Disc two
Welcome
back to the second part of this evening’s entertainment, where some
familiar faces return to slay you a second time, alongside a galaxy of
more stars from the Warner and Atlantic firmament.
| 1 Warren Barker | 77 Sunset strip |  |
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| 2.Ann Richards | Yes Sir that's my baby | ||
| 3.Don Ralke | Face beside the fire |  |
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| 4.Herbie Mann | Our Mann flint | ||
| 5.Ella Fitzgerald | Mas que Nada |  |
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| 6.Miriam Makeba | Pata Pata | ||
| 7.Les Baxter | Coffee bean and Calabash Annie |  |
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| 8. Mel Torme' | Dat Dere | ||
| 9.Marty Paich | The Cat |  |
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| 10.LaVern Baker | Nobody knows you when you're down and out | ||
| 11.Esther Phillips | Everytime we say goodbye |  |
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| 12.duke Ellighton | Moon river | ||
| 13.Ray Charles | Doodlin' | ||
| 14.Ada Lee | I wish you love | ||
| 15.carl Stevens | Romance in the dark | ||
| 16.Antonio Carlos Jobim | Aqua De Beber | ||
| 17.Barney Kessel | Something for cat | ||
| 18.Chris Connor | They all laughed | ||
| 19. Bobby Ddarin | That's all | ||
| 20.Shelly Manne | Peter Gunn | ||
| Right now, you join The Leopard Lounge
at ‘77 Sunset Strip’. Warren Barker turns the neon
on for the theme to the show, and creates a mood for its swingin’
PI’s to eyeball the lowlife, the moochers and the hoods in their
hot Hollywood surrounds. The mean streets have never sounded so cool. So to turn up the heat, Ann Richards slinks back centre stage with her sultry version of ‘Yes Sir, That’s My Baby’. This tune had last sizzled through the atmosphere in 1925, and Ann summons the illicit pleasures of the Charleston age with the help of Jack Sheldon’s slinky trumpet and Barney Kessel’s immaculate guitar. Ooee, what a dame. More sensuous pleasures abound in Don Ralke’s Afro-tastic ‘Face Beside The Fire’, in which the percussion maestro assembled the greatest beat niks of his time to create an eerie black magic vibe. You’re digging softly-softly tom toms, three unison flutes and the shakin’ hiss of the bead-covered gourd – music to snake-dance by. Now there’s a Special Agent in the house, ‘Our Mann Flint’. Herbie Mann scored the title track for this stylish James Coburn flick and gave him a theme worthy of any international man of mystery. Flautist Herbie melded a definite Afro-Cuban sway into this edgy thriller, mixing mystery and glamour into one highball glass of cool. Ella Fitzgerald was also in a Latino mood when she recorded the Jorge Ben classic ‘Mas Que Nada’ for the Things Ain’t What They Used To Be album in 1971. Sway with Ella now and click those stilettos like maracas on the dancefloor, ‘cos this Goddess is calling the tune. With the immortal ‘Pata Pata’, South African enchantress Miriam Makeba held the world in her spell in 1972. This is, she explains, the dance they do down Johannesburg way, and it won’t take you a hot second to get the hang of it. Teasing, tangy and wild is the flavour, and it lasts until the sun comes up. The Soul Of The Drums was what Les Baxter was mining on his 1963 album, and for that he assembled percussionists from Haiti, Cuba, Brazil and Africa, playing instruments both ancient and contemporary. ‘Coffee Bean And Calabash Annie’ is, as you’d expect from the title, one hot cup of java. The next cut is a sublime collaboration between Mel Tormé and Shorty Rogers’ orchestra, cooked up in July 1962 and first appearing on the Comin’ Home Baby! album in that year. The “Velvet Fog” takes on this lyrically dexterous Oscar Brown, Jr. number with supreme confidence and grace, while Shorty’s band get into a Quincy Jones-inspired groove. Funk and glide, daddio, funk and glide. Marty Paich was also bringing on the funk when he tackled Lalo Schiffrin’s ‘The Cat’ in 1965, a track that had been heavily hammonised by Jimmy Smith now found itself brassed up and rocked out as part of Marty’s fiendishly good Rock-Jazz Incident. As y’all know, everybody wants to be a cat. It’s time to slow things down now and take a long, cool, dip in the blues. LaVern Baker paid tribute to the immortal Bessie Smith with this majestic version of ‘Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out’, bringing some stark 1920s truths into a moody 1958 setting. This is a real Harlem nocturne for you to ponder on and LaVern gives it her all. In a similar, smoky style, Esther Phillips weaves her spell over Cole Porter’s New York state of mind. Duke Ellington’s diamond sharp version of ‘Moon River’ evokes dawn breaking over the Hudson River as you gaze into that dazzling window of Tiffany’s. The swing’s the thing here, and Duke and his arranger Billy Strayhorn do it as effortlessly as the great river flows. “Jazz,” said the late, great Ray Charles, “was always on my mind.” And nobody does it better than he, as this 1957 cut ‘Doodlin’’ proves so well. Up until the album it comes from, The Great Ray Charles, he had been known primarily for his blues and R&B, but at Atlantic boss Nesuhi Ertegun’s instigation, Ray got in the studio to prove his chops on a jazz-only session. And as the man said: “All my cats were jazzmen first.” Dig the sublime subtlety in Ray’s finger tips as he stirs up this late nite brew, genius through and through.. When Ada Lee comes on, she comes on strong! Prepare to fall into a deep swoon when she sings ‘I Wish You Love’. This track is taken from her sublime debut Ada Lee Comes On!, where the sultry songstress used every inch of her prowess as a classical, gospel and blues singer to create the most elegant of sounds. Her arranger, Dick Hyman, lets the shivering strings and subtle percussion frame that perfect pitch, and Ada glides like a swan. The night time is the right time for a dance with our next artiste Carol Stevens, who manages to sound both suggestive and tough on ‘Romance In The Dark’. Here was a gal who could breathe new life into any old tune – and she could probably make a dead man twitch back to life with this knowing little number. And now it’s back to the beach, and The Wonderful World of Antonio Carlos Jobim. Taken from that elpee, ‘Aqua De Beber’ is Antonio at his most carefree, luring you into a wonderworld where flutes play lightly across a sheen of samba percussion like light dancing over the waves. This is the very stuff that had him crowned as the Samba King. When Henry Mancini heard that guitar maestro Barney Kessel was thinking of recording the Breakfast At Tiffany’s score, he immediately gave him the film orchestrations on which to work his own interpretations, and one of those numbers is ‘Something For Cat’, which finds Barney purring away on bass, evoking happiness for all concerned. The ultramodernist of her age, Chris Connor astounds with her poise on the Gershwin classic ‘They All Laughed’. Always unafraid to experiment with her vocal range, Chris sounds so damn cool on this 1956 cut you would swear she was made out of ice, but for that knowing wink in her voice. Even the Chairman of the Board himself woulda tilted his trilby hat to this one. And now cats and kittens, as our night on the tiles heads towards its climax, who better than Bobby Darin to turn up the heat for a dizzyin’ ride though ‘That’s All’. Like a jitterbug loose in a pepper factory, this joint is jumpin’ – and Bobby’s dazzlin’. But that ain’t all, moochers and minxes. There’s one last number we want to share with you and it’s one loooong, loooong fadeout to Shelly Manne’s extraordinary take on ‘Peter Gunn’. You ain’t never heard Mancini’s signature tune done like this before: slowed to a burning bass rumble that climbs towards its destination just as the sun claws its way back over the rooftops and the alley cats call it a night. We hope you have enjoyed this evening with us in The Leopard Lounge – and don’t forget to make a date for next time. Plant you know, dig you later… CATHI UNSWORTH |
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