For Cat Dancers Only - Harry Geller

 

For Cat Dancers Only

For Cat Dancers Only

Harry Geller and His Orchestra

RCA Victor LPM 3228 (10" disk)

1954

From the back cover: If your floor can stand it, start rockin' with the beat; if the rafters are strong enough, start swingin' from 'em – it's a sure bet you'll want to when this music comes jumpin' your way. You can swing, hop, stomp or rock – give it any name you will – but in the midst of these rampaging notes how can you possibly sit quiet and unconcerned? Long hair or crew cut, you gotta move, you just have to feel the rhythm. There's no getting away from it, it'll send you reeling back for more. And man, it's gonna make you feel the craziest, it's gonna turn you into the coolest of cats.

During the past few years in the popular musical work, in the midst of shouters, neurotic balladeers and overstored orchestras, there has been an ever-increasing public acceptance of what is commonly called "rhythm-blues" material – in many ways a throwback to the exciting blasts of the dance bands of the thirties – but basically music with a beat, a swingin', heavily underscored rhythm, more than lightly touched by a real feeling of the blues. It is a combination which is actually hypnotic in its swift-moving insistence; it is dance music such as this country has not heard since the halcyon days when everyone was blowing loud and clear. It is music for cat dancers only – although, needless to say, even the cats who don't dance will welcome these bold, brassy notes. And, on the chance you're not up on your jazz parlance, a cat is anyone who digs the righteous stuff, and a cat dancer, not someone dressed in feline disguise, but a cat who can make his feet move with music.

Up from the South this music came. For, like jazz – of which it is at least a cousin – it is basically of Negro stock. For a good many years this type of music has blanketed the southern reaches of the country where, incidentally, it has long outshone the more common type of pop ballad and lush instrumental. But, in line with the experimentation which has been occupying the popular music field, rhythm-blues material has become increasingly called upon as dance music – it has, in fact, been taken over by such as Buddy Morrow and transformed into popular dance hits. Here, in the the talented hands of Harry Geller, is an entire album of music for cat dancers, an album with an infectious beat, an album that rocks and swings and rocks some more.

In case you haven't been browsing through your Hot Discography lately, it's important to know that Harry Geller has been associated with some of the top swingin' bands of all time. He played first trumpet and arranged for Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller, among others, and is now not only an orchestra leader of real distinction but a recording director as well. His downbeat, as is evidenced by the selections in this album, is sure and solid, the kind that can swing the most lethargic of cats. Whether Harry is pounding out Take It All, Rock-O-Joy or Zonk, the cats are movin'. But in reality, this is not restricted merely to cats, for in the midst of this kind of music, everybody's swingin'.

Much to the chagrin of those who have been championing vociferous vocalism, music with a beat is returning. In the teen-age malt shop, in coke bars and hamburger joints – in fact, in every location where there is a phonograph or juke box and the younger set congregates, there is an increasing expenditure of energy and nickels for the kind of music to be heard in this album. And, at that, it's not very surprising. There are no emotional problems to cope with – except one of overpowering hypnosis – nothing to do by abandon oneself to the joys of the moment.

Cats, of course, are not restricted to those of teen-age propensities; anyone can be a cat. All that is required is the outlook of youth, a willingness to stop and listen, a delight in being swung. For, although this is music for cat dancers only, its real secret is that it is equally valid, equally enjoyable as pure listening. And, man, if you can't dance to it, let's see you try to keep your feet still! – Jack Lewis and Bill Zeitung

Rock-O-Joy

Please Don't Take

Stacker Lee

The Cats Walk

Ballin' Boogie

Zonk

Pink Champagne

Take It All