Jazz with Fritz Reiner

Tonight we present the world's only 12-tone jazz band symphony orchestra record - the only one in my collection, anyway.

Here by request is Rolf Liebermann's Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra, with the Chicago Symphony, led by that famous jazz hound, Fritz Reiner, in a 1954 recording.

In the goofy wire service article on the back cover (below), Reiner seems to take credit for the idea, but I think the Liebermann piece may have been the idea of the band. Contemporary Billboard articles make reference to the group taking the item on the road for appearances with symphony orchestras, apparently also including the New York Phil under that other noted jazz maniac, Dimitri Mitropoulos.

Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan were arranger refugees from the swing band scene. Their dual-named outfit was something of a thinking person's band in the 1950s, leaving behind their dance band origins for a (mildly) quirky approach, something to the right of the Stan Kenton stentorian brass sound and to the left of the recidivist Ralph Flanagan-Ray Anthony approach. That said, the Liebermann piece is far away from the sound of their "Doodletown Fifers"; it's closer to Kenton.

Don't be put off by the 12-tone label - this music is actually quite enjoyable and very well put across by the Sauter-Finegan forces, the Chicago band and Fritz "Jazzme" Reiner.

Fritz Reiner and Rolf Liebermann

There are only a few recordings of Rolf Liebermann's music; and this is apparently the only composition of its type from his pen. He later gave up composing for many years and became a well known arts administrator, leading the opera companies in Hamburg and Paris. His 1999 obituary from The Gramophone is in the download; also an article from Down Beat reviewing the concerts that led up to this recording.

On the other side of the LP, Reiner trots out Strauss' Don Juan, something more in his usual line. 

The cover painting appears to have some representational intent among the splotches, and every time I look at it, I try to figure it out - it's either a man playing a saxophone or someone scraping food off a plate into a trash can. Let's go with the first one.

Note (August 2024): Both the Liebermann and the Strauss pieces were recorded in stereo, although not released as such until much later. For this new version I've transferred the first stereo issue of Don Juan, from a 1968 RCA Victrola LP. I don't have the stereo edition of the Liebermann composition, but for this version I've remastered the piece in excellent ambient stereo. However, the stereo version is also available separately. Fourteen years ago, Ricardo (aka Rich) made available the stereo tape version of that recording via this link, which still works. Thanks again, Rich!

LINK to the Liebermann in ambient stereo and the Strauss in stereo