Manny Albam

[sgcim]

2 hours ago, bresna said:

I do like Albam's 2 tracks on this one. But the players on those tracks have a lot to do with it.

My faves were those two tracks and the "Alto Cumulus" arr. on the McKusick album, along with some other cuts from the album. Albam, was co-owner of Solid State Records, and helped get Thad and Mel their first recording contract for the Band.

When I was a kid, Albam was commissioned by the Office of Cultural Development to write an original chart for a band that they sponsored on Lawnguyland. It was called "Comes the Resolution", and was a minor blues with some great writing for the sax section. We premiered it at The Quinnipiac Jazz Festival in Conn. We decided to go on a hike up the mountain, and smoked some ganja before we went on, and pretty much destroyed his chart.

[jazzcorner]

7 hours ago, bresna said:

I do like Albam's 2 tracks on this one. But the players on those tracks have a lot to do with it.

Thats correct.

5 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Albam's "Jazz Workshop" is a good one -- good soloists and clever writing. Below is the original album; the music is available on several Albam compiliations.

Have a nice reissue by French RCA

[Teasing the Korean]

I hadn't realized he wrote the arrangements for the Broadway version of "West Side Story." That's something to list on your resume!

[medjuck]

4 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I hadn't realized he wrote the arrangements for the Broadway version of "West Side Story." That's something to list on your resume!

??

[jazzcorner]

Manny Albam- The Blues Is Everybody's Business

[Larry Kart]

On 2/7/2005 at 0:37 PM, Late said:

What do you guys think of the writing on the two Coral albums? I think it's pretty good. Nothing earth-shattering, but some interesting harmonic turns here and there. Zoot Sims' ballad feature on Volume 2 is especially attractive.

Like the writing and get a kick out of one of the titles, "Poor Dr. Millmoss." It refers to a James Thurber cartoon in which a Dr. Millmoss has been swallowed by a hippopotamus.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/the-perfect-cartoon/

P.S. For some reason, both the name and the playing of baritone saxophonist Sol Schlinger bring S.J. Perelman to mind. Perhaps there's another Albam piece that features Sol and whose title refers to something by Perelman.

[duaneiac]

12 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Like the writing and get a kick out of one of the titles, "Poor Dr. Millmoss." It refers to a James Thurber cartoon in which a Dr. Millmoss has been swallowed by a hippopotamus.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/the-perfect-cartoon/

I was maybe 10 or 11 when I found a book of James Thurber's cartoons at the library.  This cartoon became my instant favorite way back than and it remains the funniest single panel cartoon I've ever seen.  To this day, if any one wants to make me laugh, all they need do is utter the magic phrase, "What have you done with Dr. Millmoss?"

I would only add, "Dr. Millmoss has been swallowed by a hippopotamus" -- allegedly!

[jazzcorner]

[Larry Kart]

Was just listening to the first track of Vol. 1. The first solo is by Art Farmer, and without having listened to this album in many years, I remembered every note of the solo just as Art played them. Anyone else ever had a similar experience? Nice solo too.

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, medjuck said:

??

Maybe not. There was some ambiguity in the syntax. 

[sgcim]

When the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band dedicated a night to the music of Manny Albam back in the 90s, I thought that things were finally going in a positive direction.

The next thing we knew, Wynton was the only game in town, playing substandard music about working in the fields, etc...

Randy Sandke felt he couldn't tell the real story about what happened to the CHJB in his book, because it would get him in political trouble with whomever.

Now that the CHJB is a distant memory of some 25 years or so, does anyone know what the real story was behind that fiasco?

[medjuck]

What was the Jazz Lab series?   I remember the Jazz Studio series.

[JSngry]

4 hours ago, medjuck said:

What was the Jazz Lab series?   I remember the Jazz Studio series.

It was a decca thing:

see, jazz musicians jamming with beakers and test tubes and shit, colorful liquids aplenty, très moderne, as they say.

7 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Was just listening to the first track of Vol. 1. The first solo is by Art Farmer, and without having listened to this album in many years, I remembered every note of the solo just as Art played them. Anyone else ever had a similar experience? Nice solo too.

Not with Art Famer, not yet, anyway. But with a few others, yes.

[Late]

Graas hadn't had his tonsils removed. Not yet at least.

  

[Larry Kart]

4 hours ago, sgcim said:

When the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band dedicated a night to the music of Manny Albam back in the 90s, I thought that things were finally going in a positive direction.

The next thing we knew, Wynton was the only game in town, playing substandard music about working in the fields, etc...

Randy Sandke felt he couldn't tell the real story about what happened to the CHJB in his book, because it would get him in political trouble with whomever.

Now that the CHJB is a distant memory of some 25 years or so, does anyone know what the real story was behind that fiasco?

I talked about this with Randy once -- he's an old friend -- or rather he talked about it with me, and IIRC the problems with the CHJB were related to Jon Faddis' ego, Faddis being the leader of the band. There also might have been some static about what the band's repertoire should be.

[medjuck]

I'm old enough to gossip:  I attended a CHJB concert once with Benny Carter (how's that for name dropping).   Someone was conducting (a white guy is all I remember). After about 2 numbers Benny turned to me and said "They don't need no fucking conductor". 

35 minutes ago, Late said:

Graas hadn't had his tonsils removed. Not yet at least.

  

Graas was on Jazz Studio 2 also.  

[Teasing the Korean]

48 minutes ago, JSngry said:

What a beautiful album cover!

[medjuck]

54 minutes ago, JSngry said:

It was a decca thing:

 

 

IIRC the Jazz Studio series was on Brunswick which in those days was a subsidiary of Decca.  

[Larry Kart]

Jazz Studio One was a pleasantly mellow date: 

"Joe Newman, trombonist Bennie Green, tenor saxophonists Frank Foster and Paul Quinichette, pianist Hank Jones, guitarist Johnny Smith (who appeared on the original album as Sir Jonathan Gasser, since he was under contract to Roost at the time), bassist Eddie Jones, and drummer Kenny Clarke. Smith sets up the 22-minute rendition of "Tenderly" with a beautiful unaccompanied solo, then the full rhythm section joins in as the individual reed and brass players take turns. The tempo picks up a good bit just prior to the midpoint, with the solos being much briefer as everyone gets a chance to blow. The second piece, "Let's Spilt," is a bluesy riff tune jointly composed by Hank Jones and Robert Shad that is also an extended performance."

 

 

[JSngry]

Other than that, good luck with this mess! https://www.discogs.com/label/635161-Jazz-Lab

[Teasing the Korean]

The Drum Suite. A spcae-age bachelor pad essential.

 

 

[JSngry]

13 hours ago, medjuck said:

IIRC the Jazz Studio series was on Brunswick which in those days was a subsidiary of Decca.  

Maybe at some point, but again, good luck with this mess! https://www.google.com/search?q=Jazz+Studio+series+decca&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjKzO631eDoAhVBXawKHUKHBJIQ_AUoAnoECAsQBA&biw=1280&bih=843

[Teasing the Korean]

The aforementioned Albam album that I unloaded is "Jazz Goes to the Movies" on impulse!. Really lame arrangements with very vanilla harmonies. I suspect it was intended as a crossover album for the jazz-uninitiated. 

Two more Albam albums I have are filed in the RCA Stereo Action section: 

I Had the Craziest Dream

More Double Exposure.

The Double Exposure albums are interesting. He takes two songs with similar harmonic progressions. One plays out of one speaker, and one plays out of the other. 

[Big Beat Steve]

19 hours ago, medjuck said:

What was the Jazz Lab series?   I remember the Jazz Studio series.

Not to be confused:

The "Jazz Lab" LPs by John Grass were one thing, but the "Jazz Lab" (Vol. 12) cover shown by Jazzcorner comes from what JSngry described as a "mess" (which it was not - just a reissue series by GERMAN MCA from the 70s with nondescript generic covers and a selection of titles that is as good or bad as thousand other reissue programs that happened through the decades). It reissued some 20 LPs from the Decca/Coral/Brunswick catalog of the 50s (including an "odd date out" by Kenny Burrell from the 60s) and served a purpose insofar as it brought back material that in some cases had not been reisseud before by that time (and some of it AFAIK has not been re-reissued since).

Edited April 11, 2020 by Big Beat Steve

[felser]

I really like the 50's work by Alban, and by Graas, and have much of it in very scattershot form.  Would be nice if someone were to do a comprehensive release of each.