Bossa Nova - Quincy Jones

 

Boogie Bossa Nova

The Newest Latin American Rhythm 

Big Band Bossa Nova

Quincy Jones

Produced by Quincy Jones

Mercury Records SR 60751

1962

From the back cover: The adaptation of bossa nova to a big jazz band was obviously the task of Quincy Jones to undertake.

I first encountered Quincy in 1958 in Paris, where he was working and studying composition with the famed Nadia Boulanger. Unlike many jazzmen, he was interested in the musics of other countries, including the French chanson. A life that has seen a phenomenal amount of travel, including tours of the Middle East and Latin America, heightened that interest

Yet bossa nova gave him a thorough workout.

"The biggest problem was orchestrating the rhythm, so that it would be compatible with the music going on over it," he said. "You have to  keep it from sounding too weighty, because it's a floating rhythm. One of the things that makes bossa nova so rich is that it is strong rhythmically and harmonically.

"I think its influence on jazz will be lasting, rather than temporary. It will produce in jazz musicians a greater respect for polyrhythms. It has opened an escape hatch from the 2/4 and 4/4 trap jazz has been in. Jazz musicians have been experimenting with other time figures for the last few years, of course, but bossa nova really provides a fresh new direction."

A little over a year ago, there came to my hands an LP by a Brazilian singer named Joao Gilberto. Gilberto has one of the most remarkable approaches to vocal music I've ever heard. He sings lines of incredible length, like a modern jazz trumpeter, and sings them with a phrasing and a quality of rhythmic subtlety that I still find hard to believe.

In Rio de Janeiro, I met Gilberto at the home of composer-arranger Antonio Carlos Jobim, who works with him and who has written some of the most important bass nova melodies.

Obviously bossa nova draws heavily on jazz. Yet the Brazilian musicians, including Jobim and Gilberto, have transformed it into something their own. If there is an interest in jazz among the younger Brazilian musicians, there is an equal interest in Brazil's own cultural tradition, and a discussion of bossa nova soon leads into a discussion of the samba, from which bossa nova is derived, and of "carnival" music, from which the samba in turn is derived.

Bossa nova – which means "new wave," "new voice," or "new thing" – represents a revolution against the traditional samba. Rhythmically, it is much more subtle and flowing than samba, yet no less swinging. And it has a feeling that might best be described as controlled movement. Thought is seem rhythmically steady, as jazz does, it has a constant feeling of forward propulsion. It is played, to use a musician's phrase, very much on top of the beat. – Gene Lees

Also from the back cover: Quincy augmented his rhythm section with three Latin American percussionists for this LP. They are Jose Paula, Cancho Gomez and Jack del Rio. Chris White is the bassist, Rudy Collins plays the standard jazz percussion instruments, and on two tracks, Jim Hall – who has been in the forefront of bossa nova experimentation in this country – joins the band on guitar.

From Billboard - November 3, 1962: With the bossa nova trend firmly established this album by the Quincy Jones crew should interest nova-ites. It contains big band readings of "Desafinado," "One Note Samba," "Lalo Bossa Nova" and "Carnival" all handled brightly by the ork. Good listening here for jazz and Latin fans, and a good set for the pop market.

Soul Bossa Nova

Boogie Bossa Nova

Desafinado

Carnival (Manha de Caraval)

Se E Tarde Me Pardoa (Forgive Me If I'm Late)

On The Street Where You Live

Samba De Una Nota So (One Note Samba)

Lalo Bossa Nova

Serenata

Chega De Saudade (No More Blues)

The Versatile Impressions

 

Yesterday

There Versatile Impression

Arranged and Conducted  by Johnny Pate

Produced by Johnny Pate

Cover Design: Byron Goto/Henry Epstein

Liner Design: Joe Lebow

ABC Records ST-92019

1969

Once In A Lifetime

Yesterday

This Is The Life

Just Before Sunrise (from the motion picture East Of Java)

The Look Of Love

Don't Cry, My Love

Sermonette

East Of Java (from the motion picture East Of Java)

Oo You're A Livin' Doll

Fool On A Hill

Carnival In The Sun - Stanley Black and His Orchestra

 

Rumba Rhapsody

Carnival In The Sun

Stanley Black and His Orchestra

London LL 1100

From the back cover: Stanley Black was born in London on June 14th, 1913. His musical education began at the Matthay School of Music, where he studied the pianoforte. After this opening skirmish he went on to work, as pianist and arranger, with various dance-bands and light orchestras, gaining invaluable experience and knowledge both of what kind of music pleased the public taste and of how the public liked it served: hot, strong, sweet, or subtle-flavored. In 1938 (as an example of his thoroughness) he paid a visit to South America to obtain first-hand knowledge of Latin-American music, and a year later enlisted in the R.A.F. In April 1943 he stepped unobtrusively but firmly into the limelight by taking over the conductor's baton of the B.B.C. Dance Orchestra, and during the following years he averaged the astounding total of six programs a week, a physical and mental strain which many dance-band conductors would not care to endure. His orchestra, with his arrangements, supplied the music (a tremendously important ingredient in the success of a variety show) to such top-line programs as the "Much-Binding" sagas "Ray's A Laugh," and scores of others. In 1947 he married the vocalist, Edna Kaye.

His "official" broadcasting work reaches a very large volume indeed when measured by the mere statistics of broadcasting-hours and audience appeal, but is immeasurable in its value as a means of setting consistently high standards for broadcast light music and arrangement. In addition to all this, Stanley Black has also found time to fit in one of two other small achievements which might well have passed for a complete career for an artist less energetic – his work for Decca, for example, as house conductor and arranger, and composing and directing the musical scores for at least nine British films. All this hard work, far from deadening or stifling his personality, has developed it. The more he does, the better he gets, because he has the invaluable gift of enjoying his work, and what is more he communicates that enjoyment to the listening public. In other words, he entertains.

El Cumbanchero

Morocco

Jungle Bird

Cactus Polka

Flamingo

The Baion

Cascade Of Stars

Sugar Loaf Samba

The Breeze And I

Cielito Lindo

Tango

Rustic Samba

Rumba Rhapsody

Pianolo

Italia! - The Gaylords

 

Mamma

Italia!

Sung by The Gaylords

Billy, Burt and Don

With Orchestra Conducted by George Ennis

Mercury Records MG 20186

1957

From the back cover: Along a wide street in Detroit with a French name, Gratiot, is strewn a greater Italian population than many big cities in Italy can boast. Like Italians everywhere, they are a singing folk and the fountain of music for the Detroit Italians is the little record shop of Bonaldo Banaldi.

Enrico Caruso, Ferruccio Tafliavini and Ezio Pinza are big sellers in the record shop of Papa Bonaldi – that's what everybody calls him – but a trio of young Americans, month after month, top all of Papa Bonaldi's sales. They are the Gaylords. And this pleases Papa Bonaldi for he is the papa of the Gaylords' leader, Burt Bonaldi. He has known the other two Gaylords, Ronald Fredianelli and Billy Christ ever since they learned to roll spaghetti on a fork.

When the boys first got together to sing in their days at the University of Detroit – in fact Billy was still at Pershing High School – they sang, somewhat to the chagrin of Papa Bonaldi, American songs. Not long ago, they appeared on television in Detroit and were discovered by Mercury Records. They were asked to record their zingo arrangement of Cuban Love Song and, the talent scout added as an afterthought, "any old song for the other side."

Papa Bonaldi saw his opprotunity and grabbed it. "Sing a song from the Old Country," he urged. "Sing Per Un Bacio D'Amore." On a hunch, the boys fixed up some American words to the Old Country classic and recorded Tell Me Your Mine. To everyone's surprise, except Papa Bonaldi's, that was the socko side. So later when Papa suggested Parla Mi D'Amore – Tell Me That You Love Me Tonight and Se Avessi Un Mandolino – Strings Of My Heart, the boys listened with profound respect and conformed.

Here is an album of Gaylord gems for Papa Bonaldi – and for the millions of devoted Gaylord fans who shout "Si, si," at every new Gaylord offering in the music market.

From Billboard - March 16, 1957: Dealers in Italian neighborhoods should do brisk business on this package. The Gaylords warble (mostly in Italian) on a group of sure-fire Neapolitan diities – "O Sole Mir," (There's No Tomorrow), "Marenariell" and "Mattinata (You're Breaking My Heart," etc.). Moderate potential in pop market, but powerful wax for jockeys with Italian-language audiences, the afore-mentioned dealers, and, of course, loyal Gaylords fans.

Quel Mazzolin Di Fiori

La Spagnola

Santa Lucia

Sorrento

Tarantella

O Sole Mio (There's No Tomorrow)

Mamma

O Marenariello (I Have But One Heart)

Tra Vegila E Sonno

Bella Ragazza Dalle Trecce Bionde

Cielito Lindo

Mattinata (You're Breaking My Heart)

From Russia With Love - Matt Monro

 

From Russia With Love

From Russia With Love

Original Soundtrack Recording of the Tile Song by Matt Monro

Cover Design and Photography: Studio Five

Cover Girl through courtesy of Chas. Landis Enterprises

Liberty Records LST-7356

1964

From Billboard - May 9, 1964: British crooner Matt Monro is in fine voice with 12 romantic standards. A few of the ballads are "Charade," "Friendly Persuasion," "Till The End Of Time" and "Unchained Melody." Included is the original sound-track recording of "From Russia With Love."

Friendly Persuasion

Unchained Melody

Charade

Around The World

The Second Tim Around

My Love And Devotion

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing

Somewhere

Till The End Of Time

Exodus

The Green Leaves Of Summer

From Russia With Love