This Is Brian Collins

 

My Love

This Is Brian Collins

Produced by Jim Foglesong

Basic Arrangements: Harold Bradley

String Arrangements: Bill BcElhiney

Dot Records DOS-26017

Distributed by Famous Music Corp.

1973

From Billboard - October 27, 1973: A relatively new artist, this album should firmly establish Brain Collins. It's all easy listening and he shows strength and smoothness beyond his years. Best cuts: "My Love" and "Lonely Too Long."

I Wish (You Had Stayed)

I Don't Plan On Losing You

Take One Step

My Love

Satin Pillows (To Cry On)

I'll Be Your Bridge

How Can I Tell Her (About You)

The Corner Of My Life

Statue Of A Fool

Lonely Too Long

Hand In Hand With Love

Flute Flight - Sam Most

 

Last Night When We Were Young

Flute Flight

Sam Most

Produced and Directed by Don Schlitten

Notes: Kent Hazen

Cover and Liner Photos: Don Schlitten

Recording: Arne Frager

Recorded December 28, 1976

Xanadu141

Manufactured and Distributed by Cream Records, Inc.

Sam Most: Flute and Clarinet

Lou Levy: Piano

Monty Budwig: Bass

Donald Bailey: Drums

From the back cover: "I didn't even have many lessons, it's just something that I took to. In fact when I started to play I started to use that humming technique a lot because I couldn't play out in my apartment. Maybe it was late at night and I wanted to play, so instead of playing out in full tones I might just kind of hum and sing along." That's how Sam Most describes his earliest bouts with the flute. In any field of endeavor some breakthrough occur as a result of countless hours of arduous research, relentless study and conscious experimentation. Then again, of course, there are cases like Archimedes overflowing his bathtub – or Sam Most attempting to practice in near silence. A breakthrough is a breakthrough, however, and today it is commonly known that solid objects displace water and that the human voice can be combined with the tone of a flute. The advantage which has accrued to Sam for having made the latter breakthrough early in life and in such a relatively painless fashion is that he has had more time than any other flute player to work with that technique and develop it to perfection.

Needless to say there is more to playing the flute than vocalizing into it. For Sam this device has never been an end in itself, but merely a highly useful addition to his formidable arsenal of flute technique. Any conscientious artist knows that too much of a good thing can be counterproductive, and Sam is very conscientious. 

Back in the early 50's when Sam began expanding his sphere of musical interest to include the flute, there was a singular dearth of models to emulate: "I don't think I chose it as an 'I must play the flute' type of thing. To tell you the truth, I don't remember hearing anyone play jazz on it at all. I started out playing the clarinet because my brother (Abe Most, the prominent LA studio woodwind player) as an inspiration growing up. That was towards the last of the swing era. Then when I was about sixteen or so I started hearing the Charlie Parker things and was caught up in that. I think I first heard Ben Webster on 52nd Street, and he inspired me in person. I flipped out when I heard him at the Three Duces. I listened to Coleman Hawkins records like Body and Soul, and I used to dig Lee Konitz and Stan Getz. Then I started to go more for players like Rollins and Coltrane. As far as I remember, flute jazz was more or less my own affinity for it and the influence of what I'd been hearing from saxophone players. I think it was just more or less my own type of transformation of saxophone things, plus, of course, the flutistic things. And I just felt naturally putting those two things together.

Despite having passed through the reed sections of big bands led by Tommy Dorsey, Shep Fields, Boyd Raeburn and Don Redman, the larger ensemble was not where Sam's head and heart were. "I always felt that most of my background was in the small group. The big band sideman thing was something that I passed through, but that wasn't my predominant influence. The big band era was either dead or in the process of dying, so I just got in on the tail end and got some of that experience. (Sam was born on December 6,  1930.) I was always attracted to the smaller groups and of course I liked Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw because I was impressed with the clarinet, but when bebop came in I was young enough to feel that that was the direction to go in. It seemed like a natural thing, just like people today going into rock."

Sam currently resides in California, but during the '50s his base of operations was New York City. The decade and the location were both good to Sam. He began leading his own down beat Critics Poll. "It seemed like wherever I played the flute it was a tremendous commercial success. The audiences liked the novelty of it and also the fact that I had an affinity for it. I was doing a bit more in that period because I had some albums out, and I was able to get work and a few studio bones here and there."

Towards the end of the decade, however, the row of the working jazzman was becoming tougher to hoe, so Sam accepted an offer to join the Buddy Rich band for a State Department sponsored world tour. Upon returning to the States in 1961, Sam decided to investigate the climate in the Los Angeles area, where brother Abe had found a comfortable niche for himself. "I didn't think I'd stay here. I was kind of a slowish period in New York, so I stayed out here with my brother awhile, and before you know it I've been  here seventeen years!"

During those seventeen years Sam has managed to pay his own freight, but things haven't been as rosy as some publicity blurbs make out. "It's really a misconception to think that I really became successful in the studio, Vegas or Tahoe scene. I went to Vegas from here with Red Norvo, because I never really got into the studio too strong. That's how I got introduced to Vegas and Tahoe, and I spent some years back and forth. It always seemed like there wasn't much happening in L.A. at the time. Out of the whole city there were maybe four clubs, and they had imported groups or just a given night or two for some of the local people. There wasn't an opportunity to work steady in town unless you got into the studios. I don't think I ever intended to be a studio musician. It was like a supplement, you know, if I could make some money that way. I even entertain thoughts of going back to New York. It's kind of hard economically trying to play the music you dig and make some money at it. Art is one thing, but business is something else."

Recently, however, the light at the end of the tunnel for Sam Most, improvising artist, had been growing brighter. "Don Schlitten) was interested enough to give me a chance to come out of isolation, so that kind of started it." Flute Flight is Sam's second release on Xanadu (Mostly Flute, Xanadu 133, was the first), and Sam is now the proud recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant for performance as well. After hearing this album listeners will readily understand why Sam was selected. He has not stood still over the years. "A lot of things I did in the '50s – oh, they're okay, but I don't want to listen to them. They're something in the past, and I hope I'm growing. I keep trying to grow. I think you can still tell it's me, but my style and feelings change as I get older. You get either more mature or wiser or whatever just from continuing to listen and grow personally and trying to perfect your art."

The Humming Blues

It Might As Well Be Spring

Flying Down To Rio

Sagittarian Samba

Last Night When We Were Young

It Happened In Monterey

Am I Blue

A Tropical Affair - Pedro Garcia

 

Chivirico

A Tropical Affair

Pedro Garcia and his Del Prado Orchestra

Photo: Bob Witt

Latin American Dance Pot-Pourri

A Study In High Fidelity Sound

Audio Fidelity AFLP 1842

1957

Dancero

Adorable

Con El Pi Pi Ri Pau

Que Murmuren

Samba De Las Orquidus

Chivirico

Muneauita Linda

Begin The Beguine

Samba Versalles

Cumana

Diabluros

Scheherazade

Songs Of The Cowboy

 

A Cowboy's Dream

Songs Of The Cowboy

Design Records SDLP-625/SDLP-189

Pickwick International, Inc.

Gene Autry

Back In The Saddle Again

Riding Down The Canyon

Smiley Burnette

Red River Valley

Clementine

Eddie Dean

A Cowboy's Dream

Street Of Laredo

Foy Willing 

Cool Water

Shortin' Bread

Bradley Kincaid

The Blue Tail Fly

Legend Of Robin Red Breast

An Evening In Paris - Henri Dumas

 

La Mer

An Evening In Paris

Henri Dumas and His Orchestra

Photo: George Pickow - Three Lions

Design DLP 119

La Mer

A Paris

C'est Si Bon

Fantasie De Chansons Enfantines

Un Jour, Tu Verras

I Love Paris

La Vie En Rose

Place Pigalle

Fantasie De Chansons Enfantines

Mademoiselle De Paris

Romeo And Juliet - Jackie Gleason

 

Yesterday, When I Was Young

Romeo And Juliet

A Theme For Lovers

Jackie Gleason

Produced by Dick Jones

Orchestrations: George Williams

Recording Engineer: Bob Arnold

Recored at Criteria Studios, Miami, Florida

Capitol Records ST-398

1969

Back Cover Photo: The Great One (Jackie Gleason) with Don Goldie

Also from the back cover: The soloist merits a special word. Far and away the most celebrated big band of the 1920's and 30's was the aggregation of the King Of Jazz, Paul Whiteman, and among its star-studded collections of musicians, for 15 years, was a fine trumpet man best known as "Goldie." Playing the trumpet solos in Jackie's album in Goldie's son, Don Goldie, himself a musician of stature who follows in his famous father's footsteps as a trumpeter of taste, skill and warmly individual sound.

For Once In My Life

Moment To Moment
By The Time I Get To Phoenix
Embassy Waltz From "My Fair Lady"
Love Theme From "Romeo and Juliet"
Beverly
Didn't We
Yesterday, When I was Young
Quentin's Theme from ABC-TV's "Dark Shadows"
This Guy's In Love With You

Shout! Shout! - Ernie Maresca

 

Mary Jane

Shout! Shout!

Knock Yourself Out

Ernie Maresca

Produced by Mark Holtzman

Seville SV 77001

1962

From the back cover: In the words and music, Ernie Maresca is an uncanny phenomenon. A couple of years ago, Ernie stood on the sidelines of show business watching new stars skyrocket to success. Deep down inside, he felt the longing that goes with talent. He knew he could write the melodies and lyrics of hit songs. Ernie was positive that with a little recognition as a song-writer, fame and fortune would come to any singer who recorded his material. In no time at all, this dream became a reality. Ernie Maresca's hits orbited the earth like a Mercury Seven capsule. "A Lover's Prayer," "Runaround," "No One Knows," "the Wanderer," "Runaround Sue," "Lovers Who Wander," and many others, helped Dion, The Belmonts, The Regents, and Nino and the Ebbtides to the red carpet of stardom.

Right in the middle of all this excitement Ernie and Tom Bogdany, a neighborhood buddy, got the idea for a follow-up to the Twist called "Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out). To Seville Records Artist and Repertoire-man Marv Holtzman they came! Ernie's demonstration was exciting! Within a week Ernie had cut it and the rest is history. To the top of the charts it zoomed and as a result, Ernie Maresca is in the world-wide demand as one of America's top teen-age singing attractions

From Billboard - July 28, 1962: The kids should really find this one a winner. The album features the singer's recent smash and 11 other potent tracks by the lad. Maresco figures in as writer on all the titles, and the album supply some great swinging sounds that are solid for the teen trade. "Subway Blues," "They Don't Know," "Mary Jane," "Down On The Beach" and "I Don't Know Why" are some of the representative tracks.

Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out)

Some Day You'll Change Your Ways

They Don't Known

I Don't Know 

I Don't Know Why

Down On The Beach

Crying Like A Baby Over You

Mary Jane

What A Good Is Living

How I Cry

I'm Gonna Make It Somehow

Subway Blues

Can't Forget About You

Color Me A Rainbow - Color Concepts For Early Childhood

Color Me Clever

Color Me A Rainbow

Color Concepts For Early Childhood

Melody House Recordings MH-80

Come And Make A Rainbow

Written by Jerry Caspell

Sung by Jerry Caspell

Post Elementary 6th Grade Chorus, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Director: Kathlyn Reynolds

Color and Shapes

Color Me Clever

Music by Jerry Caspell

Words by Sharron Lucky

Sung by Jerry Caspell

Rainbow Ritual

Color Mixmaster

March Of The Colors

Color Concoctions

Color Rhymes

Color Riddles

The Three Little Piglets Playlet

Hide And Go Seek

The Colors Of Nature

Written and sung by the music students of Kathlyn Reynolds at Wiley Post Elementary School, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Colors Poem by Larry Hillhouse 

Dinosaur Rock - Michele Valeri & Michael Stein

 

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Dinosaur Rock

Performed by Michele Valeri and Michael Stein

Cover Illustration: Kenneth Smith

The album is dedicated to Florence Mendelow Stein & Nettie and Hugo Valeri

All songs arranged and produced by Michael & Michele

Narrated by Jerry Terheyden

Photos: Paul A. Powers

Recording Engineer: R.B.

Tape Editor: Jayne Reby

Recorded at Track Recorders - Silver Spring, MD

Special thanks to Worth Rowley

Caedmon TC 1739

1984

From the back cover: Michele Valeri is a singer, songwriter and children's entertainer. Her years of teaching and performing have brought her to every kind of stage – from elementary school auditoriums to the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the White House. She has produced, composed and performed two award-winning children's records; the second, Mi Casa Es Su Casa, was placed on the Parent's Choice Magazine list of best records for 1981 and featured on Good Morning America. She is presently the Artist in Residence for the Community Service Division of the Wolf Trap Foundation.

Michael Stein, actor, musician and singer/songwriter, has performed in many different areas of the entertainment world. As a teenager, he played the role of Peter in the original Broadway cast of Jesus Christ Superstar. After performing in Dude, another Broadway show, he toured in Tommy, the rock opera by The Who. He has also performed at the White House, Wolf Trap, the Smithsonian Institution and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Presently, Michael spends his time writing, recording and performing all styles of music. He is the father of two little boys, Jacob and Justing, who critique all of his material.

The Band is composed of Guitar: Pete Kennedy, Rhythm Guitar: Michael Stein, Piano:  Jon Carroll, Bass: Bryan Smith, Drums: Robbie Magruder

The Dinosaur Song by Michele & Bob Devlin

  Vocals: Michele & Michael

  Bob Devlin & Marc Spiegel

Professor Jones by Michele & Michael

  Pedal Steel: Jeff Agnew

  Vocal: Michael

Dinosaur Rock by Worth Rowley, Michele & Michael

  Vocal: Michele

  Chorus: Michael & Jon Carroll

Stella Stegosaurus by Michele

  Tuba: Marty "Tuba" Erickson

  Chorus: Michael, Seth Carlson & Jennifer Jones

The Sauropod Swing by Michele & Michael

  Vocalized Trumpet: Michele

  Vocals: Michele & Michael

 

Tyrannosaurus Rex buy Michele

  Vocals: Michele & Michael

The Tiny Little Babies & The Great Big Momma by Michele

  Fiddle: Michael

  Vocals: Michael

Leapin' Lizards by Michael & Michele

  Banjo: Bill Emerson

  Mandolin: Akira Otsuka

  Bass: Bill Smith

  Guitar & Fiddle: Michael

  Vocals: Michele & Michael

Where Did Everybody Go? by Michele & Michael 

  Piano: Patti Clements

  Guitar & Bass: Pete Kennedy

  Fiddle: Michael

  Vocals: Michele & Michael

We All Came From The Sea by Michele & Michael

  Guitar & Fiddle: Michael 

  Bass: Bryan Smith

  Concertina: Greg Artzner

  Vocals: Gordon Hawkins, Seth Carlson & Jennifer Johns

  Last Chorus: Gordon & Michele

    The Carlsons: Seth, Nancy & Bob

    The Johns: Jennifer & Martha

    The Steins: Michael, Kelly, Jacob & Justin

    The Petteways: Al, Patti, Sarah & Julia

What's It All About - Sammy Hall Singers

 

What's It All About

What's It All About

Sammy Hall Singers

Produced by Joel E. Gentry

Recorded: DBM Studios - Nashville

Engineer: Ben Hall

Photographer: Jimmy Moore

Artist: Carl Cartee

Christian Folk FCS-1972 STEREO

What's It All About

Jesus Is A Soul Man

The Old Rugged Cross

Had It Not Been

If I Had But One Life To Live

The Most He Had To Offer Me

Try A Little Kindness

Eternal Flame

Jesus Is Coming Soon

Lost