Percussion At Work - Pete Rugolo

 

Percussion At Work

Percussion At Work

Pete Rugolo and His Orchestra

EmArcy Mercury Records MG 36122

From the back cover: Pete Rugolo's history as an EmArcy recording artist has followed a unique, symmetrical pattern. In Music For Hi-Fi Buys (Mg 36082) he put all the tweeters and woofers to work in ta simultaneous exposition of the whole range of instrumental sounds from piccolo to tuba. Subsequently, as the titles made clear, he began to break down the instrumental processes with such adventures in sound as Reeds In Hi-Fi (Mg 20260) and Brass In Hi-Fi (MG 20261). As a natural follow-up to these reed and brass section salutes he now focus attention on the omnipresent rhythm team, with distinctive accent on drums.

Pete prefers to think of this as an abstract album of interesting sounds rather than specifically as a jazz set. The basic premise was to provide a variety of rhythms and of percussive tonal effects in a colorful setting; the secondary objective was the revivification of hi-fi of several of the tunes Pete originally created fr the Stan Kenton orchestra during his tenure as that band's chief arranger from 1945-49.

"Bongo Riff; Chorale For Brass, Piano And Bong' Fugue For Rhythm Section and Artistry In Percussion," he points out, "were all originally done for the Kenton band. In this new versions, of course, we had the advantage of not being held down to the three-minuet time limit that restricted the performances in those days. Luckily some of the key men who were in that band ar still working around Los Angeles, so we were able to have a reunion. Buddy Chliders, Milt Bernhart, Shelly Manne, Jack Costanzo and Al Porch, who are on this new session, were all members off that Kenton Band in the '40s, when we first played these tunes."

Bongo Riff is mainly Jack Costanzo's track. Dumerama, with the mambo-tinged piano and the vocal calls by Costanzo, is the non-Rugolo work in the set, the composition begin created to Eddie Cano, Funky Drums, which Pete says "we more or less made up at the end of the session," opens with a few starling and biting measures of the three drummers (Manne, Bunker, Lewis) establishing a triplet rhythm, then settles effectively into some wonderfully funky blues piano by Previn and pursues the rest of its course in a relay race between Andre and the drummers, with the latter taking over briefly again fro eight measures at the end during which the toilet motif returns.

Percussion At Work has everybody busy, with Larry Bunker heard first on xylophone, then on vibes, later on tympani; the later solo tympani passage are by Shelly.

Chorale opens with phrases by Previn answered by Costanzo's bongos and moves on to some brass passages notable for the superb writing and the stately solemnity of mood. Fugue For Rhythm Section, originally recored by the Kenton band in September, 1947, benefits from its aded hi-fi qualities and from a superlative performance in this new version featuring Costanzo, Previn and, briefly, Porch. Artistry In Percussion, which dated back to August, 1946, as a Kenton item, is a shrinking example of the progress made in the past decade, both mechanically and musically, as Manne gets a complete hi-fi workout in one of the most celebrated of Rugolo's originals.

One Plus Four was written to feature Larry bunker. On first hearing, its form may seem hard to grasp; basically, through, it is a blues with a 3/4 bridge added, but the reason for the title is that the time signature in the main phrase changes as follows: a measure of 1/4 followed buy two of 4/4, then the same pattern repeated until the bridge.

Interplay For Drums And Brass is a heady mixture of driving bongo rhythm, grandiose brass section effects, and jazz solo touches by Fagerquist's trumpet, Rosolino's trombone and Previn's piano.

The overall impact of Percussion At work is that of a flamboyant yet tasteful display of tone colors that show in brilliant high fidelity the astonishing variety of drum sounds at the disposal of the modern musician. With the interest in both percussion and hi-fi at a new peak, it can be predicted with assurance that this latest sample of "artistry in Rugolo" will be one of his most popular to date. – Leonard Feather - Author, The Book Of Jazz

Bongo Riff

Drumerama

Funky Drums

Percussion At Work

Chorale For Brass, Piano & Bongo

Fugue For Rhythm Section

Artistry In Rhythm

1 + 4

Interplay For Drums, Brass