BOB MINTZER - KURT ELLING

BOB MINTZER - KURT ELLIMG
Eye Of The  Hurricane

By JACK BOWERS 
September 25, 2004 Bob Mintzer leads a superlative big band with seasoned pros in every chair, but what really gives the engine its get-up-and-go are the maestro's invariably admirable charts, unerring road maps that always ensure a smooth and delightful journey. This first-ever live album by the ensemble, recorded in May '02 at the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild in Pittsburgh, PA, is at its best on the half-dozen instrumentals, even though guest vocalist Kurt Elling does what he can to jump-start the other three. 

All but one of the selections, Herbie Hancock's turbulent "Eye of the Hurricane," have appeared on earlier albums, but it's no less pleasurable to revisit them in a concert setting. Elling puts his formidable chops to the test on the lingering (twelve-minutes-plus) "Hurricane" with some acrobatic scatting and vocalese, parrying taut statements by Mintzer, trumpeter Scott Wendholt and drummer John Riley. He's more loose and mellow on Victor Young/Ned Washington's hauntingly beautiful love song "My Foolish Heart" (complete with its charming yet seldom-heard introduction) and in front of a quartet on the less-persuasive ballad "All Is Quiet," which he and Mintzer co-authored. 

Mintzer arranged "One O'Clock Jump" (for the album Homage to Count Basie) and wrote everything else—"El Caborojono," "Gently," "Timeless," "Who's Walkin' Who," "Original People." Each of these themes has its own allure, and all are interlaced with weighty remarks by Mintzer's cadre of talented soloists, especially pianist Phil Markowitz (dazzling on "One O'Clock Jump," "Timeless" and "Original People"). Others who have their say are trombonists Michael Davis, Keith O'Quinn and Larry Farrell, trumpeter Michael Philip Mossman, alto saxophonist Pete Yellin, tenor Bob Malach and baritone Roger Rosenberg. 

Fans of big bands in general and Mintzer in particular should find much to enjoy on this buoyant and generally likable album, and may even warm to the vocal tracks more readily than yours truly. As a bonus, all proceeds from its sale go directly to support a worthy cause, the MCG Jazz program. 

Personnel: Bob Mintzer, leader, tenor saxophone; Lawrence Feldman, Pete Yellin, alto sax; Bob Malach, tenor sax; Roger Rosenberg, baritone sax; Frank Greene, Bob Millikan, Scott Wendholt, Michael Philip Mossman, trumpet; Michael Davis, Larry Farrell, Keith O'Quinn, trombone; David Taylor, bass trombone; Phil Markowitz, piano; Rufus Reid, bass; John Riley, drums. Special guest —Kurt Elling, vocals.

JOE GRANSDEN

Joe Gransden Big Band

“Cherokee"

Here’s a monster big band from Atlanta

PETE ELLMAN

PETE  ELLMAN

Big Band

Fitzgerald’s 6-16-13

TANGO CALLENTA

Special Guest - Bob Lark, DePaul University director of jazz studies

Lets get back to Chicago bands.
Here is another I did for my web site. Fine, Fine band

Alex Beltran- alto

Jim Massnth - Alto
Chris Werva -  - Alto

Ian Lottsf - tenor

Steve Schmall - Baritone

Trpmbone::
Dave Gross

Andrew Thompson

Rich Clark

Mike Meyers

Trumpet:

Brian Miller

Dan Moore

Bob Case

Pete Ellman (leader)

Rhythm Section:
Aaron Krueger - guitar

Brian McDonald - Piano

Geoff Base - Bass

Bill Byan - Drums

BILL RUSSO

William Russo

The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra 

and The Siegel-Schwall Band

Seiji Ozawa

William Russo

Three Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony Orchestra Op. 50 (1968)

While this is not Jazz, it’s Bill Russo with his Three Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony Orchestra Op. 50 (1968)

The pictures shown are obviously much later then the recording date.  Here is a little story I put together about  it.

I call it:

Meeting Seiji Ozawa

In the mid 60s I had a part time job as a bartender at Mother Blues.

Mother Blue’s was a club in the center, actually it was at the end, 

of Chicago’s hippy district, Old Town.

The bar featured blues and folk music with several nationally known acts performing fairly regularly. It was owned by a woman by the name of Lorraine Blue. Her club and her home were known as rehab institutes for burnt and strung out hippies many of whom were returning from San Francisco experiencing constant  flash backs, an inevitable result of too much amphetamine use.

  

Well, I was merrily tending bar one night upstairs at the club.  I looked over to the stairs and saw this very nattily clad young Asian Guy walk up and over to the bar where I was. I mean this guy was really dressed  complete with long tails.  In a different area at different times this might have raised an eyebrow, but you have to remember that this was the 60s in Old Town, Chicago.

Anyway, he walks up and asks if I had seen Corky Siegel. 

I said I had not.  He thanked me and turned around and left.

A young lady, one of the patrons, excitedly runs up to me and asks if I knew who that was. I admitted that I did not. She told me it was Seiji Ozawa. 

At first I didn’t believe her. I just figured she was stoned as the majority of the people there were.  But not too much later I found out that she was absolutely correct.

It seems that Ozawa was in town guest conducting the CSO at Rivinia.  He had been working with composer/ arranger Bill Russo who had written a piece for Ozawa to perform with the CSO. Russo had completed the work. It was titled Three Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony. 

Ozawa was trying to get ahold of Corky Siegel as the blues band was going to be the Siegel Schwall band. He was to have met him after his Rivinia. concert to plan a rehearsal for the premier.  Siegel was supposed to meet him at The Hungry Eye down the street but didn’t show and someone there told him he might be at Mother Blues. 

Well, they finally met up and the concert went off well. They later made a recording with the San Francisco Symphony.

Just another day in OldTown in the 1960s

BILL POTTS

Bill Potts Big Band

The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess

"Bess, You Is My Woman" 

This classic  recording bears listening to often, and Phil Woods is totally nutty.

-Jazz Times-

Perhaps best known among collectors for his 1956 live quartet recordings with Lester Young in Washington, D.C., pianist/arranger Bill Potts also had a subsequent career, which, among other things, involved the production of this swinging 1959 big band jazz version of Porgy And Bess highlights. Diametrically opposed in conception to the justifiably more famous 1958 Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaboration on Columbia, Potts’ approach here was largely to showcase the straight-ahead blowing abilities of his star-studded cast of New York regulars: 

Art Farmer, Harry Edison, Charlie Shavers, Marky Markowitz, Bob Brookmeyer, Jimmy Cleveland, Phil Woods, Gene Quill, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Sol Schlinger, Bill Evans, and more. Needless to say, he achieved his end, as each of the many featured soloists contributed immeasurably to the success of his respectfully constructed charts. Interestingly, a few months before this date, Rex Stewart had directed a similar session for a Warner Brothers LP that included, among others, Cootie Williams, Lawrence Brown, Hilton Jefferson and Pinky Williams in key positions. Would that that obscurity also find a new life on 

BILLY MAY

Billy May

Tuxedo Junction, Cha-Cha 

Not exactly jazz, but certainly Billy May which you cant miss after a couple of bars

Cha Cha! Billy May is a studio album released by Billy May in 1960 on Capitol LP record T1329 (monophonic) and ST1329 (stereophonic).^[1] The album features instrumental Latin renderings of big band standards and theme songs of many top musical outfits. Many of the arrangements are done tonge-in-cheek, even Capitol's own publicity described "Twelfth Street Rag-Cha-Cha" as "unforgivable".^[2] Further playfulness is revealed in the song "Good-Bye" in which May's arrangement references the Benny Goodman bandmembers' habit of singing "go to hell, go to hell" over the repeating riff.^[3] The album was recorded on October 1, 1959, at the Capitol Tower in Hollywood.^[1] May's experience arranging and performing this album subsequently influenced his arrangements for the Frank Sinatra album Sinatra Swings.^[4]

CLAUDE THORNHILL

Claude Thornhill 

Yardbird suite

From 1947. Kinda’ hard to believe it’s that old. Alto solo by Lee Konitz, Red Rodney, trumet solo. Arranged by Gil Evans

ROB MCcCONNELL

ROB McCONNELL
Big Band Christmas

By JACK BOWERS 

Having recorded two recent theme–oriented albums for Concord Jazz ( Play the Jazz Classics, Even Canadians Get the Blues ) Rob McConnell and his valorous Boss Brass confront the definitive musical “theme” in a Big Band Christmas. The carols and other seasonal offerings, all expertly arranged by McConnell, are wonderfully recited by an ensemble that is known and respected as much for its tastefulness as for its power and precision. As Rob says in the liner notes, “My approach to all the carols (probably to music in general) is quite traditional. I don’t see the value in Jazzing up some of this music, although I have taken some liberties harmonically which I hope is okay.” It’s okay with us, Rob. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing with the Boss Brass for more than three decades. It seems to be working. The carols include “Away in a Manger” (whose melody differs slightly from the one most Americans are used to hearing; it’s the one McConnell sang in church as a young man) and medleys consisting of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”/“Silent Night” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem”/“Joy to the World.” The more recent songs are given a Jazzier treatment, with peerless flugel Guido Basso featured on “The Christmas Waltz” and Johnny Mandel’s “Christmas Love Song.” McConnell’s valve trombone is heard only on Mel Tormé/Bob Wells’ “Christmas Song” (with pianist Dave Restivo also soloing). Tenor saxophonist Pat LaBarbera, subbing for mainstay Rick Wilkins, who was in Europe and missed his first recording with the Boss Brass in 27 years, solos with trumpeter Kevin Turcotte on the opening medley (“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”/“I’ll Be Home for Christmas”). Dave Dunlop, who succeeded the great Arnie Chycoski in the lead trumpet chair an album ago, plays beautifully on “Silver Bells”/“In the Bleak Mid–Winter,” as does veteran guitarist Ed Bickert (who is heard again with alto John Johnson on “Midnight Clear”/“Silent Night”). Frank Loesser’s “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve,” ordinarily played as a ballad, is given an assertive Latin overlay with a trace of "Tico Tico," a knotty soli for brass, and peppery solos by Restivo, alto Moe Koffman and trumpeter Steve McDade. LaBarbera returns (on soprano) with tenor Alex Dean on "My Favorite Things," while lead trombonist Alastair Kay is showcased on "Bethlehem"/"Joy to the World" to close another marvelous session by the peerless Boss Brass, which at Christmas or any other time of year affirms its reputation as one of the world's most colorful and accomplished big bands.

Personnel: Rob McConnell- valve trombone; Moe Koffman- piccolo, flute, clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax; John Johnson- flute, clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax; Alex Dean- flute, clarinet, tenor sax; Pat LaBarbera- flute, clarinet, soprano sax, tenor sax; Bob Leonard- flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone sax; Dave Dunlop, Steve McDade, John MacLeod, Guido Basso, Kevin Turcotte- trumpet, flugelhorn; Alastair Kay; Bob Livingston; Jerry Johnson- trombone; Ernie Pattison- bass trombone; James MacDonald; Judy Kay- French horn; David Restivo- piano; Ed Bickert- guitar; Jim Vivian- bass; Ted Warren- drums; Brian Leonard- percussion.

LOU RAWLS

LOU RAWLS

LOU RAWLS CHRISTMAS

AllMusic Review by Steve Leggett 

This was the last album recorded by Lou Rawls, who had just received word that he had cancer when these 2004 sessions were held, and that knowledge lends a bit of extra poignancy to some of these tracks, particularly the powerful version of "Silent Night" Rawls turns in here. No stranger to holiday albums (he released Merry Christmas Ho! Ho! Ho! in 1965 and Christmas Is the Time in 1993 and compilations combining the two show up nearly every year), Rawls stuck closer to jazz this time out, and it's nice to hear some of these holiday classics done up in a 21st century swing style, and Rawls' smooth, elegant baritone is always a welcome listen. The opener, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" swings powerfully, and the aforementioned "Silent Night" is a show stopper, but the most intriguing track is a lightly funky and bluesy version of "Jingle Bells," which features an inspired piano arrangement from Mark Adam Watkins. Rawls loved singing holiday music, and it shows here. If he knew that this would be his last album (and he probably did), that knowledge still couldn't take the joy and hope out of his voice.

GERALD WILSON

Gerald Wilson

Lighthouse blues

Wilson had his own method of arranging. I heard his speak about it several times. It had to do with the use of extensions and in essence using substitute chords built on those extensions. I never fully understood it and was never really to hear the difference but Ill take his word for it.

Gerald Wilson, passed away only 3 years ago at the age of 96, and he had a band up until the very end. in addition to having his own band he wrote for such people as Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Julie London, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Nancy Wilson.   

BOYD RAEBURN

BOYD RAEBURN

BOYD MEETS STRAVINSKY

From 1945. a little before the parameters of the grout but I think it will pass

AllMusic Review by Chris Kelsey

The Boyd Raeburn Orchestra never achieved much popularity with the general public, but it was admired by many top musicians of the bebop era as one of the most innovative large ensembles, on a par with the more well-known Stan Kenton band. Among the prominent musicians to have played with Raeburn were trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Harris; saxophonists Johnny Bothwell, Al Cohn, and Serge Chaloff; drummers Don Lamond and Shelly Manne; and bassist Oscar Pettiford. This superb album is comprised of tracks recorded by the band at its creative peak in the mid-'40s. The arrangements and original compositions by pianist George Handy acknowledge developments in 20th-century classical music up to that time, melding poly-tonality, shifting meters, and irregular rhythms with bebop and contemporary big band techniques. The musicianship is absolutely top-notch. In terms of ensemble execution, the Raeburn band was nearly unsurpassed, and the solos -- while often talking a backseat to the compositions themselves -- are frequently excellent. Of particular note is the work of the Johnny Hodges-inspired alto saxophonist Bothwell. Handy's fanciful arrangements occasionally go off the deep end, but the extent of his creativity was considerable, and the balance of artistry and kitsch usually weighs in favor of the former.

WOODY HERMAN, IGOR STRAVINSKY

WOODY HERMAN
IGOR STRAVNSKY
Ebony Concerto

For those not familiar with the story of this piece, this article will add a lot ot your understanding of it. Another thing that this story doesn't mention is that the Ebony, In Ebony Concerto, had nothing to do with the clarinet but rather to Stravinsky’s acknowledgement of African Americans being the genesis of jazz

September 30, 1986|By John McDonough

  One of the most unexpected chapters in jazz history was written about 40 years ago when Woody Herman`s manager received an extraordinary phone call. It was from a music publisher who asked whether Herman would be interested in a work written especially for him by no less than Igor Stravinsky.

  The piece that resulted was the now-celebrated ``Ebony Concerto,`` and it will be on display Sunday at 7:30 p.m. when the current Woody Herman band plays Stravinsky`s short concerto in Orchestra Hall with Richard Stoltzman performing the clarinet part.

  ``A lot of people think I commissioned `Ebony Concerto,` `` Herman says.

``Actually I didn`t. I would never have been so presumptuous. It was supposedly a gift from him.``

 Actually, the concerto was initiated neither by Stravinsky nor Herman. It was Leeds Music Publishing Co. that first approached the composer as he was completing his Symphony in Three Movements in the late summer of 1945. But considerable discretion was essential.

``Columbia (Records) put out a story about its being a gift to the band,`` Herman recalls. ``But there was more to it. One day my attorney received a call from his attorney who said that Stravinsky`s financial condition was very poor at this point in his life. So he said that even though it was a gift, he felt it would be helpful if Mr. Stravinsky could receive a fee. So we paid him--I forgot exactly--about $1,000.``

  At one point Stravinsky almost abandoned the project entirely when a story appeared in the jazz press that Stravinsky and Herman were

``collaborating`` on a composition. The maestro was clearly sensitive to any suggestion that the writing was a shared task. Stravinsky`s attorney, Aaron Shapiro, soothed the offense.

  In a sense, however, it was a collaboration, though an unspoken one. The great master was almost totally unfamiliar with the language of the contemporary jazz band. So he wrote a clandestine note to Herman--signing in a pseudonym--requesting a representative sampling of the band`s records. Herman`s manager promptly sent him a batch, including ``Laura,`` ``Goosy Gander,`` ``Caldonia`` and ``Out of This World.`` Early in November, Stravinsky confided in a letter to a friend that he was ``unnerved . . . by my lack of familiarity with this sort of thing.``

  If Stravinsky was unnerved, Herman and his band were both intimidated and perplexed when Stravinsky finally delivered the third movement of the six-minute suite early in December. It was an edgy dialogue of snapping brass and saxophones separated by an andante movement that sustained the anxiety extablished in the first part.

 ``Grotesque,`` says Herman, describing his first reaction to the concerto. ``It was pure Stravinsky and had nothing to do with jazz. It contained the most grotesque fingerings I had ever seen, and it sounded extremely awkward no matter what you tried to do with it. I asked everyone for advice, and they all agreed it was the hardest. The challenge for him was to take this bastard kind of instrumentation and do something with it. I think he did very well, but we were now faced with the job of doing something with this piece.``

  Stravinsky himself rehearsed the Herman orchestra in the studio of New York`s Paramount Theater, where the band was playing five shows a day. (The score also included parts for oboe and French horn, which were added to the band for this piece.) The musicians came to the hall in suits and ties;

  Stravinsky appeared in baggy gray slacks, tennis shoes and a towel over his neck.

 ``We struggled for 1 1/2 hours with this score,`` says Herman. ``The guys were sweating and nervous trying to read 16th notes and rests. It was sheer reading, agony for guys like us who weren`t used to scores like that.`` The ``Ebony Concerto`` had its debut at Carnegie Hall in March, 1946. It was Herman`s first Carnegie Hall concert, and the concerto was conducted by Walter Hendl, Stravinsky`s choice. Herman played the clarinet and alto saxophone solo parts. There were a number of other concert performances, a Columbia recording session, and a flurry of satisfaction in the jazz world that it had been briefly embraced by the great Stravinsky, who died in 1971. Jazz would continue to court the kind of legitimacy accorded classical music. But by the late `40s, the ``Ebony Concerto`` had been retired from the Woody Herman book.

  This year it`s back, partly in celebration of Herman`s 50th anniversary as a bandleader and partly because of the enthusiasm of clarinet virtuoso Richard Stoltzman, who now handles Herman`s part. The band itself is another reason. 

``The young players today are so well trained,`` Herman insists, ``they can handle scores that we could never have coped with back in the `40s. When we brought the concerto out of the trunk last year and first played it, the band had it down in one or two run-throughs. We could focus on the nuances and interpretation now. In 1946 we were lucky if we could start and stop together. The musicians in my band today can play anything. Stoltzman was impressed. I think Stravinsky would be, too.``

WDR BIG BAND-PAQUITO D'RIVERA

WDR Big Band

Paquito D'Rivera

La Fleur De Cayenne 

Paquito D'Rivera obviously loves big-band music, and it suits him very well, both as a soloist and a writer -- it gives him a chance to bring plenty of color and crisp rhythm to his Latin sound. That he has a very strong band with him.

The origin of the today's WDR Big Band Cologne lies with the "Cologne Broadcasting Dance Orchestra" active in August 1946 at the then NWDR Cologne (the predecessor of today's WDR), which was under the direction of Otto Gerdes and in alternation with the Radio-Tanzorchester Hamburg under Kurt Wege in the only program of the NWDR occurred.

Already in the autumn of 1947, Otto Gerdes joined as conductor to an orchestra of the Südwestfunk (SWF). It was replaced by Adalbert Luczkowski , who had been active in the string section of the "German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra" founded in the war and possibly wanted to continue the tradition of this band in Cologne. At least the existing orchestra was called "Kölner Tanz- und Unterhaltungsorchester" (KTUO). Soloists of this orchestra included Heinz Schachtner (trumpet), Erich Well (trombone) and the saxophonists Eddie Raisner and Paul Peuker.

PHIL KELLY

Phil Kelly & the SW Santa Ana Winds : 

My Museum

Another of the fine arrangers that wrote for the Tonight Show Band

By EDWARD BLANCO 

December 13, 2006 in Italian Removed (!Ever so often one comes across an album that sparkles all over, leaving quite an impression, and such is the case with this recording led by composer/arranger Phil Kelly. My Museum is a cleverly crafted album of sensational big band charts, featuring five original compositions wrapped around several classic jazz standards, making for a muscular performance by an elite world-class orchestra. Kelly is no stranger to leading prime-time big band performances; this recording is a followup to his previous Grammy-nominated big band album, Convergence Zone (Origin, 2003).

One major difference between this release and the previous is the band. The NW Prevailing Winds big band, comprised of the finest musicians in the Seattle area, delivered the last release, but this time Kelly surrounds himself with a lineup of all-stars from LA. The SW Santa Ana Winds band is an LA-based group of jazz luminaries, including Gary Foster (alto), Lanny Morgan (alto), Pete Christlieb (tenor), Brian Scanlon (tenor), Bill Ramsey (baritone), Wayne Bergeron (trumpet), Andy Martin and Chris Morillas (trombones), and Bill Cunliffe (piano).

The beautiful title tune is by far the exception here. This very nice, slow ballad contains the only vocals on the disc, provided by Greta Matassa, recorded with a full string section. The majority of the selections can be categorized as smoking! Setting the pace for the superlative big band charts that Kelly has put together, "Jennine, a fiery, red-hot number, opens up the album in a grand big band style. The band continues playing hard and tight on the famous Ellington/Strayhorn composition "Daydream, featuring standout solo performances by Bob Summers (trumpet) and Christlieb (tenor).

Almost all jazz fans are familiar with the Johnny Green/Heyman & Sour classic "Body and Soul, forever known as a tenor ballad ever since Coleman Hawkins recorded it in 1939. But this rendition features the raspy baritone of Bill Ramsey in the lead—and it's one of the best versions I've ever heard. In fact, I still find myself clapping after every time I hear it. Kelly includes a bit of blues with "Bluelonius, a nine-minute original. Other exciting and notable scores include "Pleading Dim Cap, highlighting a sensational solo by tenor player Brian Scanlon, "It's A Lazy Afternoon, and the outlandish, upbeat "Zip Code 2005. 

As big band recordings go, this is simply a superb session. The powerful jazzy winds that Phil Kelly has once again managed to harness are virtually guaranteed to blow you away.

Wayne Bergeron, Dan Fornero, Pete De Sienna, Bob Summers, Jay Thomas (tp) Andy Martin, Charlie Morillas, Dave Ryan (tb) Michael Millar (b-tb) Lanny Morgan, Gary Foster (as,fl) Pete Christlieb, Brian Scanlon (ts,cl) Bill Ramsay (bar,b-cl) Bill Cunliffe (p,keyboards) Darin Clendenin (p-1) Grant Geissman (g) Bud Guin (g-2) Tom Warrington (b) Clipper Anderson (b-1) Gerald Stockton (b-2) Steve Houghton (d) Dan Wojciechowski (d-2) Brian Kilgore (perc) Greta Matassa (vcl) & string section-1, Phil Kelly (arr,cond)

GREG RUVOLO

Greg Ruvolo's Big Band Collective

Love You Madly

arranger:Arr. Serge Bogdanov

Greg is no stranger to the music business. He has performed internationally with such names as Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Gerry Mulligan, Louis Bellson, Woody Herman, Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops, as well as a 30-year career as a NY studio Musician and playing in the pit orchestras of the Broadway Theaters.

Our Big Band is a hand picked collection and collaboration of some of the finest musicians I know. These instrumentalists (both men and women) are from different ethnic backgrounds and countries residing here in New York City and each bringing their unique personality and musical experience with them. I like to mix up the age groups as well when considering who to offer a chair to in the band. Our ages span from the mid-twenties to over 70. This also brings a rich variety of experience and energy to the music. Many of us have recorded, traveled and performed with some of the legends of the Jazz world including: Ray Charles, Count Basie, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Gerry Mulligan, and Benny Goodman to name a few.

-All Things Jazz-

Trumpets

Greg Ruvolo, Bryan Davis (Lead), Irv Grossman, Jon Saraga

Trombones

Sara Jacovino, Larry Farrell, George McMullen, Dale Turk

Saxes

Ralph LaLama, Alejandro Avilez, Andrew Gould (Lead), Sam Dillon, Paul Nedzela

Piano

Lee Tomboulian

Bass

Marty Kenney

Drums

Tony Tedesco

BILLY MAY

Billy May

Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo

(For Billy May Fans)

-Chris Holms-

A few years ago I published my first list of the best Christmas albums to own, and one of them was the fantastic compilation, Ultra-Lounge: Christmas Cocktails. The first track from that LP is a ridiculously fun and funny Latin jazz tune from 1953 called “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo.” Billy May leads the orchestra on this one (lead vocals by drummer Alvin Stoller), and it’s a gem.