The Sound Of The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra

 

Nina Never Knew

The Sound Of The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra

Photo: David B. Hecht

RCA Victor LPM-1009

1956

From the back cover: To the history of recorded sound, that remarkable orchestra directed by Edie Sauter and Bill Finegan has made some of the most significant and musical contributions. Not only have Sauter and Finegan added considerably to the size and the instrumentations of the traditional jazz-dnace orchestra, they have heightened color, produced new sounds and evoked moods heretofore unconsidered int he usual pop mouse set-up.

However, lest you think that this business of creating something musically new is a completely unique step for Sauter and Finegan, stop to consider that a yonder Bill Finegan set a whole new style for the great Mildred Bailey-Red Norvo orchestra of the early '40s, while at the same time a younger Eddie Sauter was causing all kinds of wonderful comments about the brilliantly different things he was doing for the Benny Goodman band. Both Goodman and Norvo recorded many o the Sauter and Finegan arrangements, and arrangers the country over stopped to look and listen. It took some years to sing in, but many of the so-called "new" arrangements of today can be traced directly to the work that Ed and Bill did for Benny and Red more than ten years ago.

One thing you will notice immediately about Sauter and Finegan – they neither sit still nor rest on their laurels. So while other arrangers were engaged in adapting old Sauter and/or Finegan arrangements to their present needs, Bill and Ed were at work carrying forward to new horizons the musical knowledge that was almost unique theirs. This continuous progression of ideas and colors is on exhibition in this superb album of Sauter-Finegan standards, as well as in the other albums that Ed and Bill have crated for RCA Victor. At the beginning the boys stated: "The music of our new band can be summed up in two words – COLOR and MOOD. But we are not starting out with any preconceived notion of style."

TO obtain this color and mood Sauter and Finegan immediately planned to augment the usual instrumentation of the jazz-dance orchestra. They thought its scope too limited in the combination of brass, reeds and rhythm, and they proceeded to add, first, an amazing battery of instruments to the percussion section, including tympani, triangle, chimes, celesta, xylophone and giant gong. As the need arose, they also added such odd items as recorders, kazoos and toy trimmest – not to mention just about anything that could be beaten or stuck – anything, in fact, that would contribute to the sound for which they were striving.

Notwithstanding some silly noises emitted by several oversensitive musical know-it-alls, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra was warmly received by a public that seems perfectly willing to listen to something new as long as it had melody and class. Well, Sauter and Finegan have the all right, and they also have a wondrously good sense of humor as well as rare warmth in their writing.

This excellent collecton presents the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra in all of its astonishing aspects: from the Revolutionary drum-and-fife tempo of Yankee Doodletown through the flying riff of The Honey Jump and Tweedle Dee And Tweedle Dum to  the light ditty, Stop Beatin' 'Round The Mulberry Bush. And then there is Joe Mooney, about who not enough can be said, for he is a singer of warmth and phrasing and lyrics, and there is something special in every note he sings. Here, he is heard in the sophisticated settings of Time To Dream, Love Is A Simple Thing (a rollicking good tune from "New Faces Of 1952") and Nina Never Knew, which is, without any doubt at all, one of the most underrated popular tunes of all times. Also in this album are Child's Play and Horseplay, which are originally issued by RCA Victor as the Extended Play Suite. You see, Extended Play is an RCA Victor Development in the 45 RPM recording speed, and Eddie and Bill never pass by a phrase when it happens to tickle their fancies. The two tunes quite literally exhibit Sauter and Finegan at their wittiest and most inventive.

Child's Play

Horseplay

Time To Dream

The Honey Jump

Nina Never Knew

Love Is A Simple Thing

Tweedle Dee And Tweedle Dum

Stop Beatin' 'Round The Mulberry Bush

Now That I'm In Love

Yankee Doodeltown