Channel: Music
Uploaded: July 24, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Author: kspm01
Length: 02:53
Rating: 4.94
Views: 510
I'm very happy to present this exquisite rendition in a recording (courtesy of phredl) by Freddy Martin & His Orchestra. Martin led his own band while he was in high school, then played in various local bands. After working on a ships band, Martin joined the Mason-Dixon band, then joined Arnold Johnson and Jack Albin. It was with Albin's "Hotel Pennsylvania Music" that he made his first recordings, for Columbia's Velvet Tone label in 1930. After a couple of years, his skill began attracting other musicians. One such musician was Guy Lombardo, who would remain friends with Martin throughout his life. There is a story about Lombardo and Martin. After graduation from high school, Martin accepted a job at the H.N. White musical instrument company. When Lombardo was playing in Cleveland, Martin tried giving Lombardo some saxophones, which proved unsuccessful. Fortunately, Lombardo did get to hear Freddy's band. One night, when Guy could not do a certain date, he suggested that Freddy's band could fill in for him. The band did very well and that's how Martin's career really got started. But the band broke up and he did not form a permanent band until 1931 at the Bossert Hotel in Brooklyn. At the Bossert Marine Room, Freddy pioneered the "Tenor Band" style that swept the sweet-music industry. With his own tenor sax as melodic lead, Martin fronted an all-tenor sax section with just two brasses and a violin trio plus rhythm. The rich, lilting style quickly spawned imitators in hotels and ballrooms nationwide. "Tenor bands", usually with just the three tenors and one trumpet, could occasionally be found playing for older dancers well into the 1980s. The Martin band recorded first for Columbia Records in 1932. As the company was broke and signing no new contracts, the band switched to Brunswick Records after one session and remained with that label till 1938. Afterwards Martin appeared on RCA's Bluebird and Victor Records. The band also recorded pseudonymously in the early '30s, backing singers such as Will Osborne. Martin took his band into many prestigious hotels, including the Roosevelt Grill in New York City and the Ambassador in Los Angeles. A fixture on radio, his sponsored shows included NBC's Maybelline Penthouse Serenade of 1937. But Martin's real success came in 1941 with an arrangement from the first movement of Tchaikovsky's B-flat piano concerto. Although his playing has been admired by so many jazz musicians, Freddy Martin never tried to be a jazz musician. Martin always led a sweet styled band. Unlike most sweet bands that just played dull music, Martin's band turned out to be one of the most musical and most melodic of all the typical hotel-room sweet bands. Martin also had a good ear for singers. At one time or another, Martin employed Merv Griffin, Buddy Clark, Terry Shand (also a pianist), Elmer Feldkamp (also a saxophonist, but who is singing the wonderful vocal here), Stuart Wade (his most impressive male singer), Eddie Stone (also a violinist), and many others. Helen Ward was a singer for Martin just before she joined Benny Goodman's new band. Ironically, as far as I know of, she was the only female singer to have appeared with Martin's band, recording two sides of a 78 in early 1934 with Freddy using the alias "Ed Loyd." In the 1950s and 1960s, Martin continued to perform on the radio and also appeared on TV. Untroubled by changing musical tastes, he continued to work at major venues and was musical director for Elvis Presley's first appearance in Las Vegas. Still in demand for hotel work, Martin entered the 1970s with an engagement at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. In the early 1970s, he was part of two long TV series of one-nighters that was known as The Big Band Cavalcade. Among the other performers on the show were Margaret Whiting, Bob Crosby, Frankie Carle, Buddy Morrow, Art Mooney and George Shearing. When the tours ended, Martin returned to the West Coast. In 1977, Martin was asked to lead Guy Lombardo's band when Lombardo was hospitalized with a heart condition. Martin continued leading his band until the early 1980s, although by then, he was semi-retired. Freddy Martin died in 1983. This fabulousl record was cut for Brunswick in 1934.