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Neal Hefti


Teasing the Korean

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We don't seem to have a thread on Neal Hefti, so here it is.

Neal Hefti is an important figure in that he occupies an important middle ground between  jazz and mood music.

I guess "Cute" and "Li'l Darlin'" are his two most famous tunes.

Going through my LPs, I was surprised at how many Neal Hefti albums I have.  

Soundtracks:

  • The Odd Couple
  • Barefoot in the Park
  • Duel at Diablo
  • Synanon
  • Lord, Love a Duck
  • Sex and the Single Girl
  • How to Murder Your Wife
  • Oh Dad, Poor Dad
  • Harlow
  • Two of his RCA Batman albums, which strictly speaking are not soundtracks, but rather knockoff albums.

Absolute Music

  • Definitely Hefty
  • Li'l Darlin'
  • Jazz Pops
  • Basie Plays Hefti
  • Pardon My Doo-Wah
  • Sinatra & Swingin' Brass
  • Sinatra & Basie

I also had a 1950s album on RCA's Vik subsidiary - Concert Miniatures -  but I unloaded it because it was kinda L7.

Barefoot in the Park wonderfully captures that 1960s young-couple-in-the-city sound.

Among Hefti's absolute music, my two favorites are Li'l Darlin' and Jazz Pops.  Both albums find the Hefster working in Mancini-like territory, easy-breezy, with sophisticated, polite jazz touches.  

In retrospect, he should have scored a crime/private eye TV show circa 1960.  I wonder why that didn't happen for him.  

What are your thoughts on Neal Hefti, and which albums do you have?

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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24 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

As I recall, Neal Hefti wrote the theme for the 1960s tv series “Batman.” The royalties must have paid a few bills.

See the original post.

Hefti said that writing the Batman theme was one of the toughest assignments he ever had. 

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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1 hour ago, Gheorghe said:

Isn´t "Repetition" a Neil Hefti tune ? From Bird with Strings. But also a fantastic version of Cecil Payne on flute from 1976 for Muse. Li´l Darling I know from a Red Garland album. 

 

Yes, "Repetition" is a favourite - as well as the trumpet passage from Herman's "Caldonia". :excited:

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"Repitition" is included on Hefti's 1964 20th Century Fox album "Li'l Darlin," which has an ensemble with strings, flutes, and harpsichord.  

 

 

7 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

 Li´l Darling I know from a Red Garland album. 

This tune was pretty ubiquitous for a while in the states.  Everyone included it in their sets. 

This album was released in that most pivotal of years, 1964.

Could buyers of this album, listening to these arrangements, have had any idea that the Beatles would permanently ruin popular music?

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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8 hours ago, medjuck said:

I think that the second refrain in Splanky is iconic-- and I hate that word. 

Yes -- the shout chorus on Splanky was part of a group of arrangements by several writers (Foster, Wilkins) that helped codify the New Testament Basie sound. "Splanky" in particular has become such a part of the common language in jazz because you hear it all the time outside of a big band context  -- organ groups use as a shout chorus on innumerable blues tunes and soloists and/or rhythm sections quote it all time, often without knowing what the source.

Cued up here as a reminder ...

 

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

The definitive version of "Serenade in Blue."

 

Some really terrific charts on this LP -- "I'm Beginning See the Lights," "Tangerine" (particularly the second chorus), "I Get a Kick out of You." 

Edited by Mark Stryker
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58 minutes ago, Mark Stryker said:

Some really terrific charts on this LP -- "I'm Beginning See the Lights," "Tangerine" (particularly the second chorus), "I Get a Kick out of You." 

For all the attention that Frank's Capitol albums receive "Swingin' Brass" with Neal Hefti" and "Ring a Ding" with Johnny Mandel, both on Reprise, are two of the best albums he ever made.

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This is probably my favorite work by Neal Hefti:

R-12815042-1542879339-3134.jpeg.jpg

 

30 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

For all the attention that Frank's Capitol albums receive "Swingin' Brass" with Neal Hefti" and "Ring a Ding" with Johnny Mandel, both on Reprise, are two of the best albums he ever made.

I'm not familiar with either of those.  I'll check them out.  :tup 

 

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15 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

On second thought, a visit to You Tube tells me that album and Woods' contributions to it have dated quite a bit.

In what way and by what yardstick or point of reference? After all this was some 65 years ago. Two entire generations!
The fairly enthusiastic 4-star DB review by Nat Hentoff finds the originals and arrangements are "clean, unpretentios and have a lot of strength. Several of those are also staples in the Basie book and while these Hefti units don't play these scores with all of the charging joy the Basiemen do, they acquit themselves very well for units that are not regularly together." Not that this review needs to be the everlasting final word on it, but maybe it's the unpretentiousness that's "at fault"? ^_^

Which music hasn't "dated" (i.e. is a piece of its time to this or that extent) if you take CURRENT musical trends as the starting point?

 

16 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I guess "Cute" and "Li'l Darlin'" are his two most famous tunes.

With "Lil Darlin'" and its remakes covered (see above), here's a nod at "Cute" and its impact:

The small group version recorded by Horst Jankowski in 1961 was a staple on jazz radio in southern Germany for some 20 years or more. It was the signature tune of the "Treffpunkt Jazz" jazz concert re-broadcast show on SDR radio throughout the 70s and into the 80s, long after the LP with the original recording had been deleted everywhere and fallen by the wayside. So it must have been familiar to virtually every jazz listener in the southwest of Germany for at least 2 decades. It took me years from my start in the mid-70s until sometime in the early 80s when I got a cassette dub of the LP owned by the father of a neighbor friend to find out which recording this exactly was.

(Sorry, it doesn't seem to be on Youtube - it's on THIS LP:)

https://www.discogs.com/de/master/859789-Horst-Jankowski-G%C3%A4ste-Bei-Horst-Jankowski

 

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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14 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

I recall a mid-'50s Hefti LP on Epic, might have been "Hefti, Hot 'n' Hearty," that included a number of excellent solos from Phil Woods.

On second thought, a visit to You Tube tells me that album and Woods' contributions to it have dated quite a bit.

That was my thought with two Hefti albums I unloaded, Concert Miniatures (Vik) and The Band with the Young Ideas (Coral).

65 years later, it is hard to get into the mindset of someone who was doing work like this at that time, while trying to pay the rent and put food on the table.  I would guess Hefti was shooting for some sort of crossover appeal, which he obviously achieved to a certain degree.

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38 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

In what way and by what yardstick or point of reference? After all this was some 65 years ago. Two entire generations!
The fairly enthusiastic 4-star DB review by Nat Hentoff finds the originals and arrangements are "clean, unpretentios and have a lot of strength. Several of those re also staples in the Basie book and why these Hefti units don't play these scores with all of the charging joy the Basiemen do, they acquit themselves very well for units that are not regularly together." Not that this review needs to be the everlasting final word on it, but maybe it's the unpretentiousness that's "at fault"? ^_^

Which music hasn't "dated" (i.e. is a piece of its time to this or that extent) if you take CURRENT musical trends as the starting point?

 

With "Lil Darlin'" and its remakes covered (see above), here's a nod at "Cute" and its impact:

The small group version recorded by Horst Jankowski in 1961 was a staple on jazz radio in southern Germany for some 20 years or more. It was the signature tune of the "Treffpunkt Jazz" jazz concert re-broadcast show on SDR radio throughout the 70s and into the 80s, long after the LP with the original recording had been deleted everywhere and fallen by the wayside. So it must have been familiar to virtually every jazz listener in the southwest of Germany for at least 2 decades. It took me years from my start in the mid-70s until sometime in the early 80s when I got a cassette dub of the LP owned by the father of a neighbor friend to find out which recording this exactly was.

(Sorry, it doesn't seem to be on Youtube - it's on THIS LP:)

https://www.discogs.com/de/master/859789-Horst-Jankowski-G%C3%A4ste-Bei-Horst-Jankowski

 

I meant, to be more precise, that compared to other Woods solos from around the same time (and this was in general a good time for him IMO), they sound like rather formulaic "hot" solos at times.

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In fact I found the Coral LP (reissued on Jasmine and therefore widely accessible for the past 30+ years, contrary to others of his leader dates) rather middle-of-the-road-ish too and therefore was somewhat disappointed, compared to other charts he did in the 50s. But I don't think "dated" (with its derogatory meaning) would be the term. Even more adventurous and outright jazz-oriented big bands of the 50s do sound like products of their time and therefore "dated" with positive connotations.

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1 minute ago, Big Beat Steve said:

But I don't think "dated" (with its derogatory meaning) would be the term. Even more adventurous and outright jazz-oriented big bands of the 50s do sound like products of their time and therefore "dated" with positive connotations.

Popular music is not designed to have a long shelf life.  Dated is the norm, and timeless is the exception.  

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11 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

I meant, to be more precise, that compared to other Woods solos from around the same time (and this was in general a good time for him IMO), they sound like rather formulaic "hot" solos at times.

OK, that makes sense - not "dated" in the stricter sense but less adventurous and less freewheeling. Which just might reflect the "unpretentiousness" highlighted by Nat Hentoff (i.e. just straight-ahead music with no high-flying ambitions).

8 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Popular music is not designed to have a long shelf life.  Dated is the norm, and timeless is the exception.  

I agree, and to some extent this is the charm of it if you can get "into" that period. Wouldn't you wince (or cringe ;)) if a typical mid-60s crime "noir" movie were "updated" with a 2020s-ish soundtrack?

And this is why there are bands/orchestras out there that take their cues from music of the 30s, 40s, 50s or 60s and produce something that (while it is no soundalike carbon copy to fool blindfold test listeners) is unmistakably in the spirit of the era they chose but (obviously) with a somewhat modernized touch. Because even in the "retro" subculture time doesn't stand still.

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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For my taste, Hefti's the composer-arranger equivalent of a "singles band", albeit one with a ginormous number of quality hit singles, more than many. Post Herman, that is. That was a good time to be associated with that band.

Plus, he married (and stayed married) well, so excellent skill and judgement in that regard. No small feat that.

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36 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Here are a couple that I like to spin around Halloween.  Mr. Freeze:

Sewer Lady:

 

I didn't know if sewer lady did needlework or lived in underground piping. As the music sounds like dripping water, I guess it's the latter. :(

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2 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

OK, that makes sense - not "dated" in the stricter sense but less adventurous and less freewheeling. Which just might reflect the "unpretentiousness" highlighted by Nat Hentoff (i.e. just straight-ahead music with no high-flying ambitions).

I agree, and to some extent this is the charm of it if you can get "into" that period. Wouldn't you wince (or cringe ;)) if a typical mid-60s crime "noir" movie were "updated" with a 2020s-ish soundtrack?

And this is why there are bands/orchestras out there that take their cues from music of the 30s, 40s, 50s or 60s and produce something that (while it is no soundalike carbon copy to fool blindfold test listeners) is unmistakably in the spirit of the era they chose but (obviously) with a somewhat modernized touch. Because even in the "retro" subculture time doesn't stand still.

As for Hefti's writing on the aforementioned Epic album, maybe a better description than dated would be "generic of and for its time ... undistinctive -- in that respect unlike the writing on the later atomic Basie album from a few years later, which IMO has held up quite well over is it more than 60 years now? One could imagine that Hefti thought of the Epic charts as just another job, while the Atomic album had him on his toes.

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26 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

One could imagine that Hefti thought of the Epic charts as just another job, while the Atomic album had him on his toes.

The nature of the charts could have been influenced by a producer.  There must have been situations in a which a producer asked for something "jazzy, but not too wild or out there," and the arranger provided standard dance band fare.

By contrast, the 20th Century Fox album I noted above is clearly designed as an easy listening album, but the charts are pretty interesting. You can pay attention and not be bored, or have it on in the background and not be distracted.

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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