Persuasive Percussion Volumes 1,2,3,4

Persuasive Percussion Vol. 1

Persuasive Percussion Vol. 2

Persuasive Percussion Vol. 3

Persuasive Percussion Vol. 4

Enoch Light
Command Record
Persuasive Percussion Series

I've posted each album individually with a sample. You can link to those pages by clicking the links below the images.

Persuasive Percussion Volume 2 - Terry Synder

Out Of Nowhere

Persuasive Percussion
Volume 2
Terry Snyder and The All Stars
Produced By Enoch Light
Associate Producer: Julie Klages
Recording Chief: Robert Fine
Mastering: George Piros
Art Director: Charles E. Murphy
Cover Art: Barbara Jean Brown
Command Records RS 808SD
1959

From the inside cover (book-fold): Persuasive Percussion, volume 2 is the first of these further explorations, a set in which both the performing musicians and arranger (Lew) Davies move with greater knowledge, greater confidence and greater understanding of the almost limitless potential of this exciting new and different approach to music.

Terry Synder assembled three different groups to play these selections. Group One is a large orchestra with full reed, brass and rhythm sections as well as three percussionists (Synder; that fabulous expert in Latin American drumming, Willie Rodriquez; and the versatile Artie Marotti). Group Two uses only a single saxophone, trumpet and trombone plus a rhythm section and, again, three drummers – Synder, Marotti and, in place of Rodriquez, the all-but-legendary jazz drummer, Don Lamond. Group Three is built around a four man percussion section (Synder, Rodriquez, Ted Sommer and Doug Allen) with an expanded rhythm section (two guitars, accordion, bass and piano) and a single saxophone.

Blue Is the Night
Blue Tango
Miami Beach Rhumba
Yours Is My Heart Alone
In A Persian Market
Mambo Jambo
Dearly Beloved
Lu Cucaracha
Rocka Bongto Boogie
Lady Of Spain
Out Of Nowhere
Brazil

Yellow Bird - Arthur Lyman

Bamboo Bamboo

Yellow Bird
Arthur Lyman

Produced by Richard Vaughn

A&R Direction: Gary Brown

Recording Supervisor: Richard Vaughn

Cover Design: George Lieberman
HIFI RECORDS, INC - Life Series L-1004
1961

The first copy of this album that I blogged came with a yellow disc label. This copy features a red-colored disk label. The red disc came inside of a book-fold, rather than a single disc jacket.

Apparently, HIFI was sold to Everest Records around 1965 and, as a result, the Life Series Label was changed to yellow.

From the back cover: The name Arthur Lyman symbolizes the exotic percussion era. There have been other albums by the same title but none as apropos of the real spirit of exoticism.

Arthur and his group have started more startling sounds than can be remembered. This can be readily believed from the array of instruments played by each of the group.

The exotic percussive sounds of Arthur Lyman recorded in Henry J. Kaiser's Aluminum Dome, outside of the Hawaiian Village Hotel in Honolulu contrast the native and the modern. The group, their instruments of sound, and their music, are native, pulsatingly primitive, often eerie. The Aluminum Dome is unmistakably modern, the product of 20th century construction genius.

Arthur Lyman plays vibes, marimba and percussion of all kinds, having learned from his Hawaiian father since age 6. John Kramer plays bass, ukulele, guitar, flute, clarinet and percussions. Alan Soares is pianist, plays celeste, guitar and percussions. Harold Chang is a percussion virtuoso, and plays xylophone. The bird sounds heard are from actual birds, with some imitative bird calls by Lyman and Kramer. Arthur Lyman's group entertains enthusiastic listeners in the Shell Bar at the Hawaiian Village Hotel where they appear nightly.

Included in the astounding array of percussion heard are congas, bongos, timbale, cocktail drums, boobams, cowbell, ass's jaw, conch shell and guido, as well as the more ordinary percussions, such as tambourine, snare drums, wood blocks, cymbals, Chinese gong and sleigh bells.

Kaiser's Aluminum Dome is a half sphere, seating about 1500 persons, is used for live entertainment and movie showings. Its ingenious simplicity of structural design and ideal sound from suggest its wider use for low cost auditoriums of pleasing space age appearance. We chose this place for our recording because the half sphere shape has no "peaks" and allows the pleasing "easy" sound reproduction with natural room acoustical reverberation.  As you listen you will hear the unique effects produced by moving percussion, giving a certain sound perspective which intrigues.

Havah Nagilah

Yellow Bird

Ravel's Bolero

Autumn Leaves

Arrive Derce Roma

Sweet And Lovely

Bamboo Bamboo

Andalusia

Adventures In Paradise

Granada

September Song

John Herny

Guatemalan Marimbas

La Calle Del Sol

Guatemalan Marimbas
Maderas De Mi Terra Orchestra Of Guatemala City 

Directed By Higinio Ovalle Bethancourt
Capitol Records T10170
1958

From the back cover: For many years, with the enthusiastic Higinio Ovalle Bethancourt as its talented leader, the combo has proudly served as "house band" for the Guatemalan president. It regularly presents pop concerts, and has been filmed in numerous travelogues for countless television and motion pictures audiences.

The Capitol presentation was recorded and produced in the attractive capital city by J. H. Flickinger, who frequently visits Guatemala. Mr. Flickinger was able to obtain the spirited music of the Maderas de Mi Tierra (Wood Of My Land) on both monaural and stereo tape. There is nothing quite like it available on records today in either the U.S.A. or Canada.

Cuqui

Sonia Elizabeth

Un Misterio

La Calle Del Sol

Flor De Mayo

Olga

Tato Pano

Panajachel

Isabel

Ishtia Quezalteca

Nuestras Alas Sobre

El Mundo

Xocomil

Ronnie Aldrich And His Two Pianos

Good Morning Starshine

Ronnie Aldrich And His Two Pianos

The London Festival Orchestra
Destination
London SP 44135
1969

Groovy dreamy cover with groovy on the outside and dreamy light pop covers on the inside.

Bachelor pad and lime green leisure suits.

Persuasive Percussion Volume 4

Oh Lady Be Good

Persuasive Percussion Volume 4
Enoch Light and The Command All Stars

Arrangements by Lew Davies

Originated and Produced by Enoch Light

Associate Producer: Julie Klages

Cover Design By Charles E. Murphy
Recording Chief: Robert Fine

Mastering: George Piros

Command Records STEREO RS 830 SD
1961

Oh Lady Be Good
I May Be Wrong
It's De Lovely
Hello Young Lovers
Am I Blue
Besame Mucho
Hold Me
You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me
In The Mood
Got A Date With An Angel
Can't Get Enough Of My Baby
My Blue Heaven

Persuasive Percussion Volume 3

Bingo Bango Bongo Baby

Persuasive Percussion Volume 3
The Command All Stars
Originated and Produced by Enoch Light
Associate Producer: Julie Klages
Recording Chief: Robert Fine
Mastering George Piros
Cover by Josef Albers
Grand Award Publishing Co. Inc. New York, N.Y.
RS 33-817
1960

The Command All-Stars

Doc Severinsen
Bob Haggart
Phil Bodner
Romeo Pence
Cliff Leeman
Sol Gubin
Dominic Cortese
Mel Davis
Bobby Byrne
Moe Wechsler
Ezelle Watson
Bernie Glow
Artie Marotti
Al Cassamenti
Willie Rodriguez
Stanley Webb
Tony Mottola

From Billboard - December 6, 1960: This album, Volume III in the best selling "Persuasive Percussion" series, looks like another winner. Once again Enoch Light has turned out a bright, breezy, tasteful and musical percussion set, featuring The Command All Stars, which shows off clean, and well-nigh perfect recording. The tunes include "Moments To Remember," " All The Way," "One For My Baby" and "Kashmiri Song." The arrangements are both spectacular and at the same time delightfully subtle. Fine wax.

Moments To Remember
All The Way
Theme From Polovetzian Dances
Perdido
Come Rain Or Come Shine
Hawaiian War Chant
One For My Baby
Kashmiri Song
When Your Lover Has Gone
Bingo Bingo Bongo Baby
Autumn In New York
Don't Worry 'Bout Me

Persuasive Percussion Volume 1

Tabu

Persuasive Percussion
Volume 1
Terry Snyder and The All Stars
Originated And Produced By Enoch Light
Cover Art Josef Albers
Command STEREO RS 800 S.D.
1959 Award Publishing Corporation

Persuasive Percussion
Command/ABC Records/Pickwick SPC-3807
Pickwick Records Division
1978

The Pickwick reissue does not include the tracks: Japanese Sandman & Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing.

Cover Art by Josef Albers, one of America's foremost contemporary painters, was born in Westphalia, Germany in 1888. After studying in Berlin, Essen and Munich he taught at the famous Bauhaus school from 1923 - 1933. When the Bauhaus was closed by order of the German government in 1933, Mr. Albers came to the United States to head the Art Department of Black Mountain College where he remained until 1950. After leaving Black Mountain, Mr. Albers took over the direction of the Department of Design at Yale University. At the present time, Mr. Albers lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut.

I'm In The Mood
Whatever Lola Wants
Misirlou
I Surrender Dear
Orchids In The Moonlight
I Love Paris
My Heart Belongs To Daddy
Tabu
The Breeze And I
Aloha Oe
Japanese Sandman
Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing

Ellis In Wonderland - Ray Ellis

You're My Girl

Ellis In Wonderland
Ray Ellis and His Orchestra
Columbia CL 933
1957

From the back cover: Clamber through the looking glass, scamper down the hole after the white rabbit, and there is Wonderland. The scenery auditory, in this instance – has been sketched out by Ray Ellis, and the sonic vistas are wonderful indeed. A good deal of the delight that this collection provides arises from the fact that one of America's top-flight arranger-conductors has been turned loose to experiment with sounds and textures in popular music, and through the listener's pleasure can be sensed the pleasure that Ray Ellis took in his assignment.

When an inventive arranger is given free rein, inventive music is bound to result. "Ellis in Wonderland" is full of interesting ideas both in sound and treatment, but there has been no effort to make an effect on shock value. All but four of the songs are familiar friends, and they are treated with affection. The other four, similarly treated, consist of a hitherto unrecorded theme song, a pair of Ellis originals, and a neglected show tune. It is a warm and colorful program, and the arrangements underline that feeling.

Consider the variety Ray Ellis has spread forth; the program opens with a slow, progressively emotional pre- sentation of You Are Never Far Away from Me, Perry Como's never-before- recorded theme song. In this, as in other melodies in the collection, the chorus is used for an instrumental effect and is less forward than in many similar efforts. A bright and cheerful setting of How About You follows, presented in terms of a dance orchestra's arrangement, with the strings relegated to an accompanying position. Then comes For All We Know, a smooth medium-tempo presentation, spotlighting the strings and a brief saxophone solo. When I Fall in Love uses the harmonic atmosphere associated with the works of Rachmaninoff in a splendid example of first-rate mood music and also employs the wordless chorus. The jaunty mambo theme of 36-26-36 carries through over the substantial background the orchestra provides, and the first side closes with the moody torch song Alone Together, wherein the male voices of the chorus assist in the accompaniment and the female voices sing in a counter- melody.

Subtle reminders of a biblical land in its Oriental guises are evoked in Milk and Honey, a broad, flowing melody that includes bells among the instruments in its fascinating background. A wistful arrangement of that old favorite P. S. I Love You follows, succeeded in turn by a bright, bouncy setting of Love Is a Simple Thing, which brings back the dance band idiom. The warm, expansive melody of You're My Girl from "High Button Shoes" is used to provide a romantic. interlude, followed by a light, airy treatment of Poor Butterfly that contains a hint, perhaps inherent in the song itself, of its 1916 origin. The program concludes with a smooth, sentimental version of Trust in Me, building to a vivid and lingering close.

These are some of the aspects of Ray Ellis' particular wonderland; there are others, of course, not contained in this collection. Along the way, through his outstanding career in popular music, he has arranged music for many other conductors, and has performed the same chore, as well as conducting, for such varying entertainers as The Four Lads, Mahalia Jackson, Guy Mitchell, Cathy Johnson, and the DeJohn Sisters, among others, on some of their best-selling records. Here he is on his own, for the first time, in a richly rewarding collection of his distinctive inventions.

From Billboard - September 9, 1957: Smooth treatments by top-flight orkster, Ellis, provide easy listening. A variety of tempos, Latin, slow, lush settings with chorus, and others with danceable beat, can appeal to teens and mature buyers.

You Are Never Far Away From Me
How About You
For All We Know
When I Fall In Love
36-26-26
Alone Together
Milk And Honey
P.S. I Love You
Love Is A Simple Thing
You're My Girl
Poor Butterfly
Trust Me

Earl Bostic Plays Sweet Tunes Of The Fantastic 50s

Canadian Sunset

Earl Bostic Plays Sweet Tunes Of The Fantastic 50s

X-15 cover art illustrated by L. Paleno
King Records 602

1959

From the back cover: Earl has always loved music, so much so he gave up a job as grammar school teacher to go on the road. He first learned to play the clarinet in his home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. His first job netted him exactly 15¢, yet he liked what he as doing, and move to Xavier University in New Orleans where he received training in harmony, composing, theory, arranging, plus all the brass, reed and string instruments.

He formed a small combo and managed to get one week's commitment at Small's Paradise in New York City. He didn't leave, however, when the week was up... but was held there for four years.

With a desire to learn more through experience, he joined Lionel Hampton's sextet, and played along with Teddy Wilson, Sid Catlett and J. C. Higginbotham. Through experience he picked up, he began arranging for Paul Whitement, Louis Prima, Cab Calloway and Ina Ray Hutton among others.

In 1945 he started on his own again and blossomed into one of the outstanding horn men in the music business. At the time he recorded "845 Special" and "That's The Groovy Thing" things really began to happen. Both records were instant hits and Bostic's musical career was assured.

Because Of You

Unchained Melody

Stranger In Paradise

Ebb Tide

Lisbon Antiqua

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing

April IN Portugal

Blue Tango

Three Coins In The Fountain

Canadian Sunset

Autumn Leaves

The Song Form Moulin Rouge