Jump to content

Charlie Ventura's rather bizarre "Caravan"


Larry Kart

Recommended Posts

Found this on an old Ventura RCA LP "It's All Bop To Me":
 

Who wrote this fairly crazy chart (it probably dates from 1949), and who is  the wordless  soprano vocalist? Johnny Mandel, Al Cohn, and Manny Albam are in the band, but doesn't sound like anything I've heard from the first two. Maybe Albam in a playful and/or eccentric mood?

BTW, the tracks on album by Ventura's very popular regular group of the time -- Conte Candoli, Boots Mussulli, Benny Green, Roy Kral, Jackie Cain, Kenny O'Brien, and Ed Shaugnessy are quite good in Ventura's "Bop for the People" mode. The Chu Berry-inspired Ventura had great time, though one wishes the other soloists had more room (Green is in fine form), O'Brien was an attractively springy bass player, and Shaugnessy was his bubbly swinging self.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That sounds right, where did you get that info? Anything linkable, for further study?

I heard the tuba and was thinking maybe Gil, but Gil has been so well documented I figured nothing like this would have not been readily-known.

Wonder what else Russell got recorded from this time, beside the Dizzy & DeFranco works?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20110928/330619393995.jpg

Ventura's "Caravan" was an outtake from the RCA Victor album Charlie Ventura Plays Duke Ellington, originally issued in 1950 as three 78s/three 45s. I have the 78 version. I assume that RCA considered "Caravan" too weird to include on the original album. The other arrangements, which I think are by Manny Albam with perhaps some by Al Cohn, are much more conventional. "Sophisticated Lady" has just enough unusual moments that I suspect it might also be a Russell arrangement, although it's far more conventional than "Caravan."

RCA Victor issued a whole series of these "Designed for Dancing" albums at the time, each spotlighting the music of a single composer. The others I can think of off the top of my head are Claude Thornhill Plays George Gershwin and Erskine Hawkins Plays W.C. Handy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, jeffcrom said:

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20110928/330619393995.jpg

Ventura's "Caravan" was an outtake from the RCA Victor album Charlie Ventura Plays Duke Ellington, originally issued in 1950 as three 78s/three 45s. I have the 78 version. I assume that RCA considered "Caravan" too weird to include on the original album. The other arrangements, which I think are by Manny Albam with perhaps some by Al Cohn, are much more conventional. "Sophisticated Lady" has just enough unusual moments that I suspect it might also be a Russell arrangement, although it's far more conventional than "Caravan."

RCA Victor issued a whole series of these "Designed for Dancing" albums at the time, each spotlighting the music of a single composer. The others I can think of off the top of my head are Claude Thornhill Plays George Gershwin and Erskine Hawkins Plays W.C. Handy.

That's funny, given that the 1945 Caravan that Duke made for RCA is every bit as unconventional as this one!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeff has the music, and has the ears to tell what's what. Jepsen credits George Russell (also credited as playing Tambourines) and George Williams as the arrangers. I'm not familiar with much of Mr. Williams' work but, from what I read, he probably was a more conventional arranger than George Russell.

Edit - no mention of the soprano vocalist in Jepsen.

Edited by paul secor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The two preceding Ventura sessions have Betty Bennett and Beverley Brooks as vocalists, if that helps. Have a Fresh Sound reissue of the Victor LP It's All Bop To Me that included Caravan, will give it a spin tomorrow. 

Edited by mikeweil
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, paul secor said:

Jeff has the music, and has the ears to tell what's what. Jepsen credits George Russell (also credited as playing Tambourines) and George Williams as the arrangers. I'm not familiar with much of Mr. Williams' work but, from what I read, he probably was a more conventional arranger than George Russell.

Edit - no mention of the soprano vocalist in Jepsen.

I should say that my comments about Albam and Cohn were strictly guesses - I didn't know about the George Williams credit. But, yes, "Sophisticated Lady" has some interesting, unconventional passages, along with more conservative sections.

Edited by jeffcrom
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 26.5.2016 at 3:59 AM, Larry Kart said:

I've been told authoritatively that the other arrangements are all by George Williams, a fairly conventional writer (as Paul Secor said) who made an album or more for RCA in the mid-'50s.

IIRC he did a Jimmy Lunceford tribute album (which was reissued fairly regularly), and he also did an album "The Fox in Hi-Fi" on Brunswick in 1955 or so which is quite sumpin' else (unless you like your 50s jazz all "highbrow" throughout). Stellar line-up of jazzmen doing an R&B-tinged album in the vein of the jazzmen-studded orchestras providing backing for many R&B tour packages or recording for the Alan Freed movies or of the Westcoasters/Eastcoasters on the "Boots Brown & His Blockbusters/Dan Drew's Daredevils" on RCA Groove. This album was circulated widely and I have (favorable) reviews of the album (and the EPs taken from it) from Germany, France and Sweden and the gist of all their praises is that "if you have to have rock'n'roll, play it like this and with musicianship like this." Signs of the times ... ;)

Conventional by modern jazz standards but "far out" and rough & uncouth by dance band standards ... :D

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Still a dance floor filler in certain circles. ;)

 

And then ...

 

 

Most notable names in the (collective) lineup are Chris Griffin, Ernie Royal, Taft Jordan, Jonah Jones, Red Allen, Charlie Shavers, Tots Mondello, Eddie Bert, Bart Varsalona, Kai Winding, Urbie Green, Lennie Hambro, Al Klink, Sam The Man Taylor, Ernie Caceres, George Barnes, Eddie Safranski, Harry Jaeger, Cozy Cole, Mickey Baker, Oscar Pettiford, Panama Francis.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...