence and sensitivity which is almost always found beneath the tough outer armor of the same person. The jazz is dissonant (not all jazz that one encounters is dissonant) to a degree of creating, in all who hear, a feeling of foreboding and disquietude. And, in beautiful dramatic contrast, the tenderness of the ballads (with just enough occasional dissonance so that the listener, is always aware of the makeup of the characters) shows us that young love oversteps the bounds of juvenile unrest.

In creating a jazz version on the music from this score, I became aware of the thematic sense of it in the form of material that a jazz player could draw from in order to have his message read to the the hearer. In some instances I found it necessary to regiment the songs into a form with which the soloists would feel free to apply their own ideas and yet retain the flavor of the original. As this idea developed it became obvious that I would have to orchestrate the ballads as simply as possible to provide the proper contrast which Bernstein originally felt. The songs "Maria" and "Somewhere" were orchestrated with absolute simplicity and "Tonight" with a bit of swing to it, because in its original quintet form, the characters "Riff" and "Bernardo" were there to interpolate their remarks into the piece. The "Jet Song"< the song of the "Jets", a juvenile gang (not the high-speed flying machines), is blues-like in structure. I thought of "I Feel Pretty", originally a happy waltz, as a happy swinging score with the soloists having their say in the matter. "Something's Coming" finds a bright-tempted arrangement in order, as the song depicts future unrest among the cast. I used the tempo change as a device to further the instability of the meaning of the number. "Cool" is a slower-grooved vehicle for the orchestra which allows the muted trumpet to have a cooling influence upon the hearer. In the final score, "Finale", which is a potpourri of some of the previous melodies and introduces us to "America", a rousing Latin-American tune, and "One Hand, One Heart" (which was scored for three trumpets and bass violin with a small hint of "Somewhere" by the trombone brought back as an afterthought), it was my intention to warp up the various moods of the score into one number by restating some of the other songs.

I owe a great deal to the musicianship of every player in the final analysis of the sounds heard herein. The soloists and "part players" alike share with Leonard Bernstein, who provided the impetus with his highly imaginative and provocative score, the spotlight for the production of this album. – Manny Albam

Prologue And Jet Song

Something's Com'ng

Cool

Maria

Tonight

I Feel Pretty

Somewhere

Finale (Includes "I Feel Pretty," "America" and "One Hand, One Heart")