Tommy Shepard and Richard Wess - Jazz and Swing Orchestras: East Coast Series

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

The band on Shepard's Flock is an—almost—All-Star band. It was the

debut album of trombonist Tommy Shepard, who made a name for himself in the bands of Ben Bernie, Wayne King, Buddy Clark, and Stan Kenton, before joining the CBS staff orchestra.

The leader of these sessions is then, naturally, heavily featured on trombone, playing with the soft, velvety sound of Tommy Dorsey, his main influence. The memories of Dorsey's band frequently illuminate the scene, as the musicians load through familiar material and some originals. There is plenty of room for soloing by an authoritative Al Cohn, on tenor and bass clarinet, by Hal McKusick on clarinet and alto, and by the versatile Nick Travis on trumpet, all supported by a good rhythm section with Nat Pierce, piano; Barry Galbraith, guitar; Milt Hinton, bass; and Osie Johnson, drums, who keep the mainstream flowing to the end. The arrangements, which stress tight harmonic writing, are all by Manny Albam and Nat Pierce, except Darn That Dream and Stop! Look and Run  which were worked out by Al Cohn, and keep in a rolling, relaxed groove.

Music She Digs the Most is a well-organized series of sessions arranged and con-dueled by pianist Richard Wess, and highlighted by some fluid soloing by tenor saxophonist Al Cohn. trombonist Frank Rehak. and trumpeter Nick Travis. Wess has Cabin in the Sky all to himself, and ho comes off as a flowing and sensitive player. Cohn. always blowing with taste and a handsome tone; Travis sounds great throughout, particularly on Lover Man, a moving and declarative solo vehicle for his horn. Rehak managed to express himself effectively, and Richard Wess' writing on the heads is neat and spare, and helps the group achieve a nice big band feel.               —Jordi Pujol, Fresh Sound Records

“The great thing about these predominantly 1950s recordings is that many of them fall under the rubric of a "Day in the Life" of a West Coast or East Coast studio musician. You can hear the musicians and the arrangers literally learning their craft; making themselves as they go. These are essentially rehearsal bands that got a recording contract for a one-off album on minor labels like Corral, Cadet, Dot, et al, but much of the music is first-rate as is the musicianship.”

- The editorial staff at JazzProfiles

Writing in 1986, Steve Voce in his fine book about the various Woody Herman Big Bands observed:

“Despite the never ending questions about the possibility of their return, the big bands never really went away. Admittedly they were crushed by heavy taxes and the advent of television in the second part of the forties, but the format proved resilient and there are probably more big bands today than there were during the golden era of big bands in the forties.” [p. 30; emphasis mine].

As if to corroborate Steve’s point, Jordi Pujol, the owner proprietor of Fresh Sound Records is currently issuing a series of Jazz and Swing Orchestra CDs while noting as a general introduction to the series:

“When the dust from the collapse of the Swing Era settled, there were few big bands left that had survived. Yet, because they loved the swinging drive of a full-on jazz orchestra, a series of adventurous and unsung bandleaders optimistically organize some fine, but short-lived, new orchestras that were packed with jazz and studio musicians, holding the flag of Swing high”

Jordi has place two Jazz and Swing Orchestras on each CD and further group these “rare and collectible albums by unsung bandleaders” as part of the West Coast Series and East Coast Series.

From the standpoint of the high quality of musicianship on display and the intriguing and well-written arrangements, these are “must have” CDs for anyone who is a serious collector of big band Jazz and you can locate more information about the series on the Fresh Sound website by going here.

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles will highlight a number of these excellent recordings in a week long series beginning with Fresh Sound CD-966 East Coast Series: Tommy Shepard, Shepard’s Flock and Richard Wess: Music She Digs The Most.

Original liner notes from the Coral album Shepard's Flock by Tommy Shepard and His Orchestra (CRL 57110)

“If you have a philosophic turn of mind, there is an unending source of wry amusement in the way that fate seems to keep the scales of humanity balanced. This extends from the rise and fall of nations, at one extreme, to — on a somewhat less momentous level — the development and succession of musicians and musical styles. Nature's abhorrence of a vacuum continues to draw something or someone to the center of the stage whenever it becomes vacant.

The point happens to be pertinent because you hold in your hand a record featuring a trombonist named Tommy Shepard. Chances are you've never heard of Tommy Shepard. But Tommy has been around for a long time (we'll take up his early history a little farther along) just as though fate had kept him standing in the wings waiting for the opportune moment to allow him to step on the stage.

You will find, as you play this record, that Tommy has a trombone technique that is very much like that of another trombone playing Tommy, the late Tommy Dorsey. In fact, it takes no very deep probing to realize that Tommy Shepard has steeped himself in the school and style of Tommy Dorsey. And this may account in part for the time that he has put in waiting in the wings. For when anyone has mastered his art as thoroughly and uniquely as Tommy Dorsey did, there is really no room for a road show version. Either it's the big show or nothing.

And now we come to the obscure moves of fate. The selections you hear on this record are not the product of a rush job following Tommy Dorsey's death when it might seem that the path was now open for a successor to his sweet, soaring style. These recordings were made six weeks before Dorsey died, at a time when there seemed no slight suggestion that he might be near the end of the road. They were made because Tommy Shepard was then deemed ready to move out onto the national scene on his own and it is only by one of life's strange, but frequent, coincidences that he is emerging on records just after his musical guide and model has left the scene.

Tommy Shepard has been playing trombone since his junior year in high school. The next year he won a national solo contest and by the time he was 19 he was on the road with Ben Bernie. After twelve months with the Old Maestro, he enlisted in the Army and played in a variety of Army bands, finally winding up with Wayne King's star-studded group at Fort Sheridan, IL, where he played for two years, making V-Discs, working bond rallies and generally supporting the nation's spirits.

Released from service in 1946, he settled down in Chicago where he has been most of the time since, working first at the Chez Paree, then on the National Broadcasting Company staff, the American Broadcasting Company staff and, currently, the Columbia Broadcasting System staff where he is under the musical aegis of Caesar Petrillo.

While he was at ABC, Shepard was granted six months leave of absence in 1953 to join Stan Kenton on first trombone (his section mates were Frank Rosolino and Bill Russo). The invitation to join Kenton was an outgrowth of a rehearsal band that Tommy had formed in 1948. It was a big swinging band which gave some of the top studio musicians in Chicago a chance to unbend and blow to their heart's' content once a week. All the arrangements were contributed and the men in the band pitched in and paid for the rent of the rehearsal hall. Tommy kept the band going until 1953 when he went with Kenton.

It is interesting, in view of this association with Kenton, to find that Tommy's trombone playing has no trace of the big, wide braying style of the Kenton trombones but, rather, reflects the influence of an earlier day in jazz when Tommy Dorsey's smooth, velvet attack was impressing young musicians. This influence carries over to the instrumental makeup of the band that he leads here which is closer to that of the old Dorsey Brothers band of the 1930s than most bands that are heard today. There is even a parallel — coincidental, as it happens — between the title of one of the Dorsey Brothers' big numbers, Stop, Look and Listen, and a tune Shepard has chosen for this set, Stop! Look and Run!

The band that Shepard appears with in his recording debut is just about as all-star as one could ask for. The leader, naturally, is on trombone. The lone trumpet man is the versatile Nick Travis. The saxophone section is led by Sam Marowitz on alto and includes Hal McKusick, doubling on alto and clarinet, Al Conn, doubling on tenor sax and bass clarinet, and Charlie O'Kane on baritone. In the rhythm section are Nat Pierce, piano; Barry Galbraith, guitar; Milt Hinton, bass; and Osie Johnson, drums.

The arrangements, which stress tight harmonic writing, are all by Manny Albam and Nat Pierce, except Darn That Dream and Stop! Look and Run! which were worked out by Al Cohn. Nat Pierce arranged Take Care, I'll Be Back for More, Misty and Here I Am In Love Again. The choice of tunes reflects a balanced blend of some of the special lovelies of the standard popular repertoire, a few new shots at "pop" perpetuity, and a pair of originals by the indefatigable Manny Albam, Walk With Me and See How You Are.”

-John S. Wilson

Original liner notes from the MGM album Music She Digs the Most by Richard Wess and His Orchestra (E-3491)

“Here's "Music She Digs the Most" — music the gal of your dreams will find "the living end"! It's music that really swings — light, relaxed with a jumping yet subtle beat. Here you'll find a brace of well-remembered show tunes and movie hits neatly mixed with a few numbers that will be new to your ears—"originals" from the pen of talented pianist Richard Wess. The performances themselves are sparked with Dick's striking solo flights on the piano. In the accompaniments, he draws the support of some of today's top jazz instrumentalists. There's imagination a-plenty about the arrangements the group utilizes — everything is fresh, breezy, neatly-delineated. So, we think that you'll find that you, too, dig the "MUSIC SHE DIGS THE MOST", because—well—it really is "the most".

About Dick Wess

Dick was still a high school student when he began carving out a career for himself in music. Before graduation, he was holding forth on a radio show in his native Long Island with a 17-piece band- The Navy claimed him subsequently, but, upon his return to New York, he plunged into serious musical studies with Elmer Bernstein, the noted composer who wrote the much-hailed background score for the film "The Man With The Golden Arm", with the famous pianist Lennie Tristano, and with a host of other musical notables.

Soon, Dick found himself in demand as arranger, conductor, pianist and as a writer of special material for innumerable singers, night club acts, stage performers and so on. Among those he worked with were Denise Lor of the Garry Moore Show, Sally Blair, Dolores Hawkins, Buddy Marino, Joey Bishop, Larry Best and Alan Drake. He has conducted recording sessions for such artists as Nona Massey and Dick Roman—and, apart from these activities, he has appeared as a jazz pianist. After a wide tour of a string of the country's most famous hotels and niteries as accompanist to Betty Riley, who is known as "The Irish Senorita", Dick returned to New York to pen production numbers for the world-famous Latin Quarter. Then, for a time he teamed as arranger-conductor-pianist with Lillian Roth, appearing and sharing billing with her throughout the country. At the present time, Dick is settled in New York and plans to concentrate upon appearances as a pianist with a jazz group of his own. In addition to piano, he plays trumpet and drums.

The personnel appearing with Dick Wess in these recordings includes Jerry Sanfino on alto and flute, Al Cohn on tenor, Frank Rehak on trombone, Nick Travis on trumpet and Osie Johnson on drums. Johnny Smith provides the guitar for Autumn Leaves, Somewhere, Honest Abe, and Blues for Someone. Mundell Lowe is the guitarist for Hey Now!, I Got It Bad, Why Shouldn't I?, and Lover Man. Tony Mottola is the guitarist for I Didn't Know What Time It Was, Give Me the Simple Life, Cabin in the Sky, and You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To. Aaron Bell is the bass on Autumn Leaves, Somewhere, Honest Abe, and Blues for Someone and Milt Hinton carries the bass chores on the remaining eight numbers.”