Matty Matlock's Sports Parade

March is a particularly active sports month in the U.S. - college basketball's "March Madness," the waning regular seasons in pro basketball and hockey, and spring training in baseball. Even Tiger Woods has made a dramatic return to the golfing elite.

With this backdrop I was inspired to bring out this 1955 10-inch LP called Sports Parade. It features clarinetist Matty Matlock and His All-Stars, a quasi-Dixieland ensemble of West Coast studio musicians.

I suspect the concept and even the song titles were concocted by the record company, for the music itself has little or nothing to do with sports, except for the song titles, which were likely awarded ex post facto, and possibly at random. Case in point: the "Speedway March" is actually Julius Fučík's hoary "Entry of the Gladiators." And the "Hoopsters March" comes to us from Johann Strauss Sr., who knew it as his "Radetzky March." Naturally, "X" Records makes no mention of these details, and the tunes in question are attributed to V. Jirik and Dan Dorie, otherwise unknown to me.

Matty Matlock

That's not to say the record is displeasing. It could hardly be so with Matlock at the helm. He was one of the most experienced and accomplished instrumentalists and arrangers then active. Matlock, a clarinetist, was for many years a member of the Bob Crosby outfit, a big band that retained some elements of Dixieland jazz in its sound. Most of the musicians on this LP either were alumni of Crosby's working band, had appeared with him on the radio, or had been heard on his records roughly contemporary with this one. They include Charlie Teagarden on trumpet, Eddie Miller on tenor sax, Stan Wrightsman on piano and Nick Fatool on drums.

So, while the sports content is low, the musical quality is high on this LP, and the sound is reasonably good.

The sports figures on the cover were probably not based on anyone in particular, but I couldn't help but see my own athletic heroes of the 50s when I looked at it - in particular Yogi Berra as the catcher at upper right and Carmen Basilio as the boxer in the upper left corner.