The Dave Lambert Singers - Audition at RCA

[Michael Weiss]

Still trying to figure out the drummer and pianist. Any guesses?

[JSngry]

If Kevin Spacey's dad was a NY jazz pianist in 1965, he would be that guy.

[Larry Kart]

I see that on the Songbirds site, Marlene Ver Planck identifies the pianist as Moe Wechsler.

[JSngry]

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Moe+Wechsler

Crazy!

[Larry Kart]

Wechsler was on lots more than that -- including The Chordette's "Mr. Sandman."

[JSngry]

Crazy!

[king ubu]

Bald-headed producer is George Avakian; don't know who the guy is who's popping his fingers and talking on the mike at times.

Great film!

Who's the enthusiast producer? And who are the mobsters crowding the control room chewing gum?

At around 5:25 the heavier guy with slicked back hair talking to Avakian could be Brad McCuen.

Thanks a lot!

Of course without knowing what Avakian looked like I was assuming the finger-popping microphone-talking guy to be the producer, as he makes the impression to be in charge of things...

The others then would just have been around to see who this weirdo Lambert is that they dragged in there?

They would have known him from LH&Bavan's stint with RCA earlier, I assume... so what's going on there? Was the control room always so crowded? Some of them seem so obviously professionally not interested, it almost hurts.

[GA Russell]

I was struck by how blank the singers' faces were.

[mikeweil]

I was struck by how blank the singers' faces were.

That was my first thought, too, but remember this was an audition for a recording, not for a live show, so precision and concentration was first priority.

[Larry Kart]

I'm not saying that Avakian was the producer here, just that he was a producer. He may just have been present as an interested party.

[king ubu]

I'm not saying that Avakian was the producer here, just that he was a producer. He may just have been present as an interested party.

Ok, sorry - didn't want to read anything into your comment!

Interested parties... is that what all the honchos are? Sort of "having been there" in case something big happens? Ready to snatch up Lambert from the finger-snapping youngster?

[Teasing the Korean]

...I received a Perez Prado recording from 1957 with the Dave Lambert Singers yesterday and wondered who was in the Singers at the time ... is there anything about them on the web?

Dave Lambert's Pre-LHR groups were largely, if not entirely, studio projects using available singers from a pool of New York session singers from the period. I too have tried to find this information on the Web to little avail. Even if we had the names of the singers, they would be largely unknown to most of us.

That said, I can tell you that two of the singers he used on occasion were Gabe Drake and Jim Farmer.

[mikeweil]

Thanks - I thought it would have been like that.

[Fer Urbina]

I know it's been confirmed, but yes, pianist is Moe Wechsler. Terrific guy, he's 91 if he's still around.

In the fifties and sixties he was, with Bernie Leighton, one of the busiest studio pianists in New York.

F

Edited May 31, 2011 by Fer Urbina

[BillF]

Marc Myers is writing on JazzWax today about Audition at RCA:

http://www.jazzwax.com/

[Fer Urbina]

I'd say the drummer is Gary Chester (website).

F