Singin' & Swingin' - The Pied Piper

 

Dream Of You

Let Yourself Go!

Singin' & Swingin'

The Pied Pipers

Jerry Gray And His Orchestra

Cover Phot by Jay Thompson

Warner Bros. W 1446

1962

From the back cover: For those who associate the names of The Pied Pipers and Jerry Gray with pop sounds of the orchestras of Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller, let it be known here and now that we're living in The Sixties. Both headliners in this album know it, and they make music like it.

There's a definite new sound – a sound of The Sixties – to this album. Spurred on by Jerry Gray's novel arrangements, both for the Pipers' vocals and his own orchestra, the two groups combine for a new approaches to Singin' and Swingin'. The traditional "first the band takes a chorus, then the singers take a chorus" concept is pretty much tossed out the back of the bus on this ride. The long-standing division between vocalist and instrumentalist is forgotten and amalgamation has taken place. Thus, even in a single phrase of any number, both vocal and instrumental can take the lead, and often to. An example" "Oh! What a Beautiful Mornin'." The "Oh!" belongs to the Pipers, the rest of the phrase is definitely big band. So it goes throughout the rest of this novel set of twelve songs.

It's little wonder that the songs sound fresh as today. "It's Wast To Remember" swings cha-cha style here. Franz Lehar's "My Little Nest," an answer song in which phrase echos phrase, gets a bilateral treatment that is breathtaking. So it goes with others, such as "Donkey Serenade," "No Moon At All," and the swinging arrangement of "While We're Young"... all demanding new ears on the part of the listener.

Such challenging music making as this would suffer with the inexperienced. That's hardly the case here, however, as between Jerry Gray and The Pied Pipers there are decades of experienced Singin' and Swingin'. Jerry Gray, perhaps best known to the public at large for his celebrated arrangements for the most popular dance band of all time, Glenn Miller's, refers on this album only in  a few phrases to the Miller sound. Although his own tunes in this album – Re'stringing The Pearls" and "Coronado Cruise" – are of the Miler genre, Jerry currently is one of this best arrangers living in Hollywood with a fresh, new sound, and with his calendar filled with assignments months in advance. That's typical of the kind of respect the music industry holds for Jerry Gray, and that who of it can be heard right on this LP.

As for The Pied Pipers, their illustrious music-making began when the combined with Frank Sinatra to vocalize Tommy Dorsey's "I'll Never Smile Again." Hit after hit followed through their career, both as band vocalists, and then more prominently quartering on their own. Composed of Sue Allen, Lee Gotch, Allan Davies, and Clark Yocum, The Pipers are like Jerry Gray, enormously active on the West coast doing studio and commercial vocal work, a vocation which permits them that dream of doing what they want to in the music business – singing –without having to go through the bone-wearying routine of traveling one-nighters.

In an era when the new face and the novel sound often seems to creat 100 per cent of the news and excitement in the music world, it can sometimes slip one's mind that the experienced and long-priced -popular music makers create music that's easily well worth spending listening time with. Such is exactly the case here, as two headliners with decades of activity behind them prove in very exciting fashion. There's nothing like a pro, and here they are, the very best.

Oh, Baby

Dream Of You

Oh, What A Beautiful Morning

It's Easy To Remember

My Little Nest Of Heavenly Blue

No Moon At All

Re-Stringing The Pearls

Indian Summer

While We're Young

Coronado Cruise

Do I Hear You Saying: "I Love You?"

Donkey Serenade