1. In The Mood
2. Take The 'A' Train
3. One O'Clock Jump
4. Caravan
5. Woodchopper's Ball
6. Well, Git It!
7. When The Saints Go Marchin' In

August 3, 1988

 LINER NOTES

The instigator and conductor of all this is Erich Kunzel, maestro of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, who, while perfectly willing to pay his respects to the music of the Big Band Era, as it was played back then, feels that "in this day and age perhaps it might be a good idea to utilize some of the harmonic and rhythmic advances that have found their way into the more modern orchestral works. That is why we have not stuck too closely to the original scores. Of course, we have incorporated some of the sounds and some of the feeling that were integral parts of the music. But at the same time, we have expanded and embellished them with more harmonic inventiveness spread over a larger and more varied array of instrumentalists. And to make sure that we don't lose any of the joyous, ad lib feeling of the music, we have added several great jazz instrumental soloists, as well as a full saxophone section, to our regular orchestra all playing what I think are some very special arrangements."

To assure that these arrangements project the swinging feeling of the Big Bands, Maestro Kunzel has imported from the west coast Ray Brown, admired by many jazz musicians and critics as the best of the music's acoustic bassists, and the brilliant Ed Shaughnessy, whose drumming has for years sparked Johnny Carson's "Tonight" Show Big Band. That group's regular and deputy leaders also assume important roles here. Its colorful maestro, Doc Severinsen, is featured on trumpet, while his deputy, Tommy Newsom, he of the "Who, me? I didn't do it!" expression, has written over half the arrangements. Others have been contributed by John Bambridge, who plays saxophone along with Newsom in the "Tonight" Show band, and by trumpeter / arranger Jeff Tyzik, an Eastman School of Music graduate, who has recorded several impressive jazz albums under his own name.

In addition to Severinsen, some more of the jazz world's most famous citizens, each a leader of his own well-known group, are featured as soloists: the innovative pianist and composer, Dave Brubeck, who has concertized the world over with his quartet and who has appeared and recorded frequently with the Cincinnati Pops; clarinetist Eddie Daniels, who has been featured with various symphony orchestras as well as with his own jazz group; Buddy Morrow, who played lead trombone in the bands of Bob Crosby, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw and Paul Whiteman; and the ever-innovative Gerry Mulligan, leader in various configurations of his own groups, who brings his baritone saxophone to several selections.

And then there is one more featured soloist, one of the first and, to many, the greatest of all the so-called "scat singers," Cabell "Cab" Calloway, who appears on a song he helped to immortalize, "St. James Infirmary."

The music of the Big Bands here runs the gamut, from the joyous, relaxed swing of Count Basie, through the warm sentimentality of Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Glenn Miller, to the torrid intensity of Stan Kenton's stentorian attacks.

In the Mood became the Glenn Miller band's biggest hit because Miller, a good arranger, was also a superb editor. The rather simple, swinging instrumental had been less simple when its composer and arranger, Joe Garland, had first brought it to Artie Shaw to record. But it turned out to be too long an arrangement to fit onto the grooves of the then-existent 78 RPM records. So Garland brought it to Miller, who focused on the commercial appeal of the simple opening riff, deleted other portions, and telescoped the rest into one of the Swing Era's catchiest and most popular Big Band instrumentals. The original Miller recording featured an exchange between tenor saxists Tex Beneke and Al Klink. For this version, Eddie Daniels and Gerry Mulligan have assumed similar roles.

Duke Ellington's theme song, Take the "A" Train, was written by a young pianist composer / arranger, Billy Strayhorn, whom the Duke had discovered in Pittsburgh back in 1939, and who became so proficient at writing for the band in Duke's style that even the closest Ellington scholars sometimes weren't quite sure whether a work had been composed by Billy or by his mentor. "'A' Train" is one of Strayhorn's most successful efforts, composed during an emergency when ASCAP, the composers' collection agency, banned all its songs, including Duke's current theme, "East St. Louis Toodle-oo." from the airwaves. So Billy came through with the new theme which originally had no lyrics, just a warning in its title to the band's fans to be sure to take the 'A" Train, and not the newly-launched, Bronx-bound "D" Train, if they expected to get home to Harlem.

Basie's One O'Clock Jump typifies the best of the Swing Era's music, projecting the joyous and lilting "Here-I-am-Come join me!" informal approach of the more inspiring, uninhibited bands whose ensemble passages could, because of their musicians' cohesiveness, swing as freely and as infectiously as those of its soloists. On this version, Cincinnati-based jazz pianist Steve Schmidt plays the opening portion that Basie himself had played on piano. Then the instrumentation of the soloists differs from the Basie version. Instead of Herschel Evans and Lester Young on tenor saxes, we have Eddie Daniels on clarinet and Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax. Doc Severinsen is the trumpet soloist, and, as the number progresses, arranger Jeff Tyzik embroiders the ensembles with more modern chords than the Basie band used.

When in the mid-1930s the Duke Ellington band added Latin-tinged swing selections to its repertoire, it was, as usual, ahead of the times. The main reason for this development was the addition of Puerto Rico's Juan Tizol to the band. Not only was he a superb valve trombonist, but he also contributed several original, Latinesque compositions, the most enduring of which turned out to be Caravan. The original version was a tour de force for Tizol's trombone. This version features not only a trombone (Buddy Morrow's) but also Severinsen's trumpet, Mulligan's baritone sax, and Ray Brown's bass.

Woody Herman would have loved this treatment of his perennial theme song, Woodchopper's Ball. Some years ago he bemoaned the fact that his audiences always expected him to play the most famous of all his band's recordings just the way he had been playing it since its initial release in 1939. "If I thought there weren't any more challenges - just doing one thing over and over again" he remarked during his later years, "I would have thrown in the towel for real!" Tommy Newsom's new, modernized version of the blues-based "Ball" would surely have satisfied the leader who, throughout his 50 years of bandleading, continued to change with the times.

The Tommy Dorsey band began to swing as it had never swung before when in 1941 arranger / composer Sy Oliver departed Jimmie Lunceford's band and joined Dorsey's. Sy contributed some softly swinging scores as well as some real rousers. Typical of the latter was Well, Git it! which originally featured the brilliant trumpeting of Ziggy Elman and Chuck Peterson. Here those roles are assumed by the equally brilliant Doc Severinsen and Vinnie DiMartino, a member of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, in an updated arrangement by John Bambridge.

When the Saints Go Marchin' In has been performed as the climax of numerous functions - originally during New Orleans funeral parades during which the mourners would march to its stirring melody as they paid homage to those they were about to bury.

Since then, it has served as the closing piece de resistance at many a jazz concert, and, as such, becomes a fitting finale for this group of Big Band selections. Jeff Tyzik's arrangement features not only a full orchestral approach that might have made those New Orleans marchers wonder what had happened to their music, but also those eight guest stars whose participation has so brightened this musical bow in the direction of the Big Bands.

George T Simon

Ray Brown

Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh and his first formal training was on piano at the age of eight. He later learned to play bass by ear and from then on a new world opened up for him.

After graduating from high school at the age of 17, he went on the road with a number of groups. Later he went to New York, where his reputation as an accomplished musician had already preceded him. He had not been in New York more than four hours when he was introduced to Dizzy Gillespie. Dizzy asked the young bass player to drop by for the following day's rehearsal. He was hired and remained with Dizzy for the next two years. He had, indeed, been introduced to "the big time": Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Max Roach and Dizzy. He departed Dizzy's band and formed his own trio with Hank Jones on piano and Charlie Smith on drums.

Soon he was discovered by Norman Granz and, as a result, was introduced to Oscar Peterson, with whom there resulted a fifteen-year liaison of brilliant music, a warm friendship, a musical understanding and respect.

Ray has won innumerable awards, played on major TV shows, scored motion picture, and has made hundreds of recordings.

Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck's personal piano style, his use of odd-metered time signatures, emphasis on improvisation and harmonic experimentation, first captivated jazz audiences forty years ago in San Francisco. In 1954 he was the focus of a Time Magazine cover story on the rebirth of jazz. Since then, each generation has discovered for itself the unique excitement of Dave Brubeck's music.

Dave Brubeck was born in Concord, California, December 6, 1920, the third musical son of Elizabeth Ivey Brubeck, a music teacher and pianist, and Howard "Pete" Brubeck, a cattle rancher. Dave went to the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California to study veterinary medicine, but soon changed his major to music. After graduation in 1942, he entered the armed services. Upon his discharge from the Army in 1946, Dave returned from Europe to California to study composition with the famous French composer, Darius Milhaud at Mills College. With encouragement from Milhaud, Brubeck began composing and performing first with an octet, which included Paul Desmond and Bill Smith, then with a trio. The trio with Cal Tjader and Ron Crotty won both the Downbeat and Metronome awards for best new instrumental group. Following a near fatal swimming accident, which incapacitated the pianist for several months, he organized a quartet with his old friend, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. The group seemed to catapult to national attention. By 1954 they had left the confines of San .Francisco and the West Coast. By 1956, they had begun appearing with symphony orchestras performing Dialogues for Jazz Combo and Orchestra, composed by Howard Brubeck, Dave's brother. The piece was recorded in 1959 with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, one of the first of its genre. Subsequently Dave has composed for, and performed with, most major orchestras. The Dave Brubeck Quartet won the small combo division of the first jazz poll conducted by the Pittsburgh Courier, a major black newspaper, and continued to win almost every major jazz poll from the mid-fifties to the late-sixties, including the Playboy Hall of Fame. After the quartet with Paul Desmond disbanded, Dave Brubeck continued to perform with various instrumentalists, including Gerry Mulligan and three Brubeck sons. His current Quartet recently gave a command performance at the Moscow Summit.

Cab Calloway

Indisputably one of the 20th century's show business greats is the model George Gershwin used for the character of Sportin' Life in Porgy and Bess. After half a century as an entertainer, Cab Calloway still has that high-stepping energy he started with; this past year alone, he logged over a half-million miles, appearing throughout the world.

Born in Rochester, New York on Christmas in 1907, "The Hi-De-Ho Man" received most of his early education in Baltimore. He discovered the exciting world of show business in his teens, while attending Crane Law School in Chicago. To make ends meet, Cab began moonlighting at a Southside nightclub, first as M.C. and later as a singer and bandleader.

Cab gave up plans for a legal career to lead the popular Chicago group The Alabamians. Their success brought Cab to New York City, where he landed a starring role in his first Broadway show: "Connie's Hot Chocolates." Soon after this smash hit, Cab was signed to headline Harlem's legendary Cotton Club.

Calloway's film career began with a featured role in the Big Broadcast series and went on to include "The Singing Kid" with Al Jolson, "Stormy Weather" with Lena Horne, "St. Louis Blues" with Nat King Cole, "The Cincinnati Kid" with Steve McQueen, and "The Blues Brothers" with Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi. "The Blues Brothers" brought a new generation to its feet with Cab's rendition of his classic 'Minnie the Moocher. one of the world-famous songs which made him a legend.

Calloway has been honored by such organizations as the Black Businessmen's Association and the Negro Actors' Guild he is also a charter member of the Black Hall of Fame, and at the 7th Annual Black Achievement Awards' televised ceremony this year, received Ebony Magazine's highest accolade. the Ebony Lifetime Achievement Award.

Cab has been married for over 36 years to his wife Zulme: they have five children. including very talented daughter Chris, who has her own performing career. Chris has appeared with her father on Broadway in "Hello, Dolly" and 'The Pajama Game and performs with him occasionally in cabarets and concerts.

The Calloway family has lived in New York's Westchester County for 25 years. When not travelling, Cab can be found enjoying his favorite sport, horse racing, and watching his six grandchildren grow up.

Eddie Daniels

Born in New York City on October 19, 1941, Eddie Daniels started playing alto saxophone at age nine, then added clarinet at age 13, eventually studying with renowned teachers like Daniel Bonade and Joe Allard. He attended the prestigious High School of the Performing Arts in Manhattan, Brooklyn College, and ultimately, The Juilliard School of Music, where he graduated with a Master s Degree in 1966.

Daniels' jazz career, mainly as a tenor saxophonist. kicked off in a major way when he toured Europe with a quartet in 1962. In 1966, he returned to the Continent and captured first prize in the International Jazz Competition in Vienna. Soon thereafter he was back in New York, playing and recording with the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, recording his own albums for Muse, Choice, Marlin, and CBS, as well as getting plenty of studio work. In concert, Daniels continues to perform in both jazz and classical music settings, dedicating himself exclusively to the clarinet.

Buddy Morrow

Buddy Morrow, conductor of The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, is recognized as one of the all-time great trombone players. His outstanding musicianship has been evident through the years and first came to the public eye when he was featured with leading orchestras such as Tommy Dorsey, Paul Whiteman, Artie Shaw, and Jimmy Dorsey and as staff musician with many of the major radio and television shows.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, his future as a musician was virtually pre-destined, since his family had been musicians for generations and had played in leading orchestras all over Europe.

By the time he was thirteen he was already playing with dance groups and at fifteen he joined the Yale Collegians and toured the East Coast playing college dances and parties. After high school, he went to New York to try his luck as a musician and shortly thereafter auditioned for a scholarship at The Juilliard School of Music. So brilliant were his improvisations that he was awarded the scholarship.

Jazz great Bunny Berigan heard him sitting in on a jam session and was so impressed that he recommended Buddy to Artie Shaw who hired him for his newly formed orchestra. Later he joined Eddy Duchin and then Paul Whiteman. During his stay with Whiteman, he was featured on his Chesterfield Radio Show. Next came a call from Tommy Dorsey to join his orchestra. It was the beginning of a friendship that lasted throughout the years. He later joined CBS as a staff musician and free-lanced in the recording, radio, and television industries.

After a hitch in the Navy, it was back to the Dorseys. This time he joined the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and got his first taste of being an orchestra leader when Jimmy became ill, and Buddy filled in as leader of the band.

Through the years Buddy Morrow had become so highly regarded in the music world that RCA Victor signed him to form an orchestra and record under his own name. Buddy began experimenting with style and instrumentation and took a band on the road.

One night in Detroit, Buddy came across an exciting rhythm and blues number and insisted that the band record it. The song was "Night Train," and it became a national sensation, selling over a million copies. The Buddy Morrow Orchestra had established itself as one of the big musical attractions on the road. It set attendance records in leading ballrooms and theaters from coast to coast.

Buddy is an active brass clinician and guest soloist and has toured worldwide representing a leading band instrument manufacturer.

Gerry Mulligan

One of the most widely respected and admired jazz musicians of our time, Gerry Mulligan has been an important performer, arranger and composer since the 1940s, when Charlie Parker singled out his tenor saxophone playing at a concert in Philadelphia and invited him to a jam session.

Early in his career Mulligan studied with Gil Evans and wrote and played for Gene Krupa, Elliot Lawrence and Claude Thornhill; he was a major participant in Miles Davis' seminal recording "The Birth of Cool." At this time he was also associated with John Lewis, Charles Mingus, Lee Konitz, George Russell and Thelonius Monk.

In 1951 Mulligan founded a piano-less quartet, an influential group that brought him international attention and whose members at one time or another included Chet Baker, Chico Hamilton, Bob Brookmeyer, Zoot Sims, Art Farmer and Red Mitchell.

His work with ensembles of various sizes culminated in the formation of his Concert Jazz Band, which recorded several albums in the 1960s. Among his other recordings are "Walk on the Water," "Little Big Horn" and "Age of Steam."

He is a Grammy Award recipient, and has been the subject of a CBS Television news profile. Best known as a baritone saxophonist, he has been the consistent winner of the prestigious Downbeat Magazine readers' poll for the last three decades.

In recent years Mulligan began performing with symphony orchestras; he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta (in Ravel's Bolero) and with several other American, Canadian and European orchestras. He commissions and performs works for solo saxophone and orchestra; and works have been written for him by Harry Freedman, Frank Proto and Patrick Williams.

Gerry Mulligan was born in New York City and now lives in Darien, Connecticut.

Doc Severinsen

Doc Severinsen, the "Tonight" Show's flamboyant musical director, has established a multi-faceted career which includes his famous late-night showmanship as well as concert appearances, recordings and commercials.

Although perhaps best known for his superb trumpet playing and quick witted banter on the "Tonight" Show, Severinsen is one of today's premiere instrumentalists with over twenty-five recordings ranging in style from Big Band to Dixieland, Traditional Jazz, Jazz Fusion and Country.

Severinsen appears in concert throughout the country in a varied array of musical styles. He performs classical and pop music as a guest conductor / performer with symphony orchestras, sizzling jazz with his jazz / fusion group Xebron and Big Band tunes with the famous "Tonight" Show Orchestra and Big Band groups.

A much in-demand nightclub performer, he has appeared in Las Vegas and Atlantic City where, besides playing brilliant trumpet, he delights audiences with his singing and comedic flair.

In addition, Doc is Principal Pops Conductor of the Phoenix Symphony, a post he has held since 1983. He was also named Principal Pops Conductor with the Orange County Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Santa Ana, California in 1987.

Devoted to his instrument, Severinsen practices a minimum of two hours a day. He has been voted Top Brass Player no fewer than ten times in Playboy's prestigious music poll and received a Grammy Award in 1987 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance Big Band.

Severinsen has come a long way from Arlington, Oregon where he was christened Carl, but nicknamed "Little Doc" after his father, a dentist, Dr. Carl Severinsen. Little Doc wanted to play the trombone, but the senior Severinsen, a gifted amateur violinist, urged him to study violin. The younger Severinsen insisted on the trombone, but settled for the only horn in the local music store - a trumpet.

Three weeks later, with help from his father and a book of instructions, the seven-year old was so good that he was invited to join the high school band. At age twelve, Severinsen won the Music Educator's National Contest and while still in high school, was hired to go on the road with the famous Ted Fio Rito Orchestra.

After completing his education and serving in the Army, Severinsen toured with the Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Charlie Barnet bands. He finally settled in New York as an NBC staff musician in 1949, joining the "Tonight" Show Orchestra in 1962 and becoming its musical director in 1967.

Somewhere along the line the "Little" was lost, but the "Doc" stuck and became known to late-night television viewing audiences nationwide.

In non-musical moments, Doc breeds thoroughbred horses on farms in California and Oklahoma. He is an accomplished chef (Italian is his specialty), avidly collects American art and keeps fit with daily runs and workouts - interests which he shares with his wife, television producer / writer Emily Marshall.

Ed Shaughnessy

Ed Shaughnessy is a star shooting for new horizons.

Praised as "one of the world's greatest drummers" by Crescendo Magazine, Shaughnessy and his percussive prowess excite millions of viewers of the Johnny Carson "Tonight" Show, where he is in his 25th year as a regularly featured instrumentalist.

The respected author of two books, New Time Signatures in Jazz Drumming and Big Band Drummers' Reading Guide, Shaughnessy has been on the faculty of New York University and is today the most in-demand drum-set clinician in international musiceducation. An unusual facet of the Shaughnessy versatility is his mastery of the Indian Rhythmic System and the Tabla, which he studied with Alla Rakha, Ravi Shankar's virtuoso Tabla player. Ed has appeared with major symphonies, led his own jazz groups, fronted big bands and recorded as a leader and sideman with nearly every important musician. He "contributes greatly," the New York Times says, "to the advancement of melodic drumming."

All of these enviable achievements and honors are culminating in his recent triumph, the 1985 debut of Ed Shaughnessy Energy Force, the dynamic new 17-piece ensemble organized and propelled by the famed drummer.

The Shaughnessy philosophy, which he always emphasizes to his music students "being a successful member of the group is the way to be a good soloist" - clearly is shared by the brilliant soloists who comprise the powerful, spirited, cohesive and very contemporary Force.

Ed Shaughnessy has been playing drums since he was 14 years old in his native New Jersey. At 19, he was playing with George Shearing at New York's Three Deuces. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the NBC and Pittsburgh Symphonies and Orchestra U.S.A. and the Big Bands of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Oliver Nelson and Doc Severinsen. His inventive sounds also have been heard with Gary Burton, Don Ellis, Stan Getz, Charles Mingus, Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Smith, Gary McFarland, Bobby Byrne, Charlie Ventura, Eddie Condon, Joe Newman, Teddy Charles, Mundell Lowe, Benny Goodman, Lucky Millinder, Elliot Lawrence and Johnny Richards.