Marion Evans + Steve Lawrence

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

In January 1963, Go Away Little Girl by Steve Lawrence was the No. 1 song on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. The mid-tempo single, written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, featured Lawrence backed by a lonesome-cowboy beat and an orchestra arranged by Marion Evans. Go Away Little Girl was produced by Al Kasha, a songwriter who worked at New York's Brill Building and was pals with Goffin and King. Kasha's next project for Lawrence at Columbia—Swinging West—would leverage his earlier concept: an entire album of cowboy songs accompanied by a stampeding big band arranged by Marion.

The session began on April 16 and, according to AllMusic.com, the musicians included John Frosk, Bernie Glow, Ernie Royal and Doc Severinsen (tp); Urbie Green, Dick Hixson, Billy Byers, Sy Berger (tb); Sam Marowitz, Phil Woods (as), Al Cohn, Zoot Sims (ts); Sol Schlinger (bs); Nat Pierce, (p), Barry Galbraith, Mundell Lowe (g), George Duvivier (b) and Sol Gubin (d).

Unfortunately, this heated swinger has been all but overlooked by Sony and jazz discographies, since it remains woefully out of print. Marion's arrangements are all first-rate hard-chargers, with Lawrence as relaxed and as smooth as can be. And while the Western theme might seem silly at first glance, the concept works neatly given the strength of Marion's charts. [Photo above of Marion Evans]

I'm happy to report that Steve Lawrence, Marion Evans and Al Kasha are all still with us. Marion, of course, just conducted several of his arrangements for Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga's album, Cheek to Cheek. A special thanks to reader Peter Sokolowski.

JazzWax tracks: To listen to samples of Steve Lawerence's Swinging West, go here. To buy it, visit Lawrence's website. It looks like someone on his team is selling it for $20 and free shipping in the U.S.—go here.

JazzWax clips: To give you a taste of the magic created when Marion and Lawrence collaborated, dig A Gal in Calico and Home on the Range...

A Gal in Calico

Home on the Range

Used with permission by Marc Myers

Steve & Eydie: That Holiday Feeling!

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Long-time JazzWax readers know that each year at this time I pick my favorite vintage holiday album. To make the grade, the album has to be from the '50s or '60s and have a perfect mixture of pop, jazz and swing—with a dash of Rockwellian sentiment. It also has to do a swift job of taking us back to a time when stuffed animals were oversized, candy was homemade, black rubber snow boots had metal clasps and fireplace blazes had to be skillfully constructed.

This year, my choice is Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme's That Holiday Feeling! Released on Columbia in 1964 and produced by Robert Mersey, the album had multiple arrangers, with the orchestra conducted by Joe Guercio, who would become Elvis Presley's musical director and conductor.

This Steve & Eydie album is peppermint perfect from start to finish. The tracks are toasty and frosty, they are sequenced just right and there isn't a dud in the bunch. Just two honey-voiced pop artists singing and swinging about love and the holidays.

Footnote: Steve Lawrence and the late Eydie Gorme also recorded three tracks for Christmastime in Carol and Song—a rather uptight Arthur Fiedler project for RCA released in 1969 with opera singer Leontyne Price.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme's That Holiday Feeling! here as Happy Holiday. The problem is the 14 tracks are all out of order—something you can remedy by moving them around in your iTunes folder.

Here's how the tracks originally appeared on the album, with their arrangers in parenthesis:

• That Holiday Feeling (arr. Don Costa),
• White Christmas (arr. Glenn Osser)
• Winter Wonderland (arr. Patrick Williams)
• The Christmas Song (arr. Costa)
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (arr. Osser)
• Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (arr. Al Cohn)
• Sleigh Ride (arr. Cohn)
• Let Me Be the First to Wish You Merry Christmas (arr. just says "Hall" and I'm drawing a blank)
• Let It Snow (arr. Billy Byers)
• What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? (arr. Osser)
• That Ol' Christmas Spirit and Happy Holiday (arr. Costa)
• Happy Holiday (arr. Costa)

Here are albums that have already been inducted into the JazzWax Holiday Album Hall of Fame... - See more at: http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/11/duke-pearson-merry-ole-soul.html#sthash.V0RZmXiQ.dpuf

JazzWax Vintage Holiday Album Hall of Fame: Here are my previous inductees...

2012—Duke Pearson: Merry Ole Soul (1969)

2011—Urbie Green: A Cool Yule Tide (1954)...


2010—Eddie Higgins: Christmas Songs (2004)...


2009—June Christy: This Time of Year (1961)...


2008—Jo Stafford's Happy Holidays: I Love the Winter Weather (1950s)

- See more at: http://www.jazzwax.com/2013/12/steve-eydie-that-holiday-feeling.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Jazzwax+%28JazzWax%29#sthash.5Lv87XYV.dpuf

Used with permission by Marc Myers