LP-652

Smokey Stover's Original Firemen - Where There's Fire

Released 1960

Recording and Session Information

Smokey Stover's Original Firemen
Smokey Stover, trumpet, vocal; Floyd O'Brien, trombone; Jimmy Granato, clarinet; Gene Raebourne, piano; John Gilliland, tuba; Don Chester, drums; Betty Brandon, vocal

Chicago, September, 1959

9686 Firemen's shuffle
9687 There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight
9688 Keep the home fires burning
9689 Firemen's paradise
9690 Hot lips
9691 Firefly
9692 My old flame
9693 I don't want to set the world on fire
9694 Smoke rings
9695 Where's the fire?

Track Listing

I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire	Benjamin, Durham, Seiler, Marcus	September 1959
Smoke Rings	Gifford, Washington	September 1959
Firefly	Leigh, Coleman	September 1959
There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight	Stover	September 1959
Firemen's Shuffle	Granato, Gilliland, Stover	September 1959
Where There's Fire	Stover	September 1959
Hot Lips	Busse, Lange, Davis	September 1959
My Old Flame	Johnston, Coslow	September 1959
Keep The Home Fires Burning	Novello, Ford	September 1959
Firemen's Parade	Lamonte, Stover	September 1959

Liner Notes

SMOKEY STOVER is an ex-Marine with shoulders like a bull, an embrouchure made of cast iron, and a trumpet sound that could bore a hole through a brick wall.

He is also the leader of a band of romping Dixielanders who have been doing an excellent job of breaking up audiences wherever they appear.

Here they dig into a collection of 'fire" tunes with zest and glee, kicking off with a rollicking I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire and ending with an original march, Firemen's Parade. Sandwiched between are such items as Smoke Rings, featuring the trombone of one of the all-time Dixie greats, Floyd O'Brien; Firefly and My Old Flame, sung by young Betty Brandon; Firemen's Shuffle, highlighting the tuba of John Gilliland; Keep The Home Fires Burning, on which Jimmy Granato's clarinet work is a stickout, and Where There's Fire, kicked off by the sturdy piano of Gen Raebourne.

"Although the idea of doing all tunes associated with fire may seem like a gimmick idea for an album," says Smokey, "it actually didn't start that way.

"What started it all was people in our audiences asking if we would play something other than the same old standards all the Dixieland bands do—Saints, Muskrat Ramble, Dixieland One-Step, those kind of things.

"So we started looking around for some fresher tunes. One we came up with was I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire, a big hit song about 20 years ago. That led to other fire songs and, eventually, the album."

Stover has been playing trumpet for 20 of his 29 years (he was born January 29, 1931, in Iowa City, Iowa). His father, who was a Dixieland cornetist, was his first teacher. Smokey was playing with the town band by the time he was 13, then began playing with territory bands and with groups he'd form himself. From 1948 to '52 he played in Marine bands and orchestras, then organized the Firehouse Five in 1953. He gave that up to work with Jig Adams' Dixie band in Las Vegas for 18 months, finally leaving to form his present group.

This is his first album, but it won't be the last. The fire in his horn is his insurance of that.

Jack Tracy

LP-651

Caesar Giovannini - Holiday on the Riviera

Released 1959

Recording and Session Information

Caesar Giovannini
Caesar Giovannini, piano

Voila Paris
C'est Si Bon
Under Paris Skies
If You Go
Pigalle
The Touch
Domino
Danse Avec Moi
Petite Waltz
On The Avenue
At Last! At Last!
If You Love Me, Really Love Me (Hymn a L'amour)
Le Gamin de Paris
Comme Ci Comme Ca
Padam Padam
To You My Love

Track Listing

Liner Notes

LP-650

Billy Taylor and His Orchestra - Taylor Made Jazz

Released 1959

Recording and Session Information

Billy Taylor and His Orchestra
Willie Cook, Clark Terry, trumpets; Britt Woodman, trombone; Johnny Hodges (as The Rabbit), alto saxophone; Paul Gonsalves, tenor saxophone; Harry Carney, baritone saxophone; Billy Taylor, piano; Earl May, bass; Ed Thigpen, drums

Biddy's Beat
Theodora
Mood For Mendes
Daddy-O
Cu-Blu
Day Dreaming
Can You Tell By Looking At Me
Tune For Tex

Track Listing

Biddy's Beat	Billy Taylor	21141
Theodora	Billy Taylor	21141
Mood For Mendes	Billy Taylor	21141
Daddy-O	Billy Taylor	21141
Cu-Blu	Billy Taylor	21141
Day Dreaming	Billy Taylor	21141
Can You Tell By Looking At Me	Billy Taylor	21141
Tune For Tex	Billy Taylor	21141

Liner Notes

WHEN the Ellington sidemen spend their offstand hours recording outside the Duke's domain, they select their sessions with care. After all, they've got a reputation to uphold. The Ellington band, for years, has represented precise discipline, flawless taste, and an inimitable repertoire. Duke's men are generally unwilling to chip that stature by making sessions that don't reflect some of the charm and challenge of life with Ellington.

Those musicians who have been a part of the urbane Ellington atmosphere can appreciate the virtues of the most professional jazzmen. That's why the Ellingtonians present here were eager to explore eight compositions by Billy Taylor, all arranged by bassist Johnnie Pate. Pianist Taylor writes moody, lyrical, elegant ballads, in the best, most lasting sense of the term uromantic." His medium and up-tempo compositions have a surging quality, without ever being frenetic; they are more than adequate inspiration for the soloing horn man. Taylor is a sophisticate and his music has a rich, contemporary flavor—modern and moving and free of faddistic cliches.

Clark Terry, Willie Cook, Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves, and Britt Woodman need no introduction to such sopllistication. They know it on the grand Ellington level. And they are sensitive enough to relish Taylor-made adventures.

Taylor's presence on piano, of course, is indispensable. His playing is as melodic (and pianistic) as his compositions. Southpaw bassist Earl May has worked with Taylor for several years, as did drummer Ed Thigpen, currently serving as one of the rotors in Oscar Peterson's mainspring trio.

Compatibility, obviously, can be taken for granted here. Yet what is most impressive is the manner in which Taylor's tunes are performed—not in a perfunctory manner at all but, rather, with infinite insight and love.

There isn't a frantic or strident moment on any track in this LP. That's rare enough these days. What's comforting to the harassed jazz listener is the down-the-middle swing and the pointed, but never pretentious, ballad tours.

The ballads — Theodora, Mood For Mendes, Day Dreaming, and Can You Tell By Looking At Me — are superbly conceived and touchingly played (liner note prose is full of such terms, I admit, but in this case they were selected for accuracy rather than filler purposes).

It isn't unusual to hear jazz groups attacking fleetly-flowing riffs, but many jazzmen seem to be out of touch with the art of ballad interpretation. For a definitive sample of playing a ballad as a ballad, without any sense of urgency or rigidity, listen to "The Rabbit" and Taylor (with astute assists from May and Thigpen) on Theodora. It's an exquisite performance, lean of line yet directly moving. The same sort of approach makes the other ballads sincerely poignant experiences, too. For a change, the modern jazz listener can feel and fully accept the soloists' lyrical side.

The non-ballad material is equally tasteful, from the bounce of Biddy's Beat to the sprightly flavor of Daddy-O to the earthy Cu-Blu to the Longhornish prance, Tune For Tex. The soloists are at ease, the rhythm section is wholly compatible, and the tunes are delights. It's like the rare holiday gathering, with everyone contributing, but no one being a distracting bore.

This sort of maturity is a natural product of meaningful experience in jazz. The Ellington brigade comprises men who have enjoyed both security and growth in their tenure with the Duke; their lives and their music veer from the angry sounds of so many of today's young jazzmen. They've listened to jazz and absorbed it and reflect its better moments in their playing. Taylor has had a like background, playing with most of the greats of modern jazz. Such a union of forces couldn't have produced anything but the serenity and swing you hear in this set.

It's a Taylor-made session, all right. And it will wear well.

Don Gold
Assistant Editor
Playboy Magazine