A Dance Date with Paul Weston

My great friend Ernie, noticing that I have been slowly working my way through Columbia's mid-century "Dance Date" LPs, has come through with a terrific contribution to the series. This 10-incher is from blog favorite Paul Weston, and is most welcome.

The "Dance Date" series was mainly devoted to leaders of big bands, but it also included studio maestros such as Weston (who had big band experience, of course).

Weston apparently had an unusual physique

This record features Weston's familiar orchestrations of strings, brass and saxes, applied in a most pleasing manner to eight standards. As it did in all these LPs, Columbia clomped the numbers together without pause, calling the results medleys (or "medlies" as the company spelled it).

The dancing couple who appear on each cover in the series are here as well. The young man has acquired some green dandruff since we last saw him.

I was very taken with the record, and can't thank Ernie enough for sending his transfer our way. The sound on this 1951 issue is very good.

Anshel Brusilow Conducts French Music

The talented conductor, violinist and writer Anshel Brusilow died last week. As a memorial, I prepared this transfer of one of his few recordings as a conductor.

Brusilow, a student of Efrem Zimbalist and once a protege of Pierre Monteux, was the associate concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell, and then concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. He had conducting ambitions, however, leading a chamber group of Philadelphia Orchestra musicians for a few years, and then striking out to form his own professional ensemble, the Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia, in 1966.

Anshel Brusilow

Brusilow shrewdly had an RCA Victor recording contract in hand even before the Chamber Symphony's first concert, and today's post is one of the projects he completed before the ensemble ran out of funds in 1968.

This LP of 20th century French works is the final product of that association, and it is a very good one. Ravel's familiar suite "Le Tombeau de Couperin" is complemented by the less often heard music of Jean Françaix and Jacques Ibert. Francaix's delightful Sérénade has been featured on this blog before, in a vintage performance led by Eugen Jochum, but this is the first appearance for Ibert's pictorialist Suite Symphonique and Capriccio. The Ravel has previously appeared here in a Dimitri Mitropoulos recording from Minneapolis.

After his Philadelphia days, Brusilow moved to Texas, first as music director of the Dallas Symphony, and then in university posts. In addition to his RCA recordings, he also made a few discs in Bournemouth and Dallas.

Late in life, Brusilow produced an amusing memoir, Shoot the Conductor: Too Close to Monteux, Szell and Ormandy, which I have been reading of late. The photos in this post come from that book.

The cover art may strike the contemporary eye as garish, but that was the style 50 years ago. The colorful illustration is by Mozelle Thompson, a favorite of my friend and fellow blogger Ernie. RCA's sound is vivid and immediate.

The Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia

Just One More Dance with Les Elgart

My recent post devoted to an obscure Larry Elgart record elicited a plea for something by Larry's bandleading brother, Les. So here we have Les's second Columbia LP, Just One More Dance, from 1954.

Back then, the remaining big bands competed for recognition among the college set, as we have seen with releases by Les Brown, Eliot Lawrence, Ralph Flanagan and others. Les Elgart claimed the title of "America's Prom Favorite," which may have been overstating things, but he was indeed popular.

Les Elgart

This LP shows why, with its smooth sound and its slick arrangements by Charles Albertine, who also did the charts for the previously mentioned Larry Elgart album.

If you are seeking jazz heat, you will find little of that here. Solos are few, although the alto sax you occasionally hear is probably the sound of brother Larry. Les played the trumpet, or at least he toted it around for photos. He did not have the reputation as an instrumentalist that Larry achieved.

This transfer of Just One More Dance is from the 12-inch version of the LP, which also exists in 10-inch form with the same cover but minus "When Day Is Done," "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire," "Night and Day" and "Stardust." There also is a double-EP edition, and these various permutations can be found with pink, green and blue covers, in addition to the brown above. (Collect 'em all!)

My near-mint pressing was thin sounding, but the sonics have come around nicely after some adjustments.

Note (May 2025): this has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

LINK

At Duke University, 1956

Your Dance Date with Harry James, Plus Reups

Harry James led a big band for an impressively long time - from leaving the Benny Goodman band in 1939 until his death in 1983.

This 1950 10-inch LP is much closer to the beginning of his career than the end. Nonetheless, it came out when the big band era was already in decline.

For this date, James assembled a program that bookended uptempo numbers with ballads on each side of the record. Since this is one of Columbia's "Designed for Dancing" series, there is 10 seconds of instrumental noodling between each item, plus a snatch of Bix Beiderbecke's "In a Mist" at the end of each side.

The album opens with "Sweet Jenny Lou," a new song by Jimmy Mundy, arranged here by Paul Villepigue. "These Foolish Things" has a Neal Hefti arrangement.

With the "New Two O'Clock Jump," also arranged by Hefti, James revisits his "Two O'Clock Jump" from 1939. The earlier version was attributed to James and Goodman, with this one allotted to James alone. Both are based on Count Basie's "One O'Clock Jump" from 1937, one of the most famous swing records of all time, featuring a transcendental solo by Lester Young. I have included both the Basie and 1939 James records in the download as bonus tracks. These are not my transfers, but I did remaster the sound. You will quickly note the difference between Basie's incredible band and James's talented ensemble.

On side 2, "Big John's Special" is a Horace Henderson song first recorded by Fletcher Henderson in 1934. It was frequently performed by Benny Goodman (as "Big John Special"), with solos by Harry James when he was in the band. "Squatty Roo" (here spelled "Squaty Roo") is a Johnny Hodges song first recorded by him in 1941.

Throughout you will hear James's fat trumpet sound, plus solos by pianist Bruce McDonald. The featured sax players are likely alto Willie Smith and tenor Corky Corcoran.

I've done my best to liven up the surprisingly dull sound that emanated from my near-mint copy of this LP. The results are very pleasing, I think.

Previously in Columbia's "Your Dance Date" series, I've offered LPs by Les Brown, Hal McIntyre and George Siravo.

Reups

Rosemary Clooney - The Stars Are Singing
This is a soundtrack of sorts to Clooney's first movie, 1953's The Stars Are Singing. All vocals on this enjoyable EP are by Rosie, ending up with her giant hit "Come on-a My House." That particular number was written by Saroyan and Bagdasarian. The others came from the Livingston and Evans factory.

Ginger Rogers as Alice in Wonderland
This is the 1944 soundtrack to an aborted Disney production of Alice in Wonderland, with Ginger Rogers as a live-action Alice interacting with cartoon characters. The film never was produced, but Decca issued the pre-recordings in a 78 set. This transfer is from the later 10-inch LP version.

Gil Peterson - Our Last Goodbye

I am happy to provide a transfer of this, the sole LP by the obscure vocalist Gil Peterson, in response to a request from my longtime friend and blog supporter Scoredaddy.

Don't be put off by the clumsy cover, featuring a moody Gil standing on a woman's wrist. This is a very good album, primarily of standards well rendered by Peterson, who is mostly known (if at all) for his acting career. If you need convincing, note that the primary accompanists are guitarist Herb Ellis and pianist Bobby Troup. The notes are by Page Cavanaugh, a pianist-vocalist who is a particular favorite of mine.

Our Last Goodbye dates from 1961, when Peterson was 25 and just a few years out of Mississippi State, where, if Cavanaugh is to be believed, the young singer played football. Not to dispute this assertion, but I would note that the liner notes for a large proportion of similar vocalists extol their athletic prowess, for some reason.

Gil Peterson and Debbie Watson in The Cool Ones

Shortly after making this album, Peterson moved to California, seeking work as an actor and singer while supporting himself as a physical education instructor. He never achieved stardom, although he does have quite a few television and film credits. His biggest role was as the male lead in the 1967 teen musical The Cool Ones, opposite Debbie Watson. Also in the film were Roddy MacDowell, Phil Harris, Glen Campbell, the Leaves and Mrs. Miller. It's available on DVD and YouTube Movies, if that lineup appeals to you.

Our Last Goodbye was a rare foray into the pop vocal field by the Ace label of New Orleans and Jackson, Miss., best known for Jimmy Clanton, Huey (Piano) Smith and Frankie Ford. The Both Sides Now discography site claims that the LP is the only one issued by Ace in stereo. Unfortunately, my copy is in mono, but don't let that deter you. After a little coaxing, the sound turned out to be excellent.

Corrected File - Ahronovitch Conducts Nielsen

In my last post, I inadvertently uploaded a mono version of the Nielsen symphony conducted by Yuri Ahronovitch. I've now corrected that error, and a link to the stereo version can be found in both the comments to this post and the original item below.

Sorry for inconveniencing all who downloaded my first attempt!