I've Got You Under My Skin - Georgie Auld

 

Body And Soul

I've Got You Under My Skin

Georgie Auld - Tenor Sax Solos

With Orchestra Directed by Andre Previn

With Bud Conlon's Rhythmaires

Vogue Coral Series LVA 9012

Made In England

From the back cover: The tenor saxophone can explore a mood with tenderness as well as passion. Its warmth of tone, its range and flexibility all make it a perfect medium for the expression of a contemplative, romantic approach to jazz. The soloist and his instrument become a singe creator; a man's emotions our from the sinning bell of his saxophone.

Nearly all evergreens of modern poplar music, the tunes on this record are romantic in mood, tinged with nostalgia. Georgie Auld interprets them quietly and sensitively, his imagination moving within their fabric to create a lyrical melodic line and dark harmonic textures. The instrument responds to the genuine artist within this brilliant young musician.

Georgie Auld has been playing jazz professionally ever since he was fifteen. Born in Canada on May 19, 1919, he moved to Brooklyn, N.Y. with his parents when he was ten years old. Two years later the boy could play the alto saxophone well enough to win a Rudy Wiedoeft scholarship. (in the days Wiedoeft was an unchallenged virtuosos on that instrument.)

Doing the late Twenties the Negro musician, Coleman Hawkins, created almost single-handed a style for the tenor saxophone. The richness of Hawkins' tone, the originality and scope of his ideas, the intricacy of his elaborate rhapsodizing, the power and swing behind his playing – these made such an impression upon young Georgie Auld that he gave up the lighter-toned alto saxophone and shifted to the tenor instrument.

Nick's in Greenwich Village became a centre of jazz activity in the Thirties. It was there that Auld, still only fifteen years old, came to be heard by Bunny Berigan, one of the greatest white trumpet players in jazz history. Berigan had just left Benny Goodman's first big band and was about to form a group of his own. Soon afterwards he asked Georgie Auld to join him, and for the nest three years the young tenor saxophonist played with Berigan's band.

Artie Shaw led one of the top-ranking swing bands of those years. In 1938 Auld replaced Ron Perry in Shaw's reed section. Now he started attracting attention among a wider audience; his style of playing began to be imitated by other tenor saxophonists. When Artie Shaw walked off the stand one night in 1939, declaring himself to be tired of the band business, and caught a plane for Mexico, it was Georgie Auld whom the other musicians elected to be their leader. Twenty-one years old, he led a band for the first time.

In 1940 Auld joined Jan Savitt's orchestra but stayed only a month. He left to work with Benny Goodman. Some of his finest solos were created with the Goodman Sextet – his tenor saxophone was the first to be heard within that group. But when Artie Shaw reformed his band (adding strings this time) Auld went back to him, staying until Shaw enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

In 1943 Georgie Auld joined the army, but was medically discharged the following year. He immediately organized a band of his own, the first of several which he was to lead during the next few years. None of these bands proved very successful from a commercial standpoint, although they contained outstanding sidemen and were rated very highly among musicians.

During the spring of 1946 Auld went to Arizona to rest and recover from the strains of being a bandleader. A couple of months later he was back again in New York, with plans for yet another orchestra. After the failure of this group Auld remained idle for a time, but in March, 1947 he took a sextet into the Three Deuces. Red Rodney, George Wallington and Serge Chaloff were members of that unit. Later that year Auld joined an all-star group comprising Chubby Jackson, Bill Harris, Howard McGhee, Shelly Manne and Lou Levy.

A spell on the West Coast found Georgie Auld working with Billy Eckstine. But the spring of 1949 brought him back to New York, where he opened a club – the Tin Pan Alley – on Broadway and 49th. He oiled his tenor saxophone rarely, but appeared in the role of a musician in  Garson Kanin's olay, "The Rat Race". Soon he grew tired of a club-owner's life, got out his saxophone and started touring with a quintet. The bad luck which dogged Auld's earlier attempts to become a successful bandleader struck once again: the club in St. Paul at which they opened burned down and the instruments were all destroyed. Refusing to be defeated, the band went on with its tour. In recent years, however, Auld has confined most of his playing to recording, radio and television studios.

This record highlights the dazzling instrumental technique of Georgie Auld. His relaxed, graceful style is touched with both delicacy and ferocity. His taste and skill derive from a basic, native musical intelligence.

Georgie Auld elaborates rich melodic solos within an orchestral framework created by that brilliant young composer and pianist, André Previn. The tenor saxophone takes on a new and captivating richness when set against a background of strings. Two tunes – Body And Soul and Smoke Gets In Your Eyes – have unusual accompaniment provided by the voices of Judy Conlon's Rhythmaires. The vocal-instrumental setting produces intriguing tonal blends and thrusts the saxophone into prominence. A romantic reverie, this selection of tunes played by Georgie Auld makes easy, dreamy listening.

I've Got You Under My Skin

S'posin'

I Cover The Waterfront

I Didn't Know What Time It Was

A Stairway To The Stars

Body And Soul

I Don't Stand A Ghost Of A Chance With You

Take Care

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Easy To Love

All The Things You Are

Someone To Watch Over Me