“I worked with Johnny Amoroso a lot and played one last job with him shortly before he passed away. I remember when he came to Sofia’s and did “Marie”, as Will recounts. Have you seen the “lost” Honeymooners episode with the Dorseys? Easy to find on YouTube. On the clip Will has, not only did they have the 4 trumpets playing the Bunny Berigan solo in 4-part harmony (Dorsey band always did that from then on), but you can see and hear Tommy doubling the lead voice in that part at the octave.” WF: thank you Mark - not least for confirming my memories of Johnny sitting in with the Nighthawks!
Thank you Will Mabel Mercer sometimes performed at Bricktop's in Paris wearing an elegant drag kind tuxedo(!) - Will! I was stunned to hear Mable Mercer a young, nimble soprano, effortlessly floating to and nailing an F# o(3rd of the V7) chord! No wonder Joe Carstairs fell in love with her. Note: Mercer was a formative influence on me. I used to buy cassettes of her performances at Footlight Records in the East Village. FYI My first major gig in NYC was at Freddy's Superclub. (I was called in at the last minute to sub for Keely Smith) I drew heavily from Mabel Mercer's exquisite repertoire...
I once made Orrin Keepnews furious by saying this, but to this day, though I have tried, Mabel Mercer stands out as what sounds to my ears like a parody of someone with an operatic voice who tries to sing from the American standard repertoire. I heard Beverly Sills try this a few times and it was sad. I know Sinatra, Bennett, Wilder et al swore by Mercer's vocalizing, and I can (sort of) get why (and she sounds better on this than the later recordings I have heard) but I think she would have been more suited to an Adelaide Hall or Yma Sumac role with an orchestra. As a matter of fact if she were still around I could hear Mercer as an odd-ball accompanist to unorthodox jazz arrangements; but sitting on that silly chair, maybe the altitude got to her. To me, it's a false idea of elegance and class. As a matter of fact, Will, I may have to send you a bill for my eyeglasses, which cracked during her first chorus.
ah! this is a good point of discussion. I will admit that a lot of people don't "get" Mabel Mercer - and for a long time I was one of them. She really was a supper club / live performance artist, and not fully captured in any of the recording media, audio or video. The best document of Mabe in action - where you get a sense of what Sinatra and Tony and the others felt when they saw - is her appearance on the first show produced by the very great Hugh Hefner, PLAYBOY'S PENTHOUSE. There's a whole 15-minute segment that captures Ms. Mabel at the height of her height. Alas, it's never been made available on youTube or home video. But we are in the eternal debt of the late Hef - as we are for so many things - for capturing this remarkable artist at what must have been her peak. (In fact, I should do a substack on that classic 1959-1960 series PLAYBOY'S PENTHOUSE.).
Bell was later purchased by Columbia Pictures and made into a replacement for their former house record label, Colgems. It actually did fairly well in the late 60s and early 70s with hits in multiple genres before Davis turned it into Arista in the 1980s.
from Mark Lopeman:
“I worked with Johnny Amoroso a lot and played one last job with him shortly before he passed away. I remember when he came to Sofia’s and did “Marie”, as Will recounts. Have you seen the “lost” Honeymooners episode with the Dorseys? Easy to find on YouTube. On the clip Will has, not only did they have the 4 trumpets playing the Bunny Berigan solo in 4-part harmony (Dorsey band always did that from then on), but you can see and hear Tommy doubling the lead voice in that part at the octave.” WF: thank you Mark - not least for confirming my memories of Johnny sitting in with the Nighthawks!
Thank you Will Mabel Mercer sometimes performed at Bricktop's in Paris wearing an elegant drag kind tuxedo(!) - Will! I was stunned to hear Mable Mercer a young, nimble soprano, effortlessly floating to and nailing an F# o(3rd of the V7) chord! No wonder Joe Carstairs fell in love with her. Note: Mercer was a formative influence on me. I used to buy cassettes of her performances at Footlight Records in the East Village. FYI My first major gig in NYC was at Freddy's Superclub. (I was called in at the last minute to sub for Keely Smith) I drew heavily from Mabel Mercer's exquisite repertoire...
Thank you Phoebe! We all remember Footlight Records (East 12th Street) very fondly!
Curious: Mabel Mercer, Adelaide Hall, Elizabeth Welch—all British, by origin or adoption
I once made Orrin Keepnews furious by saying this, but to this day, though I have tried, Mabel Mercer stands out as what sounds to my ears like a parody of someone with an operatic voice who tries to sing from the American standard repertoire. I heard Beverly Sills try this a few times and it was sad. I know Sinatra, Bennett, Wilder et al swore by Mercer's vocalizing, and I can (sort of) get why (and she sounds better on this than the later recordings I have heard) but I think she would have been more suited to an Adelaide Hall or Yma Sumac role with an orchestra. As a matter of fact if she were still around I could hear Mercer as an odd-ball accompanist to unorthodox jazz arrangements; but sitting on that silly chair, maybe the altitude got to her. To me, it's a false idea of elegance and class. As a matter of fact, Will, I may have to send you a bill for my eyeglasses, which cracked during her first chorus.
ah! this is a good point of discussion. I will admit that a lot of people don't "get" Mabel Mercer - and for a long time I was one of them. She really was a supper club / live performance artist, and not fully captured in any of the recording media, audio or video. The best document of Mabe in action - where you get a sense of what Sinatra and Tony and the others felt when they saw - is her appearance on the first show produced by the very great Hugh Hefner, PLAYBOY'S PENTHOUSE. There's a whole 15-minute segment that captures Ms. Mabel at the height of her height. Alas, it's never been made available on youTube or home video. But we are in the eternal debt of the late Hef - as we are for so many things - for capturing this remarkable artist at what must have been her peak. (In fact, I should do a substack on that classic 1959-1960 series PLAYBOY'S PENTHOUSE.).
Bell was later purchased by Columbia Pictures and made into a replacement for their former house record label, Colgems. It actually did fairly well in the late 60s and early 70s with hits in multiple genres before Davis turned it into Arista in the 1980s.
thank you for the clarification - I'm sure there's a fuller history of Bell / Arista out there. (But I'm still no fan of Mr. Davis.)