CLAUDE THORNHILL

1948 Transcription Performance

Snowfall

Play Gerry Mulligan

1. Poor Little Rich Girl
2. Adios
3. Where Or When
4. Spanish Dance
5. Anthropology
6. Baia
7. Arab Dance
8. Robbins' Nest
9. Royal Garden Blues
10. Polka Dots and Moonbeams
11. There's A Small Hotel
12. I Knew You When
13. Someone to Watch Over Me
14. Sometimes I'm Happy
15. I Don't Know Why
16. April In Paris
17. Begin The Beguine
18. Godchild
19. The Song Is You
20. La Paloma
21. Lover Man
22. To Each His Own
23. Elevation

April, 1948

May 1948

October 1948

 LINER NOTES

"Youth and great talent are the principal attributes of Claude Thornhill, 16yearold pianist, who has been a great attraction with the Liberty theatre orchestra recently, not only by his playing with the orchestra, but also because of the rare ability shown in his solo work. He is still a student at Garfield High School and has been a student of the piano for ten years. He has played with several dance orchestras of the city and last summer was pianist with the Elder orchestra playing on the steamer "Washington" on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers between St. Louis and Pittsburg."

Thus proclaimed the Terre Haute Sunday Star in March 1926, and Claude recalled, "I started working jobs when I was 12 years-old. My early influences on piano were Arthur Schutt and Rube Bloom and I loved the bands of Paul Whiteman, Ben Bernie and Jean Goldkette. I began experimenting with arranging while I was still in high school."

Claude Thornhill was born on August 10, 1909 in Terre Haute, Indiana, and was taught piano from the age of four by his mother, a local church organist, who found him an exceptional pupil. In a few short years he was playing piano and clarinet duets with a youngster from the nearby town of Clinton named Danny Polo, and leading a children's band. In 1927, he left home to tour with the Kentucky Colonels, and followed that with stints with Austin Wylie, alongside ArtieShaw, and Hal Kemp, whose band included trumpeter Bunny Berigan and drummer vocalist Skinnay Ennis. Claude made his first recordings with Kemp's band in February 1931, but was unable to play with them at the Hotel New Yorker as he did not possess a New York (local 802) musicians' union card. He decided to stay in town and sweat out the statutory six months waiting period and pick up casual work where he could.

During the next few years, Claude freelanced around New York, working under such leaders as Jacques Renard, Victor Young, Ben Cutler, Meyer Davis, Donald Voorhees and Dave Rubinoff, before joining Benny Goodman in the summer of 1934. Later that year, he played with Freddy Martin and recorded with Louis Prima. In 1935, he played with Ray Noble, whose band also included Bud eeman and Glenn Miller, and during that period he and Miller each wrote the melodies that were to become their theme tunes later: Snowfall and Moonlight Serenade. Claude also arranged for Andre Kostelanetz and recorded with Miller, Gene Gifford, Bud Freeman and Dick McDonough, before making his first records under his own name in June 1937. A few weeks later, he introduced Maxine Sullivan and Loch Lomond to the record-buying public and had his first hit record. He also recorded with Billie Holiday, before moving to California to arrange for Skinnay Ennis, who had just taken over Gil Evans' band and landed a plum radio job with Bob Hope. Claude stayed on the west coast for almost two years, and in addition to his radio work, wrote some arrangements for films, including Babes In Arms, starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.

In August 1939, Claude returned to New York to organize his own band, as he recalled, 'I guess I wrote about 60 arrangements to start with. We rehearsed every day, trying to achieve perfect intonation in the sections and, except for certain parts of the scores, e orchestra played without vibrato, which was only used to heighten expressiveness. And although I had six clarinets, I seldom used more than four at any one time. My intention was to create something new and arresting, an orchestra different from the others. "Later, he hired Bill Borden and Gil Evans to assist with the arranging, and featured such excellent musicians as clarinettists Irving Fazola and his boyhood friend, Danny Polo, trumpeters Lyle 'Rusty' Dedrick, Conrad Gozzo, Billy Butterfield and Randy Brooks, and drummers Irv Cottler and Nick Fatool. But despite those obvious assets, the band's popularity and prosperity never equalled its superior musicianship. It was too different from the others to be accepted by the public - although praised by the critics - and chastened by the experience, Claude disbanded in October 1942 and enlisted in the US Navy. He was shipped to Pearl Harbour with Arlie Shaw's Navy band on Christmas Day 1942.

After three traumatic years touring the South Pacific war zone with a small group that included singer Dennis Day and actor-drummer Jackie Cooper, Claude was discharged in early 1946 and formed a new band with many of his former sidemen returning to the fold. According to saxist Jack DuLong, "Claude could be almost inarticulate trying to get across his ideas to the band, its excellence being largely due to Gil Evans' writing and meticulous rehearsing. But on the stand, Claude shaped the whole mood and sound through his playing and selection of charts. He'd play a little identifying intro to give us time to pull out the chart, then the drummer would set the tempo and we'd all come in without a word being spoken."

In 1947, Evans introduced some new arrangements, including adaptations of bebop themes by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. "Some of us were sceptical at first," Ed Zandy recalled. "Gil had to teach us how to play this new conception, but eventually we got to enjoy playing things like Anthropology, Donna Lee and Yardbird Suite. And Claude hired guys like Bill Barber, one of the finest tuba players in the business, alto saxist Lee Konitz, who scared the hell out of us at first, and little Red Rodney, one of Dizzy's first white disciples." Gil Evans declared, "I arranged those Parker things the way I figured Claude would like to hear them. For example, that unison thing on Anthropology, with the trumpets in cup-mutes and two altos and five clarinets. And I wanted the tuba to play flexible, moving jazz passages, but he liked the static sound of the tuba on chords. "Claude was definite in crediting Evans with bringing modem jazz into the band. 'And Gerry Mulligan brought in a couple of fine things that were simple and swinging," said Claude. "And Gil's friends, Gene Roland and Johnny Carisi also sent in a few charts, and with the inclusion of some modern instrumentalists, we were no longer considered to be merely a ballad band."

When Claude's Columbia recording contract expired in December 1947, he negotiated a new one with RCA Victor, but the intervention of the second recording band in 1948 delayed further commercial recording for a year. However, the band obtained several sessions for NBC's Thesaurus radio transcription service, and a selection of titles from those sessions is presented on this CD. Despite the contraction of the big band scene and increasing health problems, Claude struggled to keep his band working during the early 1950s, finally disbanding and accepting the jobs of accompanist and MD for Tony Bennett in 1957 and Vic Damone a year later. "I managed Claude Thornhill in the early 1960s,' said Leo Talent. "'He didn't have a set band by that time and most of his dates were one nighters way out in the slicks, where he'd pick up a group of local musicians. He was drinking a lot then, and he was mixed up a lot too, forever visiting some psychiatrist or other, but he was a wonderful guy just the same, with a crazy sense of humour and a heart of gold." Claude died of a heart attack on July 1, 1965 at his home in Caldwell, New Jersey.

"In 1947-48, when Gil Evans and Gerry Mulligan wrote arrangements for the Claude Thornhill band, the jazz-oriented instrumentals swung without shouting, and hinted at a bebop equivalent of early Count Basle and Lester Young, and It was those arrangements that inspired Miles Davis to have Evans and Mulligan create a nine-piece version of the same sound, known retrospectively as the 'Birth of the Cool' band. But Thornhill was not just historically significant, the original performances of his band stand up In their own right and are still as fresh as the day they were recorded."- BRIAN PRIESTLEY

Gerry Mulligan's jaunty arrangement of Noel Coward's Poor Little Rich Girl opens the programme as it did many of Claude Thornhill's broadcasts, and features his tinkling piano, a boppish tenor solo by the vastly underrated Mickey Folus, who spent many years playing second fiddle - or rather, 4th tenor - to Vido Musso and Flip Phillips with Woody Herman's Herd, and Ed Zandy's trumpet. Adios is mainly unison ensemble by reeds and brass, which Claude's arrangers knew he liked, as witness Where Or When, his own arrangement. Spanish Dance is a florid 'concert' arrangement with Claude the only soloist, but Anthropology is a different kettle of fish altogether. After Claude's opening chorus, brass and reeds play Charlie Parker's alto chorus, with Allan Langstaffs trombone preceding a brief Folus solo leading into an unexpected Danny Polo clarinet solo replacing the usual Lee Konitz alto, and ending with Gerry Mulligan's baritone sax in the spot occupied by Barry Galbraith's guitar on the original recording. Baia is another of the dreamy ballad arrangements Claude loved: a tapestry of reeds and homs, punctuated by staccato brass and embroidered by Claude's single-note piano weaving in and around the melody. Arab Dance, from Tschaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, was an early 'jazzing the classics' exercise by Gil Evans, with Folus and Polo the featured soloists, both demonstrating their successful transition from the straight-ahead swing style to bop. Robbins' Nest, a tribute to disc-jockey Fred Robbins by Sir Charles Thompson and Illinois Jacquet, follows closely the original recording, with Claude's piano statement paving the way for fine solos by Polo and Folus, while the old jazz standard, Royal Garden Blues, gives the nod to Claude's early professional heritage, evoking memories of the late 1920s, and reworked by Gil Evans using sections of the orchestra as single instruments complementing Claude's piano.

Polka Dots And Moonbeams, popularised by Frank Sinatra, is given the full "schmaltzy" treatment in a delicate tasteful performance. There's A Small Hotel was a favourite tune of Claude's, and features the Snowflakes, a four-boy-and-a-girl group, who are also much in evidence on I Don't Know Why. Joe Derise sings I Knew You When, followed by Lee Konitz on alto ushering in a little bouncy stride piano from Claude. Gershwin's Someone To Watch Over Me has more ensemble, with Claude stating the melody, and Gerry Mulligan's arrangement of Sometimes I'm Happy contrasts strongly with Fletcher Henderson's famous version. It was one of Mulligan's first efforts for the Thornhill band and gives Konitz a chance to shine, with an assist from Allan Langstaff on trombone. Claude's straight balld arrangement of April In Paris has a nice Denny Polo clarinet solo, but Evan's writing on Begin The Beguine bears no resemblance whatsoever to the famous Artie Shaw version! George Wallington's boppish Godchild is another Mulligan chart, parading solos by Danny Polo, clarinet, Brew Moore, tenor, Gerry Mulligan, tenor, Lee Konita, alto, Gene Roland, trumpet, and, finally, Mulligan winding things up on baritone sax. The Song Is You kicks off, as usual, with Claude's piano, followed by Konitz at the bridge, and tasty segments from Folus' tenor and Roland's trumpet.

La Paloma is another early Evans score, featuring clarinets and horns in a minor mood, backing Claude's piano, then taking over the melody with Gene Roland's muted trumpet obligato giving way to Polo's wistful clarinet before the leader's piano coda. Lover Man, another beautiful ballad arrangement from the pen of Gil Evans, features Claude's statement of the theme, accompanied by unison reeds and French horns. To Each His Own received a similar treatment, but has Danny Polo splitting the opening chorus with Claude. Gerry Mulligan's Elevation opens with Claude attempting a little bop, followed by a more authentic effort by Lee Konitz on alto, some "foggy" trombone from Leon Cox, trumpet by Gene Roland, and Mulligan, himself on baritone sax.

Ian Crosbie - July, 1994 ??

1. Snowfall
2. Robbins' Nest
3. Cabin In The Sky
4. 'Deed I Do
5. Happy Stranger
6. Medley
7. Just About This Time Last Night
8. Donna Lee
9. Poor Little Rich Girl
10. Polka Dots And Moon Beams
11. I May Be Wrong
12. Adios
13. Sometimes I'm Happy
14. Puttin' And Takin'
15. Sunday Drivin'
16. Anthropology

 LINER NOTES

'Claude's band played all kinds of music--jazz, ballads and novelties--and always well--and always in taste. But the band also had great commercial appeal, for Claude had a wonderful knack of knowing how to reach people, and of getting them to feel and to understand what he was saying musically. He created moods--musical moods--warm moods and exciting rnoods--always musical-always fresh.'

'His was an orchestra full of brilliant soloists arid with an amazing ensenble sound that was like no other. And, as Barry Ulanov once wrote; 'There is one other unmistakable way to recognize Claude Thornhill--and that's Claude Thornhill. His piano style, with its crisp articulation and skillful simplicity and delightful range of ideas, gives sparkle to the ballads and wit to the jazz."

'Sparkle and wit. Those of course are two qualities that apply not only to Claude's piano-playing but also to Claude himself. His sparkle was a wonderfuI soft, subtle, sort. So was his wit. So, come to think of it, was just about all of Claude-soft, subtle and gentle too--and always kind--and always tasteful. As Paul Whiteman said, "I hold him in such high affection. We always called him the Quiet Man."

"Another wonderful leader and person, Duke Ellington, called Ruth Thornhill early Sunday morning. 'I wonder' he said, 'if the world will ever know how much it had in this beautiful man.' He kept repeating that phrase: 'this beautiful man."'

The Duke was right. Claude was a beautiful man. And he did play such beautiful music. To me, his rated among the most romantic instrumental sounds of all time--rich, sonorous--always beautiful and of course always musical. In rnany ways, they reflected Claude's personality: gentle, yet virile, soft yet strong, subtle yet bright, witty yet profound.

Claude was a thorough musician. When he was four years old, his domineering mother made sure hetook piano lessons, hoping he would become a child prodigy. By 12, he had become good enough to lead his own dance band, and at 15 he was receiving rave notices for the way he innovated music for movies at the local theater in Terre Haute, Indiana. Eventually he migrated to the New York radio and recording Studios, playing piano and arranging for Benny Goodman, Andre Kostelanetz, Paul Whiteman and other name orchestras. In 1939, after a long stay on the west coast, where he had served as musical director of the Skinny Ennis band on the Bob Hope radio show, he decided to form his own band, writing forty new arrangements before he even started looking for men to play them! Its focus would be on his piano and on sounds different from those of the usual dance band. "It seems to me that touch and tone are pretty much overlooked by pianists who are leading bands these days," he said then. 'You can get so many more and better musical effects if you pay attention to those little, shall I say, niceties.'

As it turned out, it was the touch and tone of his piano as well as all those "little-niceties" that set Claude's band apart from all the rest. The latter consisted of amazing dynamics, matched by no other bands, plus innovative voicings via the inclusion of as many as seven clarinets, sometimes playing in unison, two french horns and various melding of different voices from different sections.

Claude wrote the first arrangements, but he soon took on Bill Borden, a wellheeled college graduate, who contributed some outstanding charts. Next came Gil Evans, with whom Claude had worked with on the Bob Hope show, and who was to contribute the band's most gorgeous ballad and most exciting jazz arrangements. And even later came young Gerry Mulligan, who was to credit Thornhill with having "taught me the greatest lesson in dynamics, the art of underblowing, or controlled violence, while still getting a full, rich sound"

' The new Thornhill band first began attracting national attention when it played at the Glen Island Casino in 1941. But it lasted only a couple of years, because Claude soon went into the navy, where he led an outstanding band in the Pacific area, and from which he was eventually discharged, after receiving several notable commendations for his contributions under enemy fire.

To show you how much his first band's musicians respected him and his music, when he reorganized after the war, 12 out of the 16 members returned--and this at a time when many musicians were refusing to go out on the road any longer. It turned out to be an equally thrilling band which recorded a batch of brilliant sides for Columbia (only a few of which have been reissued, for which the company should be thoroughly ashamed of itself!) and also made numerous electrical transcriptions.

Sixteen of the latter comprise this set, which has been assembled with loving care by Wally Heider. As a group they display just about all of the band's facets, though in one or two instances they are somewhat sublimated by Claude's earnest desire to please all of the dancers.

SNOWFALL, the band's gorgeous theme, written and arranged by Claude, is in many ways its most memorable piece of music. This is an especially subdued rendition, with the usual brilliant brass release played an octave lower and into mutes; As Bill Borden points out, "This is the version we used to close our programs."

ROBBINS' NEST, named in honor of Fred Robbin's popular disc jockey show of the late 40s, highlights Claude's first delicate, then pixie-ish swinging piano, Danny Polo's lovely clarinet and Mickey Folus's big-toned tenor. Folus, for many years in Flip Phillip's shadow in the Woody Herman hand, was an even more aggressive tenor man, generally unappreciated except by those who had opportunities to work with him. It's arranged by Gil Evans.

CABIN IN THE SKY, taken from a Vernon Duke medley that Bill Borden had written for the band, projects the typically soft, round, warm sound that permeated almost all of Claude's ballad renditions. As Borden explains it, 'We used a clarinet doubling lead with two French horns, with the tenor sax also blowing lead and the rest of the reeds filling in the harmony parts.

DEED I DO, following Claude's humorous piano intro, develops into a wild swinging arrangement, penned by Rusty Dedrick, who played jazz trumpet in the original band arid is now a professor at the Manhattan School of Music. Gene Williams, a singer with a good sound and a fine, loose beat, makes the first of his three appearances in this collection.

HAPPY STRANGER, a lovely ballad composed by John Benson Brooks receives the marvelous full bodied ensemble treatment that Gil Evans supplied to so many ballads in the Thornhill book. This is truly mood musical at its musical best.

The medley of JEALOUS, SWINGING DOWN THE LANE and BREEZIN'ALONG WITH THE BREEZE, arranged by Johnny Hefti, Neal's older brother, unexpectedly hits a businessman's bounce tempo. 'This is what Claude did,' Borden explains, 'when he decided he wanted to be more danceable.' The good clarinet on the last tune is by Danny Polo.

JUST ABOUT THIS TIME LAST NIGHT, arranged by Borden ('Claude always had me arranging all those pop tunes') features Fran Warren, the attractive, sometimes raunchy gal from the Bronx, who sang ballads with such immense feeling and fine musical taste. As this performance indicates, she was truly one of the best of alI the band singers.

DONNA LEE, the Charlie Parker original based on INDIANA, was one of several bop arrangements that Evans wrote for the band and which made it so attractive to jazz musicians. It features muted trumpets and reeds, 'written in a crazy key - D flat,' as Mulligan points out. The especially fine guitar solo is by Barry Galbraith, while the tenor might be Folus and the trombone might be Allan Langstaff. (Discographies on the Thornhill band are vague and even sometimes inaccurate during this period.) POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL, opened up many of Claude's broadcasts, according to Gerry Mulligan, who penned this arrangement of a tune by Noel Coward, who in turn would have been thunderstruck by the rollicking treatment given his sentimental ballad. Note Claude's cute piano, the rich, full ensemble, and the fat toned trumpeter whom Gerry couldn't identify either.

POLKA DOTS AND MOONBEAMS, that pretty Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen ballad, creates an absolutely gorgeous mood, thanks to Evan's writing, Claude's dainty piano with the gossamer touch, and the lovely, languid phrasing of the ensemble. You can't find much moodier mood music than this.

I MAY BE WRONG features some truly imaginative writing by an undetermined arranger, Borden thought it was Mulligan; Gerry said it wasn't but has no idea who it is. Gene Williams provides another lilting vocal, backed by Lee Konitz's alto which soon takes over center stage with his liquid, lilting, boppish sounds.

ADIOS was often played for Claude just for dancers who requested rhumba. The rather simple arrangement, penned by Andy Phillips and Claude was "fun to play,' according to Mulligan, 'with all those unison passages.' Claude obviously had fun too, especially with that kooky noodling toward the end.

SOMETIME'S I'M HAPPY, arranged by Mulligan (quite a contrast, isn't it, with the famous Fletcher Henderson arrangement featured by Benny Goodman!) finds a great medium groove, despite a nongroovy drummer, and features Lee Konitz's fine alto, Mickey Folus's tenor, Barry Galbraith's guitar and somebody's fat-toned trumpet.

PUTTIN' AND TAKIN' creates another of those wonderful, slow, dreamy Thornhill ballad moods. Arranged by Gil Evans, it served as a portion of a long medley that really set the dancers romancing, and holds up very well all by itself here.

SUNDAY DRIVIN', another John Benson Brooks original and Evans arrangement (they were very close friends) --Benson was quite an arranger himself too) features more of Gene Williams' easy, swinging singing plus eight fine bars by Lee Kolitz on alto. ANTHROPOLOGY, the great Charlie Parker - Dizzy Gillespie bop classic arranged by Evans begins with Claude's non-boppish piano ('He never felt at home playing bop so he didn't try to," explains Borden. 'And he was smart enough to stick with what he did best,' adds Mulligan), then goes off into the classic Parker alto chorus arranged for reeds and muted brass, followed by some brilliant solos by Konitz and Galbraith (note Claude's impish fill-ins behind the guitar), winding up the selection and this set with a light, airy rideout on the Parker theme.

GEORGE T. SIMON

1. Jeru
2. Rose Of The Rio Grande
3. Five Brothers
4. Poor Little Rich Girl
5. Adios

April 28-29, 1953

 LINER NOTES

In performing these arrangements by Gerry Mulligan and Ralph Aldridge, many of the members of the orchestra are given an opportunity to demonstrate their musical talents.

A word about Gerry Mulligan is almost unnecessary at this time, due to the many fine records Gerry has made with his own Ouartet. However, for those who would like to know something more about Gerry, we might add that he was born in Philadelphia about twenty-five years ago.

His compositions have been recorded by Elliot Lawrence, Gene Krupa and Claude Thornhill, and he is responsible for the very fine arrangements in the Miles Davis Album, which includes many well-known jazz compositions such as "Jeru;" "Godchild;" "Venus de Milo" and "Darn That Dream."

Ralph Aldridge has written two of the arrangements in this album, ."Mambo Nothing" and "Family Affair;" and is also a member of Claude's orchestra, playing tenor sax and clarinet. I am sure we will all have the pleasure of hearing more of Ralph's fine work on future Trend records.

Members of Claude's orchestra are listed below, and, as you will notice, comprise one of the largest lists of members of dance bands currently performing.

ALBERT MARX