David Pell obit

 

RIP: Dave Pell, Jazz Musician 1925 – 2017

He was not on the list.

Veteran jazz musician and record producer Dave Pell has died at the age of 92, according to his Facebook page.

Here are excerpts of an interview I did in 2007. (The full interview is at latimes.com.)

Dave Pell on Lenny Bruce:

Well I was lucky, very lucky. I was there for five years and Lenny was there for almost the same amount of time. It was one of greatest moments of my life. He was quite a man. Incredibly funny, loving, kind, sweet… all the things that nobody ever knew about him. Nobody took the time to know about him. He was really a lovely guy, a lovely man, a funny man. We had a guy named Jack Sheldon in the band. Sheldon was the phenom of our time. A very funny cat. He and Lenny were dear friends. They used to do crazy things together.

On Mickey Cohen:

Gene Norman (the nightclub owner) … says: “You have a home here… Stay as long as you wish.” It was the time where Mickey Cohen used to hang out at the club. He used to have his boys there. They were dear men. As big as gangsters as there ever were. He loved Lenny. He was their favorite of all.

On Johnny Mathis:

Johnny Mathis was doing seven or eight shows a night. People were around the block. Gene Norman had signed Johnny Mathis 10 months before he had a hit. He comes up with all his hits in one short time…. He was working for $350 a week… around the block crowds are waiting to get in. We would do a fast 20-minute or 30-minute show and the next one would start. They’d empty the house and do another one.

On Lenny Bruce’s infamous appearance on Los Angeles television’s legendary “Rocket to Stardom,” a showcase for amateur performers sponsored by car dealer H.J. Caruso, who was indicted on charges of forgery and grand theft in June 1957:

The funniest thing. Lenny Bruce and Jack Sheldon decided to go on the amateur hour…. Do an Al Jolson song. Something was all set up and they’d play it and wear black makeup. They did the show… it was a car dealer that had the show … I wish I could remember. On Sunday morning… Jack and Lenny were going to be on and we were all set up to watch it.

They got on. They didn’t do the show they auditioned with. It got a little dirty and funnier and funnier and Lenny is yelling “Caruso is a thief!” “He doesn’t give good deals on cars!” They couldn’t get him off soon enough. They said, “This isn’t the way they auditioned.” They finally figured out it was Lenny Bruce.

I never got over that one. Funniest thing that ever happened with the band. Every night, Lenny was a magnificent mind. If he took off, we had Mort Sahl. He would do a half-hour on Lenny Bruce. And they put him in jail and he’d try to behave. He got put in jail 50 times because they were trying to clean up the nightclub circuit.

Over the years with my own involvement in Jazz and commercial music in California during a portion of this period, I met Dave in so many different roles that sometimes it was difficult to discern who Dave Pell actually was.

In addition to his years as a tenor saxophonist with Les Brown’s Band of Renown from 1949-1955, Dave worked as a recording engineer, an Artist & Repertoire producer for a number of record labels and as a photographer. Many of his snaps were used as album covers and on the back jackets of Jazz LPs.

In addition to his long stint with Les Brown, Dave’s public face was best served as the leader of the Dave Pell Octet which was originally a-small-band-within-a-big-band comparable to Tommy Dorsey’s Clambake Seven, Benny Goodman’s Sextet or Artie Shaw’s Gramercy Five.

Such small groups gave the brass players in the big band a chance to rest their chops [lips and lungs], while also offering a change of pace to the audience and a chance for some of the band’s Jazz soloists to stretch out a bit.

Les Brown was so successful as a result of his close working association with comedian Bob Hope and his orchestra in residence status at the Hollywood Palladium Ballroom that he rarely worked the small group opportunities that came his way in the form of invitations to perform at college campus parties and proms.

With some of the best musicians from the Brown band in tow, Dave formed his own octet and took over these “casual” gigs for which he and a host of arrangers put together a collection of melodious arrangements that were marked by a bouncy swinging beat that students really enjoyed dancing to.

Many of the musicians ultimately left the Brown band and were joined by others exiting the Kenton, Herman and Charlie Barnet bands for the lucrative and regular work in the Hollywood recordings studios. Over time, these big band expatriates would also see their fair share of work making television commercials and radio jingles.

Many talented musicians got off the band bus, married and raised families working as on-call studios musicians.

The 1950’s was a time of population explosion in the Golden State. Many of the servicemen who had fought in the Pacific during World War II returned to the southern California’s warm climate, breezy palm trees and blue skies to work in the burgeoning aerospace, electronics and communication industries.

Affordable single family housing developments sprang up north and south of Los Angeles proper. With their two bedroom, one bath, den, dining and living room floor plan [and let’s not forget the all-important two car garage [attached, of course] -  these residential developments were sold out before construction on them was completed.

Due to its easy access to the studios by car via the Hollywood Freeway - whatelse? - the San Fernando Valley northwest of downtown Los Angeles was a favorite of Jazz musicians and many of the guys in Dave’s Octet over the years, including Dave himself, would buy homes there and settle down to raise a family.

Because of the inversion layer that formed during the hot summer months, “The Valley,” as it came to be known, could become very hot and uncomfortable during the day. But this development became easy to deal with by taking out a second mortgage on the already-existing house mortgage and financing a swimming pool with it!!

Is it any wonder that after a time, Dave Pell began to describe his frequent Octet gigs as “pay-the-mortgage-music?”

Here’s more about the Dave Pell Octet from Dave himself and from Michael Cuscuna in the form of insert notes excerpts from the 1998 CD reissue of I Had The Craziest Dream [Capitol Jazz CDP 7243 4 95445 -2].

“Marty Paich, Shorty Rogers, Bill Holman, Andre Previn, Jack Montrose, Wes Hensel. Now that's some talent...some of the best arrangers on the West Coast. What fun it was to play these charts. You can't imagine the joy of putting the chemistry of great players and writers together in the studio, playing jazz that had a unique sound. That was the octet.

The Les Brown Band of the early fifties had some great players. Trumpeter Don Fagerquist became a legend. His sound and that of Tony Rizzi on guitar became the basic sound that arrangers worked with. Using amplified guitar and trumpet in unison, most of the time, made a different and pleasant big band sound out of eight men.

Four decades later, my life is still involved with the music we created on these sessions. I have requests from schools all over the world for copies of the arrangements. Young musicians today are learning to write and play jazz from these scores.

The octet is still out there, playing mostly concerts since clubs are usually confined to smaller groups. I have fun with the band...and that's what counts.”

—Dave Pell April 1998

“The Dave Pell Octet emerged in 1953 as a spin-off nucleus of the Les Brown Band, of which Pell had been a member since 1948. The group began its recording career with three songbook albums for Trend/Kapp.

In 1955, Pell made an album for Atlantic and cut eight sides for Capitol, three of which ("Mike's Peak," "Poopsie" and "Klump Jump") appeared on Les Brown's All-Stars album, which also included splinter groups led by Don Fagerquist, Ray Sims (Zoot's brother) and Ronny Lang.

A month or so later after the Capitol date. Pell left Brown to concentrate on the octet full time, recording for Atlantic and then RCA before returning to Capitol in September to record five more tunes. These and the remaining five tunes from '55 became I Had The Craziest Dream. which is probably the most important of the octet's recordings. Forty years later, Pell reports that this is the album for which he's had the most requests (both scores and copies of the album). It's no coincidence that this is the one richest in jazz content and not tied lo one composer or concept or thematic gimmick.

With the cream of LA's jazz arrangers, a healthy mix of standards and jazz originals, and legendary players like Don Fagerquist and Bob Gordon, these sessions capture the octet at its best.

By 1960, Pell's other careers as an A&R man, producer, photographer and big band leader look him away from the octet. But after leading the Pres Conference (a nonet with three tenors and one ban dedicated to the music of Lester Young) in the late seventies, he reorganized the Octet in the early eighties and leads it sporadically to this day.

Music Department

Marilu Henner, Shirley MacLaine, Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Dean Martin, Telly Savalas, Sammy Davis Jr., and Jamie Farr in Cannonball Run II (1984)

Cannonball Run II

5.0

music coordinator

1984

 

Kiss My Grits (1982)

Kiss My Grits

4.7

music coordinator

1982

 

Burt Reynolds, Charles Durning, and Bernie Casey in Sharky's Machine (1981)

Sharky's Machine

6.3

music coordinator

1981

 

Paternity (1981)

Paternity

4.9

music coordinator

1981

 

Stand Up and Cheer (1971)

Stand Up and Cheer

7.3

TV Series

conductor

1971

 

Tom Kennedy in The Real Tom Kennedy Show (1970)

The Real Tom Kennedy Show

5.8

TV Series

music coordinator

1970

 

Peter Sellers, Merrie Spaeth, and Tippy Walker in The World of Henry Orient (1964)

The World of Henry Orient

6.6

musician: saxophone (uncredited)

1964

 

Dean Martin and Yvette Mimieux in Toys in the Attic (1963)

Toys in the Attic

6.7

musician: saxophone (uncredited)

1963

 

Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds in The Rat Race (1960)

The Rat Race

6.6

musician: clarinet, saxophone (uncredited)

1960

 

Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dorothy Dandridge in Porgy and Bess (1959)

Porgy and Bess

7.0

musician: reeds

1959

 

Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot (1959)

Some Like It Hot

8.2

musician: tenor sax

saxophone coach for Tony Curtis (uncredited)

1959

 

Studio 57 (1954)

Studio 57

7.6

TV Series

musician: first tenor sax

1958

1 episode

 

Hot Rod Rumble (1957)

Hot Rod Rumble

5.5

musician: saxophone

1957

 

The Wild Party (1956)

The Wild Party

5.8

musician: piano (uncredited)

1956

 

Mark Andrews, Roxanne Arlen, Lori Nelson, and John Smith in Hot Rod Girl (1956)

Hot Rod Girl

5.0

musician: saxophone (uncredited)

1956

 

Soundtrack

Amazon Falls (2010)

Amazon Falls

6.1

performer: "Grey Flannel"

writer: "Grey Flannel"

2010

 

Rodney Dangerfield in Meet Wally Sparks (1997)

Meet Wally Sparks

5.2

arranger: " (Oh My Darling) Clementine", "Liebestraum", "Little Brown Jug"

1997

 

Burt Reynolds, Charles Durning, and Bernie Casey in Sharky's Machine (1981)

Sharky's Machine

6.3

Soundtrack ("Dope Bust")

1981

 

Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot (1959)

Some Like It Hot

8.2

performer: "Sugar Blues" (1920), "Some Like It Hot" (1958), "Sugar Blues - Runnin' Wild" (uncredited)

1959

 

Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, and Janet Leigh in Touch of Evil (1958)

Touch of Evil

8.0

performer: "Main Title (Touch of Evil)"

1958