Benny In Brussels - Benny Goodman

Gershwin Medley

Benny In Brussels
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
Featuring Jimmy Rushing as presented at the Brussels Fair 1958 by the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company
Ambassador With A Clarinet
Columbia CS 8076
Vol. II
1958

From the back cover: Featured with the Goodman orchestra was another great name of American jazz whose reputation abroad is as big as his build – "Mr. Five-by-Five" himself, the original Jimmy Rushing. Like BG, Jimmy is a legend in his time, one of the few remaining authentic blues singers, whose career spans the great cities of American jazz – New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City and New York. He's been up there now for nearly a quarter of a century, and, of course, first established his international reputation with the Count Basie Band, with which he spent fifteen years. His most recent award was his selection as "Best Male Jazz Singer" in the 1958 Down Beat International Critics' Poll.

The Benny Goodman orchestra which scored so big at the Fair, includes some familiar names, some young, some older, but all of them of the familiar BG calibre. Among them are Arvell Shaw on bass; Zoot Sims, tenor sax; Rex Peer, trombone; Roland Hanna, piano. The roster also numbers a veteran of the 1938 Goodman band, trombonist Vernon Brown.

Other members of this outfit are Gene Allen, baritone sax; Billy Bauer, guitar; Al Block, alto sax; Willie Dennis, trombone; John Frosk, trumpet; Billy Hodges, trumpet; Ernie Mauro, alto sax; E. V. Perry, trumpet; Seldon Powell, tenor sax.

As in every Goodman organization, there's a BG discovery; again Benny proves his talent for picking talent in the person of pianist Hanna, twenty-six year old Detroit musician, whose big-time debut this is For Hanna, the tour with Benny represented not only discovery and success but, at the last moment, something of a problem. Seems that Hanna, who is a student of classical music at the Juilliard School, found himself in a dilemma when the week in Brussels reached its end; he was due back in New York Monday morning for his final exams at Juilliard, and because of the tourist rush he couldn't get the plane connections to get him back in time. So Benny made a trans-Atlantic call to the Juilliard dean and talked him into a two-day extension for Hanna. Result: Rollan took his exams, passed high.

Stealin' Apples
Memories Of You
Balkan Mixed Grill
Gershwin Medley: The Man I Love - Oh, Lady Be Good - Somebody Loves Me - I Got Rhythm
St. Louis Blues
Mr. Five-By-Five
March Of The Belgian Paratroops
One O'Clock Jump
Goodbye

William Castle's Ghost Story

The Cathedral Of Evil

William Castle's Ghost Story
Thrilling, Chilling Sounds Of Fright And The Supernatural
Design by Jack Schecterson Assoc. Inc., NYC
Peter Pan Records 8114
Peter Pan Records, a division of Ambassador Record Corporation
1972

The Deadly Dog
The Deadly Orchid
The Dead Do Return
The Deadly Waiter
Lobotomy And The Shock Treatment
The Beast In The Night
The Cathedral Of Evil
Terror From The Tomb

Masquerade - Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66

Masquerade
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66
Cover Art: Jane Winter
Art Direction: Meredythe Jones Rossi
Remastering Engineer: Bob McNabb
Pickwick International, Inc.
Pickwick Records Division
PTP-2011
1980

From the inside jacket: Sergio Mendes grew up in Rio de Janeiro and learned to play piano at an early age. At first it was mainly classical music, but by his late teens he was considered on of Brazil's leading jazz interpreters. Then bossa nova swept his country's popular music scene, and Sergio's fancy followed it. He grasped the style wholeheartedly, but also began to experiment with a few of his own ideas. His work was so successful that he won Brazil's Best Piano Player and Arranger Award three years in a row.

In 1962 The Brazilian government helped finance a trip to New York for Mendes and his group Bossa Rio, where they played Carnegie Hall to universal acclaim. Zealous reception of the Mendes sound prompted considerable touring in ensuing years, as well as continued experimentation. In 1965 Sergio came to California to stay, and with him came a new group at first called Brazil '65, then Brazil '66. – Howard Brinkman

Wichita Lineman
Norwegian Wood
Look Who's Mine
Masquerade
Pretty World
Dois Dias
You Stopped Out Of A Dream
Crystal Illusions (Memorias de Marta Sare)
(Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay
Viola Enluarda
Song Of No Regrets
Salt Sea
Empty Faces
Ye-Me-Le
Easy To Be Hard
Where Are You Coming From?
Sometime Ago
What The World Needs Now

The Most Popular Guitar - Chet Atkins

My Prayer

The Most Popular Guitar
Chet Atkins
Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee
Recording Engineer: Bill Porter
RCA Victor LPM-2346
1961

From the back cover: This is Chet's thirteen album and it goes a long way in explaining the durable Atkins magic. In the background there's a string-drenched orchestra, a warm vocal group and romance-sized arrangements. In the foreground The World's Most Popular Guitar coaxes new beauty from favorites of two continents – tender themes culled from such varied sources as the classics, the cinema and the cradle.

It Ain't Necessarily So
My Dear Little Sweetheart
Stay As Sweet As You Are
Monte Carlo Melody
When Day Is Done
My Prayer
Rock-A-Bye Bay
Vanessa
Intermezzo
Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo
East Of The Sun
Goin' Home

White Rabbit - George Benson

White Rabbit
George Benson
Arranged by Don Sebesky
Produced by Creed Taylor
Recorded at Van Gelder Studios
Rudy Van Gelder, Engineer
Recorded November, 1971
Cover Photo by Pete Turner
Album Design by Bob Ciano
CTI Records CTI 6015

Personel:

George Benson: Guitar
Acoustic Guitar: Jay Berliner and Earl Klugh ("El Mar" only)
Bass: Ron Carter
Electric Piano: Herbie Hancock (courtesy Warner Bros. Records)
Drums: Bill Cobham (courtesy Columbia Records)
Percussion and Vocal: Airto Moreira
Vibes and Percussion: Phil Kraus
Harp: Gloria Agostini

Woodwinds
Phil Bodner: Flute, Alto Flute, Oboe and English Horn
Hubert Laws: Alto Flute, Piccolo (Flute solo on "White Rabbit")
George Marge: Flute, Alto Flute, Clarinet, Oboe and English Horn)
Romeo Pence: English Horn, Oboe, Alto Flute, Clarinet and Bass Clarinet
Jane Taylor: Basson

Brass
Wayne Andre: Trombone and Baritone Horn
Jim Buffington: French Horn
John Frosk: Trumpet, Flugelhorn (Trumpet Solo on "White Rabbit" and "El Mar")
Alan Rubin: Trumpet and Flugelhorn

Available from a variety of online resources so I will not be posting a sample. Presented here to share the cover art and Billboard review.

From Billboard - May 6, 1972: A dynamic, pop-packed jazz LP with two extraordinary works – "California Dreaming" and "White Rabbit." The forceful guitar of George Benson is backed by such artists as Hubert Laws on flute and piccolo and Herbie Hancock on piano. Creed Taylor produced.

White Rabbit
Theme From Summer Of '42
Little Train
California Dreaming
El Mar

The Rockin' 50's - Tommy Oliver

The Rockin' 50's
Tommy Oliver And His Orchestra
Cover Photo by Tom Tucker/Tommy Mitchell Studio
Warner Bros. Records 1220
1958

Available from online vendors so I will not be posting a sample. Presented here to share the original cover art and notes excerpt.

From the back cover: Tommy started his musical career early in his teens and had his own bands both in high school and college. As a piano player, arranger, composer and band leader, Tommy is well known to the Southern California younger set.

The band still includes a large nucleus of the original U.C.L.A. group, and is composed of three trumpets, three trombones, four saxes, bass, drums, two guitars, bongos and Tommy's piano. In addition, the band is sparked by the swinging vocals of Kelly Gordon and the rocking' group sounds of The Pages.

From Billboard - November 3, 1958: Tommy Oliver's big, swinging crew – formed only a couple of years ago on the UCLA campus – deliver a rock-and-roll-flavored "debut" album. His treatment of recent "oldies" like "Rock Around The Clock," "Witch Doctor" and "Chanson d'Amour" reveal a fresh, original album talent and one that's likely to build quickly with the college-age crowd. Semi-abstract cover matches nicely with the contents, and is eye-catching.

Rock Around The Clock
Marianne
One Mint Julep
Night Train
Witch Doctor
Honky Tonk
Skokiaan
Thirteen Women
Shake, Rattle And Roll
Chanson d'Amour
Green Door
Flip, Flop, And Fly

Just One More Dance - Les Elgart

Just One More Dance
Les Elgart And His Orchestra
America's Porm Favorite
Columbia Records CL 594
1954

Available from online vendors so I will not be posting a sample. Presented here to share the original cover and jacket notes excerpt.

From the back cover: Trumpeter Les Elgart was born in New Haven, Conn. He and his brother Larry received musical training early in life, thanks to the influence of their mother, a former concert pianist. When he was still in his teens, Les auditioned for and won a job with the late, great Bunny Berigan. After a war-time hitch in the Navy, he joined Woody Herman's orchestra, and then moved over to the musical staff of the Columbia Broadcasting System. Then, with the idea of a dance orchestra whirling around his head, he resigned and organized his present group, with the idea of contributing to the revitalization of dance music, a difficult chore but one to which the band has contributed more than its share of assistance.

The idea for this collection has been germinating for a long time, and did not spring into bloom until tests of the previous Elgart collection had been heard. It began some time ago when George Avakian and Tom Ford were undergraduates at Yale University, and vitally interested in records. One surprising omission they discovered was the complete lack of the kind of music that dance bands played when the lights were being dimmed, the prom was over, and only a few couples were left on the floor, stretching out the last pleasant moments as long as possible, perhaps with their coats already on. Then, like many other good ideas, it settled back into obscurity until, in 1953, Avakian played the first Elgart records for his friends, who promptly reminded him of the "last dance" idea. The result is this music by Les Elgart and his orchestra, danceable, sentimental, and keyed to those last memorable moments of a dance date.

Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland
Cuddle Up A Little Closer
I Don't Know Wy
Darn That Dream
When Day Is Done
I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire - Goodnight, Sweetheart
Night And Day
Stardust
Dream
I'll Be Seeing You
For Me And My Gal
I'll See You In My Dream

Concerto For Jazz Band And Symphony Orchestra

Side One

Liebermann
Concerto For Jazz Band And Symphony Orchestra
Fritz Reiner - Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra
Richard Strauss
Don Juan
RCA Victor LM-1888
Red Seal
1955

From the back cover: Chicago, Nov. 19 (UPI) – Orchestra Hall rocked last night when long hairs and short hairs harmoniously "blew their brains out" before a flabbergasted but appreciative public.

The occasion was the musical union, possibly for the first time in this country, of a jazz band and a symphony orchestra.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Fritz Reiner, and the Sauter-Finegan Band, a modern jazz group, combined to give a rendition of Rolf Liebermann's Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra."

A mixed crowd of "hepcats" and classicists heard the cacophonous exposition and voiced their approval by giving conductor Reiner and his orchestra one of the longest ovations ever to be heard on "Symphony Night" in Orchestra Hall.

The Sauter-Finegan group was easily distinguishable from the rest of the orchestra by the bright red band jackets they sported.

Throughout the piece Reiner swayed to and fro on the podium and gave the impression of enjoying himself tremendously. After the performance, he said he saw a great future for this new type of music.

"For the last 150 years," he said, "dance music and classical music have gone their own ways. Tonight I have tried to explain that both kinds of music have a close connection."

Reiner added he felt this amalgamation would do a great deal to unite both "long hairs and short hairs" and would in the long run do much to raise the public level of musical appreciation.
Also from the back cover: The Suatre-Finegan Orchestra is the standard-bearer of an avant-grade and intellectual form of jazz which has gone far beyond the jazz forms known as "New Orleans," "Kansas City," "Chicago" and "bebop".

Sauter and Finegan formed their band in 1952 and signed to record for RCA Victor. Brooklyn-born Ed Sautre, who began working as a bandana at the age of 17, had written arrangements for the legendary songstress Mildred Bailey and bandleaders Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw and Woody Herman. Bill Finegan, a New Jersey native, had arranged for Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey.
From Billboard - February 19, 1955: It is seldom that a contemporary work stirs up a hornet's nest of critical controversy – or inspires the public interest – that Lieberman's concerto has. The introduction of the 'jump.' the 'blues' and the 'boogie boogie' into a serious symphonic creation was a radical innovation for which few longhairs were prepared. However, both at the premiere in Germany and at the first American performance of the concerto last November, this work was unquestionably a popular success, and public curiosity should induce healthy sales of this unusual disk. An added sales spur is the superb reading of "Don Jaun" on the reverse side. Sound in both cases is magnificent.

Introduction: Adagio
Jump: Allegro Vivace
Scherzo I: Allegro Molto
Blues: Lento
Scherzo II: Allegro Vivace
Boogie-Woogie: Allegro
Interludium: Andante - Presto
Mambo: Allegro Molto
Don Juan, Op. 20
Don Juan, Op. 20

Bells Are Ringing - Manne - Previn - Mitchell

Mu-Cha-Cha

Bells Are Ringing
Shelly Manne & His Friends
Andre Previn & Red Mitchell
Modern Jazz Performances Of Song From Bells Are Ringing
Produced by Lester Koenig
Recorded April 15 and July 22, 1958 at Contemporary's studios in Los Angeles by Roy DuNann & Howard Holzer.
Contemporary S 7559
1959

Shelly Manne: Drums
Andre Previn: Piano
Red Mitchell: Bass

From the back cover: Shelly Manne, in recent years, has been hailed as the outstanding jazz drummer of the modern era. Although he has been winning or placing high in the various popularity polls conducted by the jazz magazines since the late 1940s, his current popularity is reflected in the fact that he made a clean sweep of all the major polls – Down Beat, Metronome and Playboy – for three successive years: 1956, 1957 & 1958.

In many ways Shelly is representative of the "new jazzman." An inheritor of the tradition (he got his musical start in New York in the late 1930s when 52nd Street was the crossroads of the jazz world and he was able to meet and jam with the top players of the time), Shelly is constantly searching for new ways in which to make his drums more expressive and musically meaningful. He encourages experimental writing, and has commissioned a number of extended jazz works for the group he organized in 1955, Shelly Manne & His Men. His expert technique is in great demand for motion picture and TV background scores. He has appeared in front of the cameras as well, both as musician and actor. His schedule is a busy one, with personal appearances, recording sessions, concerts, night club engagements, and coast-to-coast TV shows.

Yet he has never lost any of the enthusiasm and joy in playing he had as a teen-ager when he haunted 52nd Street for a chance to hear his idols. This delight is clearly apparent in the light-hearted, swinging collaboration with Andre Previn which began with their first Friends album, recorded in February 1956. They plan to continue doing Broadway shows and movies in jazz, alternating as leaders: Shelly's albums will be with "Friends," Andre with the "Pals."

Red Mitchell, who has become a fixture in the series (he appears on Pal Joey & Gigi), was a member of Andre's Trio on the road during the latter part of 1958. He is one of the most prominent of today's jazz bassists, has played with leading groups (Gerry Mulligan, Red Norvo, Hampton Hates, etc.) as well as his own Quartet. In recent years he has settled in Los Angeles where in addition to his jazz appearances he is in great demand in the motion picture, TV and recording studios.

Andre Previn's interest in jazz led him to take a trio in the road (Chicago, Washington, New York, etc.) for three months in 1958; he placed high in all the recent jazz popularity polls; his records are best-sellers at home and abroad; he makes numerous TV and concert appearances. All this in addition to his work as a motion picture composer, and director of Gigi (for which he won an Academy Award) and of the forthcoming Porgy and Bess. He also finds time, somehow, for concertizing. Of his performance of Beethoven's Archduke Trio, the Los Angeles Examiner said (February 26, 1959): "We hear young Previn on such conspicuous occasions as the exponent of modern music in the popular view that sometimes we forget the intuition and the dignity that he can bring to the standard literature of the piano... Throughout the work... Previn coupled technical mastery with beautifully graduated dynamics, appropriate color and an unerring sense of adjustment with the other instruments." It is not a coincidence that jazz critics have been able to say the same sort of thing about Previn's performances in the Friends/Pals series – for Andre is a consistent musician who brings the wealth of his talent to whatever he does in music, whether it be film scoring, jazz or Beethoven. – Lester Koenig - April 7, 1959

I Met A Girl
Just In Time
Independant
The Party's Over
It's A Prefect Relationship
Is It A Crime?
Better Than A Dream
Mu-Cha-Cha
Long Before I Knew You
The Party's Over (Up Tempo Version)

What Aloha - Eddie Spencer And The Kings Of Hawaii

Moonlight And Shadows

Wahi Aloha
Eddie Spencer And The Kings Of Hawaii
Producer: George Alama, Jr.
Arranger: Danny Spencer
Engineer: Frank Rodon & Ken Hiller
Designer & Scribe: Lori Ryan Kamae
Photos: Walt Pollack
Recorded in Hawaii
Lei Records, Inc. - Honolulu, Hawaii
Processed in Japan

Wahikaahuula
My Hawaiian Song Of Love
Lei Aloha Lei Makamae
Moonlight And Shadows
Hawaiian Hula Eyes
The One Rose
My Little Grass Shack
Jungle Rain
Two Shadows On The Sand
Lei Mana
Hula Blues
Caravan