Personnel on Neal Hefti's "Light and Right-The Modern Touch of

[sgcim]

My father bought this LP back in 1960, when it first came out.

He was a guitarist up till the time he got married, so most LPs he bought had something to do with the guitar.

On the back cover, there's a picture of NH in the studio with a white alto player, and a black guitarist (playing through a Fender Tweed amp,Tremolux?), which probably was the reason he bought the LP.

The first side features the trpt, alto, guitar bass and drums.

Side two replaces the guitar with piano.

I've been wondering, lo these many years, who is this guitarist, because the musicians are not listed on the LP.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it; identify the musicians on this LP.

This post will self-destruct if personnel not ID'd.

[JSngry]

Here's the picture for all to ponder.

That's not Gene Quill on alto, is it?

[Fer Urbina]

If this was recorded in NYC, which is likely, the only black guitarist I know that did quite a lot of studio work at the time is Everett Barksdale.

F

Edited June 25, 2014 by Fer Urbina

[JSngry]

What about Wally Richardson?

Found this little tidbit: http://wallyrichardson.com/about/

1950’s: Drafted into the army in Sept. 1951 where he served with “The 173rd Army Band” at Ft. Dix N.J. and The “The 9th Army Band” at Ladd Air force Base, Fairbanks, Alaska. After being discharged he received credits from Manhattan School of Music, worked with The Dayton Selby Duo in Brooklyn, The Vin Strong trio at Smalls Paradise”, and Roger Ramirez at The Shalimar by Randolph. He then toured the country with Willis Jackson’s band and The Wild Bill Davis Trio. He worked with The Dick Vance Band at The Savoy Ballroom, King Curtis band at The Apollo Theatre, The Taft Jordan Quintet and Bud Johnson’s Band at Birdland. He also worked with Nat Pierce, The Neil Hefty band with Peggy Lee at “Basin Street East”, at “ The Half Note” with The Ray Bryant and Sir Roland Hanna Trios. With recommendations from Everett Barksdale and Milt Hinton, he became involved in studio work for the next fourteen years during which time he recorded with many artist including Mahalia Jackson under the direction of Mitch Miller.

[Fer Urbina]

He doesn't look like Quill to me. I don't think it's Romeo Penque either; he might be Phil Bodner, but I can't remember any images of him from those years to compare with.

F

Edited June 24, 2014 by Fer Urbina

[Larry Kart]

Listened to a few tracks on Spotify. Pretty sure it isn't Quill or Phil Woods (if it was Quill, he was taking Quaaludes.) My first guess was Hal McKusick, but the photo doesn't look like Hal, and though the tone resembles his, his familiar twiddles/motifs aren't there. Maybe some relatively faceless guy, like Dick Meldonian?

BTW, there's a Hefti big band album from 1955, "Hefti, Hot and Hearty," that IIRC has a lot of Phil Woods from when Woods was at his early best. I see it's on a Collectables CD, unfortunately it's paired with Hefti's "Pardon My Doo-Wah," big band plus vocal ensemble.

[sgcim]

Definitely not Phil or Quill. Probably some studio guy who could read flyshit.

After listening to "Soul Guru", I doubt Wally Richardson had the technical and reading chops to handle Hefti's quite demanding charts, but Soul Guru was another genre, so maybe in this swing setting he could cut it.

WR sounded pretty weak on the Joe Wilder LP with the Pete Brown group, so I don't know if he had the chops for this.

I don't know if this was East or West Coast, but I know Hefti used Bud Shank for his score to "Barefoot in the Park".

[JSngry]

I thought that the documented association with Hefti might be relevant.

[Larry Kart]

Definitely not Phil or Quill. Probably some studio guy who could read flyshit.

After listening to "Soul Guru", I doubt Wally Richardson had the technical and reading chops to handle Hefti's quite demanding charts, but Soul Guru was another genre, so maybe in this swing setting he could cut it.

WR sounded pretty weak on the Joe Wilder LP with the Pete Brown group, so I don't know if he had the chops for this.

I don't know if this was East or West Coast, but I know Hefti used Bud Shank for his score to "Barefoot in the Park".

Hefti was East Coast at the time.

[sgcim]

I'm gonna bring the LP cover to the gig tonight. Between Jimmy Miller and Johnny Amoroso, one of them has to know.

This mystery shall be solved!!!!

[Fer Urbina]

My candidate for the alto sax is...

F

PS I think he does look like the guy in the picture, plus his playing would fit Larry's description IMHO.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Fer Urbina

[JSngry]

Here is is with horn in hand:

My only reasons for wild-guessing Quill were hairstyle and the more downward-angled alto neck. Not that many people played those. Or it looks like one of those, I can't see those fine details too well any more, not without enlarging the picture. Anyway, in this picture, Johnson's got one.

[sgcim]

I showed it to Johnny Amoroso, and he smiled and said it was Carl Gianelli, but Stan Auld (Georgie Auld's nephew) disagreed.

Johnny Amoroso was the star vocalist and trumpet player with Tommy Dorsey for many years, and told a story about how Neal Hefti burst into his hotel room at 3:00 in the morning, completely blitzed out of his mind, and told him Tommy wanted him to write an arrangement on "Angel Eyes" for JA by the next day.

JA said the arrangement was so incoherent that he couldn't even find the key when they tried it out.

Like most horn players, they couldn't give a shit about who the guitarist was...

Dick Johnson seems like a good guess- it sounded more like him than anyone else.

[Lazaro Vega]

I'd love to know who is in the band. Any further leads?

[Fer Urbina]

Just did a quick search, and found this page with a question from the IJS's Vincent Pelote and the reply from Wally Richardson himself (in January 2020!):

Neal Hefti-tp, Carl Gianelli -as, Wally Richardson -g, "a bass player from England whose name I can't recall", Mel Zelnick -d.

I guess that the bassist was Peter Ind.

F

Edited May 16, 2023 by Fer Urbina

[JSngry]

Wow, Wally Richardson. Didn't see that one coming!!!! 

[Lazaro Vega]

3 hours ago, Fer Urbina said:

Just did a quick search, and found this page with a question from the IJS's Vincent Pelote and the reply from Wally Richardson himself (in January 2020!):

Neal Hefti-tp, Carl Gianelli -as, Wally Richardson -g, "a bass player from England whose name I can't recall", Mel Zelnick -d.

I guess that the bassist was Peter Ind.

F

Thanks!

[sgcim]

4 hours ago, Fer Urbina said:

Just did a quick search, and found this page with a question from the IJS's Vincent Pelote and the reply from Wally Richardson himself (in January 2020!):

Neal Hefti-tp, Carl Gianelli -as, Wally Richardson -g, "a bass player from England whose name I can't recall", Mel Zelnick -d.

I guess that the bassist was Peter Ind.

F

Only an Eddie Costa expert could solve that mystery!

Thanks!

I forgot that story JA told me about Dorsey and Hefti, what a riot! I just found out the other day that JA got the schist beat out of him every day by his ogre of a father when he was a kid. As he told the story, both fists were clenched. He said he'd pound the crap out of his father if he was still alive now.