Sauter-Finegan Orchestra

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Sauter-Finegan Orchestra
General information
Genre (s) jazz
founding 1952
resolution 1957
Founding members
Head, arranger
 Eddie Sauter
Head, arranger
 Bill Finegan
Trumpet
 Nick Travis
Trumpet
 Bobby Nichols
Trumpet
 Joe Ferrante
trombone
 Bill Harris
trombone
 Vern Friley
trombone
 Bart Varsalona
tuba
 Bill Barber
Woodwinds
 Sid Cooper
Woodwinds
 Livio fresco
Woodwinds
 Al Klink
Woodwinds
 Abraham Richmond
Woodwinds
 Sol Schlinger
piano
 Ralph Burns
harp
 Verlye Mills
guitar
 Barry Galbraith
bass
 Trigger Alpert
Drums
 Don Lamond
percussion
 Walter Rosenberger
Tubist Bill Barber, founding member of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra

The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra was an American big band that existed in the 1950s. They were considered to be one of the most experimental bands of their time and combined jazz with classical music in their unusual arrangements. There they experimented with unusual timbres: recorder , kazoo and harp were used as well as gamelan and ratchet . According to Joachim E. Berendt , "various arts of occidental music - not least also the extensive use of percussion instruments beyond the jazz beat - were merged with a thoroughly jazz-like, very American humor that is often difficult to understand in Europe".

Band history

The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra was founded in 1952 by the two arrangers Eddie Sauter (1914–1981) and Bill Finegan (1917–2008) initially as a pure studio ensemble. First recording sessions took place on May 12, 1952 for RCA Victor ; Sauter and Finegan used 21 musicians, including several who also played a second instrument, which enormously expanded the tonal range of the big band. In the original line-up, u. a. Nick Travis , Bobby Nichols , Bill Harris , Vern Friley , Bill Barber , Sid Cooper , Al Klink , Barry Galbraith , Trigger Alpert, and Don Lamond ; in later sessions there were soloists such as Kai Winding , Danny Bank , Mundell Lowe , Doc Severinsen (1952), Eddie Bert , Sonny Russo (1953), Gene Allen , Max Bennett , Mousie Alexander (1954), George Duvivier , Milt Hinton , Phil Woods (1957) and Walt Levinsky (1958) added.

In July 1952, the single Doodletown Fifers , an adaptation of Kingdom Coming (or Year of Jubilo ) by Henry Clay Work from the Civil War period, reached # 12 on the US charts, where it stayed for ten weeks.

The orchestra had other hits with the singles Nina Never Knew (# 13, with Joe Mooney as band vocalist), Midnight Sleighride (B-side: When Hearts Are Young ; # 29 in the charts), a jazz adaptation by Prokofiev's Troika (from the Lieutenant Kishe Suite), which the Billboard declared record of the week on November 22, 1952 . When Nina Never Knew singer Joe Mooney was involved; also with the song The Moon Is Blue , composed in December 1953 , the last hit by Sauter and Finegan at the end of August 1953 (# 20) and the theme song of the Otto Preminger film Clouds are everywhere . The band's repertoire included popular songs ( Love Is A Simple Thing ), cover versions of titles from classical or marching music , modern arranged woodwind quartets and original compositions, but also polytonal jazz and jazz standards such as April in Paris (with wordless female singing), Autumn Leaves , When Hearts are Young, Old Folks, Over the Rainbow , These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You) and A Foggy Day .

In 1953 the 10-inch album New Directions in Music was released . The arrangements were also unusual due to the use of instruments such as piccolo , oboe , bass clarinet , harp , English horn , recorder, tuba , glockenspiel , timpani and kazoo. Finegan, who also played a toy trumpet, even hit his chest to mimic the pounding horses in Midnight Sleighride .

After a few more successful singles and LPs for RCA, Sauter and Finegan put together a live orchestra in Jaui 1953, which, however, only existed until the end of 1955 due to the lack of interest in big bands after the end of the swing era. Unfortunately, music agent Willard Alexander had booked the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra as a band in dance halls and amusement parks rather than concert halls, which would have been better suited to the music. “We ended up writing some dance arrangements to survive with the band. But we got off track because we only wanted to play in concert halls, ”recalled Finegan.

Sauter and Finegan then continued their activities with the orchestra as a pure studio formation for RCA-Victor. The Sound of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra was published in 1954; At the same time, a recording of Rolf Liebermann's Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra , which was released by RCA in 1955 , was made in collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Fritz Reiner . The albums Adventure in Time (1956, an album that highlighted the percussion instruments), Under Analysis (1957) and Straight Down the Middle (1957) followed. In March 1957, the group broke up when Eddie Sauter became musical director of the SWF dance orchestra in Baden-Baden and took Dave Hildinger and Sperie Karas with him from the then rhythm group ; Bill Finegan stayed behind as a freelance arranger. After Sauter's return to the United States in 1959, the two worked together again and realized another LP as the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra , The Return of the Doodletown Fifers , which was released by United Artists Records . After Sauter's death in 1981, Finegan put together a reunion edition of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra for a concert in New York's Town Hall.

In the course of its existence, Vinnie Burke , Anita Darian , Bob Florence , Mort Herbert , Paul Horn , Seldon Powell , Boomie Richman , Lou Stein , Joe Venuto and Lammar Wright senior also played in the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra .

Discography

Bill Harris, founding member of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, 1947.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .
  • New Directions in Music (RCA Victor, 1953; expanded CD edition with recordings from 1952 to 1958)
  • The Sons of Sauter-Finegan (RCA Victor, 1954)
  • Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra (RCA Victor, 1954) (with Fritz Reiner & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
  • The Sound of Sauter-Finegan (RCA Victor, 1954)
  • Inside Sauter-Finegan (RCA Victor, 1957)
  • Concert Jazz (RCA Victor, 1955)
  • Adventure in Time (RCA Victor, 1956)
  • Under Analysis (RCA Victor, 1956)
  • Straight Down the Middle (RCA Victor, 1957)
  • Memories of Goodman and Miller (RCA Victor, 1958)
  • Return of the Doodletown Fifers ( United Artists , 1960)

Singles

  • Midnight Sleighride / When Hearts Are Young (RCA Victor, 1952)
  • Moonlight on the Ganges / April in Paris (RCA Victor, 1952)
  • Rain / Stop! Sit down! Relax! Think! (RCA Victor, 1952)
  • Doodletown Fifers / Azure-Té (Paris Blues) (RCA Victor, 1952)
  • Nina Never Knew / Love Is A Simple Thing (RCA Victor, 1953)
  • Now That I'm in Love / Yankee Doodletown (RCA Victor, 1953)
  • Where's Ace / Hit the Road to Dreamland (RCA Victor, 1954)
  • Of Thee I Sing / Pale Moon (RCA Victor, 1954)
  • Doodletown Races / April in Paris (RCA Victor, 1955)
  • Honey Babe / What Is This Thing Called Love? (RCA, 1955)
  • Joe's Tune / Mobile (RCA Victor,?)
  • Coco Bongo / A Foggy Day (RCA 5432 45-11392)

EPs

  • Extended Play Suite: Child's Play, Horse Play, Dream Play and Holiday (RCA EP EPA 447)
  • Concert Jazz (RCA EP EPA-916)

Compilations

  • Directions in Music (RCA Bluebird, 1988)
  • Inside the Sound (Jasmine, ed. 2008)
  • Thats All (Magic)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bob Yurochko: A Short History of Jazz , p 154
  2. ^ Caption Melody Maker 1954, cit. n. Liner Notes for Sauter Finegan Orchestra - Directions In Music (RCA Bluebird, ed. 1988)
  3. ^ Joachim E. Berendt Das Jazzbuch: From New Orleans to Jazzrock Frankfurt am Main 1980, p. 392
  4. ^ Colin Larkin : The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music 1992. p. 860
  5. ↑ Directions in Music (RCA, 1995)
  6. ^ Billboard - Jul 26, 1952 - Page 33
  7. ^ A b Gerhard Klußmeier : Jazz in the Charts. Another view on jazz history. Liner notes and booklet for the 100 CD edition. Membrane International GmbH. ISBN 978-3-86735-062-4
  8. ↑ Joe Mooney portrait at Jazzwax
  9. ↑ The soloists here were Bobby Nichols (tp) and Vern Friley (trb). The song was also covered by Johnny Desmond in 1952 .
  10. ↑ Billboard, Vol. 64, No. 47 - November 22, 1952, Page 23
  11. ↑ Also Woody Herman and Tab Smith took up the song.
  12. ↑ In 1956 the album was re-released as a 12-inch LP, expanded by four tracks.
  13. ^ Steven Suskin: The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations .
  14. ↑ Stephanie Stein, Liner Notes Directions in Music
  15. ↑ On the B-side of the original album was a recording by Richard Strauss Don Juan without the Sauter Finegan formation; see. Sauter-Finegan Concerto for Jazz Band & Symphony Orchestra (Allmusic) at Allmusic (English)