Ruth Olay with Jerry Fielding

Last summer I posted an Jerry Fielding LP from 1953, with a bonus single featuring the young vocalist Ruth Olay. At that time I had a request for more Olay, so here she is, appropriately accompanied by Fielding in this 1958 date for Mercury.

By that time, Olay had become more established in the West Coast clubs, and had even become a familiar face on television. The cover above pitches her as the "singing discovery of the Jack Paar Show" - Paar at that time was the host of the late night Tonight Show on U.S. television, with Olay as a frequent guest.

Ruth Olay

The term "discovery" may suggest that the singer was a newcomer to the studio, which was not the case. I believe this was her fourth LP recording, with previous entries for the Zenith label, Mercury and Mercury's EmArcy mark (although the latter may have been released later than Easy Living).

Her singing on the Trend single was assured, if seemingly under the spell of Mildred Bailey. On this session she retains her characteristic rapid vibrato, but has adopted a more individual manner, with overtones of Lena Horne and Kay Starr. In a revealing interview with Bill Reed, Olay herself insists her greatest influences were blues singers. In any case, she was a highly accomplished artist whose current neglect is curious - especially considering she is still with us.

Easy Living embodies the peculiarities of early stereo, made during the period when engineers were still experimenting with the new format. On most tracks, Ruth comes at us from the left speaker, with the Mercury folks occasionally moving her to the right channel mid-song, seemingly just for the heck of it. On "Undecided" (of course), she keeps switching back and forth. These artificial shenanigans were common when stereo was young, the better for buyers to show off their new two-channel set-ups. (I distinctly remember the first time I heard a stereo record. It was at the house of friends of my parents, and seemed like quite a big deal to nine-year-old Buster.)

As a bonus, I have added a non-LP single that Olay made with Fielding early in 1958. Apparently the only title issued from that January date, it is a lively version of the Mercer-Donaldson song "On Behalf of the Visiting Firemen." (The other side of the single was "I Wanna Be a Friend of Yours" from the Easy Living album.)

By the way, the mention of Jack Paar on the LP cover inspired me to dig out one of the comic's few singles - a surprisingly good one (no thanks to Paar). The curious can find it on my singles blog.

Jerry Fielding's 1953 Band

Jerry Fielding is remembered today as a film and television composer, but before that experience, he was an arranger, radio conductor and bandleader. It’s in the latter guise that we hear him today, in this 1953 10-inch LP for the short-lived Trend label.

A friend of mine posted this record on his blog, and observed that Fielding seems so young on the cover that he does not look like he’s begun to shave. Perhaps so, but by this time he had been a professional for nearly a decade, writing big-band arrangements and conducting the orchestras for a number of radio shows.

Fielding was born Joshua Feldman, and the claim is made that in 1947 the producer of Jack Paar’s radio show made him change his name as a condition of getting a job on that program. However, by that time the young bandleader had already made records under the Fielding name.

By whatever name, he was a notable success, and this record is testimony. It documents a working band that Fielding had assembled, with three or four trumpets, two trombones, four or five saxes, and rhythm. The soloists include Maurie Harris (trumpet), Hymie Gunkler (alto), Buddy Collette and Sam Donahue (tenors) and Gerald Wiggins (piano). The leader’s arrangements are varied and imaginative, making for a fine album. (Perhaps not as good as the review below, which touts this disc as “the best band album ever recorded,” to the surprise, no doubt, of Ellington, Basie and many others.)

Billboard ad - click to enlarge

The LP has 11 cuts, five of which are devoted to Fielding’s theme song, “Carefree,” which is heard in snatches at the start and end of each side of the record, and complete on the first side. It’s an attractive piece, but maybe not deserving of all that exposure.

As a bonus to the LP, I’ve added Fielding’s first single for the Trend label. It includes a band treatment of “Here in My Arms” backed by a vocal on “A Blues Serenade” by the young Ruth Olay, who was under the influence of Mildred Bailey at the time. Olay went on to record a number of albums, and was backed by Fielding on one of her records for Mercury.

The Trend label was started by Albert Marx, who had owned the Musicraft label and was at the helm of Discovery for many years. Trend also recorded blog favorites Matt Dennis and Claude Thornhill, among others. These masters later were reissued on Kapp.

After Trend’s demise, Fielding moved on to Decca. I’ll post one of the records from that association if there is interest.