Variety (November 1954)

48 MUSIC PStktlST? Wednesday, November 3, 1954 New York Tunesmith Eubie Blake will be a guest at Prof. Marshall Stearns’ rse “The Role of Jazz, In Amer- ican Culture” at , the. New School For Social Research Friday (5) . . Herb Abramson, Atlantic Records prexy now a captain in the U. S. Air Force, cut several disking dates for the label while on furlough last week . . Atlantic Records’ vocal combo, The Chords, have changed their tag to The Chord- cats to avoid confusion with an- other act billed as The Chords . . Armando (Chico) Reyes began an engagement at Le Vouvray Mon- day (1) . Paul Zitay, violinist, and Harry Waringer, pianist, cur- rently playirig at the 400 Restau- rant . . '. Mae B. Axion joined Hank A Solid Hit! ^ v * If I Give« iMy Heart. To You ■ *>;• MILLER MUSIC CORPORATION Snow’s staff as public relations di- rector . A1 Morgan booked into the Seven Seas, Omaha, Nov. 26 through Dec. 9 . . . Dean Parker in town for MGM disking sessions . . . Earl Bostic cut eight more rhythm & blues sides for King last week before heading out for. a date at the Crystal . Lounge, Detroit, which began yesterday (Tries.) Ethel Smith slotted as guest-sol i$t with’ Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Nov; 21 , Tony Alamo, Majar Records’ crooner, in Bostpn and Providence plugging his coupling of “Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me” and “Just Like A Fairy Tale” . . Lester Lanin orch playing at the Seven Crowns Ball at the Wal- dorf, the Tip Top Ball at • the St. Regis and at a dinner for Queen Mother Elizabeth this week i . . Rosemary Clooney’s Columbia air bum, “While We’re Young," se- lected by Woman’s Home Com- panion as their “Record of the Moritb” for the January issue , . , Disk flack Henry Okum compiling material for two non-fiction tomes he's planning to pen ; ; . Lyman E. G. Suiter upped to general plant, manager at Fairchild Recording Equipment Go. . v Mitzi Mason, MGM "Records’ thrush, into the Shamrock Room, Bostpn. Nov. .8* Eydte Gorme, warbler on Steve Allen’s NBC-.TV show, into the Paraglide, Hempstead, L. I., for ;> t.hree days beginning -Friday (5) . . . The Rover Boys, Coral Rec- ords’ vocal combo, currently at Frank Dailey’s Meadowbrook, Ce- dar Grove, N,,J. ; Karen Chan- dler and husband Jack Pleis prep- ping a 15-minute tv-film series to be penned by Michael Browne and Jay Weston Willie Restrum and his Rats, new Capitol Records* pactees, began a twb : week engage- ment at Buffalo’s Copa Casino yesterday (Tues.)., Hilltoppers Shot *11249 REMICK MUSIC CORP. Chicago Charlie Ventura due at Blue Note Dec. 8 for two weeks,. Teddy Phillips set for Flamingo, Las Vegas, Noy. 11 for five frames . Freddy Martin pegged fox* Texas Hotel, Fort, Worth, Nov. 13 for fortnight . . Lou Math doing four stanzas, at Jefferson Hotel, St. Louis, beginning Nbv. 13 ' * ■ P 9 Lullaby of Birdland Love Is Hera to Stay MGM 11833 K 11833 78 RPM 45 RPM M G M RECORDS THE G R E A T - " N A M E I,NJ L N T E R T A i N M E N T ■ 1 SEVENTH A V E NEW YORK 36 N Y Herbie Fields dated by Flame In St. Paul Nov, 8, indefinitely . , . Louis Armstrong plays week at D6n Carlos Casino in Winnipeg starting Nov. 11 and goes on niters in North Central area through Dec. 12 . . Kokomo Wellington key- boai’ding at new Black Oi’chid Key club. Pittsburgh Larry Faith oi'eh went back, into the Horizon Room Monday (1) for a long stay . . Archie Tarshis band picked to play for annual Pittsburgh Furriers Assn, fashion show and ball . , . Kerry Pipers followed thd Calypso Eddie unit into the Carnival . . Los Chevales De Espana, with Trini Reyes, booked into the Horizon Room for eight days beginning Nov. 12 ..... . Herman Middleman orch * closed a four-month .. run at the Colonial Manor . . Baron Elliott orch plays a Reservist dance at* the Armory on NbV. 12 , . Vivien Richman, folk singer, opened at the/Oliver 212 restaurant, where she’ll appear Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays . ; . Charlie Klug band‘ picked , to play for Duquesne Brewing Co.’s new . across-the-board strip on KDKA . . Arthur Arturos, mambo combo out of Copa after two weeks but Will be back. when, name ..book- ings run out at downtown room. London Ray Noble is London and l ay be doing some music for films Fred Della-PoVta, managing di- rector of the Premier Drum Co., had a serious operation a week ago . : Billy Sprotid and his band are reOpehiYig the. Embassy Club today (Wed.). A five-piece Latin- Amex'ican Group is also being, booked^. Arrangement Is Part Of Song, Sez Thiele, Hitting Back at Copying Charge Bob Thiele, Coral Records artists & repertoire chief,, who tobk the brunt of dee jay Martin Block’s slap at diskeries copying click rec- ords, claims that ai'rangements of a disclick becomes an integral part of the tune and sees ho reason why a rival plattery should not use the sam'e gimmick. Block rapped The Lancei’s’ ver- sion of “Mr. Sandman” on Coral as a copy of The Chordettes’ click for Cadence, over his ABC platter show. In a letter to Block, Thiele said, “thei'e is no question that oi'iginality pays off and is respon- sible for a hit record. I agree with you that arrangements should not be copied note for note, but many times a hit record will contain unique arranged passages, such as the bell tones employed in The Chordettes’ record. This almost becomes part of the song and i see no reason why competitive, labels should hot use the same gimmick. I still say that The Lancers’ inter- pretation of ‘Mr. Sandman’ is cer- tainly different than The Chor- dettes..” Inside Stuff-Music Continued from page 45 composed song' on every slice. Her second release already has one such, “Let Me Remember” (by: Gloria Fleming of Windsor, who works at a tv station in Detroit,, across the. river). Although a flock of tunes fi*om the legit musical, “Fanny,” have already been issued as singles, the. songs, delivered by Ezio Pinza in the Show have not yet been waxed.. In his deal with the show’s pro- ducers, Pinza was guaranteed that his slices of the numbers for RCA Victor would be the first on the market. Pinza’s two major numbers in the show, scored by Harold Rome, “Welcome Home” and “Love Is A Very Light Thing,” Record companies are continuing the scramble for tunes with pic tieups. Current splurge is “The Song From Desiree” (subtitled “We’ll Meet Again”) from the upcoming 20th-Fox film “Desiree.” Eight diskeries already have cut the tube including Decca (Bing Crosby), Coral (Johnny Desmond), Capitol (Jane Froman), Mercury (Anna Maria Albex’ghetti), Columbia (Paul- Weston), RCA Victor (Frank Cor- dell), MGM (Alan Dean), and Majar (Joe Leahy). Theme melody was written by Alfred Newman with lyrics by Ken Darby, Miller Music, of the Big Three, is publishing, Smut Songs Continued from page 41 the bad apples before they, get on the air/ It’s virtually impossible for the licensing societies to police the situation by themselves since they grant blanket deals covering the full output of publishers. In many cases songs are not filed with the licensing societies until after they hit the market on Wax. And when they are filed, it’s with a lead sheet that may or may not contain the dirty stuff. SPA’s resolution struck the key- note for the industry in urging self-regulation, since “any industry which does not regulate itself in matters of this, nature must face the possibility of outside censor- ship.” SPA said that “all segments of the music industry owe an obli; gation and a duty to the public to discourage the publication and per- formance of obscene material.” Several trade execs pointed out that the prevalence of off-color tunes, particularly in the rhythm & blues field, was old hat. Several of the great jazz stylists such as Bessie Smith, sang numbers that weren’t exactly polite 20 and 30 years, ago. Opinion of these vet- eran observers is that there’s some “hysteria” current, on the subject on dirty spngs with the danger that the public will get the,idea that most pop songs are. tainted. Fact, is, however, that, the so- called, dirty song, is, and has been a relatively infrequent phenome- non in an. industry that turns out thousands of songs yearly. Orch leader Elliot Lawrence lias penned three symphonic portraits of the Isle of Majorca, w.k. Mediterranian rbsort, which Will be ‘ troduced by the Majorca Symphony Orchestra in January. Lawrence has been invited to guest-conduct the orch, ■ ■ ■ • " • ■ " ♦ —^—m Count Basie’s' 7 ’,20th anni. a bandleader drew close to 500 show biziites into the Starlight Roof of New York's. Waldorf-Astoria Sun- day night (31) for a special fete sponsored by “Friends of Basi ” Committee, headed by Willard Alexander, John Hammond and Alan Morrison, whipped up the salute spectacular that included such guest speakers as Nat (King) Cole, ljtazel Scott, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Rocky Graiziano, Al (Jazzbo) Collins and Prof; Mar- shall Stearns. Basie’s original small , band, which he helmed in Kansas City 20 years ago, was reassembled for the shindig. The reunion was a surprise to Basie, and Erroll Gar- ner filled the keyboard spot with the combo until Basje took oyer. Shindig wound up with Basie bring- ing in his current, big/band for a 30-minute bash. ‘Ave’ Before ‘Vale’ New York. Editor, VARiETY: The literature and conversation about jazz ax*e drenched with the: rueful remembrance of men who perished before their time—Waller and Beiderbecke and Bex’igan and all the others. Too much of their acclaim is posthumous—and need- lessly so. That temps in jazz need not be perdu in order to be appreciated was movingly demon- strated Sunday night when the Waldorf’s Starlight Roof was packed with people who went there to pay homage to Count Basie. We all of us should be glad that Wil- lard Alexander had the bright idea that it is pleasanter to offer hail before one is compelled to say farewell, It is, God wot, a lovely thing to remember Bunny Bprigan, but it would have been even love- lier if we had done so during hiis brief, tragic lifetime, Everybody was there Sunday night and it was all Very festive. As a Bert Bacharach man from way back, I detected a certain sig- nificance in the faetr that one guest turned up in an assertively blue shirt and a tie with horizontal stripes, if he were at Basie’s ob- sequies this class of fashion would have felt, contrained to have a White shirt going for him — and that would nave made him abso- lutely miserable. I’m sure that both he and Basie were happier as it wasT . Anyway, it is, as Willard Alexander proved, awful nice for us the living to honor out living. George Frazier, NOW! ALL RESTRICTIONS LIFTED 3 atfd everybody's playing § THE WARMEST, MOST 3 TENDER HIT OF THE V year — I I WANT I EDDIE FISHER | FOR CHRISTMAS ! BETTY JOHNSON* | S Backed with the. Country Hit Tjiat'i » recking Out in the Pop Field | SHOW ME 3 on * NEW DISC 10013 ffj *Betty Johnson ii the fait riting n ringing star of tho Galen Drake $ CBS NETWORK RADIO SHOW and R featured girl tinger on the new S tV' Film teriei,. EDDY ARNOLD » TIME. ^ Other Fine Record* by 9 Botty Johnson— H THE TOUCH on Now Disc « I NEED YOU NOW on Bell ^ THIS IS THE THANKS I GET on Bell It’s Musle by JESSE GREER Program Today Yaiterday's MILLS MUSIC, INC. (HIf Broadway, N.w York) HOWDY. PARDNER WAIT PEI TEX America's Fastest ~~ Selling :Records!