Total playing time 48:05

FEATURING: Conte Candoli, Pete Candoli, Jack Costanzo, Don Bagley, Al Viola, George Roberts, Emil Richards, Buddy Childers...

Liner notes by Robert Hicks:
Making this album was an exhilarating experience for many reasons. Pete and I discussed recording together soon after we met several years ago. To finally collaborate in the studio was extremely rewarding for both of us because we could play out many of our common musical interests. Before I tell you about the CD, I'd first like to talk about Pete, because much of this album draws on the wide spectrum of his musical background.

Pete Rugolo's remarkable career in jazz was launched in the mid-'40s, when he became chief arranger/composer for the Stan Kenton Orchestra. His richly textured voicings and complex rhythms shaped the sound of the band, and at that time completely revolutionized big band jazz writing. At the apex of its popularity, the Kenton band was the highest grossing entertainment organization in the world.

After Kenton, Pete became A&R director for Capitol Records, where he produced all of the sessions at the New York studio. He also arranged for many Capitol artists, including Peggy Lee, Mel Tormé & Nat "King" Cole (with whom he recorded over 40 sides). He discovered Harry Belafonte and produced his first 12 singles, produced a series of sides with Benny Goodman, and produced Miles Davis' legendary "Birth of the Cool" sessions (and coined the famous title as well).

After returning to the West Coast, Rugolo remained one of the busiest arrangers in Hollywood for the next three decades. Throughout the '50s, he led his own modern jazz orchestra and continued to arrange for such vocalists as June Christy, Patti Page, Billy Eckstine and the Four Freshmen. While he composed numerous motion picture scores for studios like MGM and Paramount, some of his most prolific writing was for television. He has been the recipient of three Emmy awards plus three additional nominations. Two Grammys are also on his mantle, along with the City of Los Angeles' 1991 Pete Rugolo Day Commemoration.

I've been familiar with Pete's work since I was a child, and in 1996 I produced and performed in a concert, which he conducted, that was comprised entirely of his arrangements and compositions. Surprisingly, that was the first time a Rugolo Retrospective had ever been staged. In planning for this album, I chose to remake songs from his career high points and combine them with new material to create a program that is diverse and unique.

"It's Crazy" and "You Stepped Out Of A Dream" (arrangements he created for Nat Cole in 1952) were initially recorded in mono, and "Rika Jika Jack" (arranged for June Christy with Kenton's orchestra in 1946) was released on a 10-inch 78 rpm shellac disc. The original performances are well-established classics that will always retain their definitive status. I had great fun re-interpreting these gems that I've enjoyed for many years, and today's brilliant stereo technology gives the sound a startling new clarity. Incidentally, "Rika" was the first 78 I bought at a used record shop with my own money.

Pete's first arrangement of "Minor Riff" was recorded by Kenton in 1947. The arrangement here is from one of Pete's 1958 LPs called "Rugolo Plays Kenton". Typical of his mid-'50s style, he weaves a "West Coast Cool" sound into the big band fabric by placing an alto flute lead in the sax section. You may observe a vague similarity between this and Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme" (particularly with George Roberts' punctuating bass trombone lines), but this chart predates Bond by four years.

I was at Pete's house one afternoon during the early planning stages of this record, when he suddenly got up and brought me a pile of old yellowed score sheets. "I found this the other day when I was going through my files that I store in the garage", he said laying the heap of paper on my lap. "Maybe we can use it". It was "Firebird Jumps", something he'd written in 1945 right before he joined Kenton. Based on Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite", this adventurous chart is one of the very few existing examples of Pete's pre-Kenton work. Not a bad find for digging around in the garage. This is the first time this arrangement has been recorded.

The four new arrangements Pete wrote for this album are in my opinion among some of his finest writing. "Interlude", one of his best known compositions, here receives a lush new orchestration, and "Bongo Fever" written by Howard Hays and myself, is given the famous high-octane Rugolo treatment. He composed the "Richard Diamond Theme" for the television crime drama of the same name (it starred David Janssen and aired from 1957-1960). This was the first TV show to employ an all jazz score (two years before "Peter Gunn" became popular). The original main title was instrumental - Steve Allen later added lyrics and changed the title to "The Girl With The Long Black Hair". From the same TV show came the "Richard Diamond" love theme that was originally entitled "Fancy Meeting Karen". Bobby Troup supplied the hauntingly beautiful lyrics and the song became "Out Of The Shadows". Pete knew that Bobby would be excited to learn of our recording their song, and planned to invite him to the studio. Sadly and very unexpectedly, Bobby passed away just two weeks before these sessions. Through the years I have enjoyed performing many of his songs, and regret that I never met this great artist whose work I have always admired. His contributions to the entertainment world have been significant. I dedicate this version of "Out Of The Shadows" to the memory of Bobby Troup.

The orchestra is packed with former Kenton and Rugolo alumni, and reads like a who's who of West Coast jazz. Many of the original musicians have returned for these new recordings such as Buddy Childers, who was present for the '47 and '58 versions of "Minor Riff", and Jack Costanzo (Mr. Bongo) who played with Kenton and on the original Nat Cole singles. The studio was buzzing with a rare excitement, both from the enthusiasm of the reunited band members and from the constant stream of visitors who came by to watch a little bit of history in action. It was more like a class reunion than a record date, and the explosive energy that was unleashed in the studio for those days is presented here for your listening pleasure. May this music be a blast for you as well. - Robert Hicks