Hi-Fi Keyboards - Billy Maxted

 

Hell's Bells

Billy Maxted Plays

Hi-Fi Keyboards

Cadence Records CLP 1005

1955

From the back cover: There was a time when a lot of people thought that John Charles Tomas was a male trio. The reason I happen to mention that at this time is because I have just heard this unusual set of recordings by Billy Maxted, who easily could be misspent for Billy, Max and Ted.

Where John, Charles and Thomas combined to make one fine baritone voice, Billy Maxted has divided himself, a multiple recording wizardry to provide us with a visual keyboard orchestra. Simultaneously and separately you may hear a piano, a celeste, a keyboard glockenspiel and a piano tricked up with tacks, pawn tickets and pages from the October 15 issue of Billboard.

The project, it seems, was dreamed up by Ted LeVan, Billy's neighbor who also is known as one of the best recording engineers in the business. Ted has his cellar rigged for encoring and one night the Maxteds came calling. Billy seated himself at the console and Ted Started the tape machine rolling. Billy hopped from one keyboard to the other, while Ted Dubbed one "Take" on top of the other. They messed around with the piano strings, and even cut a player piano roll which was incorporated in the master tape.

The boys thought it was all great sport, and they decided to play the tape for an old friend, Artie Bleyer – for laughs maybe. Archie, who is the proprietor of Cadence Records, and who has quite an ear for things the general public will like, took the enterprise quite seriously. He believed that the boys had come up with something he could sell. To the veteran recording man, this had all too the most desired ingredients": hi-fi sound, original instrumentation,novely, nostalgic songs – and a great keyboard stylist to bring the thing off. 

The next step was to add a rhythm section, and one more sound track was added to the triple-ply tape already cut by billy. This time, Ted put earphones on two more top-flight jazz mean: drummer Don Lamond and bassist Eddie Safranksi, and they added their sounds to Billy's. 

All of which I'm sure you'll find interesting as you listen to these recordings; but even more than the way they were arrived at, I believe you'll be taken by what you actually hear: a collection of familiar old tunes and intriguing Maxted arrangements of several special instrumental items – all listenable and danceable, great to hum or whistle along with – breezy and natural-like.

Billy demonstrated on this disk that he's a pretty versatile performer, but he has made the bulk of his reputation as a practitioner of Jazz. He has been in the Jazz big time since 1937, when he broke in with the Red Nichols band. Then he played with Ben Pollac, and in 1940, he replaced Eddie Slack as pianist with the Will Bradley band. It was for this organization that he composed that immortal opus, "Fry Me Cookie, With A Can Of Lard."

After the war. Billy specialized for a time in arranging, and although he is indeed with the Dixieland school, he turned out relatively "modern" scores for the Claude Thornhill and the Benny Goodman bands. In 1948, he joined the house band at Nick's, the celebrated shrine of Dixieland in Greenwich Village, and has been there ever since. As this is written, Billy has just taken over the leadership off the band there for the first time. During his seven-year tenure at the sport, he had worked under the "Baton" of such master of the art as Phil Napoleon, Pee Wee Irwin, Bobby Hackett, Billy Butterfield and Yank Lawson. Which, incidentally, all goes to show that the trumpet player is usually the leader of the band at Nick's.

Billy has found time to write a few spark\ling tunes. Pee Wee Hunt is somewhat partial to his output and has recorded such amsted originals as "Petunia Patch" (which Billy also plays here) and "Cow Bell Brut." and, while h has been featured in a lot of great recordings under the aegis of the various maestri motioned about, this is Billy Maxted's first album in which he is the boss and the whole show. Certainly, it won't be the last – Notes by Bill Simon

Casey Jones Boogie

Chattanooga Chase

Petunia Patch

Hell's Bells

Pedal Pusher

Mohawk Rugcutter

Boston Tea Party

Medley No. 1

Put Your Arms Around Me Honey / I Used To Love You But It's All Over / My Little Girl / Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Medley No. 2

There's A Tavern In The Town / There'll By A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight / Ta Ra Boom Di Ay / When The Saints Go Marching In

Medley No. 3

The Band Played On / After The Ball Was Over / The Bowery / Bicycle Built For Two

Medley No. 4

By The Light Of The Silvery Moon / I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles / Oh You Beautiful Doll / Shine On Harvest Moon

Medley No. 5

Peggy O'Neil / Man On The Flying Trapeze / Sweet Rosie O'Grady / Sidewalks Of New York

Medley No. 6 

Five Foot Two - Eyes Of Blue / When You Wore A Tulip / Bill Bailey / Hail, Hail The Gang's All Here