© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
The editorial
staff at JazzProfiles’ recent “discovery” of the following article about
pianist-vocalist-composer Bobby Troup in the November 1954 edition of Theme
Magazine prompted this return visit to archived features of both he and
his wife, vocalist Julie London. You’ll find these earlier pieces plus related
photographs and videos following this article by Herbert Kimmel. By the way, we
think you’ll love the story about how the tune Route 66 came about.
© - Herbert Kimmel/Theme Magazine, copyright
protected; all rights reserved.
Bobby Troup – A Boyish Grin and A Roadmap
“Imaginative press
agents spend their sleepless nights dreaming up stories like this for their
clients:
"It happened
in the winter of 1946 at the old Trocodero out on the Sunset Strip. It was
after closing time and the last of the partying night club crowd had finally
drift-ed out into the sleeping city. A few tired musicians were packing their
instruments away for the night, talking very softly.
A nervous young
man, still wearing the deep tan acquired during five years in the South Pacific
as a Marine captain, was being introduced to King Cole. The fellow making the
introduction, who seemed to be the young man's agent, was saying, "Nat,
this is the song-writer I was telling you about. The one who wrote Daddy. Remember
?" King Cole nodded. "Bobby just got in from back east and I want you
to hear some of his tunes before anyone else gets a chance.” Then, the agent
turned to his protege, "How about playing a few songs, Bob?"
The young man bit
his lip as he approached the bandstand. He knew it was foolish for him to be
so jittery, but he couldn't talk himself out of the feeling. As if this were
his first big chance! He remembered how nervous he had been that time in
Philly, when he was just a twenty-year-old college kid. His friend, Kurt Weiler,
had telephoned him to say that Sammy Kaye had heard his song, "Daisie
Mae," being played by Kurt's small band at the Embassy Club and wanted to
record it.
Still, as he
adjusted the piano stool, he was jittery.
His hands felt cold and stiff as he placed them on the keyboard. This was a
little different from having your song played by your friend's band. He decided
to shout the works and play his best tune first. At the instant he played the
opening chord the stool slipped off the platform supporting it, and stool,
platform, and song-writer tumbled over backwards, all three ending up in a heap
behind the bandstand. What a way to make an impression! But, when he had gotten
back on his feet and re-arranged the stool, he realized that his
vaudeville-type spill had broken the tension. Now his hands felt warm; his
fingers were looser.
When the first
tune was finished, King Cole said he liked it, but wanted to hear some others.
Bobby played every song he had ever written, without satisfying Cole. Finally,
in desperation, he said, "Look, I wrote twelve bars in the car yesterday,
kind of a blues idea. Maybe you'll like it.' He had thought of the tune while
driving across the desert on highway 66. It had never even been played on a
piano before. Cole loved it as soon as he heard it. He told Bob to finish it
and bring it back the next night.
As simple as that.
All he had to do was compose a song overnight. The next morning he went to a
gas station and got a road-map. Then he went from rehearsal hall to rehearsal
hall at CBS, using any unoccupied pianos he could find. By the time the next
night rolled around, "Route 66" had been completed. The rest is history.'
The only
difference between this story and a press agent's dream is that this one is
true. The remarkable thing about Bobby Troup's career is the fact that the
same boyish ingenuousness which characterized his piano-fall that night back in
1946 is still noticeable in him every time he sits down to play. Not that he
makes a habit of falling off the stool. Simply, he has never thought of
himself any differently. Putting it in corny words, he just hasn't let success
go to his head.
Even after having
composed such nationwide hits as "Daddy" (nee "Daisy Mae")
and "Route 66," Bobby still found that the going could be pretty
rough. The world of Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael doesn't have room for
people who produce one or two big hits and expect to loaf around while the
money pours in. Bobby knew this. For six years after Route 66 he devoted all of
his energy to two things, composing new songs and trying to assemble a
successful trio. He produced everything, from straight ballads to zany
novelties like "Triskaidekaphobia," "The Three Bears," and
"Hungry Man." Recording artists such as Sarah Vaughan, Lea Brown and
The Page Cavannaugh Trio waxed his tunes.
But none of them
seemed to click real big. His first trio had a quaint, folksy sound, hut
offered very little new in the way of entertainment. Listening to this group
gave you the feeling that the musicians were all such nice friendly boys who
were always smiling. But this wasn't enough to keep the strangers coming in.
The group found its way into almost every cocktail lounge in Los Angeles El Monte
After successful
bookings at the Parrot's Cage and The Kings in Hollywood Dave Brubeck Quartet when they were in Hollywood
Three other recent
happenings have helped to place the Troup star higher than it has ever been.
With the encouragement and assistance of his friend, Johnny Mercer, Bobby has
become a permanent panelist on the KTTV musical quiz-variety show, Musical
Chairs. Along with Mercer, and master-of-ceremonies Bill Leydon, Bobby spends
his Friday evenings visiting millions of living rooms, via television, singing
songs and clowning around in general. In addition to the regular panelists
named above, each week finds another glamorous feminine star sitting in as
guest panelist along with a male personality. Recent weeks have seen songful
June Christy, lovely Carol Richards, funny-man Dave Barry and the popular Mel Blanc lend
their talents to the show.
The second new
push up the ladder was contrived with the help of Capitol Records. For a short
time last year Bobby tried his luck with a small band. The Septette's first
week at the embers in North Hollywood was so successful that Capitol decided to record it before the
group disbanded. The results of this session have been released on a
long-playing Bobby Troup album. The arrangements were written by Bob Enevoldsen
with a definite jazz concept in mind: to develop the four-reed idea which had
been so effective on Woody Herman's record of Early Autumn. The contrast
established between this sound and Bobby's whispery vocalizing is striking.
The album has sold so-well that Capitol has recorded additional sides for the
future.
Last of the three
new events, but far from least, are Bobby's newest song hits, "It Happened
Once Before" and "Julie, is Her Name." Writing songs was what
started Bob out into the world of entertainment, and in these tunes he
convincingly indicates that it is still his first love. There is warmth and
simplicity in the words and a fresh sound to the tunes. The funny side of the
story of these songs is the fact that they differ from Bobby's other big hits
in that they are romantic ballads. And this is its serious side also, because
underneath Bobby's boyish grin there is a world of simple, romantic idealism.
Which brings us to
the end of the story. Bobby Troup doesn't need a press agent to invent a tale
of rags-to-riches for him. He doesn't want anyone to think of him as being any
different from any other American kid, who went to college and had some fun,
had some luck at times and some tough breaks at others, got married and had two
lovely silken-haired daughters, and above all, worked hard for a long time to
get where he is now. As a matter of fact, when I asked him to give me a few
ideas on what to write about him, all he could think of to say was, "Just
say — Come into the Encore Restaurant and let me play a few songs for
them." And, truthfully, that's the only way to really get what I mean.”
Bobby Troup – Stars of Jazz
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
“About Bobby Troup...
He sang as though he had just
half a voice. No volume, it was all about confiding. Sometimes he croaked out
a line, next minute he'd released a word as though he was doubtful about
delivering it to the world at large. Bobby Troup never played to the gallery,
never went for the big one. Yet, despite - or rather because of - such
reluctance, allied to a lemon-twist quality that fell oddly on unaccustomed
ears, the man from Harrisburg ,
PA.
- Fred Dellar, Mojo Magazine
We wrote about
composer, pianist and vocalist Bobby Troop in an earlier feature about him and
Julie London which you can locate in the blog archives by going here.
Many of us first
“met” Bobby in the 1950s when he hosted the Emmy award wining ABC television
series, Stars of Jazz.
Can you imagine -
a regular, weekly series on a major television network devoted to Jazz?
It was cool and so
was Bobby.
Since it was based
in Los
Angeles school of Jazz
There are two
wonderful books on this subject: Ted Gioia , West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California Los Angeles
A number of years
ago, The California Institute of Jazz made available to those in attendance at
its Spring 1999 4-day festival celebrating West Coast Jazz , a wonderful CD of
the music from the Stars of Jazz series.
Ken Poston, the
director of the institute, wrote the following in the insert booklet which
accompanied the compendium:
“This anthology has been
assembled exclusively for JAZZ
WEST COAST II, presented by the California Institute for the Preservation of
Jazz. All of the material comes from various Bobby Troup Stars of Jazz
television broadcasts. Stars of Jazz debuted in the summer of 1956 on KABC, Los
Angeles
—Ken Poston
Incidentally,
Ken’s organization, which now carries the name – The Los Angeles Jazz Institute
[LAJI] – continues to sponsor semi-annual, four day festivals, as well as,
one-day commemorative events. You can find out more about these programs by
visiting Ken’s website at www.lajazzinstitute.com.
In addition to the
LAJI’s repository of goodies, Ray Avery, the late photographer and Jazz
recordings maven, was allowed to photograph the Stars of Jazz.
A compilation of
Ray photographs from these shows was published in 1998.
Cynthia T. Sesso,
who in her own right is a major authority on Jazz photography, licenses Ray’s
work along with the images of a number of other photographers who specialized
in Jazz.
Cynthia has been a
great friend to JazzProfiles over the years in allowing us to use photographs
by her clients on these pages.
You can find out
more about Cynthia and her work at www.ctsimages.com.
She may also have copies of Ray’s book about Stars of Jazz still
available for sale.
Her are some excerpts
from the book’s introduction regarding how Ray came to be involved with the
show and Bobby Troup’s role as contained in an interview that Ray gave to Will
Thornbury.
© - Cynthia T. Sesso/CTSimages, copyright
protected; all rights reserved.
“…, my photography
flowed naturally out of my involvement in my record store. At that time I
wasn't well known as a photographer. I just happened to be there and I had an
entrée because I was in the record business. Most of the small record companies
knew about me because I was carrying their product in my store, they would
invite me to record sessions. I was very seldom paid for a session, except if
they bought some photos. …
One day a friend
of mine asked if I'd seen "Stars Of Jazz" and I said I hadn't, so I
checked the newspaper and found out when it was going to be on. I just went
down, I think it was the second or third show, and I asked them if I could
photograph it. They were very friendly and said yes, of course, just be careful
and don't fall over any cords or walk in front of any cameras."
The host for all
but two Stars of Jazz episodes was Bobby Troup. He embodied the essence of the
show - straightforward, genuine and creative. Perhaps some of the show's
viewers from outside the jazz world were pulled in through Troup's
accessibility. He wore a crew cut. He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania
"Bobby was
the perfect man", notes Jimmie Baker. 'There were some people who wanted
to have a bigger name, but nobody else could do it. Nobody else had the appeal
that Bobby had." Avery adds, "Bobby was a good musician, had written
great songs and he could be a great master of ceremonies. That's a combination
they couldn't find in anyone else. He spoke really well - he didn't want any of
those corny jazz lines in the script, which was good. He was a really good
interviewer. He made people feel so comfortable when they were there. And of
course they respected him as a musician, many of the sets featured Bobby at the
piano."
"All the
musicians had so much faith in the presentation of "Stars of
Jazz"," Troup says. "They thought it was the best jazz show
they'd ever seen. Did you know the story of how "Stars of Jazz" got
started? Pete Robinson, Jimmie Baker, and Bob Arbogast were all jazz buffs. I
mean they really loved jazz, and there was this executive, Seligman, graduated
from Harvard, Phi Beta Kappa, and they were on him constantly to let them do
this jazz show. Finally just to get them out of his hair, he said 'OK, I'll
give you a studio, a camera, you have to write it, you have to arrange every
musician, no more than scale, and I'll give you three weeks to run the show.' The
first show was Stan Getz. And they screened quite a few people and for some
reason or another they picked me to be the host. I'm sure glad they did. Every
night was a highlight, every night. I did the show for scale, it amounted to
$60 maybe $70 a night. When we went network I got scale for network, which was
more."
Avery adds, "in
those days there weren't the camera men that there are today. Now you go to a
concert and there's fifty people with cameras, but before, maybe half a dozen
of us would show up. Consequently, the photos taken in my early period are the
ones that are in demand now because not many people have them."”
Ironically,
Seligman, who authorized Stars of Jazz and was very boastful
of the program when it won an Emmy Award, never supported the show for a
regular timeslot when it went national on ABC.
Despite the
critical acclaim it received, the show was cancelled of January, 1959 due to
“low ratings.” Seligman was also responsible for ordering that the tapes of the
130 episodes of Stars of Jazz be erased so that they could be reused. After
all, each tape cost $400. Of course, what was recorded on them was priceless!
I guess “Those
whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad?”
Mercifully, Jimmy
Baker of the show’s production team was able to save 35mm’s and 81 of the early
kinescopes, all of which now reside for posterity in the UCLA Film Library.
More of the music
from the series is available on a commercial RCA CD - Bobby Troup Stars of Jazz
[74321433962] - from which we’ve drawn the music for the following tribute.
In his insert
notes to the recording, Pete Robinson, one of the show’s producers, wrote the
following:
“It has been
observed that People Who Live in Glass Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones, and since
Bobby Troup's particular glass house is a collective one, consisting of 17- and
24-inch television screens the country over, it is most important that his
participation in the realm of jazz be exemplary. It is.
As one playing of
the enclosed collection will attest, Mister Troup's qualities of tempo,
intonation, taste and interpretation place him in good stead as a jazz singer
of considerable merit. Nominations in the Down
Beat and Playboy polls add
further to his vocal status.
These fans,
however, will come as no surprise to the initiated. Bobby's work has had more
than a little exposure on records. What IS new is the extraordinary group of
jazz musicians who herewith are represented in tandem with Troup. Bobby's
presence as narrator of ABC-TV's "Stars of Jazz" for the past three
years has found him rubbing elbows with players from every corner of jazz. (A
total of 714 of them at this writing, for those who find security in
statistics.)
It was, then, only
a matter of time until an elite group of these jazzmen should come together
with Troup for the purpose of recording. When Shorty Roger s and Jimmy Rowles became available to
provide arrangements, the time was ripe.”
The audio track on
the video is Bobby singing Free and Easy which
he co-wrote with Henry Mancini. The trumpet solos are by Pete and Conte Candoli
and Jimmy Rowles wrote the arrangement.
Julie London, Bobby
Troup and The China
[c] –Steven A. Cerra, Introduction,
copyright protected; all rights reserved.
The China Trader
is not there anymore.
Originally located
at 4200
Riverside Drive Toluca Lake South Sea islands and nautical theme with lots of tiki heads
and bamboo sprouting from every nook and cranny.
For a time it was
best known for being the birthplace of the Hawaiian
Eye drink [think Mai Tai].
The '60s detective,
ABC television show Hawaiian Eye was
filmed at Warner Bros. studios in nearby Burbank , CA
The Hawaiian Eye drink was concocted there
in their honor.
The Falcon Theater
is in The China Trader’s place today.
There really is a
lake in Toluca Lake Toluca Lake
For many years,
composer, pianist and vocalist Bobby Troop held forth at The China Trader. He and his wife, actress and song stylist,
Julie London, were residents of Toluca Lake
Throughout most of
the 1970s, Bobby and Julie were in the cast of the hit NBC TV show, Emergency.
The popularity of the show only served to enhance the gatherings at The China Trader when Bobby was performing
there.
Bobby appeared
solo on Thursday and Sunday nights and with a trio on Friday and Saturday
nights.
Given his low-key
temperament, unassuming personality and acerbic wit, Bobby always kept the atmosphere
in the bar relaxed and cordial.
Julie dropped by
occasionally and when she did, their were always numerous pleadings for her to
sing, but she rarely did.
Bobby was one of
the most comfortable-in-his-own-skin musicians I ever knew. I first met him in 1962 when we were both
involved with the Surfside 6 television show; he as an actor, and me as a member
of the band that recorded the soundtrack for the series.
That year, I was
home on leave following boot camp and he came up to me in the studio and said:
“You’re a Marine.” When I quizzically looked at him following that remark, he
said: “I was a Captain in the corps for three years.”
Over the years, I
kept in touch with Bobby as The China Trader was a stone’s throw away from my
home. I even subbed as the drummer is
his trio on a few occasions.
With over 40 movie
and television appearances to his credit and a slew of royalty checks coming in
from songs he wrote like Route “66,”
Daddy and Lemon Twist, Bobby was
a very busy guy and a fairly well-off one, too. Good for him; not too many
musicians make more than a few schimolies
in the music “business.”
He was very
pleased and proud of writing the tune – The
Meaning of the Blues.
Interestingly,
when Julie was in the mood to sing during her visits to be with Bobby at The
China Trader, she invariably sang this tune.
I recently came
across a version of Julie singing The
Meaning of the Blues with an orchestra under the direction of Russ
Garcia. It’s from her album All
About the Blues which Bobby produced for Capitol [7243 5 38695 2 6] and
it forms the soundtrack to the following video tribute to her.
Here is an excerpt
from James Gavin’s insert notes to the
disc:
“LPs were her true
medium. The queen of the make-out album, London Liberty
