Swing Dancing with Ralph Marterie

I've enjoyed the Ralph Marterie records posted here so far, so, hey why not another?

This item comes from 1955, is called Swing Baby, and is subtitled "dance album," in case the dancers on the cover aren't enough of a clue for you.

(The cover shot is from the same photo session as the one for On Bandstand No. 1 from 1956.)

Marterie's band was popular in the 1950s, but then and now was not considered a "jazz band." Its purpose was to play for dancing and listening, not so much to show off solo improvisations.

That said, there are solos on this LP and the charts are very much in the big band mainstream. In the tunes, the bandleader pays homage to Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman and others. The ensemble is tight and the charts are for the most part enjoyable (save for Laura).

Swing Baby takes its title from the first song on the LP, co-written by Marterie. This song and most of the others are traditional swing band arrangements. Unlike 1953's Dancing on the Down Beat, the album doesn't rely on the nascent rock 'n' roll movement for added spice.

Several songs, however, make use of an electric piano, which was unusual at the time. There were, to my knowledge, only a few such models on the market - the Fender Rhodes and a Wurlitzer. I wish I could enjoy the sound of the instrument, but it lacks the depth, resonance and dynamic range of the real thing - which is also present on some songs.

A few words about the selections:

• "Stella by Starlight" is by Victor Young, dating from 1945. Ned Washington was to add the familiar lyrics, not used here, of course.

• "One O'Clock Jump" is Count Basie's blues-based theme song, here in a different arrangement from the original.

• "It's a Wonderful World" was a 1939 hit for its author, bandleader Jan Savitt, along with Johnny Watson and lyricist Harold Adamson.

• "Basie Boogie" is a Count tune from 1944, written with Milton Ebbins.

• "Lullaby of Birdland" is the famous George Shearing piece based on "Love Me or Leave Me."

• "Robbins Nest" is by the jazz stars Illinois Jacquet and Sir Charles Thompson, from 1947. The title is taken from the radio program of disk jockey Fred Robbins.

• "Midnight Sun" is a 1948 tune by bandleaders Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke. Johnny Mercer later added lyrics.

• "The Prisoner's Song" is listed as by Guy Massey but the real "author" was Vernon Dalhart, who recorded it in 1924. The song is folk-based, however.

• "Laura" is the great David Raksin theme from the 1944 film of the same name. Johnny Mercer did the lyrics.

• "Woodchopper's Ball" is Marterie's homage to Woody Herman, who wrote the song for his band with Joe Bishop back in 1939.

• "Danse Arabé" is the Arabian dance from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.

I wish I could tell you who the soloists are on this record, but as with other Marterie discs, the identity of the musicians is largely unknown. The songs were recorded in October and November 1955 sessions and were not released as singles, as far as I can tell.

Mercury's sound is OK, but the bass was loose and the brass at times strident, both of which I've adjusted. Also, by this time recording engineers had discovered the wonders of the compressor, so there's not much dynamic range.

LINK

A Dance Date with Ralph Marterie

Here's a very enjoyable LP from Ralph Marterie that takes you to a dance at what appears to be a country club. The wonderful cover artwork presents an idealized mid-50s scene, with the couple about to hear music by Marterie.

They would have been fortunate, because Ralph had an excellent, tight ensemble at the time - a big band with R&B inclinations, and even a country tune in the set.

The album comes from 1954, but presents songs that had appeared or were about to appear as singles or on the EPs below.

The LP starts off with a real winner - a scorching version of "Bumble Boogie" with Ralph tracing the flight of the bee on his trumpet - amazingly, too, although there is one clumsy edit that may have covered up a clam (to mix up bees and mollusks).

"Bumble Boogie" of course comes from "The Flight of the Bumblebee," an interlude in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's 1900 opera The Tale of Tsar Sultan. In 1946 pianist Jack Fina had the idea of adapting it into a piano piece, which he then recorded with Freddy Martin's orchestra. More about that below - the Martin single is included as a bonus track.

The second item is much different - the "Love Theme (from The Glenn Miller Story)," here just called "Love Theme." It's a lovely, sensitive version of an early Henry Mancini composition. There was a version with words, too. Don Raye added the lyrics, making "Love Theme" into the ballad "Too Little Time." Steve Lawrence's version is included as a bonus.

"The Creep" is the handiwork of British bandleader Ken Mackintosh, writing as "Andy Burton." The busy lyricist Carl Sigman added words, not included in this recording.

"Purple Shades" is a slow number written by Dooley, Douglas and Lavere. "Douglas" is probably Lew Douglas, who was associated with Marterie's label, Mercury. "Lavere" is possibly the Chicago-based jazzman and sometimes singer Charlie Lavere, I have to hang down my head, because I don't know who Dooley might be. [Update: reader Boursin found the copyright registration for the song. The authors are Lew Douglas (as surmised), Frank Lavere and Phil Dooley. Thanks, Boursin!]

The song "Deep Forest" has a distinguished lineage. It was co-written by famed bandleader-pianist Earl Hines, British pianist-songwriter Reginald Foresythe and noted lyricist Andy Razaf. Hines first recorded it in 1932.

We're back in boogie territory with "Dry Marterie," which the bandleader himself co-wrote.

"Detour" is a Western swing standard wrote and first recorded by Paul Westmoreland and His Pecos River Boys. The hit version was by Spade Cooley, which can be found in this collection. Both Westmoreland and Cooley utilized vocalists, but Marterie's version is an instrumental boogie (of course).

Next is a standard, "Moonlight in Vermont," first recorded by Margaret Whiting in 1944. The authors were  Karl Suessdorf and John Blackburn. Marterie's version was possibly prompted by the popular 1952 recording from guitarist Johnny Smith, with a tenor sax solo from Stan Getz.

"Pennsylvania Turnpike" is a rousing riff song of uncertain provenance. In this ode to blacktop, the band warns us, "Don't you hitchhike / And you better not ride a bike!"

Reissue cover on the budget Wing label.
Apparently Ralph always carried a trumpet.

The bandleader Noro Morales wrote "Oye Negra" along with Johnny Camacho, and recorded it in 1942. For some reason, Marterie's single version was titled "Bongo Guitar (Oye Negra)." The bongo name was dropped for the LP.

From about the same time as "Oya Negra" was "Take the 'A' Train," one of the signature Ellington numbers, written for the band by Billy Strayhorn.

Another boogie closes the LP - the lively "Chicken Boogie," which Marterie wrote with arranger Billy VerPlanck. The latter worked freelance for many of the bands of the time, and played trombone in some of them. He may well have arranged some of the other songs on this album. 

This latter song has a robust baritone sax solo from Charlie Spero, who is heard periodically in the album. The Mercury Records discography does not list a guitarist in the band, although one is heard throughout the set. That soloist may be George Barnes, although I believe he had left Chicago for New York by the time this LP was recorded.

The sound of the disc is really fine - clear and punchy.

Bonus Songs

Jack Fina and Bumble Boogie

"Bumble Boogie" was pianist Jack Fina's claim to fame. His 1946 version with Freddy Martin was a huge hit, and he soon went out on his own, with Martin's backing. Fina claimed to have written the piece, both on the label and later in the intro to a V-Disc he recorded. He did arrange it, but the composer was Rimsky-Korsakov, of course (sa-kov).

Young Steve Lawrence and his early hit

Steve Lawrence did well for King records with his recording of "Too Little Time," the "Love Theme from The Glenn Miller Story." His singing is suitably impassioned. His style is undoubtedly from the Sinatra school (and arranger Glenn Osser from the Axel Stordahl academy), but his phrasing here is reminiscent of the big voice belters who were then popular. It's a coincidence, but Steve even sounds like the marvelous country singer Marty Robbins, who was yet to have a pop hit when this record was made. This record was a indicator of Steve's great talent. His complete King recordings can be found here.

LINK to Dance Date and bonus songs

TV Jazz with Marterie, Rugolo and Martin

Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn being menaced by a projected shadow 

Big band jazz had an unlikely renaissance on American television in the late 1950s. Jazz scores seemed to go well with the "private eye" detectives then in vogue, whether they were busy being crime fighters, swinging bachelors or just being cool.

Similar to the way those private eyes drew their lineage from the Raymond Chandler - Dashiell Hammett hard-boiled school of the 1930s and 40s (much watered down and more upscale), so the musicians took their cues from certain film noir scores, along with the work of such composers as Elmer Bernstein on several movies, Leith Stevens and Shorty Rogers on The Wild One, and Kenyon Hopkins on The Strange One.

The catalyst for much of the interest, though, was the work of Henry Mancini on Peter Gunn, a huge television hit in 1958. Thereafter, big band jazz and detectives became inseparable. And the music filled any number of LPs.

Today we have three of those albums, all of which involve one or both of the famed arrangers Pete Rugolo and Skip Martin.

• Music for a Private Eye by Ralph Marterie and band, scored by Rugolo and Martin

• The Music from Richard Diamond, written and arranged by Rugolo

• TV Jazz Themes performed by the so-called "Video All-Stars," led by Martin

These are well worth hearing, each featuring the finest West Coast studio musicians, several of whom appear on more than one of the LPs.

Music for a Private Eye (Ralph Marterie)

I believe that Ralph was still leading a band at the time this LP was made in 1959, but here his "Marlboro Men" (presumably named for a sponsor) were some of Hollywood's finest (Don Fagerquist, Frank Rosolino, George Roberts, Bud Shank, Paul Horn, Bob Cooper, Jimmy Rowles, Al Viola and so on), all conducted by Pete Rugolo. The arrangements are by Pete, Skip Martin (another big band vet who went Hollywood) and reportedly Heinie Beau, a noted "ghost" orchestrator. 

Pete rose to prominence with Stan Kenton's band, but had branched out into the film and television field by the time this LP came about.

Pete Rugolo

For this album, despite the "private eye" branding, much of the music is not from detective shows. The contents include Pete's Richard Diamond and The Thin Man themes; Count Basie's music from M Squad, Lee Marvin's police show; Fred Steiner's catchy Perry Mason signature music; the theme from Alfred Hitchcock Presents, listed as by Stanley Wilson but based on a Gounod piece; Frank Comstock's music from The D.A.'s Man; and two ringers - Melvyn Leonard's Riff Blues and Private Eyeball by Peter Hanson and Marterie.

I transferred this from the Mercury Wing stereo budget reissue of the LP, which cut costs by chopping off Jay Livingston's 77 Sunset Strip music, which was on the full-price original. I have reinstated the track from a mono version of the full-price album.

By the way, it's not clear what Marterie does on the LP. He's not listed among the trumpet players and he didn't handle the arrangements or conducting. He does look good on the cover, however, lighting a Marlboro, accompanied by two streetwalkers.

LINK to Music for a Private Eye

Music from Richard Diamond (Pete Rugolo)

Richard Diamond is not the best remembered private eye show - those would be Peter Gunn and 77 Sunset Strip - but Pete Rugolo's music did merit a complete LP, which is less well known than such specimens as the Peter Gunn and 77 Sunset Strip albums.

The Richard Diamond theme is memorable big band swagger. This version is more or less the same arrangement as appears on the album above. The one on the LP below is somewhat different.

David Janssen as Richard Diamond, with his cool car phone and giant hat ribbon

The music on the album represents both recurring themes and music that Rugolo wrote specifically for certain shows.

The musicians are quite similar to those on the album above - Frank Rosolino, Bud Shank, Paul Horn, Bob Cooper, Al Viola and Jimmy Rowles among them.

The executive producer of the Richard Diamond TV show was Dick Powell, a Hollywood musical star who morphed into a hard-boiled detective type, including playing Diamond on the radio. He contributed to the sleeve notes on this LP.

LINK to Music from Richard Diamond

TV Jazz Themes (Skip Martin)

The clumsy cover above might lead you to think this is a budget LP. You would be correct, but it is quite a good one.

Leading the band is Skip Martin, a well-known Hollywood orchestrator. The musicians once again include Paul Horn, Bob Cooper, Jimmy Rowles, Frank Rosolino and others mentioned above.

Skip Martin

Martin programmed an entire side of music from Peter Gunn, and did well by Mancini's famed score. He includes its two best known melodies - the opening theme and "Dreamsville," which also had an afterlife as a ballad with lyrics by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston.

Otherwise, Martin programmed Rugolo's themes from Richard Diamond and The Thin Man, and Livingston's 77 Sunset Strip. These are all very well done and the sound is excellent - as it is on the other LPs. (Although it doesn't say so on the cover above, this LP is in stereo.)

LINK to TV Jazz Themes

Jazz on the Big Screen

Up top I mentioned several examples of jazz on the big screen. Here are several LPs that have appeared on this blog that might be of interest. Links to the original posts are in the subheads.

Elmer Bernstein - Movie and TV Themes. Bernstein was a giant in the field. This LP provides a good overview of some of his scores. If you want a complete LP of his famed Sweet Smell of Success music, it's also available via the link above. His Themes from the General Electric Theater album is here.

Leith Stevens and Shorty Rogers - The Wild One. A complete set of Leith Stevens and Shorty Rogers' recordings of the music from The Wild One (the one being Marlon Brando). This includes the 10-inch and 12-inch Stevens LPs and the Shorty Rogers EP. There are also links to two other Leith Stevens scores.

Kenyon Hopkins - The Strange One. Here's what I wrote back in 2009: "The title music is one of the best jazz-influenced tunes of the time, with a sinister edge that suits the film's theme very well." The "strange one" is Ben Gazzara. This score, which has not be re-released, is one of my favorites.

Heinie Beau - Moviesville Jazz. I mentioned the famed "ghost" arranger Heinie Beau above, who apparently contributed to the charts for the Ralph Marterie album. Beau recorded a set of his own compositions for Coral called "Moviesville Jazz" that made light of some of the conventions of film scoring, bearing such titles as "The Man with the Golden Embouchure."

A New Band on the Blog: Ralph Marterie

Ralph Marterie

Ralph Marterie, one of the most popular bandleaders of the 1950s, hadn't been featured here until today. A shame, because he had a disciplined band that made terrific records, even though the jazz content was nearly nil.

As the title above proclaims, Marterie's focus was on dancing. He led one of the most prominent bands on campus during the 50s, along with Les Elgart, Ralph Flanagan, Ray Anthony, Les Brown and a few others. 

This post includes:

• The 10-inch LP Dancing on the Down Beat from 1953

• The four songs added to that LP to compose the 1956 12-inch LP On Bandstand No. 1

• One additional song from the EP Dancers' Delight, which otherwise repeats three numbers from the LPs just mentioned

So 13 selections in total, some of which were originally issued as singles; "Pretend" and  "Caravan" were even hits.

About Marterie: unlike most of his bandleader peers, Ralph (1914-78) had little experience with the prewar bands. He was a trumpeter in the NBC Chicago studio band, then led a Navy band during the war. Thereafter, he returned to Chicago but moved to the ABC band, where he became the leader. The local Mercury label soon offered him a contract, and his career took off.

Dancing on the Down Beat (10-inch LP)

We start off with Ralph's album Dancing on the Down Beat, its title signifying a seal of approval by the music magazine of that name. The cover makes the claim that Marterie was number one on campus. Not sure about that - I haven't turned up a specific campus poll - but his popularity was growing.

The Marterie band at the University of Montana

As mentioned, Ralph had a hit with "Pretend," the song by Dan Belloc, Lew Douglas, Cliff Parman and Frank Levere. But Nat King Cole's vocal rendition was even bigger - it reached number 3 on the Billboard chart.

The flip side of Marterie's "Pretend" was "After Midnight," which Ralph wrote with a person named Schreier. This was probably Mercury's David Carroll, whose birth name was Rodell Schreier. "After Midnight" is notable as a boogie number with a guitar lead that gives it almost a proto-rockabilly feel. Marterie's band was proficient both with big-beat selections and ballads.

Otherwise, the 10-inch album includes :

• "Everything I Have Is Yours," the Burton Lane-Harold Adamson tune from the 1933 pic Dancing Lady 

• "Hall of the Mountain King," a not-bad version of the selection from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt

• "Through for the Night," a piece by trombonist Trummy Young

• "Downbeat" by bandleader-critic Leonard Feather and a person named Webman

• "Dark Eyes," a version of the Russian song "Очи чёрные [Ochi chyornye]' by the poet Yevhen Hrebinka with a melody borrowed from a piano piece by Florian Hermann; the song was popularized by Feodor Chaliapin

• "La Rosita" by Gus Haenschen and Lester O'Keefe, dating from 1923

On Bandstand No. 1 (12-inch LP)

Mercury issued Marterie's On Bandstand No. 1 in 1956, adding four songs to the eight previously included in Dancing on the Down Beat.

The title and cover again play on the trumpeter's popularity with the campus crowd. (In the photo, the band must be on a break or something.)

The four additional selections are:

• "Darling Je Vous Aime Beaucoup," another Nat Cole hit. The Anna Sosenko song has just appeared on my other blog in a Jack Haskell vocal rendition.

• "Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)," which was a 1955 US hit in Pérez Prado's version of the Louiguy song. (This song was recently posted here in a recording by a much different trumpeter - Chet Baker.)

• "Baritone Boogie," whose baritone sax lead gives the music a strong R&B feel. Marterie was a co-author of the piece.

• "Ciribiri Mambo," an adaptation of the 1898 Alberto Pestalozza song "Ciribiribin" that gained fame as Harry James' theme song. Here, Marterie and Gage Brewer have transformed it quite well into the newly popular mambo.

Dancer's Delight EP

The specter of a ghostly Ralph appears to be haunting the dance floor on the cover of this circa 1953 EP.

The record adds one number to three that are also found in the two LPs above.

The new item - a version of trombonist Juan Tizol's "Caravan" of Ellington fame - was an early 1953 single that did well for Marterie.

LINK

More Marterie

I have a thing for some post-war dance bands, Ralph Marterie among them. I recently had a request to reup a Marterie album featured here some years ago, and I enjoyed remastering the LP so much that I decided to transfer this collection, which dates from 1951.

Marterie Moods for Dancing collates the bandleader's recent singles, which cover a range of styles. As I wrote the first time around for the band, Marterie "had a good ensemble that played a variety of music quite well - from ballads to post-Hampton big band r&b."

The cover suggests that you will hear a female vocalist - not so. This is all instrumental, featuring the leader's trumpet. Hopefully he did not attempt to play it while peeking out from under the dancers' armpits, as he does on this cover.

Good sound on this one, even though Mercury at the time was pressing its records on the cheesiest vinyl (or vinyliest cheese) it could find. The download includes personnel.

By the way, if you like Marterie, I recently posted an EP that Vic Damone made with Marterie on my other blog.

Dancing with Ralph Marterie

Here is the beginning of yet another new thread on this blog (how many do I have going? 30?), this one devoted to the post World War II dance bands.

You don't hear too much about these bands today, except for some of the jazz bands, leftovers from the big band heyday, and Miller-derived ensembles like Ray Anthony and Tex Beneke.

This post presents Ralph Marterie, who made many records over quite a few years, won polls such as the one touted on this cover, and yet has fallen into something very much like obscurity.

Too bad. He had a good ensemble that played a variety of music quite well - from ballads to post-Hampton big band r&b.

Marterie's band started off as a recording orchestra, then after gaining some notice, he formed a touring ensemble. This is a pattern that was also followed by Ralph Flanagan, who also will make an appearance in this series.

All these sides were recorded in 1952, according to the very helpful Mercury Records site.

The truth is, I am starting off this series with Marterie because of the very cool cover - what could be better than a disembodied cartoon face and a Down Beat magazine? Outstanding!