Fluter's Ball: Flutes Revealed

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Last November, I posted on Henry Mancini's Fluter's Ball, a wistful song with four flutes from his score for the suspense-thriller Experiment in Terror (1962). The problem at the time of my post is that the personnel on the session was never captured, so there was no way of knowing who the flutes were.  Soon after my post, Los Angeles composer and arranger Roy Phillippe wrote and offered to track down at least the four flutists. Here's Roy's note:

"I recently had a chance to speak with guitarist Bob Bain, who recorded often with Henry Mancini. He played one of two autoharps on Experiment In Terror. He said Jack Marshall played the other, which was de-tuned a quarter step. Bob also played rhythm guitar on the source cues and remembered playing on Fluter's Ball. He said the four alto flutists were Ethmer Roten, who worked with Hank at Universal in the early days, Ted Nash, Ronny Lang and Gene Cipriano." [Photo above of Roy Phillippe and the late Henry Mancini; for more on Roy, go here]

Mystery solved! A big thanks to Roy Phillippe. [Photo above of Bob Bain]

Here's Fluter's Ball...

Bob Bain also was the guitarist behind Audry Hepburn when she sang Moon River in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). To read about the making of the track, go here. Here's Bob illustrating how he played Moon River...

And here's Audry Hepburn singing in the film with Bob's guitar, followed by one of the finest "hi's" in movie history...

Used with permission by Marc Myers