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Neal Hefti-- comedian?


medjuck

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I've been listening to a lot of the AFRS Jubilee shows (I've downloaded about 150 of them) while I work out or drive to LA.  This morning I listened to one from May 1948 featuring "The Neal Hefti Quartet": Hefti on trumpet, Joe Mondragon bass, Blnky Garner drums and Jimmy Rowles piano.  They back a couple of singers (including Hefti's wife Fran Warren) during which Hefti plays some nice obbilgates (sp?)  and Rowles, of course is great.  They also play two numbers on their own.  Hefti    introduces the first one as "untitled" and claims it's from a Woody Herman arrangement that was introduced on "The ramp of the Burbank Theater".  It turns out to be "I'm Looking Over a 4 Leaf Clover"  which they play cornily and during which Hefti vocalizes by repeating the fiirst line over and over.  It's hard to listen to and not funny.  

The second number is introduced as "Channel One" supposedly in homage to a local radio station but what they then play is Moose the Mooche and they play it well.  

A lot of the humor on these shows is dated (though some of it's pretty funny still) but this is some of the  of the worst attempts at humor I've heard on the entire series.  Maybe they were all stoned. 

 

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