AVID Jazz here presents three classic Shelly Manne albums plus including original LP liner notes on a finely re-mastered and low priced double CD. “Peter Gunn”; “Son Of Gunn”; “Bells Are Ringing” and selections from “Li’l Abner” Our first selection “Peter Gunn” was composed by prolific soundtrack maestro Henry Mancini, who gave the project over to Shelly Manne to create a jazz influenced soundtrack! And boy did he come up with the goods! Manne assembled a top team of seasoned jazz professionals including Victor Feldman, Conte Candoli, Herb Geller, Russ Freeman and Monty Budwig for the January 1959 recording date. Mancini had urged Manne to “use the compositions as points of departure for creating personal jazz performances.” Job well done we say! Jump forward to May 1959 for “Son Of Gunn” again composed by Henry Mancini for the American TV series. Following the same approach as the first album where Mancini had urged Manne to use the arrangements as jumping off points for jazz improvisation. The only change now was in the personnel, Joe Gordon had replaced Candoli on trumpet and Richie Kamuca had come in on tenor to replace Herb Geller on alto! We have another soundtrack interpretation for our next selection. The Broadway musical “Bells Are Ringing” with music by Jules Stryne and a band line up joining Shelly Manne of Red Mitchell on bass and young genius composer, arranger, conductor and musician Andre Previn on piano! Finally we have selections from another interpretation of a famous soundtack “Li’l Abner” a show based on the famous American cartoon Al Capp which hit Broadway as a musical in 1956. By 1957 Shelly Manne, Andre Previn and Leroy Vinnegar had turned the score composed by Johnny Mercer and Gene de Paul into nine modern jazz performances. All three albums plus have been digitally re-mastered.
CD1 1-10: ‘Peter Gunn’ 1. Peter Gunn 2. The Floater 3. Sorta Blue 4. The Brothers Go To Mother’s 5. Soft Sounds 6. Fallout 7. Slow And Easy 8. Brief And Breezy 9. Dreamsville 10. A Profound Gass 11-19: ‘Son Of Gunn’ 11. Odd Ball 12. Blue Steel 13. Joanna 14. Goofin’ At The Coffee House 15. Walkin’ Bass 16. My Manne Shelly 17. Blues For Mother’s 18. A Quiet Gass 19. Lightly
CD2 1: ‘Son Of Gunn’ 1. Spook! 2-11: ‘Bells Are Ringing’ 2. I Met A Girl 3. Just In Time 4. Independent (On My Own) 5. The Party’s Over (ballad version) 6. It’s A Perfect Relationship 7. Is It A Crime? 8. Better Than A Dream 9. Mu-Cha-Cha 10. Long Before I Knew You 11. The Party’s Over (up-tempo version) 12. Jubilation T.Cornpone from Li’l Abner 13. The Country’s In The Very Best Of Hands from Li’l Abner 14. If I Had My Druthers from Li’l Abner 15. Unnecessary Town from Li’l Abner 16. Matrimonial Stomp from Li’l Abner 17. Oh, Happy Day from Li’l Abner 18. Namely You from Li’l Abner
