Pop Concert In Manhattan - D'Artega

 

Pop Concert In Manhattan

Pop Concert In Manhattan
D'Artega and His Orchestra
Mercury Records MG 20060
1960

From the back cover: D'Artega (who chooses to drop his given names, Alfonso Armando Antonio Fernandez) has spent his musical life repeating a question to himself. Every time he hears a great classical work, he says silently, "That is beautiful. How can I bring that beauty to more people?"This unselfish challenge which he constantly places before himself accounts for D'Artega's emergence as one of the world's outstanding popularizers of classical music and composers of popular music of the fullness and flourish of the classics.

D'Artega was born in Spain and came to the United States as a youngster. For years he studied orchestration and composition under Boris Levenson, who had been a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakoff. Early in the days of radio, D'Artega was attracted to this new magic medium which could bring music into the homes of everyone. But he knew that the techniques of classical music, while glorious to the ears of an initiate, would be strange to millions of Americans who had never had the opportunity to develop a taste for classics. So he committed his art to the development of a style which would combine the best of the familiar, popular music, with the most attractive qualities of his first love, the classics.

That he succeeded in striking this extraordinary balance is evidenced by the outstanding parade of successes which unfolded in his career. D'Artega soon was in demand by the already giant networks to display his unusual combination of easy listening pleasure with artistic distinction. He conducted on the Jell-O Program, Your Hit Parade, Ripley's Be lieve-It-Or-Not Show, and the Cavalcade of Music. He became the director of "Pop" concerts for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Frequently he came to Carnegie Hall to conduct its famous Pop Concert Orchestra as a guest, until recently, when he was appointed its permanent conductor.

Never forgetting that the ears of most Americans were tuned to popular song, D'Artega composed for that medium, too, bringing to it his faultless taste and outstanding training. His song, "In The Blue Of The Evening", held a spot on the Hit Parade for 21 weeks. His works for symphony orchestra include "American Panorama", "Dream Concerto", "Niag ara" and the "Fire And Ice Ballet" of which parts 1 to 3 are heard on this Mercury Long Playing recording.

D'Artega portrayed the role of Peter Ilyich Tchai kovsky in the motion picture, "Carnegie Hall".

Featured in this generous concert of D'Artega and His Orchestra are his own "In The Blue Of The Evening", "Tally-Ho", "When Love Is New", "Dream- er's Serenade", "Concerto Pathetique", featuring the piano artistry of Rosa Linda, "Wedding Of The Violins", "Remembrance", "Tulips In Springtime", "Dagger Dance" and the three parts of "Fire And Ice Ballet".

In The Blue Of Evening

Tally-Ho
When Love Is New
Dreamer's Serenade
Concerto Pathetique
Wedding Of The Violins
Remembrance
Tulips In Springtime
Dragger Dance
Fire And Ice Ballet – Pt. 1
Fire And Ice Ballet – Pt. 2
Fire And Ice Ballet – Pt. 3

Music For Brass - Dimitri Mitropoulos & Gunther Schuller

 

Jazz Suite For Brass

The Jazz and Classical Music Society presents a program of
Music For Brass by Gunther Schuller, John Lewis, J. J. Johnson
Conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos and Gunther Schuller
Soloists: Miles Davis, J. J. Johnson, Joe Wilder
Cover: Don Hunstein / Peter Adler
Columbia Records CL 941
1957

ORCHESTRA PERSONNELS

Symphony for Brass and Percussion: Trumpets (first section): John Ware (solo), Ted Weiss, Joseph Alessi. Trumpets (second section): Mel Broiles, Carmine Fornarotto, Isidore Blank, Horns: Joseph Singer (solo), Roy Alonge, Arthur Sussman, Gunther Schuller. Trombones: Gordon Pulis (solo), Gil Cohen, John Clark. Baritones: John Swallow (solo), Ronald Ricketts. Tuba: Bill Barber. Timpani & percussion: Dick Horowitz.

Other works: Bernie Glow, Arthur Statter, and Joe Wilder replaced Weiss, Alessi, and Blank in the trumpet section. Jim Buffington replaced Schuller in the horn section. Urbie Green and J. J. Johnson replaced Pulis and Cohen in the trombone section. Horowitz does not play on the Johnson composition. Milt Hinton (bass) and Osie Johnson (drums) are added on the Johnson and Lewis works. The Miles Davis solos are played on fluegelhorn, except for his first solo in the Lewis composition, which is played on trumpet.

From the back cover: By George Avakian and Gunther Schuller – The Jazz and Classical Music Society is an organization started in 1955 by John Lewis and Gunther Schuller (it was then called the Modern Jazz Society) to present authoritative and exemplary concert performances of rarely heard music. The emphasis was placed on contemporary music, including that written by composers in the jazz field who would not otherwise have an opportunity for their lessconventional work to be presented under concert conditions.

The Society gave a concert at Town Hall in New York in 1955 and planned a second one in 1956, which was cancelled when an unexpected conflict developed with a performance by the New York Philharmonic-Symphony of the key work of the Society's program, Gunther Schuller's Symphony for Brass and Percussion. Work had already begun in recording some of the music to have been presented at that concert; so it was completed nonetheless, and this album is the finished result.

The aims of the Society were, and are, of a nature de- signed to bring together musicians in both the "classical" and jazz fields. Gunther Schuller exemplifies this intention in this recording, in that he appears as a composer whose work is conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos, a as a conductor of the works by the jazz musicians (whose compositions, however, are not jazz as such), and even as a performer in the Brass Ensemble.

The grave problem of preparing good performances of difficult music is only one of the reasons for forming the Society, but as musicians and composers both Lewis and Schuller felt that it was an extremely important one. For years they felt that the greatest obstacle to the appreciation of unfamiliar music is the number of poor performances. The cost of adequate rehearsals and the finding and assem- bling of capable, willing musicians (not to speak of the countless musical and stylistic problems involved) made first-rate performances of new music a great rarity. When they do occur, they are inevitably the result of considerable financial expense, selfless devotion to the music, an ability to resist the temptations of compromise, and needless to say the necessary musical qualifications of the interpreters. Therefore Lewis and Schuller decided that only a society of musicians (and their friends, whose support and contributions have been invaluable), devoted to such an ideal, could accomplish these goals under the present conditions of the concert field.

The Society's planning of its concerts to date has been. centered around various basic instrumentations. Thus in the first concert the emphasis was on woodwinds, supported by a harp and the Modern Jazz Quartet, a combination of instruments which resulted in a more or less subdued chamber music sound. In the second concert (which will now be given in the fall of 1957), the planning turned to a large brass ensemble, building the program around the Schuller Symphony. With this piece as the representative of contemporary "classical" music, two Gabrieli works to exemplify the earliest innovations in brass writing over 300 years ago, and with the jazz world represented by three of its most outstanding performer-composers, an unusually complete sampling of all aspects of brass writing and playing was programmed. All but the Gabrieli pieces can be heard on this recording.

Gunther Schuller's Symphony for Brass and Percussion was first performed (minus the last movement) in 1950, and presented in its entirety for the first time in the following year at an ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music) concert, Leon Barzin conducting. It has also been used by Jose Limon as the foundation for one of his chore- ographies, "The Traitor."

In Gunther's own words, "The purpose in writing this work was primarily to write a symphony. Secondarily it provided me with an opportunity to make use of my experiences of sitting day in, day out in the midst of brass sections, and to show that the members of the brass family are not limited to the stereotypes of expression usually associated with them. Thus, there is more to the horn than its "heroic" or "noble" or "romantic" character, or to the trumpet than its usefulness in fanfares. Indeed these instruments are capable of the entire gamut of expression. Their full resources and the amazing advances made-especially in America-in the last 30-odd years have been left largely unexploited by most contemporary composers.

The concept of the symphony is of four contrasting movements, each representing one aspect of brass characteristics. Unity is maintained by a line of increasing inner intensity (not loudness) that reaches its peak in the last movement. The introductory first movement is followed by a scherzo with passages requiring great agility and technical dexterity. The third movement, scored almost entirely for six muted trumpets, brings about a further intensification of expression. The precipitous outburst at the beginning of the last movement introduces a kind of cadenza in which the first trumpet predominates. A timpani roll provides a bridge to the finale proper, which is a sort of Perpetuum mobile. Running through the entire movement are sixteenth note figures, passing from one instrument to another in an unending chain. Out of this chattering pattern emerges the climax of the movement, in which a chord consisting of all 12 notes of the chromatic scale is broken up in a sort of rhythmic atomization, each pitch being sounded on a different 16th of the measure."

As for a discussion of the other works, let's have Gunther, who conducted them, take over at this point. – G. A.

Just about the only common denominator among the three jazz scores is the instrumentation. In every other respect the three works are widely contrasting and represent three definite styles and personalities. Where J. J., the most eclectic (and the only brass-player) of the three, delights in extracting rich, full-bodied sonorities from the instruments, Giuffre in his score tends toward a leaner, more concentrated, almost completely contrapuntal concept of brass-writing; and John Lewis seems to me to stand somewhere between the two. Where J. J. uses the instruments with an intimate knowledge of their every subtle characteristic (and even with a certain degree of caution) which is directly attributable to his first-hand knowledge of brass instruments, Giuffre makes them more subservient to the musical material. Again John seems to combine the best of both concepts.

J. J. Johnson's Poem for Brass opens with a stately introduction, alternating the full brass with cymbal rolls which lead to the main body of the movement, an allegro. Mix- tures of muted and open brass predominate. Miles Davis soon enters, improvising over (and at times almost absorbed by) a constantly active background. J. J. then also solos, in his best unequivocal manner, using previously stated thematic material. A sudden slackening of the tempo leads to an interlude in which the four horns (led by Joe Singer) and the tuba indulge in some luscious parallel har- monies. The following section features Joe Wilder's sensuous trumpet in a balladlike strain.

Osie Johnson's cymbal sets the pace in the third movement, subtitled Meter and Metal. Various brass combinations, sparked by Bernie Glow's driving trumpet, alternate with cymbal breaks. Soon the line of continuity is broken; short chordal outbursts remain, isolated, as if left hanging in silence. Suddenly the six trumpets in unison announce the theme of the following free fugue which forms the main body of the movement. The tuba starts the fugal ball rolling, and as various groups of instruments enter, the web of sound thickens, and the impending climax becomes inevitable. At this point J. J. has ingeniously combined five con trapuntal lines which sound perfectly, both horizontally and vertically; i.e. they make sense both as melodic lines and as harmonic progressions. Milt Hinton's wonderful bass gives this section a special lift. This idea having run its course, four final declamations based on material from the first two movements bring the work to an exciting close. The golden-toned high C that John Ware came up with at half past three in the morning to end the session seemed to me at the time like the final strikeout in a pitcher's no-hit game.

John Lewis's Three Little Feelings show a side of his musical personality not generally known to those who know him only from his work with the M.J.Q. The instrumentation gave him an opportunity to present a more forceful side of himself and to work with a wider dynamic range than the more intimate level of the quartet would seem to allow.

Without benefit of introduction three thematic motifs, drawn in solid unison lines, present themselves in quick succession. These three themes, cast in a minor key, emphasize a certain blue-note feeling, in this case through the use of the flatted fifth. As the themes pile up on top of each other one by one, an ominous note is introduced by a timpani and cymbal roll; but this is quickly dispersed by a relaxing trombone counter melody, played by J. J. Soon Miles enters, playing one of the three motives, a chromatic four-note pattern whose center of gravity is the flat fifth. Out of this eight-bar statement emerges his first improvisation, disarming in its simplicity and economy, but blending perfectly into the character of the piece. Osie Johnson's strong playing sparks the next section, a powerful, snapping outburst in the brass. Later against a background of richly voiced lower brass, Miles returns for a short solo, as if reminiscing, and the piece closes with an almost Brahmsian feeling of gravity.

The second movement, again featuring Miles, presents John in an even more nostalgic and poignant mood. An idyllic atmosphere pervades everything, especially in the middle section where John gently extends two measures in such a way as to give them an almost timeless feeling. The undulating movement in the trombones and baritones makes the chord seem suspended in time, while Miles is free to wander about unhampered, as it were. Also listen to the rich tone of Bill Barber's tuba as he underlines the entire piece, blending when necessary with Milt Hinton's bass.

The third movement returns to the minor key and tempo of the first section. A horn call, beautifully intoned by Jim Buffington, introduces the piece. Then a variant of the chromatic motive from the first movement makes its appearance, leading to J. J.'s finely conceived, perky forty-bar solo. A strong climax and a recapitulation of the horn call (this time played by all four horns) end the piece. In this movement John has made particularly excellent use of the timpani, without resorting to mere effects or bombastic noise.

These pieces are superb examples of John Lewis's creative talent. In a very simple, unspectacular way he combines the romantic and the classical in a judicious blending. His great melodic gift is very much in evidence. John has that rare ability to create a melody which is thoroughly conventional, immediately hummable, sounds as if one had heard it somewhere before, and yet is in fact absolutely original. Above all, this music has that unassailable quality of right- ness for which there is no substitute.

Giuffre's approach, as indicated above, is quite different. In his own words, "brass instruments in large numbers suggest to me ceremonies of perhaps a royal nature, a sense of excitement, as though something momentous were about to happen."

The stage is set by the timpani, playing a rhythm which, says Giuffre, "suggested Egypt to me, and when the brass enter I imagined the approach of a great Pharaoh and his court; hence the title."

The form of the work is quite original, developing out of the thematic material itself. Different sections feature different groups and material. Outstanding, for instance, is the magnificent six-part writing for trumpets alone (about half- way through the piece), where Bernie Glow's high C shines forth like a beacon in the dark. Another highly interesting moment is the bridge featuring a trio of trumpet, horn and timpani. The difficult high horn part is played with consummate ease by Joe Singer.

All the thematic material is finally gathered together for the final climactic section which ends in a blaze of sound, topped by Bernie Glow's high F. (At 3:00 A. M., towards the end of a lip-withering recording session, Bernie's infallible accuracy and power nearly lifted the roof off at Columbia's vaulted studios.) – G. S.

DIMITRI MITROPOULOS musical director of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony, needs no introduction, either as one of the world's greatest conductors or as a champion of contemporary music. His keen interest in the Schuller Symphony and his enthusiastic support of the aims of the Society persuaded him to participate in this unusual recording.

CUNTHER SCHULLER, first horn with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, is self-taught in composition. Among his public appearances, he has been heard as soloist in his own concerto with the Cincinnati Symphony, Eugene Goossens conducting. The present work developed from this appear- ance, having been written at the suggestion of Ernest Glover, director of the brass ensemble of the Cincinnati Conservatory, and conducted by him. Schuller has also performed frequently with jazz groups, including the now famous Miles Davis nine-piece recording group.

JOHN LEWIS, musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, is responsible for the commissioning of the Johnson and Giuffre works. His first major work was Toccata for Trumpei and Orchestra, introduced at a 1947 Carnegie Hall concert by Dizzy Gillespie, with whose band John first became known as a pianist and arranger.

J. J. JOHNSON has won more jazz polls as the outstanding trombonist of recent years than the New York Yankees have won pennants. He is also an exceptional arranger, most of whose work has been for small combinations. After many years as a featured member of both big bands and small groups, J. J. organized an extraordinary quintet with another fine trombonist, Kai Winding, and since 1956 has been leading his own unit. Poem for Brass is his first large-scale work.

JIMMY GIUFFRE is the only one of the composers in this album to have studied composition extensively; he is, of course, much better known to the jazz public as a saxophonist and especially as a clarinetist. He is one of the musicians associated with the development of a rather unique style of modern jazz on the West Coast, and his new trio is considered to be the brightest and most individual new group to have emerged from this school.

Mardi Gras Parade Music From New Orleans

 

Mardi Gras Parade Music From New Orleans

Mardi Gras Parade Music From New Orleans
Southland Records LP-207

From the back cover: HEY: MARDI GRAS' Everybody In The Civilized World Hopes, Some Day, To See With His Own Eyes, Hear With His Own Ears, The Incredible Splendor And Joy Of Mardi Gras. The Big Day Is Shrove Tuesday, Immediately Preceding Ash Wednesday, And Climaxes A Gigantic, Two-Months Carnival, Studded With Parades, Masked Balls And Marked By The Most Unrestrained Gaiety To Be Witnessed Any Where On Earth. On Hundred And Seventy Foot Wide Canal Street In New Orleans Becomes A Milling Sea Of Humanity When Thousands Of Citizens And Visitors Pay Homage To The King Of The Mardi Gras.

The Parade Of Rex, A Gorgeous Spectacle, Starts At 10:30 A. M. On Shrove Tuesday. It Is Followed By Scores Of Truckloads Of Maskers. Interspersed With The Huge Crowd Are Thousands Of Maskers, In Fancy Or Funny Costumes, On Foot. Only A Born And Bred Orleanian Can Have At His Finger- tips All The Customs And Protocol Of The Season. He Understands The Relative Importance Of Rex, King Of Carnival And Lord Of Misrule, Momus, Comus, Proteus And All The Other Monarchs And Deities Of The Mammoth Festival. But Hundreds Of Thousands Of Annual Visitors Leap Into The Spirit Of Carnival, Regardless Of What Their Intentions Were When They Came. You'll See Them Masked And Cavorting On St. Charles, Canal Street, And In The French Quarter Having The Time Of Their Lives. Native Maskers Greet Each Other With The Shout, "Hey, Mardi Gras!" Every Masker Is A Mardi Gras, Of Course, Along With The Floats, The Mad Capers, The Dancing, There Is Parade Music, Band After Band Passes Playing "High Society" "Bourbon Street" Parade And All The Great Carnival Parade Tunes Such As You Will Hear On This Great Album.

The Very Large Negro Population Of New Orleans For Decade Upon Decade, Has Made Much Of Its Own Celebration, Climaxed On Mardi Gras By The Fabulous Parade Of King Zulu. The King And His Cohorts Proceed Down South Rampart, Dispensing Fried Fish, Coconuts And Assorted Trinkets To The Gleeful Throngs. The Great New Orleans Jazz Music That Accompanies These Processions Has Achieved Its Own Separate Renown In Every Corner Of The Globe.

Besides Those You'll Want To Send To Your Friends, You'll Certainly Want To Add This Mag- nificient Mardi Gras Souvenir To Your Own Record Collection. You'll Find It Recorded With Excellent Fidelity Under Ideal Acoustical Conditions For The Tunes. The Performances Are As Good As You'll Ever Hear In New Orleans, Which In Other Words Mean The Best In The World.

So, Hey, Mardi Gras' Have A Wonderful Time, These Parade Tunes Will Always Bring You Back To New Orleans On Fat Tuesday, And You'll Again Be Part Of The Greatest Free Show On Earth, The New Orleans Mardi Gras. – DESSIE LEE

SIDE ONE

BAND ONE: MARDI GRAS PARADE; EMILE CHRISTIAN AND HIS NEW ORLEANS JAZZ BAND. Mike Lala (Trumpet), Harry Shields (Clarinet), Bob Havens (Trombone), Emile Christian (Trombone), Armand Hug (Piano), Joe Carparo (Banjo), Monk Hazel (Drums)

BAND TWO: BOURBON STREET PARADE; SANTO PECORA AND HIS NEW ORLEANS RHYTHM KINGS. Santo Pecora (Trombone), Lester Bouchon (Clarinet), Thomas Jefferson (Trumpet), Phil Darois (String Bass), Roy Zimmerman (Piano), Johnny Edwards (Drums)

BAND THREE: MARCH OF THE BOB CATS; PETE FOUNTAIN AND HIS NEW ORLEANS BAND. Eddie Miller (Tenor Sax), Pete Fountain (Clarinet), Al Hirt. (Trumpet), Stan Wrightsman (Piano), Morty Corb (Bass), Ray Bauduc (Drums), Abe Lincoln (Trombone)

BAND FOUR: NEW ORLEANS PARADE - George Girard (Trumpet), Joe Rotis (Trombone), Harry Shields (Clarinet), Paul Edwards (Drums), Bob Discon (Piano), Emile Christian (String Bass).

BAND FIVE-BASIN STREET BLUES: THOMAS JEF- FERSON'S CREOLE JAZZ BAND: Thomas Jefferson (Trumpet), Paul Barbarin (Drums), Lester Santiago (Piano), Sam Dutrey (Clarinet), Frog Joseph (Trombone), Jerry Adams (String Bass).

SIDE TWO

BAND ONE: KING ZULU PARADE; JOHNNY WIGGS AND HIS NEW ORLEANS KINGS. Johnny Wiggs (Cornet), Raymond Burke (Clarinet), Emile Christian (Trom- bone), Jeff Riddick (Piano), Edmond Souchon (Banjo), Paul Barbarin (Drums), Sherwood Mangiapane (Tuba)

BAND TWO: HIGH SOCIETY; SHARKEY AND HIS KINGS OF DIXIELAND. Sharkey Bonano (Trumpet), Harry Shields (Clarinet), Bob Havens (Trombone), Armand Hug (Piano), Joe Capraro (Banjo), Monk Hazel (Drums), Chink Martin (Bass)

BAND THREE: WHILE WE DANCE AT THE MARDI GRAS; AL HIRT AND HIS JAZZ BAND. Al Hirt (Trum- pet), Harry Shields (Clarinet), Bob Havens (Trombone), Joe Capraro (Guitar), Paul Edwards (Drums), Roy Zimmerman (Piano), Phil Darois (String Bass)

BAND FOUR: BUZZARD'S PARADE; SHARKEY AND HIS KINGS OF DIXIELAND. Sharkey Bonano (Trum- pet), Harry Shields (Clarinet), Bob Havens (Trombone), Armand Hug (Piano), Joe Capraro (Banjo), Emile Chris- tian (Trombone), Monk Hazel (Drums)

BAND FIVE-IF I EVER CEASE TO LOVE: JOHNNY WIGGS AND HIS NEW ORLEANS KINGS: Johnny Wiggs (Cornet), Raymond Burke (Clarinet), Jeff Riddick (Piano), Emile Christian (Trombone), Edmond Souchon (Banjo), Paul Barbarin (Drums), Sherwood Mangiapane (Tuba)

Chinese Music Moonlight

 

Moonlight

Chinese Music
Moonlight
Recorded by K. K. Wong of Life Records, LTD.
21st Century Record Co. STEREO TFLP 201

Made in Hong Kong

Ng Tai Kong - Er-Hu and Kao-Hu
Moya Rea - Piano
Dr. S. M. Bard - Leader
Yu Lin - Conductor

Moonlight
Fantasia
Waltz
Singing Birds
Autumn Moon
Dance Of The Yao People

Det Danske Harmonika Ensemble

 

Donna Diana Ouverture

Det Danske Harmonika Ensemble
Jeanette Dyremose
Sonet SLP-1586
1980

From the back cover: THE DANISH ACCORDION ENSEMBLE was founded in 1977 by the internationally known accordion teacher JEANETTE DYREMOSE.

All the members of the ensemble are students of Jeanette Dyremose, and all have successfully taken part in international solo and ensemble competitions, some of which have been sponsored by The World Accordion Society C.I.A. I.M.C./UNESCO and the famous Klingenthaler Competition.

In 1979, for example, Annette Løffler won 1st. prize in both Vienna and Klingenthal, at the time she was only 13 years old. In 1980 she won 1st. prize in The Berlingskes Music Competition, held in Copenhagen, and the same year performed with great success at the I.S.M.E. (International Society For Music Education) congress held in Warsaw.

The Danish Accordion Ensemble has taken part in many international music festivals and competitions. In Rotterdam 1977, the ensemble won 1st. prize and the Dutch Cultural Ministry's gold medal for their performance in ensemble playing, artistic class.

Since then, Jeanette Dyremose and her ensemble have toured extensively with great success giving concerts in Denmark, Holland, West Germany, East Germany, Poland, Norway and Sweden.

Donna Diana Ouverture
Bach Goes To Town
Espana Cani

Champagne Galop
Florentiner March
Russian & Ljudmilla
Koncert Suite For Harmonkia
Sabeldans
Fra Balletten Gayaneh

Arthur Fiedler Plays The Beatles

 

Fool On The Hill

Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops
Plays The Beatles
Produced by Peter Dellheim
Recording Engineer: Bernard Keville
Cover Painting: Michael Gross
RCA Records Red Seal Stereo LSC-3117
1969

From the back cover: Musically, Arthur Fiedler likes to be "where it's at." In the winter of 1963 Liverpool was the place, and Mr. Fiedler was there. He was conducting concerts with the Royal Philharmonic, and intrigued by the overnight popularity of the "Mersey sound," he spent some time in hearing and absorbing the local groups. As a musician, he was both amazed and pleased that this music was achieving the significant goal of bringing youngsters together, causing them to participate and enjoy.

When he returned to Boston, Mr. Fiedler decided to adopt the "Mersey sound" for his orchestra. He started at the top: a symphonic arrangement of I Want to Hold Your Hand, the fantastically successful hit by Liverpool's most distinguished alumni: The Beatles. This became one of the most popular Boston Pops encores, and their subsequent recording itself invaded the best-seller lists.

Five years have passed, and aside from the fact that almost every male wears his hair just a little longer, it is generally accepted that the Beatles (the "writing" Beatles: John Lennon and Paul McCartney) compose terrific tunes.

Since Arthur Fiedler is wedded to the idea that everybody likes a good tune (whether it be Bach, Beethoven, Brahms or Beatles) he has enlarged his Beatles repertoire in recent years and picked some of their best creationsTM for this album. Since these are instrumental arrangements made especially for the 95-man Boston Pops Orchestra, care had to be taken to choose melodies that could live without the lyrics (arranger Richard Hayman has introduced some amusing musical references to such other Boston Pops concert regulars as Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss). Judging by the audience reaction in Boston's venerable Symphony Hall, there should be at least one of these albums in every home! It is Mr. Fiedler's modest goal to introduce youngsters to the splendors of the symphony orchestra and the rest of us to the creative tunefulness of today's young composers.

As a matter of interest we should add that these recordings are all brand-new. The pres- ent version of I Want to Hold Your Hand was taped on June 20, 1969 (Mr. Fiedler decided that the tempo of his 1964 recording was not quite as bright as it should be). While we re- corded and issued a "live" concert performance of And I Love Her and A Hard Day's Night some years ago, we concluded that new recordings made under the same ideal studio conditions as the rest of the album would give a better result. For those interested in all the Boston Pops-Beatles recordings, we refer you to UP UP AND AWAY (LSC-3041), which includes two of the prettiest Beatles ballads: Michelle and Yesterday.

Finally, there are two recent Pops encores which have had such rousing success in con- cert that Arthur Fiedler thought you would enjoy them too: Consider Yourself (from the Academy Award-winning "Oliver!") and what we can only call the definitive symphonic version of Those Were the Days. – Peter Dellheim

Arrangements by Richard Hayman, except as noted

Eleanor Rigby
And I Love Her (Arranger - Jack Mason)
Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da
Hey Jude
With A Little Help From My Friends
Yellow Submarine
I Want To Hold Your Hand
Penny Lane
A Hard Day's Night (Arranged by Jack Mason)
The Fool On The Hill
Bart - Consider Yourself (from "Oliver!")

Raskin - Those Were The Days

The Magnificent Voice Of Arthur Lee Simpkins

 

The Magnificent Voice Of Arthur Lee Simpkins

The Magnificent Voice Of Arthur Lee Simpkins
Miranda Hi-Fi Records
ALBUM 1917 Miranda Records, Lexington, Kentucky

From the back cover: A REVIEW: For a long time, I have heard the name Arthur Lee Simpkins. These hearings concerned a wonderful singer. Several times I have wondered that I had never heard him sing, and asked several impresarios why he had never been in our town. When Lou Walters told me that he booked Simpkins I looked forward to hearing him sing. Friday night was the long-awaited night. I realize perfectly well that it is hardly fair to an artist to go to his show without an open mind, for I was expecting great things.

We were unhappy when we were advised that Simpkins was under the care of his physician, and might not make the performance. But he arrived. We watched the excellent Latin Quarter show with some restlessness, for we wanted to hear Simpkins. And then, he walked on stage. We immediately fell a victim of his charm, for here is a modest and a humble man. For those of you who may not know, he is colored. He grew up in Augusta, Ga., where the townsfolks, recognizing his great talents, got him a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music.

Ladies and gentlemen, without fear of contradiction, I have never heard a singer that is more talented, or who has a finer voice than has Arthur Lee Simpkins.

I don't know how many of my readers remember the great John McCormack, the Irish tenor. I was putty in his hands. He had the ability to weave a spell over me. As a youngster, I followed him around to hear him sing, like a stage door Johnnie. When he was in theaters, I would sit through show after show.

I have now found another singer who has also been blessed by Almighty God, whose vocal chords have received the magic touch of the magic wand of Him who dishes out talent. And what a wonderful choice it was when the blessed was this modest man, probably the best ambassador for the colored race I have yet met.

To attempt to describe his voice is like trying to tell you of the tones of a perfectly matched set of bells. Words can't do it. You have to hear Arthur Lee Simpkins to get even a vague idea of what I am trying to tell you.

Simpkins has all the range and tone quality that was possessed by the late John McCormack, but he has much more volume. I sat there and didn't believe my own ears. I looked around me at the customers and I saw beautiful young women with their mouths open in amazement, and near disbelief. I watched staid and calloused ringsiders applaud, when for years they had made a specialty of sitting on their hands. I heard enthusiastic ovation after enthusiastic ovation given him at the conclusion of each number he sang, of the kind and quality which is seldom heard in a night club. – Paul M. Bruun "Over Miami"

Diane
I Wonder, I Wonder
Marie
This Is The Real Thing
Them There Eyes
Down By The Riverside
I Long For You
Aurora 
My Fate
Restless
For Old Times Sake
I Resolve

Krontjong Music From Indonesia

 

Djiko untuang

Krontjong Music From Indonesia
Song And Sound The World Around
Philips 831 229 PY stereo
1973

From the back cover:  The word "krontjong" has three different meanings that are, however, connected with each other. Firstly it is the name of a typically Indonesian stringed instrument that resembles the Hawaiian ukelele.

This instrument gave its name to a kind of music that again is typically Indonesian, the "krontjong music," which has been known in Indonesia since the 15th century.

Every song composed for interpretation in this style is also called a "krontjong."

Krontjong music developed from Western musical elements but native musical sources like "gamelan music" also exercised their influence on its origin. (Listen to Philips 831 209 PY - "Gamelan music from Java."

When the Indonesians became familiar with Western musical instruments, they looked for those that came nearest in sound to the classic instruments used with gamelan music.

This resulted in the choice of these substitutes:

The violin for the "Rebab," a classic two-string instrument, for the melody.

The flute for the "Suling," made of bamboo and different in scale from the modern flute, also for the melody.

The guitar for the "Sitar," a classical touched-instrument. The guitar is twanged in a special way and produces a "fill-in" throughout the whole song.

The krontjong itself for the "Kenong," a classic percussion instru- ment made of copper, that produces the beat.

The banjo or mandolin for the "Ritjik," another percussion instrument, to produce the counter-beat.

The cello for the "Kendang," a drum played on both ends, or the "Rebana," a one-sided drum covered with an animal skin, most probably of Arabian origin. The cello is not played with a bow but is plucked in a special way, producing syncopations while keeping up a steady rhythm.

The bass for the "Gong."

Making use of these instruments and, the Western barmonic system, the Indonesians created the Krontjong style, primarily for entertainment.

The Krontjong music is very dear to them as it very often reflects their mood, be it the cheerful or the sentimental side. It has become the musical language of all the inhabitants of this beauti- ful archipelago.

The programme starts with KRONTJONG MORITSKO, a tradi- tional song which has only a melody: it is up to the singer to improvise on the text.

NINA BOBO is a lullaby. The mother, usually carrying her baby in a "slendang" (shawl) on her back, sings it as she rocks the child very gently. The song is taught to little girls who want to rock their dolls to sleep, and later they, in turn, pass it on to their daughters.

STAMBUL DJAMPANG is a traditional song in which the verses are chosen according to the mood of the singer.

BULAN PURNAMA (full moon) is a song depicting a tropical night when the moon is in her full glory. Two people promise each other to be together for ever.

KRONTJONG MAWAR SEKUNTUM means "Pretty rosebud" and the melody gives the singer wide scope for personal verses to express love for another.

RUDJAK ULEG is the name of an Indonesian fruit salad. The song, full of humour, tells how tasty it is.

DJIKO UNTUANG, which opens Side 2, is a popular West Sumatran song in which the singer tells how she feels when she is lucky enough to be in love.

NASIB TAMBANGAN, which comes from Central Kalimantan, tells of the fate of a ferry-boatman who dearly loved his work of taking people across the river.

RONDA MALAM is about a night-watch organised by the inhabitants of a certain city quarter. By patrolling periodically criss-cross through the area, striking bamboo sticks rhythmically. the watchmen let the resting people know that all is well.

KRONTJONG AIR LAUT. Entitled "Ocean water," this is an instrumental piece, open to improvisation.

BENGAWAN SOLO is a song about the river Solo in Central Java which has always been an important means of communica- tion for the merchants. It passes many towns before it reaches the ocean.

KRONTJONG PENAWAR DUKA is another instrumental piece, designed this time to cheer up the depressed.

Bluegrass Music - Jack Lynch

 

Little Birdie

Bluegrass Music
Jack Lynch & The Miami Valley Boys
Jalyn Records - Dayton, Ohio
JJLP 121

From the back cover: Jack Lynch, was born September 13th, 1930, on a farm near Richmond, Ky. He has been interested in Bluegrass Music as long as he can remember. Jack has been active in several phases of show business. He has been an actor, promoter, disc jockey, recording artist and now is owner and president of Jalyn Records and Jaclyn Music. He sings lead and bass, however he doesn't specialize in vocalizing. He plays guitar, banjo, fiddle and bass.This album was recorded on several different sessions, using musicians and singers, that have played with Jack for the last several years. These artists include; Frank Wakefield, Roy Lee, Fred Spencer, Daniel Boone Centers, Bernard Gumm, Wilburn Hall and Lonnie Bolin.

It is my pleasure to recommend this fine album to you. – Ralph Stanley

Wildwood Flower
Little Birdie
Man Of Constant Sorrow

Shady Grove

All The Love I Had Is Gone
Hook And Line
Will You Miss Me
Whoa Mule Whoa
Tears On My Pillow
Cripple Creek
Cowboy Jack
Home Sweet Home

Tonight Only! - Dave Brubeck & Carmen McRae

 

Weep No More

Tonight Only!

The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Guest Star: Carmen McRae

Cover Photo: Columbia Record Studios - Henry Parker

Columbia Records CL 1609

Weep No More, Briar Bush, Paradiddle Joe and Strange Meadowlark were recorded in New York City on September 9, 1960. Melanctha and Tristesse were recorded December 14, and Talkin' and Walkin', Late Lament and Tonight Only on December 15

From the back cover: Tonight Only! brings together TheDave Brubeck Quartet and Carmen McRae, performing eight compositions by Dave and two members of his Quartet, saxophonist Paul Desmond and bass player Eugene Wright, an one fine jazz standard. The collaboration points up the remarkable lyric qualities of the Brubeck group, along with Carmen's uncommon talent for revealing the meaning of a song.

Dave and Carmen worked closely on the choice of the selections. Says Dave of this artistically stimulating project, "One afternoon Carmen came to our house and obligingly ran through half a dozen songs we had picked out for her to sing. I looked at my wife in amazement. We had never dreamed our songs could sound so good. Carmen has an instinctive, intuitive understanding of a lyric. She can generate an emotional impact seldom found in a popular song."

As in the Brubeck Quartet's album with Jimmy Rushing (CL 1553/CS 8385), collaboration with another superb musician produces an especially exciting program.

The first selection, Melanctha, is a blues from an opera-in-progress by Dave and Liz Blake, based on the story "Melanctha," from Gertrude Stein's book, "Three Lives." The song opens with the cries of Negro workmen calling "Melanctha! Melanctha! Melanctha!" Dave plays the verse and then the song moves into a 12-bar blues with different chord progressions.

Dave wrote Weep No More in 1945, and played and sang the song for his fellow Gls while in Europe. The tune made its first recorded appearance in the Columbia album "Brubeck Plays Brubeck" (CL 878). At Carmen's request, Dave hunted up his old sheet music and lyrics for this program.

'Talkin' and Walkin', as the name implies, makes its communication as it walks along, featuring a bass solo by composer-Quartet member Eugene Wright.

Briar Bush is a little folk sermon, with quotations from "Proverbs." The melody first appeared as the title piece in the Quartet's album, "Southern Scene" (CL 1439/CS 8253"). Lyrics were subsequently provided by Dave and his wife Lola. Carmen's remarkable performance brings this tribute from the composer: "Carmen has added even to my own understanding of the music."

Paradiddle Joe is a dialogue between Carmen and drummer Joe Morello, a driving new version of a jazz classic. This number was included at my suggestion.

Paul Desmond's composition Late Lament reflects his own sensitive lyricism. Brubeck's haunting Tristesse is the same mood, a melancholy ballad in Dave's most reflective style.

Strange Meadowlark, based on the notes of the meadowlark call, was originally an instrumental in the Quartet's lively experiments-in-rhythm album, "Time Out" (CL 1397/CS 8192*). Lyrics, by Mrs. Brubeck, explain the plight of a poor meadowlark who had to sing the blues after her mate flew south.

Dave wrote Tonight Only in collaboration with O. (for Original) Basil Johns. Dave's original Number One fan, Johns has been a devoted listener since 1946, when Dave was playing in San Francisco clubs. Original Basil Johns used to sit as close to the keyboard as possible, reacting to Dave's playing with a bewildering mixture of grunts, groans and laughs. They became fast friends. Basil, using his own tape ma- chine, was the first to record Dave. He has been present at many subsequent Brubeck recording sessions, by Dave's request, for his contagious enthusiasm helps to ease studio tension. This number is dedicated to Basil's wife. – Teo Macero

Dave Brubeck's remarkable influence on contemporary jazz is reflected in the enthusiasm his appearances arouse throughout the world. With his Quartet, Dave has appeared every- where from Carnegie Hall (with the New York Philharmonic and Leonard Bernstein in Howard Brubeck's Dia- logue for Jazz Combo and Symphony Orchestra heard on Columbia record CL 1466/CS 8257) to open-air platforms in the Middle East, and always to overflow audiences.

A consistent poll winner, both as pianist and as leader of the Quartet, Dave is also a prolific composer. He has written many of the Quartet's most popular numbers and has demon- strated his classical studies in a ballet, a string quartet, two piano works and numerous songs. As a spokesman for contemporary music Dave is as forceful a writer as he is at the keyboard.

Dave was born in Concord, California in 1920, the youngest of three sons. His mother was one of the leading piano teachers in the San Francisco area. Her three sons have distinguished themselves in the field of music, Henry, in musical education; Howard, as a composer, conductor and teacher; Dave, as a jazz pianist and composer.

Dave entered The College of the Pacific in 1938 to become a veterinarian. The Science Building and the Music Conservatory, however were closely situated on the campus; soon Brubeck was spending free hours in jam sessions with other students, or playing piano in Stockton night clubs. With the encouragement of J. Russell Bodley, a composition student of Nadia Boulanger, Dave decided to make music his career. Following graduation from The College of the Pacific in 1942 he began private lessons with the renowned French composer Darius Milhaud.

Army service interrupted his lessons. For two years Dave played with the Army Ground Forces Radio Band at Camp Haan near Riverside, California.

Dave was sent to the European theater as an infantryman. When a Red Cross entertainment unit sent out an S.O.S. for a piano player, Brubeck volunteered. This was the first step toward organizing, writing and arranging for the Wolf Pack Band, which played for thousands of soldiers on their way to and from the front lines. In 1946 he returned to Oakland to resume composition studies with Darius Milhaud at Mills College and to study piano with Fred Saatman of San Francisco. At Mills he organized an experimental jazz group known as "The 8."

It was at a concert of "The 8" that Jimmy Lyons, KNBC disc jockey, first heard Brubeck. After the concert Lyons rushed to NBC program director Paul Speegle to make known his discovery of a new jazz stylist. NBC pianist Marie Choppin beat Lyons to Speegle's office by a few minutes to announce her discovery of a new composer. Both discoveries were Dave Brubeck.

Today, thanks to his extensive Columbia record catalog, worldwide tours in 1958, appearances at concerts, jazz festivals, and clubs, Brubeck has an international following. *Stereo

Melanchtha
Weep No More
Talkin' and Walkin'
Briar Bush
Paradiddle Joe
Late Lament
Strange Meadowlark
Tristesse
Tonight Only

Supersax Plays Byrd

 

Be-Bop

Supersax Plays Byrd
Produced by John Palladino
Executive Producer: Mauri Lathower
Recorded at Capitol Records Studios

Recording & Remix Engineer: Jay Ranellucci
Disc Mastering at Capitol Records Studios: Wally Traugott
Art Direction: John Hoernle
Photography: Rick Rankin

Capitol Records SW 71177
1973

Trumpets: Larry McGuire, Conti Candoli & Ralph Osborn
Trombones: Charley Loper, Mike Barone & Ernie Tack

From the back cover: It is a rare occurrence in contemporary music when a new group is organized whose premise, while uniquely fresh and exciting in execution, is based, on a concept deeply rooted in the best traditions of the past. Supersax is just such an instance.The premise is simple. Charlie Parker's solos, exactly as improvised while being committed to records, were of such inspired and awesome originality that they constituted de facto compositions in their own right. In other words, when Bird blew a series of choruses based on the chord pattern of some standard song, the product was a work of art worthy of being extracted from its context and expanded through the medium of orchestration.

There have been occasional isolated cases in which ad lib solos were developed in this manner. Two of the earliest were the Bix Beiderbecke solo on Singin' The Blues and Bunny Berigan's contribution to the Tommy Dorsey version of Marie, both of which were transcribed off the records and voiced for trumpet sections. Vocally, of course, the idea was picked up by a long line of singers, from Eddie Jefferson to King Pleasure to Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.

The unprecedented use of this precept as the basis for an entire instrumental library grew out of Med Flory's association with the late Joe Maini, a widely respected alto player who died in 1964. "Joe was working in a big band I had around Los Angeles," Flory recalls, "when I wrote out the Parker solo on Star Eyes for a full saxophone section. Then I did the introduction on Just Friends and Joe Maini, who had memorized Bird's solo note for note, gave me the lead line for the rest of the chart. It seemed like a great idea, but nothing came of it, and after Joe's death it was more or less forgotten. Then one night a year or so ago Buddy Clark, who'd played bass on that band with us, said 'Wouldn't it be great if we could have a whole book of Bird things like that, and play jobs with it?'

"I said, 'Fine, but who's going to write it?' Buddy said, 'Let me try it – just show me what to do.' I gave him a few hints on which way to go, and he started writing. I was busy at the time on a movie script, so I was too hung up to do many of the arrangements myself." (Flory has long led a triple life as TV actor, professional script writer and studio musician.)

A band coalesced to meet the formidable challenge of reading and sensitively inter- preting these uncommonly demanding ar- rangements. After one or two changes the personnel heard on this album was arrived at, with Flory and Joe Lopes on alto saxes, Warne Marsh and Jay Migliori on tenors, Jack Nimitz on baritone, Conti Candoli on trumpet, Ronnell Bright on piano, Jake Hanna on drums and Clark on bass. On Just Friends, Repetition and Moose the Mooche, a seven-man brass section was added.

The common bond among these men that canceled out the diversity of their back- grounds was an intense love for and understanding of the contribution of Charlie Parker. Two of them actually worked with Bird briefly, Ronnell Bright in Chicago and Jay Migliori in Boston. The others came up in music just in time to be aware of the bop revolution, and of Parker as one of its two chief architects (along with Gillespie) while it was happening along 52nd Street and proliferating on records.

When, after 11 months of patient woodshedding, Supersax finally was presented to the public at Donte's, a question came to the minds of some listeners: does this concept constitute living in the past, or is it rather a case of relevance-through-renovation?

My own feeling immediately was that a new dimension had been added to these timedefying solo lines, as though a Picasso painting had become a sculpture, or an Old Master restored. In fact, just to hear, sectionalized and harmonized, the incredibly fast choruses based on the phenomenal Ko-Ko solo, is an experience such as Bird himself surely would have dug.

This, in effect, is how Charlie Parker would have sounded had he been able to play five saxophones at once, in harmony.

Med Flory wrote the arrangements for Be- Bop, Star Eyes, Moose the Mooche and Just Friends; the other charts were all written by Buddy Clark. As Clark points out, "Most of the way we had the baritone sax double the melody line. That was the simple, logical way to do it. Everything moves so fast in a Bird solo that if you start breaking it up, it becomes kind of logy."

"Besides," added Med, "the lines themselves are as important and timeless as Mozart, so we didn't dare do anything that would tend to understate them."'

The reed team is balanced so that Med's lead alto is the strongest voice, the baritone is next, and the three harmony parts are just about equal. Occasionally, on the more sustained passages, the voicings were changed to add a little sonority (one instance is the second chorus of Star Eyes), but the group's basic sound is that of the two parallel melody lines an octave apart.

Since Charlie Parker made many of his definitive recordings before the age of the long play record, and because he usually accorded part of the limited solo space to his sidemen, in many cases there was not enough improvisational Bird, on any one record of each tune, to constitute a full length Supersax arrangement. Buddy and Med resolved this in several tunes by using a composite of solos from two different versions of the same number. Hot House, says Buddy, is "a combination of all kinds of Bird riffs from various records he made on these changes, either as Hot House or as What Is This Thing Called Love."

Ko-Ko, possibly the greatest Bird master- piece of all, is based on the original 1945 recording, just as Parker's Mood derives from the master take cut in 1948. Similarly drawn from a single source is Just Friends, from the chart that became the most celebrated of the precedent-setting Parker-With-Strings date taped Nov. 30, 1949. Even Mitch Miller's brief oboe solo following the first chorus was retained in this faithful translation by Med of the Jimmy Carroll arrangement. Oh, Lady Be Good! was taken in its entirety from a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert record cut in Los Angeles in 1946.

Regardless of the sources of their inspiration, most important of all is that steeped as they were in the subject, the Supersax musi- cians succeeded in retaining the spirit as well as the letter of Bird's one-to-a-century genius.

"Just say," Med Flory enjoined me as we discussed my notes for the album, "that this was our affectionate tribute to a man we've respected and idolized through the years."

The comment was almost redundant, for on every track in this extraordinary set of performances you will hear the overtones of a project conceived and written with patience and dedication, executed with honesty and warmth. Supersax Plays Bird, as much as any album I have heard in recent years, is a thoroughgoing labor of love. – LEONARD FEATHER (Author of From Satchmo To Miles, Stein & Day)

Ko-Ko
Just Friends
Parker's Mood
Moose The Mooche
Star Eyes
Be-Bop
Repetition
Night In Tunisia
Oh, Lady Be Good!
Hot House

The Great Byrd - Charlie Byrd

Don't Have To Take It

The Great Byrd

Charlie Byrd

Featuring Wichita Lineman

Produced, Arranged and Conducted by Teo Macero

Cover Design: Ron Coro

Engineering: Stan Tonkel, John Guerriere, Arthur Kendy

Columbia Records CS 9747
1968

**Happy Together

  *Who Is Gonna Love Me

**Lullaby From "Rosemary's Baby

        Teo Macero - Conductor
        Charlie Byrd - Guitar
        Mario Darpino - Flute

        Chuck Rainey - Fender Bass
        Bernard Purdie - Drums
        Paul Griffin - Organ and Piano
      *Specs Powell - Percussion
    **Bobby Rosengarden - Percussion

        Vinnie Bell - Electric Guitar

  Wichita Lineman
  For Once In My Life
*Those Were The Days
   Scarborough Fair / Canticle
*Hey Jude
  Abraham Martin And John
* I'll Never Fall In Love Again

       Teo Macero - Conductor
       Charlie Byrd - Guitar
       Mario Darpino - Flute
       Bernard Purdie - Drums

       Bobby Rosengarden - percussion

       Vinnie Bell - Electric Guitar
       Herbie Hancock - Piano & Electric Piano
       Romeo Penque - Flute, Alto Flute, English Horn, Piccolo, Recorder
       Joe Mack - Fender Bass
     *Bobby Rosengarden - drums

     *Phil Kraus, percussion

I Don't Have To Take It

      Charlie Byrd - Guitar

      Bobby Rosengarden - Percussion

      Chuck Rainey - Fender Bass

      Paul Griffin - Piano & organ
      Vinnie Bell -Electric Guitar

      Mario Darpino Flute
      Bernard Purdie - Drum

From the back cover: The grooves of this record are fairly bulging with beautiful music. Charlie Byrd has selected the out- standing melodies of today (and we daresay tomorrow) and created a truly unique recording. Now, this is hardly unusual for any Byrd album, whether he be playing classical guitar or wailing with his own swinging group.

Believe it or not, this is still another bag for this multi-faceted virtuoso. There seems to be nothing in music he cannot do. Here he has added instruments like the electric guitar, the Fender bass, the electric piano, the organ, for the ultimate in contemporary sound. (Charlie's mandolins on Those Were the Days makes it!) At the same time, he utilizes the flute, English horn and recorder where he wishes a sweet and delicate chamber music sound-but it's a long way from longhair. (Yes, kids, you can trust someone over thirty to handle your favorites-if his name is Charlie Byrd.)

Of course, the songs need no introduction-but, the distinctive new sounds of Charlie Byrd might need a bit. (See above!) At any rate, it's a subtly rocking Byrd here-listen to him. It's a brand-new thing.

Wichita Lineman
For Once In My Life
Those Were The Days
Scaborough Fair / Canticle
Hey Jude
Abraham, Marting and John
I'll Never Fall In Love Again (from "Promises, Promises)
Lullaby from "Rosemary's Baby
I Don't Have To Take It
Who Is Gonna Love Me

Late Late Show - Dinah Washington

 

Feel Like I Wanna Cry

Late Late Show

Mercury Wing MGW 12140
1963

Dream
My Lean Baby 
Feel Like I Wanna Cry
Please Send Me Someone To Love
I Don't Hurt Anymore
You Stay On My Mind
I Cried For You Short John
I Love You Yes I Do
My Man's An Undertaker
Never, Never
I Just Couldn't Stand It No More

Evergreens - Billy Taylor

 

All The Things You Are

Evergreens

The Billy Taylor Trio

Produced by Creed Taylor

Engineering by Rudy Van Gelder

Cover Photography by Alan Fontaine

Cover Design by Bob Crozier

ABC-Paramount ABC-112

Recorded February, 1956

Billy Taylor - Piano

Percy Brice - Drums

Earl May - Bass

From the back cover: Jazz has never been a predictable music. It is not really surprising, then, that there should suddenly be more modern jazz pianists than there were heady sonneteers in Elizabethan England. Their names are legion. Their styles, however, like those of most modern jazz musicians, are not. Scratch them, and one finds, like clams in the mud, the queer, solid shells of Thelonius Monk or Bud Powell. One also finds, in discouraging measure, an iron sophistication that disguises, in varied degree, ugliness, ineptness, barreness, and timidity. Sophistication, these days, is rarely synonymous with emotion. Further, it is difficult at any time to project jazz emotion through the piano. As a result, much modern jazz piano is riblike and cold. It is, in fact, like a greenhouse in the sun: glassy and blinding, but, at the same time, hollow, transparent, and quickly conductive. Some among these mechanized gypsies are, of course, honest and highly creative souls. One is Billy Taylor.

Taylor, perhaps more than any, runs almost directly counter-stream to contemporary jazz pianistry. Where much of it is sullen and chrome-bound, he is gentle and economical. Where it dis plays a sad ignorance of piano tradition (both classical and jazz), Taylor has written deft, comprehensive piano instruction books on dixieland piano, boogie woogie, and ragtime piano. Again, where modern jazz piano is largely a ululation of Powell and Monk, Taylor's style speaks of Tatum, Waller, Hines, Nat Cole, as well as Powell and Monk. Finally, where most modern pianists consider immaterial such fundamentals as the sound of their instrument and how it should be struck, Taylor continues to study with Richard McClanahan, a pupil of Tobias Mathay and the teacher of Dame Myra Hess, who approaches the keyboard as if it were a moth's wing.

Taylor's style is deceptive. Primarily, one is struck by his delicately round sense of touch, which is equalled, perhaps, only by Nat Cole, Bengt Hallberg, and Hank Jones. Immediately apparent, as well, is his adoption, on his improvised passages, of a Tatum-Powell single-note attack. More puzzling is the fact that Taylor has been appreciated both at the Copacabana and Birdland. One reason for this is that, superficially, his style is unshouting and melodically kind to the ear, and as fresh in sound as pebbles being dropped into a fish bowel. Furthermore, his planed, cocktail-seeming attack contains for those willing to listen one of the most inventive improvisational minds in jazz. On a fast tune, for example, Taylor's creative intelligence works so rapidly that he can construct in one breath a new and uninterrupted melodic line that sometimes stretches for half a chorus or more. In itself, this would of course be a useless feat (cf. Clifford Brown, Art Tatum, Buddy Rich) if the ideas were not as cohesive and logical as the clapboards on a frame house. At the same time, his left hand, unlike the dead, dust- covered appendage that lies over so much of the landscape of modern jazz piano, continually frames countering or supportive chords, or, more rarely, a completely separate, non-contrapuntal melodic line. (This is still an experimental device, and can be heard here on All The Things You Are.) On slow tempos, Taylor's sausage-machine approach is considerably modified. The phrases are shorter, and often, because there is more time for intensity highly eloquent. (Taylor occasionally drowns in his own great good taste. For his long, exquisitely modelled lines once in a while take on a kind of garrulous, compulsive quality. Tayior's rhythmic approach is equally subtle. Although it rarely has the tobogganing drive of Tatum or Billy Kyle, it is so controlled that he can slip abruptly but without pause from a long, staccato-like series of notes into a run and back to the staccato, or from the staccato to a phrase that heel-drags at the beat, giving one the pleasant effect of having seen a perfect platoon suddenly skip, change step, skip again, and resume its step. His left hand, as well, is replete with off beats, various accents, and strong underpinning rhythms that provide a striking contrast to the creamy right hand.

Billy Taylor, at thirty-four, is a slight, handsome, well put together man who wears heavy horn-rimmed glasses, neither smokes nor drinks, has a formidable set of teeth, a noticeably well-modulated voice, and a first-rate intelligence. He has, too, an infectious sense of humor, humility and talks as he plays with ease, clarity, and knowledge. "This is something I have never been able to explain to myself," he will say typically. "I like Bartok. You'd never know it from my playing. The reason is, that as much as I like him, I have never been able to assimilate him into what I do. Yet, Bach, Mozart, and Debussy have auto- matically become a part of my jazz thinking. Don Shirly takes a block of Ravel and puts it in the middle of his My Funny Valentine and builds on it, using it as a basic motif. Sounds good, but to me, anyway, it's kind of like cheating. You've got to stay somewhere near the tradition. To do that, of course, you have to know the tradition. Until recently, Randy Weston had never even heard a Jelly Roll Morton record. But the minute you open these new avenues to a musician, it's like a stream flowing in. I saw this happen years ago to Thelonius and Bud Powell. Mary Lou Williams took them in hand. One of the things she made them aware of was touch. On some of Powell's most recent records the sound is so much better. She used to sit down with both of them and say, Now, this is the way it goes.' She's helped more young musicians than anyone."

In addition to being a mellifluous talker, Taylor is a talented and fluent composer with some three hundred tunes to his credit. He has acted on the legitimate stage and on television, lectured on music at schools and colleges, and last summer was one of the most articulate members of the second jazz panel at the Newport Jazz Festival.

Taylor, briefly, was born in Greenville, North Carolina. His father was a dentist and a choir conductor, and an uncle played the organ and sang. After trying a number of instruments, he settled on the piano, playing his first professional job when he was thirteen at a "real dive" called Harry's Bluebird Inn outside of Washington, D. C., where his family moved shortly after his birth. He attended Virginia State College, graduating with a Bachelor of Music. Shortly after this, he moved to New York. On the evening he arrived he was heard uptown by Ben Webster, and two days later was a member of his quartet at the Three Deuces on 52nd Street. Before forming his own trio, he went on to work with a Burke's Peerage of jazz that included Sid Catlett, Gillespie, Don Redman, Oscar Pettiford, Gerry Mulligan, Charlie Parker, and so forth. (In the Forties, there was still a good deal of jamming and sitting-in going on all over New York. Taylor believes that the eventual breakdown of this custom is one reason why there is so little individuality among young jazz mus- icians; jamming, as well as big-band experience, was a trying-out where jazzmen listened to one another, learned, and separated the men from the boys.)

Half of the ten selections here, all of which are standards, are ballads, and half in medium or up tempo. The trio itself is the same with the exception of Percy Brice, who replaced Charley Smith on drums about a year ago as the one originally formed some four years ago. It is a tightly relaxed unit that uses its ensemble passages more for recharging episodes and jumping-off points than for bookends. It is also a mildly intricate group that experiments a good deal with Cuban rhythms and with, for example, 6/8 time against 4/4 (All The Things You Are). The trio, as it appears on this LP, is loose enough to allow several bass solos by Earl May and a few brush passages by Brice, who reveals himself as a sensitive, gritty drummer.

A mature, responsible musician thoroughly grounded in the techniques, history, and aesthetics of his music, Taylor is what many "geniuses" never are – a continually inspired, creative performer who plays his instrument with the understanding and beauty it deserves. – Whitney Balliett, The Saturday Review

Cheek To Cheek
It's Too Late Now
I Only Have Eyes For You
Then I'll Be Tired Of You
All The Things You Are
But Not For Me
You Don't Kown What Love Is
Satin Doll
More Than You'll Know
Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea