Ernie Felice at Capitol, 1947

Jazz accordionist Ernie Felice first came to public notice as a member of the Benny Goodman Quintet in 1947. Benny was just then embarking on a record deal with Capitol, and was able to get Felice a contract there as well.

Capitol was enthusiastic about the young instrumentalist. It not only recorded him with Benny and Felice's own group, it featured him with Martha Tilton, the Pied Pipers and vocalist Joe Alexander.

All this happened in the same year, finishing with a flourish in the last few days of December as the record companies rushed to finish as many sessions as possible before the Musicians Union instituted a recording ban to commence on New Year's Day 1948.

This post takes you through Felice's 1947 activities at Capitol, adding his sole V-Disc, which also was recorded that year. Most of these transfers come from the vast reaches of Internet Archive, but all have been suitably remastered and the sound is uniformly excellent.

If you haven't heard or heard of Felice, I can promise you that he is a virtuoso on his instrument, an imaginative soloist and a powerful swinger.

Felice's first session with Goodman was on March 7, resulting in a single of "Street of Dreams." This was soon followed by "How High the Moon," "Music Maestro Please" and the terrific "Bannister Slide." As you will note on the labels of these early recordings, the accordionist was then using the original spelling of his last name, "Filice." He changed it late in the year.

From Capitol News, April 1947

Felice's own quartet was in the studio at about the same time. It featured clarinetist Dick Anderson with a rotating bassist and drummer. "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "Carolina Moon" were followed by a coupling of "O Solo Mio" and a wonderful reading of Zez Confrey's "Stumbling."

"Accompaniment Styled by Ernie Filice"

Felice backed up former Goodman vocalist Martha Tilton on two titles: "All of Me" and "Every So Often." The latter is a little known but very fine Johnny Mercer-Harry Warren song. Although I've collected vocal records for several decades, I've never paid much attention to Tilton. My mistake - she's very appealing here.

The Pied Pipers had struck out on their own after leaving Tommy Dorsey, and soon joined Capitol. Felice backed the quartet (who then comprised June Hutton, Hal Hopper, Chuck Lowry and Clark Yocum) on their coupling of "I Have But One Heart" and "The Lady from 29 Palms." For those not familiar with California locales, 29 Palms is an oddly named city near San Bernardino.

Joe Alexander

Capitol added Felice to Dave Cavanaugh's group for a single side with baritone Joe Alexander, who made about 20 sides with the label in 1946-47. Capitol billed the singer as its answer to Billy Eckstine, but to me he sounds more like Don Cornell, then with Sammy Kaye, or even (horrors!) Vaughan Monroe. Irving Berlin's "I Never Had a Chance" is a good song, though, and Alexander does it well.

The balance of the singles in this set were released in 1948, although recorded in late 1947. Along with instrumental takes on the standards "Street of Dreams" and "Love Me or Leave Me," there are two amusing vocal novelties. One is titled "Woo-Ca-Ma-Choo-Ga" on the label and "Woo-Ga-Ma-Choo-Ga" in the ad above, which is how Felice sings it. (He and Anderson helped write it, so they ought to know.) The other is "Oodles of Boodle and Batches of Cash." Both are very similar to the type of material in the Page Cavanaugh Trio's book at the time. Both groups were Los Angeles-based, and both ended up in Soundies and the like, and in supporting roles in the output of the Hollywood film factories.

From Capitol News, October 1947

On YouTube, you can see Felice's group backing the Pied Pipers in "Dream" and the wonderful June Christy in "Sposin'" and "Taking a Chance on Love." Felice also appeared in the Jane Froman biopic With a Song in My Heart backing Susan Hayward (dubbed by Froman) in "It's a Good Day."

The final item is a V-Disc version of Duke Ellington's "Solitude." I believe this is the master issued on Capitol 486 and later on the LP Cocktail Time, with the addition of a spoken introduction by Felice. "Solitude" would hardly be my first choice as a record to appeal to lonely soldiers, but it does have a slow and muted introduction that facilitated the overdub of Ernie's introductory message.

The Cocktail Time LP came out in 10-inch form in 1950, expanded to 12-inch in 1955. It includes some of the items in this collection, plus others. Capitol also released Felice's Accordion Powerhouse in 1952, another 10-incher. I have both LPs and can transfer them if there is interest.

Beside Capitol, Felice recorded for the short-lived F and P label that he started with Les Paul, for Liberty with a group called the Hi-Fi's and for RCA Victor, all in the 1950s. I may post a few of these items on my singles blog.

The download includes more Felice ephemera from this period, including a publicity photo of his group with what appears to be a dead mule - one of the strangest promotional pictures I have ever seen.

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