{"id":50,"date":"2021-03-29T21:56:39","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T21:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/?page_id=50"},"modified":"2021-04-20T12:50:23","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T12:50:23","slug":"1955-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/1955-2\/","title":{"rendered":"1955"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>A movie-studio maven, deep in the West Coast style.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-dark-gray-background-color has-dark-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John Graas:&nbsp;<em><strong>Jazz Studio 3<\/strong><\/em><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>(Decca, 1955) (recorded&nbsp;January&nbsp;1955)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">French horn player and composer John Graas, another Kenton stalwart, was the headliner on volumes 2 and 3 of the 6-volume&nbsp;<em>Jazz Studio<\/em>&nbsp;series, a somewhat obscure but important document of the more cerebral side of West Coast jazz. Previn plays on three tracks, alongside such figures as Charlie Mariano, Zoot Sims, and Jimmy Giuffre. Graas\u2019s thoroughly refracted version of James P. Johnson\u2019s \u201cCharleston\u201d gets a bit lost in the weeds, but the two jazz movements from Graas\u2019s third-stream Symphony no. 1 are more interesting: a moody swing \u201cSonata Allegro\u201d (to which Previn contributed some tasteful comping and a brief, restrained solo) and a whip-fast \u201cScherzo,\u201d in which, after some angular obbligatos that owe more than a little to Shostakovich\u2019s first Piano Concerto, Previn uncorks a crisp, torrential improvised cadenza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube contain-video wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"John Graas: Jazz Studio 3 full lp\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qYCKvBz8s1I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite Previn misremembering almost all the personnel (the rhythm section was actually Curtis Counce, Larry Bunker, and Howard Roberts), I\u2019m reasonably sure this was the session that yielded this anecdote, which Gene Lees printed in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donaldclarkemusicbox.com\/jazzletter\/1991-9.pdf\">September 1991 issue<\/a> of his&nbsp;<em>Jazzletter<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote blockquotecustom is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Years ago, when he was still working as a studio pianist in Los Angeles, Andre was on a record date with a rhythm section that included Ray Brown, Shelly Manne and Barney Kessel. The rest of the orchestra was of like caliber. The music was more or less experimental avant-garde jazz by a composer whose work, Andre said, he didn\u2019t care for.<\/p><p>One of the tunes was to be played at a ferociously fast tempo, with a change on every beat. When it came to the solo section, one musician after another tried it only to crash in flames.<\/p><p>Finally the solo was assigned to Zoot Sims, who sailed through it effortlessly.<\/p><p>At the end of it, Conte Candoli said: \u201cHow did you do that, man?\u201d<\/p><p>Zoot said, \u201cYou guys are crazy. I just played&nbsp;<em>I Got Rhythm<\/em>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-dark-gray-background-color has-dark-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Milt Bernhart Brass Ensemble:&nbsp;<em><strong>Modern Brass<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;(RCA Victor, 1955) (recorded March 1955)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previn wrote an arrangement and an original for this album. Bernhart\u2014a studio and big-band veteran who made a career out of brief bursts of reliable brilliance (that sublime, hair-raising trombone solo on the Frank Sinatra-Nelson Riddle version of \u201cI\u2019ve Got You Under My Skin\u201d? Bernhart), brought together a clutch of West Coast brass for this session: himself, Shorty Rogers and Ray Linn on trumpet, John Graas\u2019s French horn, Maynard Ferguson on euphonium (!), Ray Siegel on tuba. Previn proves much more interested in the low, mellow part of that line-up than any high-wire fireworks. His version of the Gershwins\u2019 \u201cLooking for a Boy\u201d might be a little too much warm milk, a brief burst of vinegary clusters notwithstanding; but Previn\u2019s own \u201cHillside\u201d is a lovely stretch of mellow harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube contain-video wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Milt Bernhart Brass Ensemble \u200e\u2013 Modern Brass ( Full Album )\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ue7wZEAtj_8?start=1541&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-dark-gray-background-color has-dark-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pete Jolly:&nbsp;<em><strong>Jolly Jumps In<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;(RCA Victor, 1955)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another arrangement, this time for a fellow prodigy. Pete Jolly was a pianist, a composer, an arranger, a studio stalwart, and a longtime fixture in West Coast jazz clubs with his trio, but, before that, he was the \u201cBoy Wonder Accordionist,\u201d a skill he displayed alongside the piano on this, his debut album. It\u2019s the squeezebox that\u2019s featured on Previn\u2019s scoring of Jerome Kern\u2019s \u201cWhy Do I Love You?,\u201d in a sextet with Rogers, Giuffre, Counce, Roberts, and Manne. The clean cool-jazz treatment almost plays like a pocket version of Leonard Bernstein\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube contain-video wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why Do I Love You ?\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eJL9UomvHkU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-dark-gray-background-color has-dark-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Georgie Auld:&nbsp;<em><strong>I\u2019ve Got You Under My Skin<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;(Coral, 1955) (recorded&nbsp;December&nbsp;1954,&nbsp;February,&nbsp;April&nbsp;1955)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A touch of jazz might peek in at the margins of this one, but Previn\u2019s orchestrations for this collection by swing saxophonist Auld are mostly pure mood music, string-heavy and leisurely. Still, Previn seems to be having a bit of fun\u2014his version of <a href=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/albums\/B00491I3RI?trackAsin=B00491J62Y&amp;ref=dm_sh_0632-031d-dmcp-f76f-bd440&amp;musicTerritory=US&amp;marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER\">\u201cSmoke Gets in Your Eyes,\u201d<\/a> with Previn providing some smooth, glassy cocktail riffs behind the slinky voices of Jud Conlon\u2019s Rhythmaires, is a droll take on late-night, last-call&nbsp;mist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-dark-gray-background-color has-dark-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ella Fitzgerald:&nbsp;<em><strong>Sweet and Hot<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;(Decca, 1955) (recorded April 1955)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previn arranged and conducted four of the tracks on this collection of Decca singles,&nbsp;and, as with his charts for Auld,&nbsp;his contributions fall very much on the \u201cSweet\u201d side of the ledger.&nbsp;But it\u2019s pretty skillful stuff\u2014pure MGM velour, but giving the star enough room to play around with melody and rhythm. \u201cI Can\u2019t Get Started\u201d is the most piquant, with a poker-faced oboe counter-melody repeatedly getting pushed aside by brief, roguish hints of swing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube contain-video wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"I Can&#039;t Get Started\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HDO4FegyWuI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-dark-gray-background-color has-dark-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Let\u2019s Get Away From It All<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;(Decca, 1955) (recorded&nbsp;April&nbsp;1955)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previn ventures into concept-album territory with a round-the-world collection of songs: \u201cMoonlight in Vermont,\u201d \u201cFlying Down to Rio,\u201d \u201cSerenade to Sweden,\u201d and so on. Fredrickson and Cottler are back on guitar and drums, with Red Mitchell\u2014another future Previn familiar\u2014stepping in on bass. (Cottler would later play on Frank Sinatra\u2019s very similarly-themed album&nbsp;<em>Come Fly with Me!<\/em>&nbsp;One wonders if the Chairman directly appropriated the idea.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s all&nbsp;suave&nbsp;and stylish, though you can hear Previn seasoning the mix with bebop and West Coast post-bop spice. \u201cSidewalks of Cuba\u201d is in the latter vein, bits of arranged counterpoint surrounding unflappable cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube contain-video wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sidewalks Of Cuba\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BwB_hrt2kL4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOn a Slow Boat to China\u201d has somewhat more thump and edge. The track might be even more arranged than \u201cSidewalks of Cuba,\u201d but sounds more loose. A few bars into the melody, Previn already is restless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube contain-video wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Andre Previn Quartet - On A Slow Boat To China\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/egj0ncy_uQs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout this album, one can start to hear exactly what it was that Previn initially took from bebop. It\u2019s not really harmonic\u2014his improvisations remain largely melodic and chordal, even when he extends those chords out a bit (see below). It\u2019s not really rhythmic, either; Previn\u2019s rhythm is still devoted to a flowing, swinging line, but without, say, Dizzy Gillespie\u2019s Latin clave foundation, or Charlie Parker\u2019s holistic, surreal concept of time, in which any fractional subdivision might be a plausible launchpad or landing spot for an improvised flight. Rather, Previn borrows a more elusive quality: touch. It\u2019s bebop\u2019s sound and articulation that Previn assimilates into his playing. (Some two or three careers from now, when Previn composes concert music and inserts some jazz into the proceedings, his most common indication to the players will not be&nbsp;<em>in jazz tempo<\/em>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<em>in jazz rhythm<\/em>&nbsp;or any sort of dotted-rhythm approximation, but&nbsp;<em>with jazz phrasing<\/em>, which tells you something about how he thinks in jazz.) To over-generalize and over-simplify: Previn is still playing lines in which one can hear echoes of Cole\u2019s playing, or even Tatum\u2019s, but Previn is breaking up (and roughing up) those lines with bop-like accents. Is that a form of bop? It\u2019s close. In a blindfold test in the May 1958 issue of&nbsp;<em>Metronome<\/em>, Nat Cole himself, hearing Lennie Tristano\u2019s \u201cBlue Boy,\u201d mistook it for Previn. (Cole was not all that enthusiastic, saying that Previn was \u201ca greater musician than a jazz musician\u201d.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, Previn is embracing the post-Kenton possibility of modernist piquancy. There\u2019s a little detail in \u201cSlow Boat to China\u201d that\u2019s emblematic of Previn\u2019s own-terms assimilation of the West Coast and bebop styles: the brief break in between the statement of the tune and Previn\u2019s improvised choruses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Previn-Slow-Boat-break-1024x358.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-97\" width=\"512\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Previn-Slow-Boat-break-1024x358.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Previn-Slow-Boat-break-300x105.png 300w, https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Previn-Slow-Boat-break-768x269.png 768w, https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Previn-Slow-Boat-break-1200x420.png 1200w, https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Previn-Slow-Boat-break.png 1344w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 85vw, 512px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is\u00a0<em>almost<\/em>\u00a0but not quite a twelve-tone aggregate. One can imagine another West Coast pianist going the extra mile and coming up with a truly dodecaphonic riff, or lifting something from Nicolas Slonimsky\u2019s\u00a0<em>Thesaurus of Musical Scales and Patterns<\/em>, or the like.\u00a0A bebop player might end up with such a chromatic collection by way of stretching a dominant-seventh chord or replacing chords in a progression with substitutes transposed a tritone away. But Previn is neither schematically expanding the pitch field or structurally reworking the harmonic scaffolding. Instead, he\u2019s taking the<em>\u00a0sound<\/em> produced by such maneuvers and reframing it as an almost classical-style ornament, <em>melodically <\/em>shifting up and down by steps and half-steps, rather than <em>harmonically<\/em> shifting up and down by, say, tritones\u2014the B-major triad in the middle of that riff is functioning less as a tritone-away replacement for F than a shimmering half-step embellishment of the C-major-triad collection that immediately precedes it. Chromatic-neighbor moves like this, in various guises, will show up often in Previn\u2019s jazz playing and arranging. One can almost think of it as Previn\u2019s way of reconciling the vocabularies of bebop and its progeny with the essentially decorative approach to jazz harmony and elaboration that he learned from Tatum and Cole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-dark-gray-background-color has-dark-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lyle Murphy:&nbsp;<em><strong>12-Tone Compositions &amp; Arrangements by Lyle Murphy<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;(Contemporary, 1955; re-released in 1957 as&nbsp;<em><strong>Gone with the Woodwinds!<\/strong><\/em>) (recorded August, October 1955)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think this is a key document of the musical milieu in 1950s California, not so much for its content (fascinating as it is), but, rather, for the number of threads\u2014of style, of practice, of personnel\u2014that it gathers together. In the first place, it is emblematic of the vogue for systematic composition that touched both the jazz and film-composing worlds at the time. First there was Joseph Schillinger\u2019s System of Musical Composition; then there was Arnold Schoenberg, who took up residence in Los Angeles in the 1930s, where his students included film-music types including Oscar Levant and David Raskin; and then there were further innovations, like Schoenberg pupil George Tremblay\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Definitive Cycle of the Twelve-Tone Row<\/em>&nbsp;or George Russell\u2019s influential Lydian Chromatic Concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lyle \u201cSpud\u201d Murphy, a reed player who pivoted into writing big-band charts (most notably for Benny Goodman) and then worked as a studio and film-music arranger, was one of the most interesting of these figures, and one who made the biggest splash in the West Coast jazz scene. He was a generation older than most of the practitioners and, thanks to his theoretical and pedagogical bent, became a kind of guru to a number of jazz and film composers in the LA movie-and-records ecosystem. After finishing a four-volume treatise on&nbsp;<em>Modern Arranging<\/em>, Murphy published&nbsp;<em>Creating New Sounds in Music with a 12-Tone System&nbsp;<\/em>in 1949 (a precursor to the \u201cEqual Interval System\u201d that would become Murphy\u2019s magnum opus).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Murphy-12-tone-wheel-1949-749x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-98\" width=\"375\" height=\"512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Murphy-12-tone-wheel-1949-749x1024.jpg 749w, https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Murphy-12-tone-wheel-1949-219x300.jpg 219w, https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Murphy-12-tone-wheel-1949-768x1050.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Murphy-12-tone-wheel-1949-1123x1536.jpg 1123w, https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Murphy-12-tone-wheel-1949-1200x1641.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Murphy-12-tone-wheel-1949.jpg 1430w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 375px) 85vw, 375px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The numbers on the album are all written or arranged according to the system (with one of the originals, the 5\/4 \u201cTriton,\u201d actually appearing in Murphy\u2019s book as an example). It all seems fairly punctilious, but the&nbsp;players\u2014Buddy Collette, Russ Cheever, Jack Dumont, Chuck Gentry, and Abe Most on winds, with a rhythm section of Previn, Manne, and bassist Curtis Counce\u2014find the grooves, making a stronger-than-usual case for this sort of rarified jazz. Previn, in particular, is on point throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube contain-video wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lyle Murphy - Gone with the Woodwinds! 1955 (FULL ALBUM)\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rzs3nMlrXE0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previn would never adopt any strict compositional system, steering clear of dodecaphony (though he did <a href=\"https:\/\/nmbx.newmusicusa.org\/andre-previn-how-lucky-i-am-now\/\">admit<\/a>, many years later, to cribbing a row from George Tremblay.) He was too curious and eclectic at heart, and plenty prolific by his own devices. But the sort of high-concept approach to arranging epitomized and crystallized here was already informing Previn\u2019s approach to jazz, in a more casual but still crucial way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This, it should be noted, was Previn\u2019s first recording for Lester Koenig\u2019s Contemporary Records, the quintessential West Coast jazz label in the 1950s and early 60s. Previn would soon become one of the label\u2019s marquee artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-dark-gray-background-color has-dark-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mel Torm\u00e9:&nbsp;<em><strong>It\u2019s a Blue World<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;(Bethlehem, 1955) (recorded August 1955)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A host of arrangers worked on this collection from the Velvet Fog: Marty Paich, Russ Garcia, Al Pellegrini (who also conducted). Previn\u2019s sole contribution, a glossy mid-tempo version of the Gershwins\u2019 \u201cHow Long Has This Been Going On?,\u201d walks up to the door of a swinging beat without ever ringing the bell, but the way it keeps the rhythm simple and broad, giving Torm\u00e9 room to gently dance around the melody, anticipates strategies Previn will utilize on the easy-listening records he\u2019ll make in the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube contain-video wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mel Torme - How Long Has This Been Going On\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OHiELlxEIKs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-dark-gray-background-color has-dark-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Betty Bennett:&nbsp;<em><strong>Nobody Else But Me<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;(Atlantic, 1955) (recorded&nbsp;September, October&nbsp;1955)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rogers and Previn divided up the arrangements for this album, with Previn taking the ballads, but still lending piano to Rogers\u2019 more swinging, uptempo assignments. The two took joint credit on the Gershwins\u2019 \u201cTreat Me Rough.\u201d (One wonders who was responsible for that number\u2019s brief, bubbly scat-singing-and-horns chorus, one of the less predictable things on the record.) Previn\u2019s arrangements are straight out of the MGM playbook: lush, lilting, and making surprisingly resourceful use of his chosen instrumentation: two flutes, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, French horn, piano, harp, and bass. He takes the occasional solo in Rogers\u2019 charts, with his turn on \u201cYou Took Advantage of Me\u201d showing unmistakeable signs of a new referent: Oscar Peterson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube contain-video wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Treat Me Rough - Betty Bennett\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gVi-asWqaAk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Also, compare Previn\u2019s light-footed, Bacardi-silver \u201cSidewalks of Cuba\u201d on&nbsp;<em>Let\u2019s Get Away From It All<\/em>&nbsp;with Rogers\u2019 decidedly heavier, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ia7IKLidJ88\">Bacardi-gold version<\/a> here.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The liner notes, by critic and Bennett fan Ralph J. Gleason, offer a taste of the sort of critical jazz border patrol that will stalk Previn for years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote blockquotecustom is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>This album is no jazz album any more than Paul Whiteman\u2019s band was a jazz band for the presence of Bix and Tram and the others. But it has its jazz moments and all of them are not due to the singer herself, true jazz girl though she is. Included among the men on the date are a number of top flight jazz musicians\u2014who are also top flight studio musicians, ready to cut anybody\u2019s charts at a moment\u2019s notice&#8230;. Despite the presence of these men, it is not a jazz album.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This was the last time Previn would&nbsp;appear on record with Rogers.&nbsp;But&nbsp;Shelly Manne, who played drums on Rogers\u2019 arrangements, would soon become&nbsp;Previn\u2019s favorite&nbsp;partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/1953-54\/\">\u2190 <em>Previous: 1953-54<\/em><\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/1956-2\/\"><em>Next: 1956<\/em> \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A movie-studio maven, deep in the West Coast style. John Graas:&nbsp;Jazz Studio 3&nbsp;(Decca, 1955) (recorded&nbsp;January&nbsp;1955) French horn player and composer John Graas, another Kenton stalwart, was the headliner on volumes 2 and 3 of the 6-volume&nbsp;Jazz Studio&nbsp;series, a somewhat obscure but important document of the more cerebral side of West Coast jazz. Previn plays on &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/1955-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;1955&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-50","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":541,"href":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50\/revisions\/541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}