Two Hi-Los Questions

[JSngry]

• Did they ever do a studio version of "Lazy Afternoon"? I heard something on the radio that sounded like them, but couldn't be sure. Pretty damn amazing, whoever it was.
  
• Who played lead trumpet on their Starlight sessions? I'm guessing maybe Conrad Gozzo, but whoever it was, was NUTS!
  

I ask here because I seem to remember the noble M.I.A. hero Bill Fenohr answering a Hi-Los question on Board Krypton. Whether he did so from memory or from discographical consultation, I don't know, but if it was the latter, then there's hope here!

As always, thanks in advance!

(P.S. The very least that Mosaic can do to make amends to the Musical Gods for that abominable Four freshman set is to do some kind of Complete Hi-Los Starlight set. I think it would make a Select, sizewise. Forget the Hi-Los on Columbia, that shit's a relative drag for the most part - music for Singers Unlimited fans, if you know what I mean. The Starlight stuff, otoh, is WACK. Uncomfortably androgynous, insufferably "cute" at times, and undeniably "white" at all times, but all that's more than compensated for by things - usually in the same song! - that are just plain gonzo!)

[brownie]

• Did they ever do a studio version of "Lazy Afternoon"? I heard something on the radio that sounded like them, but couldn't be sure. Pretty damn amazing, whoever it was.
  
• Who played lead trumpet on their Starlight sessions? I'm guessing maybe Conrad Gozzo, but whoever it was, was NUTS!
  

The Hi-Los recorded a version of 'Lazy Afternoon' on their 1980 album 'Now' for MPS.

No idea on the identification of the trumpet player on their Starlight sessions. The discographies list no personnel.

There is a splendid version of 'Lazy Afternoon' by Jackie and Roy on their Storyville album '...Jackie and Roy' with Kral on piano, Barney Kessel, Red Mitchell and Shelly Manne.

I'ld like a Mosaic select of the Jackie and Roy albums on Storyville and ABC.

Long favorites of mine. I'ld buy that Select ahead of the Hi-Los one...

[JSngry]

I did not know that the Hi-Los recorded for MPS!

This must have been some "reunion" album in the wake of the Singers Unlimited success?

Thanks, Brownie.

[ghost of miles]

There is a splendid version of 'Lazy Afternoon' by Jackie and Roy on their Storyville album '...Jackie and Roy' with Kral on piano, Barney Kessel, Red Mitchell and Shelly Manne.

I'ld like a Mosaic select of the Jackie and Roy albums on Storyville and ABC.

Long favorites of mine. I'ld buy that Select ahead of the Hi-Los one...

Me too, Brownie! I'd like to do a Jackie & Roy show, actually...

Jim, thanks for stimulating my interest in the Hi-Lo's. One of our local DJs played their "April in Fairbanks" song this past spring, providing me with a much-needed laugh during some difficult times. I'll look into their Starlight work.

[GA Russell]

Jim, I have an MPS CD entitled Two Originals, which is made up of two albums: Back Again from 1979 and The Hi-Lo's Now from 1981. Your guess that it was a post-Singer Unlimited reunion was correct. Perhaps you can order that CD from your favorite importer.

I saw The Hi-Lo's in Atlanta in the mid-90s, and they still sounded great.

[JSngry]

Thanks for that info, GA. I'll look for that.

Ghost, as far as the Starlite (my spelling was off originally) stuff goes, there is no complete collection as far as I know, but the set that I have is a frustratingly good/incomplete compilation. It's this one:

and should be readily available.

Although, this one

was supposedly reissued in 2003 on Universal U.K.

No matter. Given your appreciation of the Miller AAF band, I think, hopefully, that you'll have no problem whatsoever in hearing this stuff the same way I do. Not as "jazz" per se, but as something else, something that refers to jazz, but isn't really it.

Whatever "it" may or may not be, however, there's no denying that Gene Puerling's vocal arrangements on this stuff are more often than not nothing short of audacious, both technically and creatively. I'm tempted to say that in terms of having a total lack of concern for the "meaning" of conventionality while simultaneously using and exploiting all of its elements, he ranks right up there with Joe Zawinul of the middle-period Weather Report era. But if I said that, it might create a false sense of expectation. Nevertheless, let me go on record that if Zawinul had been a commercial vocal arranger in mid 1950s L.A., he and Puerling would have been most kindred spirits.