A Place In Time - Dave Brubeck

Pennies From Heaven

A Place In Time

The Dave Brubeck Quartet
Formerly titled "Brubeck Time"
Featuring Paul Desomd, Sax; Bob Bates, Bass; Joe Dodge Drums
Cover Art: John Berg
Recorded in October and November, 1954
Columbia Jazz Odyssey STEREO 32 16 0248
Electronically re-channeled for stereo
A Product of CBS, Inc.

From the back cover: In late 1954, when I was asked to line up material for a studio session in New York, I talked it over with Paul, Joe and Bob, and we were all reluctant to do a formal studio session. Of course, we had heard of the wonderful acoustics of Columbia's 30th Street studio, but, no matter how great it might be, it was still a studio. We all felt our group performed better before a live audience.

I was pretty skeptical when I walked into that enormous room, so it was a real surprise to me that most of the tunes we recorded during the studio session were good on the first take. If memory serves me right, "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime," "A Fine Romance," "Why Do I Love You," Keeping' Out Of Mischief Now" and "Pennies From Heaven" were all first takes. Studio or not, I have to admit things went well.

As you might imagine, though, we felt that we were on pretty shaky ground, and undoubtedly our playing reflected the shakiness. Gjon Mili (the famous photographer who was at the session to consider the Quartet for a film feature) was impatient with our nervousness, and after the first take, he declaimed in clear, firm tones, "My first impression was right. You're no good."

At this point, my blood began to boil. Once again I resented all studios and all people who thought jazz "is like a faucet; it goes off and on." of course, Mili had first heard us in fairly top form at Basin Street with a good, live audience. Naturally, he wanted that for his sound track, but now were we to deliver under these conditions?

But we jumped in, and now when I hear "Stompin' for Mili," it is evident that this is my musical expression of rage and frustration. The first quote I played in my solo, "Thank You For A Lovely Evening," pointed directly at Gjon.

We finished with a feeling that we had redeemed ourselves. I can still see Mili jumping from his chair, exclaiming "You're hot! By God, you're hot! Don't stop now!"

Anyway, we all ended friends again and amenable to the suggestion that we next play a minor blues in a quiet view. "I would like," said Gjon, closing his eyes, "to see Audrey Hepburn come walking through the woods..."

"Gee," said Paul, wistfully, "so would I."

"One," I said, noticing the glazed expression about Paul's eyes, "two, three, four."

And we played it. Hence the title.

Pete Rugolo once told me that he would like to hear more of the arranged counterpoint we used to play. So when we decided to record in a formal session, I wrote arrangements for the first and last choruses of most of the tunes, but we retained the privilege of playing our own little games of improvising counterpoint before going into the written chorus. Many people have suggested that we play some of the arrangements that were more or less characteristic of my earlier trio and quartet. So, the arrangement of "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime" is a very simple canon, with the alto stating the theme and the bass and piano handling the successive entrances.

The arrangement of "A Fine Romance" begins with the piano stating the first theme in the first eight bars; then piano and bass skip to the bridge, leaving the alto sax to play the second eight-bar section. Paul then plays the bridge, while Bob and I repeat the theme of the first eight bars – a kind of "Row, row, row your boat" construction.

In "Keepin' Out Of Mischief Now," we tired to retain the true flavor of the original Fats Waller composition. Most of the newer schools of jazz have forgotten the wonderful old Waller tunes.

"Jeeper Creepers" is a natural for jazz groups, but the first time I ever heard it played as a jazz tune was in 1949, when trumpeter Dick Collins wrote an arrangement for himself, Paul and the trio I had then. However, Dick isn't responsible for our hokey ending – we just tagged that on for laughs.

Except for a series of modulations, we stuck very close to the original melody of "Why Do I Love You." And there's no arrangement on "Pennies From Heaven" – it's a one-shot version of an old standard that was thrown in for good measure and just happened to turn out well.

All in all, I think it's a good album. Paul was great on "Audrey," and I think there are some exciting moments in all the tunes. The main criterion is not our individual efforts so much as how we perform as a group, the overall feeding and form that sometimes – even in spite of studios – do take shape. – Dave Brubeck

Audrey
Jeepers Creepers
Pennies From Heaven
Why Do I Love You
Stompin' For Mili
Keepin' Out Of Mischief Now
A Fine Romance
Brother, Can You Spare A Dime

Stan Kenton Presents

June Christy

Stan Kenton Presents
Capitol Records T248
1955

Art Pepper
Maynard Ferguson
The Halls Of Brass
Evening In Pakistan
June Christy
The House Of Strings
Shelly Manne
Soliloquy

Warm And Tenderly - Anna Maria Alberghetti

I've Got The World On A String

Warm And Willing
Anna Maria Alberghetti
Arranged and Conducted by Nelson Riddle
Produced by Voyle Gilmore
Capitol Records ST1379
1960

From the back cover: Miss Alberghetti is, of course, the Hollywood beauty from Pesaro, Italy, whose scrapbook now bulges with a diversity of praiseful clippings. Her effortless soprano, which won many hearts at her Carnegie Hall debut at the age of thirteen, has continued to win hearts and tributes at the Waldorf in New York, the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, and many other grand entertainment centers where she attracts vast audiences.

At the other extreme, her private life as one of the most exciting bachelor girls in the movies, TV and night clubs is chronicled by syndicated columnists all over the world.

Warm And Willing
Anema E Core (With All My Heart And Soul)
In The Still Of The Night
I've Got The World On A String
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Porgy
Cuban Love Song
I Have A Dream
Non Dimenticar (Don't Forget)
I'm In The Mood For Love
How's Your Romance?
Come Back To Sorrento (Torna a Surriento)

Rome Today - Tony Mottola

Semplicissimo

Romea Oggi
Rome Today
Enoch Light Presents Tony Mottola
Produced by Enoch Light
Associate Producer: Julie Kalges
Arrangements: Tony Mottola & Lew Davis
Director of Engineering: Phil Ramone
Cover Photos: John Vidol
America's Greatest Guitarist Plays Today's Italian Hits
Project 3 Total Sound Stereo PR 5032 SD
1968

From the inside cover: The setting in which Tony Mottola has placed these big hits of today is the sound of today; a mixture of the beat that identifies the Sixties as they approach the Seventies, and a cushion of strings for Tony's guitar. Supplementing the strings are Dom Cortese's rich accordion. Phil Bodner's bright-toned flute and piccolo and Dick Hyman's keyboard virtuosity on piano, organ and harpsichord. The rhythm section on which this ensemble rolls is made up of Bucky Pizzarelli on rhythm guitar, Bob Haggart, bass, Phil Kraus, vibes and Bill Lavorgna, drums.

Help Yourself
A Man Without Love
Begin To Love
Semplicissimo
Mala Fennena
Come Prima
Vacanze
Forget Domani
Amore Scusami
You And Only You
Volare
Sentimental Guitar

Big - Lee Evans

Harlem Nocturne

Big
Big Piano / Big Band / Big Sound
Lee Evans
Produced by Andy Wiswell
Notes by Dorothy Kilgallen
Capitol Records T 1625
1961

From the back cover: When Lee Evans was chosen to play the piano on "The Gershwin Years," television casting hit a new high – because Lee Evans plays the way George Gershwin wrote. At the keyboard, he is a soaring romantic.

Although his virtuosity encompasses amusing treatments of rhythm tunes and impeccable handling of the classics, to my mind he creates the most excitement when he applies his lush technique to melodies that are resplendent and haunting.

In this album he runs the gamut from a swift, humorous version of "The Trolley Song" to the heartbreaking tenderness of "Lullaby Of The Rain." His rendering of "You Forgot Your Gloves" is explicit and pure, and I think Cole Porter would applaud his stirring Latin translation of "Love For Sale."

Lee Evans is a good-looking young man from the Bronx, N. Y. Like George Gershwin, he is a product of the Big Town, and often the city's rhapsodic moods crowd their way into his playing. He has studied music ever since he can remember; he got his bachelor of arts degree at New York University and his master of arts at Columbia. While scarcely old enough to look the part, he spent a year teaching at Junior High School 123 in the Bronx.

His one important excursion from urbanity occurred in 1954 when he joined the United States Army and served as rehearsal conductor for the 291st Army Band at Fort McCellan, Alabama.

I first saw and heard Lee Evans in 1957 when he played at the Left Bank Restaurant in New York as the star of a trio composed of piano, bass and drums. I soon found that I could listen to him night after night, always with the same sense of discovery and excitement. And I had plenty of company; there were regular customers who simply refused to go home until Lee had played their favorites from his repertoire.

Since his debut at the Left Bank, he has played the St. Moritz Hotel and the Embers in New York, the Sands in Las Vegas, and various music-loving rooms around the nation. Wherever he goes, there seems to be an enormous audience for this keyboard perfectionist who can oblige his fans with anything from the latest show tune to a delicacy by Mozart.

The Trolley Song
The Moon Was Yellow
You Forgot Your Gloves
Lullaby Of The Rain
Love For Sale
Hallelujah
Harlem Nocturne
The House Is Haunted
The Girls Of Rome
Tin Tum Tan
Beyond The Reef
Blow Gabriel Blow

Italian Symphony - Serge Koussevitzky

Second Movement - Andante con moto

Mendelssohn
Italian Symphony
No. 4, In A, Op. 90 ("Italian")
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Serge Koussevitzky, Conductor
RCA Victor LM-20 (10 inch LP)

Mood Music - Leroy Holmes

All Of Me

Mood Music
The M-G-M Strings conducted by Leroy Holmes
A High Fidelity Recording E246 (10 inch LP)
Lowe's Inc.
1954

I'm In The Mood For Love
Two Sleepy People
All Of Me
Snuggled On Your Shoulder
Two Cigarettes In The Dark
So Beats My Heart For You
Linger In My Arms
I Surrender, Dear

South Sea Island Magic - Pua Almeida

South Sea Island Magic

South Sea Island Magic
Pua Almeida & His Polynesians
MGM Records
A High Fidelity Recording E20 (10 inch LP)
Lowe's Inc.
1955

From the back cover: Charles Puaonaona Almeida better known as "Pua" was born in Honolulu on February 17, 1922. This young man of Hawaiian-Portuguese racial extraction started his training of both voice and music of birth under the guidance of his blind father John K. Almeida to whom recently, special tribute was paid as Honolulu's "King Of Composers".

Pua made his debut to the entertainment world at the age of 6 with a ukulele in his hand, singing and playing a solo for an island concert. He went as far as the 8th grade and then had to leave school to work with his father playing music for a living.

In 1940, in Honolulu, Pua organized his own orchestra consisting of 4 saxophones, 2 trumpets, a trombone, drums, piano, bass, guitar and steel-guitar. He played with great success at various island night clubs such as Queen's Surf, Trader Vic's, Lou Yee Chai's, Pago Pago, Waikiki Tarven, Don The Beachcomer and Pearl City Tavern.

In 1947 he made his first trip away from the islands with 3 musicians and a dance to entertain for 6 months at the Pago Pago Club in Colton, Calif. In 1950 he entertained on Okinawa, Japan for 5 months and then he joined Alice Hall's quartet in Honolulu as bass-man, steel-guitar player and vocalist. Later he left the quartet and went back to island music, opening at the Huntington Hotel in Pasadena with Eddie Bush, George Kainapau and Alfred McIntyre. He is currently working under the leadership of Sam Koki at the 7 Seas Club on Hollywood Blvd., across from Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and at the same time is doing television shows and recordings.

Pua's experience in music and entertainment is priceless for he is one of the few musicians and singers who has so much love and soul in his work that to listen to him is to hear the rolling of surf, and the carefree laughter of island people, and to smell the sweet fragrance of tropical flowers.

In this MGM Record album the voices of Solomon Kamahele Jr., Sam Kaaupuni and Sam Koki are also heard with Pua Almeida.

Fish And Poi
South Sea Island Magic
Hawaiian Hospitality
Blue Pacific Moonlight
Hawaii Calls
To You Sweetheart, Aloha
A Million Moons over Hawaii
Sweet Leilani

For Members Only - Shirley Scott

Freedom Dance

For Members Only
Shirley Scott Trio
Orchestra Conducted By Oliver Nelson
Produced by Bob Thiele
Cover Design: Flynn/Viceroy
Cover and Liner Photos: Bob Ghiraldini
Liner Design: Joe Lebow
A Product of ABC-Paramount Records, Inc.
Impulse! STEREO A-51
1963

From the inside cover: The high technical level of her (Scott) playing stems from her studies at Ornstein School of Music, in Philadelphia, which she attended following Girls High. An excellent pianist, her switch to the organ was not due to the economic reasons that have compelled others to it, but based on the welcome excitement of the many tonal voices available through the instrument.

Shirley, at one time a member of the popular Eddie Davis Trio, and now the leader of her own trio with Stanley Turrentine, has become recognized as one of the foremost organists of jazz. She has had to overcome the natural prejudices (if prejudice is natural in any form) to her successful ability in making the organ respond to her desires, she is, finally, a well-balanced artist in a field known more for the imbalances of its performers.

Throughout, the characteristics of a highly trained performer with a warm, romantic and rhythmic sense of beauty, is noted. The pairing of Miss Scott with Oliver Nelson is an excellent combination, and Oliver displays once more his belief that the organ can sit comfortably within the big band.

Southern Comfort
Blue Piano
Freedom Dance
Toys In The Attic
Bues For Members
I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face
Marchin' To Riverside
We're Goin' Home

The Thinking Man's Music - Ralph Sharon

You Stepped Out Of A Dream

The Thinking Man's Music
Ralph Sharon
Cover Photo & Design: Burt Goldblatt
Engineer: Frank Abbey
Deluxe Series Hi Fidelity
Bethlehem Records BCP41

From the back cover: Ralph Sharon has been a dedicated student of the piano and of piano styles for more than sixteen years. Although he has been recording for a large part of that time, this LP – which is his first in the U. S. – is, by his own admission, his best recording to date. To amplify his analysis further, Ralph feels that the work of the trio in general and his own piano in particular is as uncluttered and as free of excessive tricks and influences as anything he has been able to attain so far, short of a live performance. Ralph Sharon is an English-born musician who inherited his talent for music from his mother and developed it formally at the Royal Academy of Music. He readily agrees that his orientation in jazz has a second-hand nature about it, in view of the fact that American jazz records were virtually the only source of exposure that he and his countrymen had to compelling American jazz styles.

Having established himself as a capable musician in England, Ralph came to this country some two years ago with a two-fold purpose in mind: to organize a musical group and to hear for himself the variety of piano stylists working in this country. The first he accomplished with relative ease, and although the personnel may change from time to time, the format in the same politely swinging style contained in these sides. The second is a never-ending ritual with Ralph in his quest to assimilate as much of "what's going on" as his time and commitments will allow. Because of this open-minded approach to his work Ralph expects that changes in his style will continue to occur for quite some time. Typical of Ralph's devotion to developing his talent further is his feeling that he must know the lyric to any tune in his repertoire. Seemingly unimportant, Ralph explains that this is an aid to greater sound" in his instrument. This coupled with other applied "extras" indicate Ralph's serious and yeoman-like efforts toward increasing his stature as an important jazz artist.

Choice of personnel for the trio is also the result of profound thought and listening by Sharon. Ralph seldom auditions a man under the circumstances usually described by the word. If he is in need of a replacement, he makes every effort to hear the man "on the job." This methodical approach provides him with young and stimulating musicians who compliment his piano style so well.

On these sides Jay Cave is heard on bass and Christy Febbo on drums. Cave is the 22 year old newcomer from Youngstown, Ohio whom Ralph regards as a fine young prospect because of his extraordinary solo work. Cave's ability in this direction stems from the fact that he plays very good piano as well. Until he joined the Sharon Trio, Cave has been working jobs in his own home town. Christy Febbo has been drumming professionally for 5 years. He's a native of Altoone, Pennsylvania. and his reputation as a jazz drummer is top-drawer within the trade. He's been on the Herbie Fields band, and provides the lightly swinging beat which Ralph demands for a successful unit.

Don't Be That Way
Give Me The Simple Life
I Didn't Know What Time It Was
I'm Glad There Is You
I'm Beginning To See The Light
They Can't Take That Away From Me
Steeple Chase
Angel Eyes
You Stepped Out Of A Dream
Bluz For Suz