00 Sizzling Syncopators Notes.txt
GARY LAWRENCE AND HIS SIZZLING SYNCOPATORS
Blue Goose 2020, 1976
LP rip (320 kbps) by Dick Baker, May 2011
Side 1
1. You're the First, the Last, My Everything (introducing "The Hustle")
2. The Mooche
Ellington
3. Crazy Words, Crazy Tune (Vo-Do-De-O-Do)
4. Clementine (from New Orleans) *
5. Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble
Spencer Williams
6. The Breakaway *
Side 2
1. Croonin' a Tune about June *
2. Here Lies Love *
3. The Charleston
4. When the Moon shines on Coral Gables
Bayha
5. Thinking of You
6. Doin' the Raccoon **
7. Sugarfoot Stomp
Arrangements, piano, and conducting: Gary Lawrence
Vocals: Frank Scafuri*
Trumpets: Ken Gross & Mike Dante
Alto sax, clarinet, and vocals: Pete Sokolow
Tenor sax, clarinet and vocal: Dick Norell
Alto sax and clarinet: Art Rones
Piano & accordion: Joe Adinolfi
Banjo: John Gill
Tuba: Bill Keck
Drums: Hap Gormley
**Special thanks to Scafuri's Melody Men:
Chris Spanopoulos & Bob Nelson
Gary Lawrence is a time traveler. Through some mysterious mixture of empathy and inspiration he is able to project himself back, back into the 1920s and arrange for his Sizzling Syncopators as if he was living in that heady, slightly demented decade. And the word "arrange" should be emphasized, for while Lawrence and his Syncopators play the dance band music of the twenties--and the full spectrum of it, from Ellington and Fletcher Henderson to sweet and novelty bands--they are not purveying recreations.
Lawrence maintains that "musical styles were better blended in the twenties than they are today. You could find good jazz solos and comedy vocals in the same number, for example." But one suspects that he finds the music of the period attractive primarily because it's so much fun. Who could resist the zany Dada of "Crazy Words, Crazy Tune," or for that matter Hap Gormley's brisk, letter-perfect drumming, Pete Sokolow's laughing clarinet, the lush piano interludes by Joe Adinolfi (seconded by Lawrence in "Thinking of You")? Who could resist "Here Lies Love," originally introduced by Bing Crosby in the Big Broadcast of 1932, in which the rulebook for rhyming is written and then thrown out the window? Who could resist Fletcher Henderson's immortal "Sugarfoot Stomp," with its traditional trumpet chorus right out of King Oliver's "Dipper Mouth Blues," an almost modern-sounding performance that happens to be the only direct transcription of a period arrangement on this album?
Perhaps I should step out of critical third person and state unequivocally that I can't remember another record providing this many wry grins, barely suppressed chuckles, and delighted guffaws.
--Robert Palmer
(Robert Palmer is a music critic for the New York Times and a contributing editor with Rolling Stone and Downbeat.)
Produced by Nick Perls for Blue Goose Records, a div. of Yellow Bee Productions, Inc., 245 Waverly Place, New York, N.Y. 10014, Recorded at Blue Goose Studios, New York City, Copyright Yellow Bee Productions, Inc. 1976.
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