We move ahead with "Jingle Bells" from the staid approach of Fred Waring and Guy Lombardo to a hot music trend of the mid-1950s - the Mambo!
That Latin dance was a big craze with all sorts of songs being recorded as mambos, so why not "Jingle Bells" too?
Here's ace arranger Pete Rugolo on Columbia Records in 1954:
That's a great 1950s big band sound!
The flipside of that record was non-holiday, but it's an amusing takeoff on Guy Lombardo:
So many Lombardo records did end with that snappy little five-note phrase!
Pete Rugolo had made his reputation as an arranger with Stan Kenton's band after WWII and later did a lot of television work, including the jazzy version of the "Leave it to Beaver" theme for that show's final season:
Solid arrangement!
MGM had their own competing "Jingle Bells Mambo" in 1954 courtesy of the Frank Petty Trio:
The flipside was another mambo-ized holiday tune:
Pianist Mike Di Napoli usually gets label credit as he's featured heavily on the trio's records. Frank Petty himself played guitar and sang.
Frank had sung with Guy Lombardo in the mid-1940s, so there's another connection!
Around the same time, although I don't know the exact year, pianist Joe Loco recorded his mambo version of "Jingle Bells" for the small Tico label:
The flip of that one was "White Christmas":
That's good stuff! My Spanish is good enough to know that "El Rey del Mambo" translates to "The King of the Mambo!"
Joe Loco (real name José Estevez) later signed with Columbia Records, where he cut a new version of "Jingle Bells" in 1955 as part of an EP:
The Tico record is credited to "Joe Loco and his Trio," which I guess would be four musicians (Joe + 3) and the Columbia record is credited as "Joe Loco Quintet," which presumably is five musicians.
The big difference between the two recordings is the sleigh bells on the Columbia record. Is that what the extra guy was for?
Not sure how many degrees Joe Loco is from Guy Lombardo. Something to think about!
This seems like a good place to plop in "Rockin' "J" Bells" by saxophonist Little Bobby Rey from 1959:
Not a mambo, but a great Latin-tinged instrumental which helps illustrate how much things had changed in the preceding five years!
Sorry, Mr. Lombardo!
No comments:
Post a Comment