Variety (November 1954)

Wednesday, November 3, 1954 P^RIETY MUSIC 43 San Francisco, Nov. 2. The “Star Spangled Fanner" will continue to wave over jazz and 0 1 Her concerts in the Bay Area, but it will no longer cost pro- moters: the price of a full-classifi- cation siandbjr band. The - longstanding Local 6 ‘edict that all jazz concerts, and most oiher shows, have got to hire a sp- alled “pit band", equal to the full classification of the hall and; re- gardless of . the number of; AFM musicians on the show, has been cl' opped. All the standbys'ever did was to play “The Star Span- gled Ban •” collect their pay and . leave, instead, promoters now are re- tired, as *. many other cities, icrely to augment the number of musicians on .their, show by local men until they reach the classifica- tion of the hall. . The Bay Area standby situation iias been a rough one for: many years. Glassification of the San Francisco Civic Auditorial is 30 ,hjen. and when a standby, band is hired, it costs the promoter $420. The situation, at the Oakland Au- ditorium Arena is similar, a classi- fication of 20 men and a cost . of $203 for the national anthem. In recent years, promoters of jazz concerts alone have spent an estimated $22,000 for. the one chorus per night of the “Star Spangled: Banner," Promoters have fought this unsuccessfully in the pasty pointing out that this is ne of the few areas where such is the practice, and that the differ- ence might put. the show in the red. Although the two most, recent shows, The Stan Kenton Festival and “Jazz at the Philharmonic," both had Standbys, concert this coming weekend with Duke Elling- ton, Staii Gfctz, Gerry Mulligan and Dave Brubeck will be the first one in local history to play with- out a standby of. any kind, since there are more musicians than the classification of the Trail calls for, Back a few years, a jazz concert in Berkeley was even unable to. deduct the local men playing on the show from the standby group. Last year, at the performance fo the legiter, “The Caine Mutiny,” Paul Gregory was tabbed with a standby band in Oakland and only agreed to hire it the day of the show after the union threatened to picket the performance.' Bay Area Goes 45’s San Francisco,. Nov. 2. Northern California and the Bay Area are now almost 100%. con- verted to 45 rpm disks, a. Variety survey shows. All the major San Prancisco and Oakland stations are using 45s and have, been for some time now. . The indi stations are also all equipped to play them, but the rhythm and blues jocks are tftill playing some 78s. R&B disk jock- ey service is still mainly 78 rpm. in this area With everything else on .45. Drummer Buddy Rich is back with Tommy Dorsey again. Rich, wli was featured skinbeater for Dorsey’s orch more than a decade ago, joined the orch. (how co- il el med. by brothers Tommy and Jinimy) on its current swing through the south. Rich also will record with the band on its Bell Record dates as well as get fea- tured billing when it opens at the Statler Hotel, N. Y., in January. , Rich recently had been touring with Norman Grahz’s “jazz At The Philharmonic" troupe. New Diskery to Center On Intime, Esoteric New. diskery devoted to . intime, esoteric items has been formed by Pete Kameron, music, pub (Folk- ways) and personal manager; As- sociated with him will be public relations expert Allan Meltzer and Bill- Smith. Outfit, to be known as Version Records Inc,, will deal only in DPs; First album will be cut late tins month when Kameron returns from the Coast, Version already, has inked Sylvia Syms,, Charlie DeForest, Robert Clary, Richard Dyer-Bennett and Ken Nordine, who will do readings. Paris Little Singers Set Return American Tour The Little Singers of • Paris, French choral group, are prepping a return tour of the U, S. next year. Plans are now being set for (( one-week trek to kick off next September. Group will also hit Canada, during its stay here. Cleon Cosmettd is handling the US. and Canadian dates for the Little Singers. Tonight’ Original-Cast Disking Set for Frisco Harry Geller, RCA Victor Coast: recording, director, heads for San Francisco this week to record the original-cast album of the. Paul Gregory production, “Three for To- night." Touring offering, broke in in San Diegoi and. Santa Barbara over the last weekend and is here prior to a 'coast-to-coast tour. Production stars, the dancing Champions (Marge and Gower), Harry Belafonte and the Voices of Walter Schumann. TV License Group Winds; Refunds 78G to Stations The All-Industry Local TV Mu- sic License Committee, which wrapped up a new deal with ASCAP a few months ago, has .gone out of business and has re- funded $78,000 to the industry. The committee was financed by contri- butions from a group of indie video stations which were involved in the - licensing; negotiations with ASCAP over a couple of years. The stations Shelled out a total of $161,- 288. ASCAP made an unusual gesture' towards the tv station corrunittee by footing the bill for the latter’s counsel, ex-Judge Simon H. Rif- kind and. Stuart Sprague. After the negotiations were concluded amica- bly, ASCAP agreed to make a $100,000 contribution towards de- fraying the cost of counsel fees and other expenses of the tv com- mittee. ASCAP execs; pointed out that while the contribution was unusual, it was a gesture of goodwill to- wards a customer whose impor- tance will grow enormously in the years to cornel ers to Decca Records has pacted a new choral group, The First - Nighters* for its pop roster. Crew Was re- cently organized on the Coast by Don Rolke. In the country & western field, the diskery added songstress Mimi Roman. in B.O. Freezeout r i s Gibbons; 30G Estate London, Nov, 2. Carroll Gibbons, American band- leader who had lived in London for some 20 years and who died i May, left an estate: valued at ap- proximately $30i000.. He left ,no will, letters of administration be- ing granted to his widow, Mrs. Joan Gibbons. Gibbons was maestro of the Savoy Hotel orchestra for all the tihre he. was in London and* in more recent years, combined that job with, duties of entertainments director for the Savoy group, which includes Claridges and the Berkeley. Ethel Waters Album From Indie Masters Mercury Records has picked up a. flock of Ethel Waters' masters for longplay album package. Sides Were independently cut by Miss Waters and have, never been released. She’s acebmped on the platters by pianist Reginald Beane. The album is slated for release this month. OF TOP TALENT AND TUNES Compiled from Statistical Reports of Distribution Encompassing the Three Major Outlets Retail Disks Retail Sheet Music as Published in the Current Issue NOTE • The current comparative sales strength of the Artists nd Tunes listed hereunder is arrived at under a s>tatistical system comprising each of the three major sales outlets enu- merated above. These, findings are correlated with data from wider sources, which are exclusive, with Variety. The positions resulting from these findings denote the OVERALL IMPACT de- veloped from the ratio of points scored, two ways in the of talent (coin machines, retail disks) and three ways, in the case of tunes^ (coin machines, retail disks, retail sheet music). POSITIONS This Last Week Week TALENT ARTIST AND LABEL ROSEMARY CLOONEY (Columbia) TUNE fHey There .. This Ole House {Mambo Italiano I Need You Now Although the jazz market has ex- panded several fold, in the last few years, many jazz-concert promo- li have been laying boxoffice duds this fall. The only, consistent- ly click, operation thisyear has been Norman Grariz’s “Jazz. At The Philhari. ic" troupe, which, wound up its nationwide tour last week with an. average gross of bet? ter than $12,000 for each of the 28 cities. Total J ATP grosss was $362,000, including 10 college dates at flat fees. Other groups, such as Stan Ken- ton’s. “Festival of American Jazz," the Duke .Ellington-Dave. Brubeck- Gerry Mulligan-Stan Getz package and “Mambo, U S A." have been doing from. fair to poor this sea- son. One group played to only 400 customers in a major city, rece fitly, with the promoters dropping about $5,000 for the one date alone. In some cases, unsuccessful efforts were made to cancel dates because of the disappointing advance sales. Unusual aspect of the jazz cert boxoffice picture this year is that disk sales have proven to be very unfaithful indicators of the pulling power of jazz groups. Bru- beck’s quartet, probably the best- selling combo in the jazz field to-, day on wax, did not hit correspond- ingly in the concert halls, Neither did the mambo package, despite the zoom in popularity for the Latin.beat in the past year. . Granz, who promoted “JATP" as Well as several other concert pack- ages . this year, asserted that the boxoffice figures show that ‘‘cool jazz" is cold in concert halls. “It doesn’t entertain,” he said, “and that’s the only, thing; anybody can sell.” He pointed out that the “JATP" troupe, Which cleaned up $20,000 in N.Y. and $18,000 in Chi- cago bii one-niters, accents swing- ing jazz musicians. The “hot vari- ety of 'bop," which may appear to be a contradiction, pays off because it moves, while cool jazz tends to be static, Granz contended. SNARL OVER‘M00ND0G’ TAG GOES INTO COURT The battle oyer who’s got the right to the “Mpondog" tag:—Louis Hardi , New York street-musician, or Allan Freed, WINS. (N. Y.) disk jockey—Will reach the courts Nov. 15, Trial will be set in New York’s Supreme Court. Suit was. brought by Hardin against Freed. Hardin alleges that Freed lifted the tag from him and claiming slander of title and damages to the tune of $100,000. Meantime, Hardin has. scheduled a concert of his original composi- tions at Greenwich Village’s Cherry Lane Theatre Saturday night <6). Cap’s Gould Heads Out To Plug Its Xmas Line . Hollywood, Nov. 2. In the first such trek in almost a year,: Mike. Gould, head of Capi- tol Records’ publishing subsid- j .iari.es, Ardmore and Beechwood Music,, left here over the weekend on a four-week trip around the country. Primary purpose of the trek is to plug the Christmas line, which includes “Is There A Santa," the reading version, of the old N. Y. Sun editorial Which Tex Ritter has recorded for Capitol, “Midnight on the Cliffs" and “Mobile, Ala." While east, Gould also, will make plans for the opening of a : Chicago office of the pubberies. San Antone Syiiiph Sets Six-State Midwest Tour San Antonio, Nbv. 2. The San Antonio Symphony Or- chestra will make a six-state, 3,500- mile midwest tour, next February., The orchestra will give 17 concerts in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Ne- braska, South Dakota and Arkan- sas, Tour . Will begin Feb. 21 in Temple, Tex.* and end March 8 at Marshall, Tex. It will be the second- out-of-state undertaking since 1947. Orchestra, under direction of Vic- tor Alessandro, will also play sev-. eral Texas dates on.an “in-and-out" schedule, Brownsville will also be !host to two of the grand opera fes- tival .productions on Feb. 14-15.