Cappy Lewis - Get Happy With Cappy

This album is a unique and exciting collection of performance skills from the great trumpeter Carroll "Cappy" Lewis (1917-1992). A veteran of the swing era, Lewis’ playing will conjure up some happy memories for jazz fans who remember his many solo endeavors with Woody Herman and Tommy Dorsey’s bands. Then after a couple of short stints with other name bands, Lewis settled in Hollywood in 1948, where he devoted himself entirely to working in the studio’s main brass sections. In 1960, thanks to David Axelrod, then a producer for the Hi-Fi Jazz Records label, Cappy’s full throated trumpet could finally be heard in a small group context, in which he exhibits his buoyancy and refreshing style over an impeccable rhythm section enhanced by the subtle and always swinging pianist Jimmy Rowles. On this, his only album as a leader, Cappy blows both hot and cool, applying an engaging trumpet approach to a set of oldies and newer songs, that serve as a nearly perfect showcase of his talent. *Jordi Pujol*

Jazz has many faces and it should be noted — not all of them need be determined, hard-set in a pattern of "do or die".

Some of the most pleasant jazz has been done in an off-hand, casual manner which hasn’t set out to prove anything particularly; just simply to play good, swinging music in the most natural and pleasing manner. 

Carroll "Cappy" Lewis, the trumpet player who organized this album, feels that this album fits the casual jazz role to perfection. "I just felt we needed something like this", he says simply, and he went ahead and did it.

It’s taken Cappy Lewis a long time to get around to making his own solo album. Too long, to be frank. It is to be hoped that the success of this one will encourage him to make others. Whatever he does, you can be sure it will be musicianly, professional and laced with those jazz qualities of humor and spirit that have made him one of the best trumpet men of his generation. *Ralph J. Gleason (liner notes)*

Side 1

1 - Charmaine

(Rapee, Pollack)

2 - Rosalie

(Cole Porter)

3 - You Can't Take That Away From Me

(G. & I.Gershwin)

4 - Undecided Now

(Charlie Shavers)

5 - C'est Si Bon

(Henri Betti)

6 - Umbrella Man

(Stock, Cavanaugh, Rose)

Side 2

7 - I Hear Music

(Lane, Loesser)

8 - Swanee

(Gershwin)

9 - Imagination

(Van Heusen)

10 - Running Wild

(Gibbs)

11- Plenty Of Money

(Warren, Dubin, Arlen, Harburg)

12 - Pagan Love Song

(Brown)

Carroll "Cappy" Lewis (trumpet), Jimmy Rowles (piano), Morty Corb (bass), Jack Sperling (drums).

Recorded at Radio Recorders, February 1960.