Victory At Sea - Aaron Bell

 

Victory At Sea

Victory At See

In Jazz – Adapted from the NBC-TV film series

The Aaron Bell Orchestra

Featuring Aaron Bell on Bass 

Produced by Eddie Heller

Lion Full Fidelity L70113

1959

From the back cover: Victory At Sea has been called "the most ambitious and most successful venture in the history of television" – a film-and-music history of naval operations during World War II. The series of half-hour films, produced by NBC-TV in cooperation with the United States Navy, has not only drawn lavish praise from the press and audiences of four countries and practically every major award in the industry, but also the highest decoration the U. S. Navy can confer upon a civilian for the three men chiefly responsible for the success of the programs-the Navy's Distinguished Public Service Award went to Henry Salomon, originator, producer, and co-author of the series; Richard Rodgers, composer of much of the symphonic music utilized as backgrounds to the films; and Robert W. Sarnoff, then a vice-president of NBC. Through combat films, Victory At Sea tells the taut, dramatic story of war on the sea, over the sea and under the sea from the dark days after September, 1939, when Nazi U-boats preyed on Allied shipping in the Atlantic to the final defeat of the Axis aggressors in the Pacific. Important to the series are the superb Richard Rodgers musical scores – themes from which are transformed in the present recording in excellent jazz stylings by imaginative Aaron Bell and his orchestra. One high-light of the music making which truly stands out is Aaron's treatment of the popular Guadalcanal March in swinging fashion. Elsewhere, you'll hear Beneath The Southern Cross, a theme from which the later hit, No Other Love, was derived. And, there are many other unforgettable themes here to delight you in fresh, provocative versions- representing TV themes in jazz at its finest!

ABOUT AARON BELL – The "most" on a bass, Aaron is one of current jazzdom's top performers. A painstaking perfectionist, he gives out with musical ideas which appeal at once to musicians and the public at large. Alumnus of such combos as those of Teddy Wilson, Andy Kirk and Lester Young, he now heads a solid aggregation of his own. His musicians in this recording, who rank among the country's finest, have been selected carefully for their qualities of inventiveness, ingenuity, virtuosity and sense of teamwork. They include Ray Bryant, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Eddie Costa, vibes; Oliver Jackson, Jr. and Charlie Persip, drums; and Seldon Powell, sax and flute. Credits The NBC-TV Victory At Sea film series is distributed by Victory Program Sales, a division of Cali- fornia National Productions, Inc.

Cover and liner photographs courtesy of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, Bethpage, Long Island, New York. The plane shown in the cover photograph is a supersonic Grumman F11F-1 Tiger on the deck of the U. S. S. Forrestal. The aircraft carriers pictured in the liner may be identified as follows: No. 37 is the U. S. S. Princeton and No. 18 is the U. S. S. Wasp.

Guadalcanal March

Beneth The Southern Cross

The Song Of The High Seas

Victory At Sea

The Pacific Boils Over

Hard Work And Horseplay

D-Day

Mare Nostrum