This Solo SHOULD Have Been By Hank Mobley - But Who Is It?

[JSngry]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05DL3dyudXI

[sonnymax]

I believe it's Abraham "Boomie" Richman. He played in several big bands (Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman), backed singers like Sinatra, Ella, Tony Bennett, and Peggy Lee, and did a lot of session work for TV. Supposedly, he also performed the sax solo on Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways." He wasn't a West Coast guy, but a native of Brockton "Shoe City" Massachusetts.

Edited August 25, 2009 by sonnymax

[JSngry]

I've heard of him, actually.

Is this just a hunch or do you know this?

Interesting, the career path of a lot of the Big Band section players...they keep turning up, don't they?

[JSngry]

Interesting...I bet that's not how he played in the sections back in the day, but here he is 20 years later all "cool".

I bet he had some stories to tell!

[Larry Kart]

I believe it's Abraham "Boomie" Richman. He played in several big bands (Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman), backed singers like Sinatra, Ella, Tony Bennett, and Peggy Lee, and did a lot of session work for TV. Supposedly, he also performed the sax solo on Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways." He wasn't a West Coast guy, but a native of Brockton "Shoe City" Massachusetts.

VERY good guess -- I'm sure you're right. Thank you, because this was going to drive me nuts. It clearly was someone who had "Long Island Sound" Getz in his back pocket, which suggests not a circa 1963 "blowing" guy, even by studio standards, but a guy who had his own at-the-time (actually, in Richman's case, prior) affinities to that sound and had never had any desire to modify them. Other things of Richman I've heard had just the kind of cool, agile mobility of this solo -- also there's a distinctive little "crinkle" to his tone, as though he'd played a fair amount of clarinet. Another guy who sounded a good deal like this was Duncan Lamont, but he was/is an Englishman (ex-Ted Heath).

[JSngry]

What other Richman have you heard, Larry?

[Larry Kart]

Richman can be heard to good advantage on the Peanuts Hucko half of the Hucko-Rex Stewart 1957 Jazztone album "Dedicated Jazz." Stewart's guys do Ellington small group re-creations, Hucko's re-create the sound of the Benny Goodman Sextet, with Richman (here as "Richmond") playing the Georgie Auld role and Billy Butterfield standing in for Cootie

Williams. Some very swinging, creative work by both bands, albeit within tight, neat frameworks.

I've also heard him hear and there on Tommy Dorsey recordings, but nothing in particular comes to mind.

[JSngry]

And he had that much of a "west coast" sound there too? Wow...

I say "west coast" because the "east coast" brothers (other than Getz, at times) tended to have a little broader sound, each to varying degrees. This guy's into Dave Pell territory, tonewise, which is not necessarily a bad thing, because as you note, that solo has a really sweet organic logic/flow to it, and the tone is part and parcel of the whole story.

[Larry Kart]

Check out Holly's "True Love Ways":

Gotta be the same guy, though he's a little sweeter and more gargly there, as befits the piece.

[JSngry]

But imagine if Hank Mobley would have had that solo. A world where Hank Mobley plays on an Eddie Gorme record in 1963 would ahve been a different world than the one that was.

Absurd, you say?

Well then, imagine Eydie Gorme on Dippin' and tell me which story has the happier ending!

[Larry Kart]

Dave Pell is a very good thought-link. But I'll bet that Richman was "cool" well before there was "cool" -- maybe out of Bud Freeman (the Dorsey connection) or Eddie Miller more than Pres.

[JSngry]

Check out Holly's "True Love Ways":

Gotta be the same guy, though he's a little sweeter and more gargly there, as befits the piece.

Agreed. Definitely not Sam Taylor...and Gank Mobley would not have been such a good choice.

But Fathead? Hmmmmm...that would've been sweet!

Still, for a Buddy Holly record (not a BIG fan of the Lubbockian myself, obvious endsuring contributions & influences not withstanding...), not too shabby,and it definitely creates its own zone, which is about as high an accomplishment as you can have in that type gig.

[JSngry]

Dave Pell is a very good thought-link. But I'll bet that Richman was "cool" well before there was "cool" -- maybe out of Bud Freeman (the Dorsey connection) or Eddie Miller more than Pres.

No doubt. I'm just talking strictly in terms of tone... I can't imagine playing with that exact tone in a Goodman or Dorsey band of the vintage that he did (1940s-ealy 1950s, right?)...which is why I'd like to hear his story, how/when/why/etc he got from Point 1940s Section Player Tone to the tone he wielded so effortlessly there. It does strike me as a quite personal thing, actually, and I bet it's one of those "tales" of which there are probably thousands, each subtly but surely unique, but only a few end up really getting heard.

Edited August 25, 2009 by JSngry

[Larry Kart]

Dave Pell is a very good thought-link. But I'll bet that Richman was "cool" well before there was "cool" -- maybe out of Bud Freeman (the Dorsey connection) or Eddie Miller more than Pres.

No doubt. I'm just talking strictly in terms of tone... I can't imagine playing with that exact tone in a Goodman or Dorsey band of the vintage that he did (1940s-ealy 1950s, right?)...which is why I'd like to hear his story, how/when/why/etc he got from Point 1940s Section Player Tone to the tone he wielded so effortlessly there. It does strike me as a quite personal thing, actually, and I bet it's one of those "tales" of which there are probably thousands, each subtly but surely unique, but only a few end up really getting heard.

Actually, when Peanuts Hucko played tenor with the Glenn Miller AAF band (a great band as you probably will agree), he sounded not unlike Richman. Pure-toned clarinet players tend to translate into cool, smooth-toned tenor players. And Glenn Miller didn't hire anyone who didn't fit into his ensemble-sound concept.

Also, as has come up here before, I think, the French horn player in the AAF was Junior Collins (his exposed solo passages on AAF broadcasts are gorgeous), later of the Birth of the Cool band. It may have been Collins who brought "Moondreams" to the Birth of the Cool band. It was written by Miller's former pianist Chummy McGregor and played by the Miller AAF band on wartime radio broadcasts but was not IIRC commercially released until years after the Birth of the Cool recording. On the other hand, Gil Evans could have heard the band play it in person or on the radio; also, again IIRC, he and McGregor crossed paths in the '30s and might have stayed in touch.

[thomastreichler]

What other Richman have you heard, Larry?

Richman can be heard to good advantage on the Peanuts Hucko half of the Hucko-Rex Stewart 1957 Jazztone album "Dedicated Jazz." Stewart's guys do Ellington small group re-creations, Hucko's re-create the sound of the Benny Goodman Sextet, with Richman (here as "Richmond") playing the Georgie Auld role and Billy Butterfield standing in for Cootie

Williams. Some very swinging, creative work by both bands, albeit within tight, neat frameworks.

I've also heard him hear and there on Tommy Dorsey recordings, but nothing in particular comes to mind.

Richman has some fine solos on "The Big 18: Live Echoes Of The Swinging Bands" and "The Big 18: More Live Echoes Of The Swinging Bands". The Big 18 was a studio-only big band assembled by musical director Fred Reynolds in 1958 with the idea to showcase some of the star sidemen from the big band era. The line up featured Buck Clayton, Billy Butterfield, Rex Stewart, Charlie Shavers, Lou McGarity, Vic Dickenson, Dicky Wells, Lawrence Brown, Peanuts Hucko, Hymie Shertzer, Boomie Richman, Sam Donahue, Ernie Caceres, Johnny Guarnieri, Barry Galbraith, Milt Hinton, Jimmy Crawford, Don Lamond.