Mosaic Select - Johnny Richards?

[P.D.]

On Jazzmatazz... any idea which albums.. I was on a JR kick lately and was pursuing old albums.

possibly the Roulettes?

[brownie]

Three Johnny Richards albums on Roulette ('The Rites of Diablo', 'My Fair Lady', 'Aqui Se Habla Espanol') plus two Capitols ('Wide Range' and 'Experiment in Sound') would one Mosaic Select make.

I'ld buy that one!

[Larry Kart]

There's also a nutty Bethlehem, "Something Else," from 1956 with one of the more alarming trumpet sections ever assembled -- Maynard F., Buddy Childers, Pete Candoli, Stu Williamson, and Shorty Rogers -- Stan Levey on drums, and strong solo work from Charlie Mariano and Richie Kamuca. Have never heard "The Rites of Diablo" but have heard good things about it.

[Stefan Wood]

I had Rites of Diablo once. I would say it is similar to Afro Cuban Suite, by Shorty Rogers, or Voodoo Suite by Perez Prado -- very much in tune with the exotica craze of the late 50's.

[Brad]

I'm only familiar with the Sonny Stitt Roulette album that's on the Mosaic but based upon that, count me in.

[JSngry]

Is it going to be loud?

[brownie]

There's also a nutty Bethlehem, "Something Else," from 1956 with one of the more alarming trumpet sections ever assembled -- Maynard F., Buddy Childers, Pete Candoli, Stu Williamson, and Shorty Rogers -- Stan Levey on drums, and strong solo work from Charlie Mariano and Richie Kamuca. Have never heard "The Rites of Diablo" but have heard good things about it.

The Bethlehem album is fine but I doubt it would make it into a Mosaic Select for copyright reasons. Mosaic has access to Roulette and Capitol.

'Rites of Diablo' is really excellent. So are the other albums from the Johnny Richards Orchestra I have heard. Very exciting writing and solos throughout. An underrated big band...

[Larry Kart]

Brownie: Is "Experiment in Sound" the same album as the one I have on Jasmine under the name "Walk Softly -- Run Wild"? It's basically the same band as on "Wide Range." Also, the beginning of "Nipigon" on "Wide Range" -- austere theme statement (and what a memorable line!) into Gene Quill's squawling alto solo -- is one of the great moments in '50s big band jazz IMO. The level of execution and commitment from Richards' players has always struck as exceptional by the standards of that era or any other. In the notes to a reissue of "Something Else," Richie Kamuca perhaps alludes to what lay behind that, speaking of the immense respect the guys he wrote for had for Richards.

For my taste, the balls-out, theatrical goofiness/deleriousness of some of Richards' ideas saved him from the neo-Basie/Herman/Lunceford but much louder and with higher brass stuff that made a lot of '50s big band writing so dull and/or oppressive.

[Clunky]

from the neo-Basie/Herman/Lunceford

what do you mean by this grouping- perhaps my lack of knowledge but these seem unlikely bed fellows

[Larry Kart]

Clunky -- I mean that there was a kind of big band writing that could be heard a lot in the '50s on both coasts that seemed to draw heavily on the Basie and Herman streams and the Lunceford too (as filtered through Kenton perhaps). One good example might be Shorty Rogers' "Shorty Courts the Count," where brash Kenton-Lunceford brassiness (Maynard Ferguson is on board as I recall) is tacked onto '30s Basie material, arguably to rather decadent and/or inorganic effect. This, BTW, in contrast IMO to the attractive cleverness/brashness of some of Rogers other work of the time or just before that time -- you get the feeling that something was rapidly getting overripe in that corner of the music back then. (Part of the overripeness probably stemmed from the fact that so many of the section players in those '50s bands were so much more virtuosic than their '30s and early '40s predecessors that it was tempting to write for them in a way that placed more weight on volume and upper register effects than on groove considerations and the like.) I'm also thinking of East Coast things of the time like Manny Albam's "Drum Suite." Another example of what might have been at stake around then would be a Fresh Sounds Med Flory LP. The first date is by a 1954 NY-based rehearsal band; it sounds utterly at home in a Herman-Basie groove (there's a great Al Cohn chart here, "No Thanks"); this is the music of the present for these guys. Next two dates are on the West Coast from 1956 and '57, by the rehearsal band that would become the core of the Terry Gibbs band. The style of the music is much the same, but the sensibility has changed; now everything is kind of inside quotation marks. (Actually, this would be less the case when Gibbs took over, thanks I would guess to his sheer animal magnetism.)

[brownie]

Brownie: Is "Experiment in Sound" the same album as the one I have on Jasmine under the name "Walk Softly -- Run Wild"? It's basically the same band as on "Wide Range." Also, the beginning of "Nipigon" on "Wide Range" -- austere theme statement (and what a memorable line!) into Gene Quill's squawling alto solo -- is one of the great moments in '50s big band jazz IMO. The level of execution and commitment from Richards' players has always struck as exceptional by the standards of that era or any other. In the notes to a reissue of "Something Else," Richie Kamuca perhaps alludes to what lay behind that, speaking of the immense respect the guys he wrote for had for Richards.

For my taste, the balls-out, theatrical goofiness/deleriousness of some of Richards' ideas saved him from the neo-Basie/Herman/Lunceford but much louder and with higher brass stuff that made a lot of '50s big band writing so dull and/or oppressive.

'Walk Softly-Run Wild' is a Coral album where the band plays several standards including 'Laura', 'Alone Together', 'You Go To My Head' on the A (soft) side, then goes to wilder Richards compositions like 'Run Wild', 'Three Cornered Cat', a three-part fugue on side B.

'Experiments in Sound' is a Capitol album that features all Richards compositions.

Among the soloists in the two albums are people like Jimmy Cleveland, Gene Quill, Dave Schildkraut, Frank Socolow, Julius Watkins.

Lots of great moments there!

[P.D.]

The Bethlehem album is fine but I doubt it would make it into a Mosaic Select for copyright reasons. Mosaic has access to Roulette and Capitol.

Very exciting writing and solos throughout. An underrated big band...

I agree with these comments, which is why I was pleased to see the select projection.

The Bethlehem has been on CD, but everything else seems to have missed that form of reissue. If I'd know you had the Roulettes etc, Brownie, there might have been a few PM's.. but the Select is not that long away.

It's interesting these days, when you consider it , the Jazz reissue world seems to be in quite a healthy state. Especially if you take into consideration those " pesky" Europeans.

Rare British Jazz of all denominations is being well served, and Ocium is delving into the Verve catalogue...( Granz's Jam Sessions among others)

Yes I know..... and don't want to start another debate on the validity of various European labels.

My " Walk" is a Jasmine vinyl version. Jasmine has done a good job in the reissue department and no doubt will continue to do so.

Edited June 4, 2004 by P.D.

[brownie]

My " Walk" is a Jasmine vinyl version. Jasmine has done a good job in the reissue department and no doubt will continue to do so.

Jasmine vinyls were very useful and enabled fans to get acquainted with long unavailble jazz gems. I bought a number of them when they went on the market.

Among those were the British jazz albums by Tubby Hayes, Dizzy Reece, Vic Feldman, etc...

[Tony Pusey]

Forgive my ignorance, but Johnny Richardson seems to be a new name to me, or perhaps a synapse has died on me, anyway information please!

[jazzbo]

Hey Tony, this is from the All Music Guide:

Johnny Richards was one of the more progressive-minded arrangers of the 1950s and '60s, turning out big, heavily orchestrated scores with a sometimes unabashed use of dissonance and a good feel for Latin rhythms. His music has been called "provocatively colorful," though in the case of his notoriously portentous "Prologue" for the ego-tripping Stan Kenton, simply the word "provocative" says it all. Richards grew up in Schenectady, NY, learning piano, violin, banjo, and trumpet; his mother was a concert pianist who had studied with Paderewski. He started writing film scores, first in London in 1932-1933, and then in Hollywood for the remainder of the decade, as Victor Young's assistant at Paramount while studying composition with Arnold Schoenberg. From 1940 to 1945, he led a big band and then returned to Los Angeles to arrange for Charlie Barnet and Boyd Raeburn. He also arranged a string album for Dizzy Gillespie in 1950, along with recording dates with Sarah Vaughan, Helen Merrill, and Sonny Stitt. His most famous association was with Kenton, with whom he started arranging in 1952; Kenton's album Cuban Fire! is an outstandingly flamboyant example of Richards' work. Richards continued to lead his own orchestras in 1956-1960 and 1964-1965, recording for Capitol, Coral, Roulette, and Bethlehem, and co-wrote one of Frank Sinatra's signature songs, "Young at Heart."

[Tony Pusey]

Thanks Jazzbo, you have whetted my appetite, now I will check if the Bethlehem was released by Toshiba....

[P.D.]

Three Johnny Richards albums on Roulette ('The Rites of Diablo', 'My Fair Lady', 'Aqui Se Habla Espanol') plus two Capitols ('Wide Range' and 'Experiment in Sound') would one Mosaic Select make.

I'ld buy that one!

According to the updated Jazzmatazz...that is exactly what we will get

[alankin]

Three Johnny Richards albums on Roulette ('The Rites of Diablo', 'My Fair Lady', 'Aqui Se Habla Espanol') plus two Capitols ('Wide Range' and 'Experiment in Sound') would one Mosaic Select make.

I'ld buy that one!

According to the updated Jazzmatazz...that is exactly what we will get

And this has been confirmed by Mosaic!

[Bluerein]

The Bethlehem date appears to be issued on CD by Discovery and long OOP of course. It wasn't in the TOCJ reissues series by Toshiba. That makes me think Mosaic should have no problems with licencing this session if it is also under the TOSHIBA/EMI umbrella.......

Cheers,

Reinier

Edited June 9, 2004 by Bluerein

[brownie]

'Wide Range' is also a good opportunity to listen to Doug Mettome who should have a permanent place in the underrated trumpet players thread. He shines on 'Walkin'' and on a couple of other tunes.

But the star of the album is Gene Quill. Larry Kart already mentioned the excellence of his playing on 'Nipigon'. Quill has a number of other solo appearances. 'The Ballad of Tappan Zee' is a feature for his talent and he makes full use of it.

The Johnny Richards band seems to have been a haven for second-rank musicians. Hank Jones and Jimmy Cleveland were the only 'big' names that were on this album but soloists of the calilber of Burt Collins, Frank Rehak, Jim Dahl, Frank Socolow are allowed to contribute.

Favorite side from this album is 'Cimarron' which is basically a showcase for the exceptional trombone section of Cleveland, Rehak and Dahl. I still remember Willis Conover playing this track on his VOA broadcasts in the late fifties. It still sounds very exciting.

Can't say the same about the final track, Richards's bestselling 'Young At Heart', (it was a huge hit by Frank Sinatra at the time) which sounds corny despite solos from Collins, Quill, Socolow and piccolo player Billy Slapin who duels with the french horn of Al Antonucci.

Johnny Richards' writing could be grandiloquent at time but he knew how to make his band swing! And his orchestrations (with innovative use of the brass sections with tuba, french horns plus bass saxophone) set the right challenge for the soloists.

The Mosaic Select should permit a full reeavulation of this forgotten orchestra.

[Tony Pusey]

It sounds better and better! Shame about the Bethlehem not being included.

[sidewinder]

Another big thumbs up for Johnny Richards ! Over the last few days I have been giving repeated airplay to 'The Rights of Diablo' and 'My Fair Lady' off of a 1970s Vogue Jazz Double LP set. Absolutely fantastic stuff, especially 'Diablo'. Once you get over the period 'exotica' features and the vocal chorus (very much of its time) there is some fantastic arranging for the brass to savour. Richards is also a master at using latin american rhythmn. As an added bonus, 'Diablo' is also recorded at Webster Hall, so the acoustics are just dandy..

Looking forward to this particular Mosaic Select !

Incidentally, wasn't there another key Richards work recorded on an obscure Roost subsidiary (sort of a Greek Classics concept album?) recorded by a mid-sized group but which doesn't seem to be in the Mosaic Select lineup? Can't recall the title at this time.

[ghost of miles]

When is this slated for release again?

Dexter & Don Pullen Selects coming in October, correct?

[ejp626]

Another big thumbs up for Johnny Richards !  ...

Looking forward to this particular Mosaic Select !

Incidentally, wasn't there another key Richards work recorded on an obscure Roost subsidiary (sort of a Greek Classics concept album?) recorded by a mid-sized group but which doesn't seem to be in the Mosaic Select lineup? Can't recall the title at this time.

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Apparently, Something Else (Bethlehem) was left off (which is actually the same album as Something Else Again, apparently). Can someone let me know the tracks on that album? Dustygroove is offering a Definitive CD that pairs Something Else with Walk Softly Run Wild, though there is no indication if any tracks were left off. Conversely, there is some rumor that Something Else will be reissued by Shout! So that would be the more legit way to go -- if it happens of course. Thanks.

I'm waiting for a bit longer but plan on getting the Richards Select. It sounds like something I would enjoy.

[Stereojack]

Apparently, Something Else (Bethlehem) was left off (which is actually the same album as Something Else Again, apparently).  Can someone let me know the tracks on that album? 

←

Something Else (Bethlehem):

Waltz, Anyone?

For All We Know

Dimples

Band Aide

Turn Aboot

Burrito Borracho

Long Ago and Far Away

Aijalon

Walk Softly, Run Wild (Coral):

Walk Softly

The Way You Look Tonight

Laura

Sunday's Child

Alone Together

You Go To My Head

Run Wild

Tempest On the Charles

Three Cornered Hat

Yemaya