{"id":190,"date":"2005-10-10T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2005-10-10T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/?p=190"},"modified":"2005-10-10T01:05:00","modified_gmt":"2005-10-10T08:05:00","slug":"finding_mandel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2005\/10\/finding_mandel\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Mandel"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOTICE TO RIFFTIDES<\/em> READERS: THIS ITEM IS UPDATED WITH INFORMATION ADDED SINCE THE ORIGINAL POSTING<\/strong>.
\nA Rifftides<\/em> reader asks:<\/p>\n

Can you point us to recordings of the Mandel arrangements you mentioned in your recent posting<\/a>? (I’m having trouble locating \u00e2\u20ac\u0153TNT\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Keester Parade\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and some of the others.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With pleasure. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll give you sources for those and others. Click on the blue links to find the CDs.
\nNot his earliest, but some of Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best compositions and arrangements of the forties were for Artie Shaw\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s superb\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand short-lived\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbebop band. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Krazy Kat\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Innuendo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are in Artie Shaw and His Orchestra 1949<\/em> <\/a>(Music Masters), along with Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arrangement of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Get a Kick Out of You.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nHis arrangement of Count Basie’s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Low Life\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is on Count Basie: Low Life<\/em><\/a> (Jazz Club). “Low Life” is also in the Mosaic boxed set The Complete Clef\/Verve Count Basie Fifties Studio Recordings<\/em><\/a>, as is Mandel’s “Straight Life.”
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not Really the Blues\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is part of a Capitol Woody Herman compilation, Keeper of the Flame<\/em><\/a>. Mandel once told me that Herman recorded the piece at a slower tempo than he had in mind. Mandel kicked it off considerably more briskly the other night in his JWC3 concert. Nonetheless, Herman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s is a great performance of a brilliant arrangement. The musicians in Herman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Third Herd (mid-1950s) loved the chart so much that they often prevailed on the old man to play it two or three times a night. Later in the fifties, Herman recorded Mandel’s “Sinbad the Sailor” for the Everest label. If you buy the most recent reissue that contains “Sinbad,” the CD called Herman’s Heat & Puente’s Beat<\/a><\/a>, be aware that the music is wonderful, but the album is a discographical mess; titles don’t match the tracks. “Sinbad” is listed as track 17. It is, in fact, track 13. Track 17 is Neal Hefti’s “The Good Earth.”
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Keester Parade,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153TNT\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Groover Wailin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are on Cy Touff, His Octet & Quintet<\/em> <\/a>(Pacific Jazz), one of the best albums by any medium-sized band. It is neck and neck in the Mandel sweepstakes with his arrangements in Hoagy Sings Carmichael<\/em><\/a> (Pacific Jazz), a showcase not only for Carmichael but also for the alto saxophonist Art Pepper. The Touff session personnel included trumpeter Harry Edison, who was so impressed with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Keester Parade\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that he later borrowed (ahem) Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s melody and called it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Centerpiece.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nAlso in the fifties, Mandel made arrangements of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stella by Starlight\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and his composition \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tommyhawk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for a Chet Baker sextet that included valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, and Bud Shank playing Baritone saxophone. They are in an album called Chet Baker Big Band<\/em><\/a> (Pacific Jazz), in which the biggest band has eleven pieces. A master of writing for strings, some of Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s earliest and loveliest work in that idiom was also for Baker\u00e2\u20ac\u201darrangements of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Know What Love Is,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Love,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Love You\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Wind\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in Chet Baker & Strings<\/em><\/a> (Columbia). Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s score of the 1958 film I Want To Live<\/em> is on the movie soundtrack recording<\/a>. The motion picture<\/a> is available on DVD. He wrote superb arrangements of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Black Nightgown\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Barbara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Theme\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for Gerry Mulligan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Concert Jazz Band<\/em><\/a> (Mosaic) in the 1960s.
\nMandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s later career as a song writer and composer-arranger for motion pictures and television grew out of his years of writing for jazz groups. The pieces mentioned are remarkably fresh and undated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTICE TO RIFFTIDES READERS: THIS ITEM IS UPDATED WITH INFORMATION ADDED SINCE THE ORIGINAL POSTING. A Rifftides reader asks: Can you point us to recordings of the Mandel arrangements you mentioned in your recent posting? (I’m having trouble locating \u00e2\u20ac\u0153TNT\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Keester Parade\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and some of the others.) With pleasure. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll give you sources for those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}