"(Count) Basie plays (Neal) Hefti" is the album - featuring 12 of Neal's great compositions and arrangements - played beautifully by the Count and his orchestra. This selection, "Cute" - is one of Neal's very famous instrumentals.
While Neal Hefti spent much of the 1940s working with the big bands (Woody Herman) and gaining his reputation as a first rate musician and arranger - and the 1950s working in the recording studios making his own albums, and arranging for many diverse singers such as The McGuire Sisters ("Sugartime"), Doris Day ("Bright And Shiny") and his own wife, vocalist Frances Wayne (her albums on Brunswick and Epic) - Neal hit his stride in the 1960s when he became a much in-demand movie soundtrack composer ("Harlow", "Sex And The Single Girl", "Barefoot In The Park", "The Odd Couple", "Batman", etc.).
Released on Roulette Birdland SR 52011 (Stereo). Produced by Teddy Reig. Arranged by Neal Hefti. Conducted by Count Basie.
Friday, December 8, 2017
Count Basie plays Neal Hefti
Friday, November 20, 2015
Harry James Plays Neal Hefti
By my count, there were four big-band albums that paid tribute to the pen of composer-arranger Neal Hefti between 1957 and 1961: Steve Allen Plays Neal Hefti (1957), Basie Plays Hefti (1958), Frank Capp's Percussion in a Tribute to Neal Hefti (1960) and Harry James Plays Hefti (1961). Or put differently, Hefti composed and arranged for four major bandleaders and had enough star power to get equal billing on the cover.
The Allen album is a smooth swinger; the Basie album is probably the best known and gave us Cute among other New Testament gems; and Capp's album is a punchy offering. But the James album is the tiger. Joining James were top-notch band veterans: Rob Turk, Nick Buono, Bud Billings, Vern Guertin (tp), Ray Sims, Dick "Slyde" Hyde (tb), Dick McQuardy (b-tb), Willie Smith, Pat Chartrand (as), Sam Firmature (ts), Modesto Breseno (ts,bar), Ernie Small (bar,fl,tb), Jack Perciful (p), Terry Rosen (g), Russ Phillips (b) and Tony DeNicola (d).
"I scored the ones that I thought would make the best balanced album—from slow tempos (Rainbow Kiss) to medium (Hot Pink and The Creeper) to mainstream jazz (Mister Johnson; Harry, Not Jesse; Tweet Tweet and Koo Koo) to gospel (Sunday Morning) to Latin (Fontainebleauand Chiarina). The reaction from Harry and the band was sensational and I breathed a sigh of relief for the first time in a month."
Harry James Plays Neal Hefti has the usual Hefti bounce and hooks, but it also gives you an opportunity to hear an exciting orchestra led by a leader with standards that were even higher than other leading bands. By the way, Hefti was no stranger to James. He played trumpet and arranged for James's 1948-'49 band, one of the best orchestras of the period.
JazzWax tracks: Your best bet for Harry James Plays Neal Hefti is 4 Classic Albums Plus here, which includes the album discussed as well as three other killers from the same period.
As for James's knockout 1949 band with arrangements by Neal Hefti, dig Harry James: There They Go here.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Neal Hefti: The Movie Years
Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com
turned out masterful bop, swing and film charts with a distinctly jaunty and jovial feel. In the 1940s, hisRepetition (1947) for Norman Granz and his bop charts for Harry James' band in 1949 are perfect examples. In the 1950s, his Verve and Roulette arrangements for Count Basie re-imagined the famed swing band—dropping a new, sportier, finger-snapping engine into the orchestra's instrumental chassis.
knew how to write simple, catchy melodies and bring strings together with horns and reeds in a way that kept the music hip and light. While Mancini's scores were always distinctly West Coast, Hefti's film music always remind me of New York. Or put differently, virtually all of Hefti's arrangements were for salty mating-game comedies that took place in New York.
colors were cherry and lime, buses were burnt orange and green, corners were occupied by hot dog counters, and, if you wanted a plane ticket, you bought one at the retail counters of different airlines located at street level on posh Fifth Ave.
movies were on the make. Guys wore Kennedy-blue suits, women wore stoles and form-fitting white dresses. Older men wore hats, older women carried small dogs and everyone knew how to mix a perfect Manhattan. As for the music, it almost always sailed in like a vermouth mist.How to Murder Your Wife (1965)...
Boeing Boeing (1965)...
Harlow (1965)...
Barefoot in the Park (1967)—I couldn't find the original recording but I did find a fabulous rendition by this guitarist...
Batman, Dual at Diablo, Oh Dad Poor Dad, Last of the Red Hot Lovers and A New Leaf. All have catchy themes either in waltz or swing time.Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Neal Hefti....
Born 29 October 1922, Hastings, Nebraska
Died 11 October 2008, Los Angeles, California
Sent home by Woody Herman when he tried to join Herman's Herd while still in high school, Hefti won performance competitions as a trumpeter and moved to New York City after graduation. Charlie Barnet hired him in 1940, but Hefti didn't hang around long, and over the next few years, he was in and out of Muggsy Spanier's, Earl Hines', Bobby Byrne's, and Charlie Spivak's bands. He quickly took up arranging as well, and one of his first pieces, "Pin Up Girl," was a hit for Horace Heidt.
He finally did get to work with Herman in 1944, and he became a "name" arranger of the late swing era with numbers like "The Good Earth" and "Wild Root". He moved to Los Angeles and worked in radio for a short while, then returned to the Herman Herd. After marrying Herman's lead girl singer, Frances Wayne, Hefti went back to Hollywood, but within a year, he was back on the road, touring with Harry James. In 1951, he formed his own band with Wayne as lead vocalist, but despite critical acclaim, the band barely broke even, and Hefti called it quits in 1953, returning to the security of arranging and taking studio work.
Among jazz fans, Heft is best remembered for his work with Count Basie's "New Testament" band--the big band he formed in the mid-1950s following a break of several years of working with just a small combo. Hefti actually began writing original compositions and arrangements for Basie during the small-group period, but his pieces such as "Little Pony," "Splanky," "Cute," "The Kid from Red Bank"--featured on the legendary The Atomic Mr. Basie album--have become jazz standards. "Lil Darlin'," which Basie slowed down even more than Hefti had intended, turning it into a languid, sexy slink, is probably the best known of his compositions next to "Batman." John Hendricks applied lyrics to "Little Pony" and it became one of Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross' biggest hits. Hefti also earned his place in the Politically Incorrect Hall of Fame by penning the unforgettably awful "Girl Talk" with Bobby Troup.
Hefti also recorded an occasional studio album during the late 1950s and early 1960s, while living in New York City. Two featured the Ray Charles Singers in arrangements of his own (Pardon My Doo-Wah) and others' (Singing Instrumentals) hits from the swing era. Both are wonderfully light and effervescent and rate among some of the very best vocal group albums.
While working as a producer for Reprise, Hefti worked with Frank Sinatra on two albums: Sinatra and Swingin' Brass and Sinatra-Basie: An Historic Musical First. Hefti didn't really care for the experience, though: "... When you tell me, 'Do this and have it tomorrow [Sinatra rarely planned recordings more than a few weeks in advance] and that's that,' I never liked that process. To me, it's like an order." Hefti never worked with a singer after these albums.
Hefti enjoyed tremendous popular success as a writer for film and television during the 1960s. His title theme for the series Batman is by far his best-known piece of work. Although Nelson Riddle and others actually did most of the scoring for the individual episodes, Hefti was hired to write the theme. It's rock-em, sock-em, power-packed go go music that's aged better than just about anything else from the show. Both Hefti's own Batman album and his Hefti in Gotham City albums are must-haves for now sounds fans.
Hefti really struggled with the tune. "Hardest piece I ever wrote," he later commented. "I agonized over it for six weeks." "I couldn't get inspired (to do the song)," he says. "I'd watched two hours of film footage and thought, 'This is the campiest thing I've ever seen.' But then I felt what I was writing was not as good as the show. I never had a moment of 'Eureka!'" When he met with the show's producers, he went "... reluctantly, apologetically, shuffling my feet and looking like Tom Sawyer. I thought they would throw it back in my face." Once the tunes' success was proved by reaching the pop Top 40 charts and winning the Grammy for Best Instrumental Song of 1966, Hefti could breathe a little easier. He carried the style over into his score for O Dad, Poor Dad!--"This is Mother" sounds like an outtake from Batman.
In the 1970s, his theme for the movie, The Odd Couple was reprised for the television series, and it remains one of the best-remembered of that era.
Recordings
Coral Reef, Coral CRL-56083
The Hollywood Song Book, Coral CRL-57241
Music, U.S.A., Coral CRL-757256
A Salute to the Instruments, Coral CRL-757286
The Young at Bop, Emarcy 26001
Leisurely Loveliness, Movietone 72006
Presenting Neal Hefti and his Orchestra, Vik LX-1039
Concert Miniatures, Vik LX-1092
Light and Right, Columbia CS 8316
Hefti Hot 'n' Hearty, Epic LN-3187
Singing Instrumentals, Epic LN-3113
Pardon My Doo-Wah, Epic LN-3210
Themes from TV's Top 12, Reprise LP
Jazz Pops, Reprise R9-6039
Definitely Hefti, United Artists UAS 6573
Hefti in Gotham City, RCA Victor LSP-3621
Soundtrack albums
Barefoot in the Park, Dot DLP 25803
Boeing Boeing, RCA Victor LSO-1121
O Dad, Poor Dad, Mom's Locked You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad, RCA Victor LSP-3750
How to Murder Your Wife, United Artists UAS 5119
Lord Love a Duck, United Artists UAS 5137
Duel at Diablo, United Artist UAS 5139
Sex and the Single Girl, Warner Brothers WBS-1572
Harlow, Warner Brothers WBS-1599
Synanon, Liberty LST-7413
The Odd Couple, Dot DLP-25862
http://www.spaceagepop.com/hefti.htm
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Trumpeter and TV Composer Neal Hefti Dies
October 15, 2008 - Neal Hefti reached a wide audience through the theme songs he composed for TV's Batman and The Odd Couple. But he was also a talented jazz arranger who got his start with the Charlie Barnett and Woody Herman big bands.
Hefti died Saturday at his home in California, just shy of his 86th birthday. He was born on Oct. 29, 1922, in Hastings, Neb. His mother was a music teacher, so her son learned music theory early. He got a trumpet when he was 11 and began writing arrangements when he was in high school, picking up ideas from the music he heard on the radio.
Arrangers are the people who take all of those little black dots on the sheet music and turn them into parts for saxophones, trumpets and strings. But it was Hefti's trumpet that got him into Charlie Barnett's big band in New York in 1942. Two years later, he joined Woody Herman's trumpet section and began writing tunes and arrangements. He wrote "The Good Earth" for the band and co-wrote "Wild Root" with Herman. Hefti wound up marrying Herman's singer, Frances Wayne.
Hefti went on to write large group arrangements for two pioneers of the new music called bebop: Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown. But it was with another big band that Hefti really made his mark.
In the early 1950s, he began a 10-year relationship writing and arranging for Count Basie that produced some of Basie's most memorable music, including the Hefti original that became a jazz standard, "Li'l Darlin'." Hefti's deceptively simple arrangements were a perfect fit for the Basie band, and helped extend its popularity through most of the decade.
Basie recorded two albums of Hefti's compositions in the late '50s. Then, Hefti wrote arrangements for two acclaimed Frank Sinatra albums, Sinatra-Basie and Sinatra and Swingin' Brass.
Hefti also arranged for Tony Bennett and Judy Garland, among many others. But he began to devote most of his time to writing for film and television. He composed the scores for film versions of two Neil Simon plays, Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple. His score for the 1965 movie Harlow produced one of his most popular tunes, "Girl Talk."
The Odd Couple theme became ubiquitous after the play-turned-movie made the transition to the small screen. But Hefti had already infected TV viewers with his theme to Batman. It became a Top 40 hit in 1966.
In 1976, Neal Hefti decided to stop writing music. His wife, Frances, died in 1978. He retired on ample royalties, mostly from his film and television work, and he spent his last years managing his many song copyrights.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95748800&ft=1&f=10002
