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Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Friml's Rose Marie

Oh What A Beautiful Day
Friml's Rose Marie
The Broadway Orchestra and Singers
Halo 50241
Printed in U.S.A. - Record Corporation Of America - Union City, New Jersey
1957

This is the track list (below) is as it appears on the disk label (there is no list printed on the back jacket). From the sample above, the only track to feature vocalists, the list is obviously wrong.

Regimental Song
The Door Of Her Dreams
Indian Love Call
Rose Marie
L'Amour Toujours L'Amour
Allah's Holiday
Only A Rose
Melodie
Valse Huguette
Donkey Serenade
Indian Love Call

Come To My Party - Mrs. Mills

I'll Always Be In Love With You
Come To My Party
Mrs. Mills
With Accompaniment Directed by Geoff Love
Produced by Norman Newell
Printed and made by Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd., Great Britain
Parlophone/E.M.I Records - Hayes-Middlesex-England
PMC 7010
1966

Good Morning
Me And My Shadow
I'll Always Be In Love With You
Promises
Far Away Places
My Melancholy Baby
Second-Hand Rose
There's A Blue Ridge 'Round My Heart, Virginia
There
Let Him Go, Let Him Tarry
I Belong To Glasgow
Dancing With My Shadow
Over The Rainbow
Get Out And Get Under The Moon

The Fabulous Bill Holman

The Fabulous Bill Holman
Coral Records
Cover photo by Garrett-Howard
CRL 57188
1958

Audio files are available from online vendors so I will not be posting a sample. Presented here to share the back cover information.

Fine big band jazz set featuring one 17 minute Holman penned track on side 2, The Big Street.

Personnel:

Bill Holman, Arranger-Conductor-tenor saxophone and Leader

Trumpets - Al Porcino, Roy Linn, Conte Condoli, Stu Williamson (also plays valve trombone)

Trombones - Bob Fitzpatrick, Ray Simms, Lew McCreay*

Saxes: Charlie Mariano, Herb Gellar, altos; Charlie Kennedy, Richie Kamuca, tenors; Steve Perlow, baritone. Rhythm: Mel Lewis, drums; Max Bennett, bass; Lou Levy, piano.

*Replaced by Harry Betts and Bright Eyes, Evil Eyes and You And I.

Solo Annotation:

Airegin - Bill Holman, tenor; Conte Condoli, trumpet; Mel Lewis, drums**; Max Bennett, bass.

Evil Eyes - Lou Levy, piano; Holman, tenor; Lewis (breaks leading to coda).

Bright Eyes - Levy, piano; Williamson, trumpet; Holman, tenor; Bennett, bass.

Come Rain Come Shine - Holman, tenor; Roy Sims, trombone; Holman, tenor

The Big Street

Part I - Lewis, drums; Condoli, trumpet; Holman, tenor; (16 bars). Charlie Kennedy, tenor; (16 bars), Holman, tenor; (8 bars). Charlie Kennedy, tenor (8 bars). Levy, piano, Lewis (on assemblage of breaks in closing portion and final break into Part II).

Part II- Holman, tenor; Sims, trombone; Geller, alto, Holman, tenor.

Part III - Mel Lewis, drums; Williamson, trumpet; Bennett, bass; Richie Kamuca, tenor; (16 bars) Holman, tenor; (16 bars) one chorus of four bar exchanges between Holman and Kamuca, with Kamuca leading off... Lewis (a group of breaks shortly before close)

**only key drum solos, breaks noted

From the back cover: Bill Holman, a 30 year old native Californian, first manifested interest in music as a teenager, started playing clarinet at 13, going on to tenor at 15. After spending two years in the Navy, studying engineering at the University of Colorado and UCLA, he decided to go into music full-time in 1948.

In order to pursue this course, Holman attended the Westlake College of Music (1948-50) and studied counterpoint with Russ Garcia... First playing with local bands around Los Angeles, then with Ike Carpenter. Holman joined Charlie Barnet (1951). Stan Kenton (1952-53), attaining national recognition for his playing and writing with Kenton, remaining on the Kenton arranging staff until the early part of 1956.

Since then, he has contributed to the Kenton Library on occasion, written for recordings, played with Conte Candoli, the Lighthouse All Stars, the Shelly Mann unit, and Shorty Rodgers' Giants....

Currently Holman resides in "a typical Los Angeles suburb" with his wife and two young sons.


Airegin - Sonny Rollins
Evil Eyes - Bill Holman
You And I - Meredith Wilson
Bright Eyes - Bill Holman
Come Rain Or Come Shine - Johnny Mercer & Harold Arlen
The Big Street - Bill Holman

Monday, October 23, 2017

Charlie Ventura Concert

East Of Suez
Gene Norman Presents
Charlie Ventura Concert
Featuring The Charlie Ventura Septet
Jackie Cain & Roy Kral
Actually Recorded at Gene Norman - Charlie Ventura concert - Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Pasadena, California in 1949
Decca Records DL 8046
1953

Charlie Ventura - Tenor Sax
Conti Condilo - Trumpet
Benny Green - Trombone
Boots Musailli - Alto Sax
Roy Kral - Piano
Kenny O'Brien - Bass
Ed Shaughnessy - Drums

Splendid jazz set featuring excellent live performance engineering.

Introduction and Theme Music, including:
Yesterdays - Jerome Kern-Otto Harbach
 The Peanut Vendor - Moses Simons

Euphoria - Roy Kral - Charlie Ventura
Instrumental Fox Trot with Voices of Jackie Cain and Roy Kral Charlie Ventura Septet

Find And Dandy - Kay Swift - Paul Jones
Instrumental Fox Trot featuring Conti Condoli, Tumpet Solo Charlie Ventura Septet

East Of Suez - Louis Stein - Charlie Ventura
Instrumental Fox Trot with Voices of Jackie Cain and Roy Kral

If I Had You - Ted Shaprio-Jimmy Campbell-Reg Connelly
Instrumental Fox Trot featuring Charlie Ventura, Baritone Saxophone Solo

I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles - Jean Kenbrovin-John W. Kellete
Instrumental Fot Trot with Voices of Jackie Cain and Roy Kral

Pennies From Heaven - Arthur Johnston-John Burke
Instrumental Fox Trot featuring Benny Green, Trombone Solo

How High The Moon - Nancy-Hamiliton-Morgan Lewis
Instrumental Fot Trot

Fiddlin' For Fun - David Rose

Misirlou
Fiddlin' For Fun
The Dazzling Music Of David Rose and His Orchestra
MGM Records E3108

Obscure alternative cover(?) for the more common MGM catalog number E3108 (see second cover image) with a 1954 pressing date.

The Syncopated Clock
Misirlou
On A Little Country Road In Switzerland
Fiddlin' For Fun
Waukegan Concerto
Waltz Of The Bubbles
Parade Of The Clowns
Paris, Oui! Oui!
The Flying Horse
Vanessa
Portrait Of A Flirt

Big Beat On The Organ - Jon Thomas

Hot Tip
Big Beat
On The Organ
Jon (Hard Head) Thomas
Mercury Records MG 20303
1958

Hot Tip
Sleepy Lagoon
St. Louis Blues
September Song
Go And See
Blu Jon
Diane
Beau Brummel
Jelly Bean
Hard Head
Memories Of You

That English Sound

Help!
That English Sound
Producer: Willam Beasley
Recording and Compatible Mastering: Columbia Recording Studio
Engineer: Tom Sparkman
Cover Design: Harris Martin
Modern Sound MS 552

We Can Work It Out
As Tears Go By
Yesterday
Where Were You
You Make The Decisions
Help!
Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter
Day Tripper
Just Give Me Time
Bless You Little Girl

Music To Read The Pretenders By - Joe Rene

Harry's Funeral
Variation On A Menage A Trois
Music To Read The Pretenders By
The Pretenders A Novel By Gwen Davis
Music by The Joe Rene Complex
Created and Written by Joe Rene and Jackie Reinach
Engineer: Neal Ceppos
Recorded at Mercury Sound Studios, New York
Produced by Discobook, Inc. an affiliate of Rene Enterprises
Phillips PHS 600-327
1969 (book copyright)

From the back cover: Joseph Rene Born September 4, 1934, Amsterdam, Holland. Father, radio-violinist. Mother, concert pianist. Studied violin, harmony and orchestration with the famous Professor W. Buecher, Trumpet player and arranger with big bands. Career was interrupted by Mr. A. Hitler. Went into hiding and remained 3 1/2 years in an attic (three doors down from Anne Frank). Resumed career after liberation in 1945 and became musical director for United States First Army. Special Services during the remainder of the war.

In 1946 went to Rio de Janeiro to be radio conductor and arranger. Came to the United States in 1949. Big Bands, radio, TV, etc.; arranging and conducting recording dates, and went into producing.


Also from the back cover: Discobook has come up with a first in the history of the recording industry. The music in this album was inspired by and specifically written for most of the provocative scenes depicted in the best-selling novel, The Pretenders by Gwen Davis.

You don't have to read the book to enjoy the music. Or visa-versa. Although it is a more than satisfying experience if you do.


If You Pretend (Music To Read The Pretenders By)
Double Bubble Bath (Music To Read Page 331 By)
Menage A Trois (Music To Read Pages 54-55 By)
Mirror On A Mexican Ceiling (Music To Read Page 107 By)
Weekend For Lulu (Music To Read Page 140 By)
Anti-Social Register (Music To Read Page 207 By)
Pictures At An Exhibition (Music To Read Page 476 By)
Harry's Funeral (Music To Read Pages 1-512 By)
Speciality Of The House (Music To Read Pages 348-350 By)
Rank-Out (Music To Go To The Party Starting On Page 124)
Variation On A Menage A Trois (Music To Read Page 344 By)

Down To Eartha - Eartha Kitt

Down To Eartha
Eartha Kitt
Henri Rene's Orchestra And Chorus
RCA Victor LPM-1109
1955

Available from online vendors, so I will not be posting a sample. Presented here to share the terrific cover art and back cover bio information.

From the back cover: Eartha has been in training for her present eminence for quite a few years. As a very young teenager, she yearned towards some brand of artistic expression, and the Katherine Dunham dance troupe gave her the first fine opportunity. She trained well, learned everything in sight, trouped with Miss Dunham's group as far as Paris, where she found the city of many a young lady's dreams was wonderful if a job were handy, troublesome as Timbuktu if laying off. When she couldn't eve cadge a $30-a-week Army camp show booking, Eartha put the rest of her considerable world – she had trouped roughly around it – behind her, came home to America and was booked into La Vie en Rose, a continental-type East Side saloon – her headiest salary up to then – $500 a week.

This was not a notable success in her otherwise flashy career to date; she was indeed canceled after four days, followed by a layoff and then a job in a famous bohemian Greenwich Village basement, the Village Vanguard, where at $150 a week she was approximately a riot; thereafter she was shifted to the owner's uptown branch called Blue Angel at double the money and triple the attention and before you could say George Jean Nathan, became a member of the cast of New Faces, a Broadway revue with some salary and artistic limitations, but which sprung Eartha Kitt and boodle, into popularity.

Her revue paycheck rose from $350 to $750 a week; she started making RCA Victor records, Uska Dara, C'est Si Bon, Santa Baby, the latter also raising an equal array of eyebrows and profits.

Among amazing marginal notes to her career is that her cafe' act has not notably changed from the one with which she laid a tiny bomb at La Vie en Rose, but it now commands $10,000 per week. As for the business at photographic hand, meaning this album, you will find Eartha digging representative assortment of Kittenish roundelays, tripping brightly through domestic and imported languages' serious, sexy, impudent or tongue-in-cheeck as the musical spirit movers her. – Jack O'Brian


From Billboard - September 10, 1955: Mixed in with examples of typically smart Kitt LP material are an equal number of unfortunate erstwhile attempts to produce pop singles hit. The real Kitt fans may find the cost of the set justified by the inclusion of such as "The Day The Circus Left Town" and "Apres Mir," and these are the sides to demonstrate. It's an uneven collection, but beautifully packaged as is Miss Kitt.

I Wantcha Around
Do You Remember
Looking For A Boy
I've Got That Lovin' Bug Itch
Oh John!
Strangers In The Starlight
The Day That The Circus Left Town
Apres Moi
The Heel
Mambo de Paree
My Heart's Delight
Hey Jacque

Irving Berlin Goes Latin - Joe Cain

Heat Wave
Irving Berlin Goes Latin
Joe Cain And His Orchestra
Produced by Joe Cain
Cover by Norman Graber
Seeco CELP 4330
1959

From the back cover: The man responsible for the refreshingly new adaptations is Joe Cain, born in Philadelphia in 1929. He learned to play trumpet at 13, picked up the arranging knack while in high school and has long since acquired a wide musical background that spans appearances with the Stamford Symphony Society, under Tibor Serly, to playing Birdland with Dizzy Gillespie. There were time-outs for stints in musical comedy and TV work (especially so with NBC and CBS), and in more recent years, A&R (artist & repertoire) – Ira Howard, Editor - The Cash Box

From Billboard - June 22, 1959: Some tunes lend themselves to cha-cha-cha beat; some don't. These Berlin tunes do. Arrangements are lively and sparkling. Recommended to dance aficionados who dig the Latin beat. Sambo, merengue, bolero and tango items are included.

I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
Alexander's Ragtime Band
Cheek To Cheek
Heat Wave
Medley: They Say It's Wonderful, Be Careful It's My Heart, How Deep Is The Ocean
A Pretty Girl
Easter Parade
Marie
Always
Blue Skies
Medley: Say It Ain't So, Let's Face The Music

Good Morning Starshine - Vinnie Bell

Hey Jude
Good Morning Starshine
Vinnie Bell
Produced by Harry Meyerson
Arranged and Conducted by John Abbot and Marty Manning
Cover Photo: Hal Buksbaum
Decca Records
A Division of MCA Inc., New York, N.Y., USA
DL 75138

From the back cover: Doing this sort of thing (make the sound of the 60s happen) in popular music is Vinnie's trump card. He's as much a part of today's scene as back beats, groups with daffy names, and the flashes from Mr. Moog's magic boxes that sparkle in modern music. For kicks, someone surveyed the top 50 records in the country recently, and Vinnie Bell had played guitar, or another of the many stringed instruments he's mastered, on 32 of them!

Aquarius
A Sinner Kissed An Angel
Good Morning Starshine
Because Of You
Love Theme From "Romeo And Juliet
I Hear A Rhapsody
Love Me Tonight
I Didn't Know What Time It Was
Les Bicyclettes De Belsize
If I Only Had Time
Hey Jude

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Ram-Bunk-Shush - Harold Betters

Yesterday
Wild And Happy
The Trombone And Quartet Of The Harold Betters Sound
Ram-Bunk-Shush
Produced by Jimmy Bowen
Art Direction: Ed Thrasher
Reprise RS-6195
1966

From the back cover: Harold himself arranged (he has studied at the Conservatory of Music in Brooklyn, New York) the balance of the numbers.

Also from the back cover: Better's intrepid allies in this uninhibited workout are pianist John Thomas, bassist Chuck Ramsey, drummer Russ Lewellen, and guitarist Joe Galbraith. An invaluable ally also, albeit in background, is fellow-trombonist and arranger Slide Hampton, who penned the charts for "Ram-Bunk-Shush," "Let It Be Me," "Where Do You Go," and "Yesterday." Non-Beatlemaniacs may not realize it, but this tender bossa nova melody, "Yesterday," is the compositional work of Beatle Paul McCartney, whose hit recording of the song featured him singing solo with a string quartet, yet, in the background. Hampton heard McCartney disk, his arranger's ears immediately translated its melancholy hit into the Brazilian idiom.

Ram-Bunk-Shush
Corn Fed
Yesterday
Papa-Ooh-MauMau
Margie
Let It Be Me
Do Anything You Wanna
All Alone
With These Hands
Where Do You Go