The Swing Era gave birth to huge numbers of big bands. There are the Benny Goodmans, the Artie Shaws, the Duke Ellingtons, and the Count Basies, but those were the superstars. There were loads of excellent big band leaders that are largely unknown beyond big band and Song era enthusiasts like Hal Kemp, Joe Haymes, or Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra. Then there's Boyd Raeburn (1913-1966) who originally played dance music before modernizing his band to incorporate not only include bebop, but also the music of modern classical composers like Igor Stravinsky. Along with Claude Thornhill (and Woody Herman for one collaboration with Stravinsky), Raeburn forged a highly original path resulting in some of the most progressive jazz of the time and can be heard on his 1945 recordings for Savoy.
Experiments in Big Band Jazz, a
1980 Musicraft compilation, features this band in transition from a dance band to the modern progressive band.
This album contains a range of material including pop numbers sung by either Don Darcy or Marjorie Woods and some very interesting arrangements by George Williams, Eddie Finckel, and what must be Johnny Mandel's first charts. The centerpiece of this album though is the two tracks with Dizzy Gillespie, who along with Mandel, are the most recognizable names on this record. However, some of the notable soloists include Johnny Bothwell on alto saxophone, Tommy Allison on trumpet, Frankie Socolow on tenor saxophone, and on tune, Trummy Young on trombone.
I didn't find a lot on Raeburn's early life and career except that he was born in Faith, South Dakota. He began leading orchestras in the 1930's, but didn't put himself on the map until 1944, when his band arrived in New York. They seemed to quickly gain a reputation as a musician's band and many of the greats were briefly in the band including Oscar Pettiford, Roy Eldridge, and others including Dizzy Gillespie who is present on two tracks here, "A Night in Tunisia" and "March of the Boyds". Raeburn could not get any closer to bebop than having one of its founders in the band. Gillespie wrote a new arrangement of his famous "A Night in Tunisia" with a new transition and shout chorus after the solos. His flashy solos which make use of his impressive upper register and double-time lines are on displays here and on "March of the Boyds" (an excellent arrangement by Finckel). None of the other soloists are at his level and so his contributions really stands out. That's not to diminish the rest of the record or the other musicians, as not many musicians were at his level!
 |
Johnny Bothwell
|
Johnny Bothwell on saxophone is a standout on this record as well. His Johnny Hodges-influenced approach comes through clearly on his many excellent solos, including George Williams' excellent arrangement of Ellington's "I Didn't Know About You". He also shines on "I Promise You", "Boyd's Nest", and "Blue Prelude". The last song was co-written by Gordon Jenkins and like his chart for Benny Goodman, "Goodbye" is dark, somber, and beautiful. Bothwell's melodic statement is a big part of that here. Frankie Socolow on tenor saxophone also sounds excellent and was known as the "white Ben Webster" (!) which can be heard to great effect on "Out of Nowhere" and "Boyd's Next".
George Williams (1917-1988) was a veteran arranger for big bands, having done arrangements for Glenn Miller, Lionel Hampton, Jimmie Lunceford, and others. He would go on to contribute arrangements to Jackie Gleason and Barbara Streisand. On
Experiment in Big Band Jazz, he did six of the thirteen arrangements on this record and "Summertime" is spectacular. He sets the tone with a rich, dark arrangement making use of nice countermelodies, different timbres (low brass vs. high register piano, bass clarinet, bowed bass), nice harmonic touches, and some abrupt register changes in the saxophones (seems to be a trademark of his). Even his arrangement of pop songs are swinging and interesting. Other highlights of Williams' includes "Blue Prelude" with its shifting moods and his version of Ellington's "I Didn't Know About You".
 |
Eddie Finckel (left) and Raeburn (middle)
|
Eddie Finckel (1917-2001) also wrote for Gene Krupa, Les Brown, Buddy Rich and Frank Sinatra before a long tenure as an educator. He was the other arranger in the band and his style, being closer in spirit to Count Basie (especially "March of the Boyds"), provided the band with a wider stylistic range.
 |
Johnny Mandel
|
One of the interesting things about investigating swing big bands, is uncovering a wealth of musicians who got their careers started during the Swing Era before coming into their own. Johnny Mandel (1925-2020) is a good example and he just passed away a few days prior to this writing. He contributed two arrangements, including swinging versions of "You've got me crying again" featuring Marjorie Woods and "Out of Nowhere". The latter stands out a bit more with an interesting introduction and some modern harmonies. It's nice to hear Mandel here, before he became known as a composer for movies and television. Baritone saxophonist Milt Kleeb (1919-2015) contributed an excellent arrangement of Raeburn's "Boyd's Next". Kleeb would later co-lead a big band with saxophonist Bill Ramsay in the Seattle area but is otherwise little known. A blues, there are some nice solos by Bothwell, Socolow, trumpeter Tommy Allison, trombonist Trummy Young who was briefly with the band before his long tenure with Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars.
 |
Don Darcy
|
Vocalist Marjorie Woods seems to have been active for a very short period. Besides her work with Raeburn, according to Allmusic her only credit is with Randy Brooks and his orchestra. But the other vocalist Don Darcy had a long and very unusual career. Born John Arcesi (1917-1983), he became Don Darcy at the start of his career had already sung with Claude Hopkins, Joe Venuti, Charlie Barnet, and others before scoring some hits with Raeburn, including "Prisoner of Love" from this compilation. By 1952, he reverted back to his birth name and signed with Capitol, working out some outrageous marketing schemes to promote his music, including promoting his song "Wild Honey" by sending jars of honey to local DJs and having a photo shoot with a young woman named "Miss Honey". There were other publicity stunts but basically he was a novelty singer relying on gimmicks and unusual
material. He continued to work as a writer, arranger, and producer under a variety of aliases for the rest of his career. He recorded an album in 1972,
Reachin' Arcesia, which has become a cult classic.
On
Experiments in Big Band Jazz, the soloists and vocalists are recognized, but the rest of the personnel is not credited. According to the liner notes by biographer
Jack McKinney (sadly it doesn't seem like he ever released the book), it seems like the personnel was constantly rotating---and would continue to do so. This explains Gillespie and Young's brief appearances on this record and also likely contributes to some of the poorly executed ensemble work that downgrade some of the performances. Still this is an important record that shows the transition of Boyd Raeburn's work from dance band to modern progressive.
 |
Boyd Raeburn
|
Raeburn's son, Bruce Boyd Raeburn, would go on to become the long-time curator of the Hogan archive of New Orleans Jazz at Tulane University. Otherwise, today, Boyd Raeburn is best remembered for the strikingly avant-garde music he released after this record. Unfortunately, he returned to commercial dance by the end of 1947 as the public tastes for popular music began to change. Mostly forgotten today, his music gets revived from time to time, including in 2016 at my alma mater the Eastman School of Music where they held a concert of his works.
Comments
Post a Comment