Les Brown's Men

On June 15, 1955, Down Beat magazine profiled the members of Les Brown's orchestra in an article titled "Here's The Lineup Of The Les Brown Ork". The four protagonists of the album presented below were introduced as follows:

RONNY LANG [a.k.a. Ronnie Lang], 25, alto sax, was bom in Chicago, but first started playing in Los Angeles with Hoagy Carmichael's Teenagers. Ronny also worked with Earle Spencer, Dick Pierce, Ike Carpenter, and Skinnay Ennis. He joined Les in 1949 and played with him for a year before being drafted. Ronny rejoined Les in 1953. He is married, has one child, and stays in shape by playing tennis and golf.

RAY SIMS, 34, trombone, started playing at 15. Ray, brother of Zoot Sims, worked for Don Briggs, then with Giggie Royse in Honolulu until the war. He was in the army

three years. Ray also played for Jerry Wald, Bobby Sherwood, and Benny Goodman, before joining Les. "I love to watch and play baseball", says Ray.

DAVE PELL, 30, tenor sax, bass clarinet, oboe, and English horn, played with the bands of Bob Astor, Bobby Sherwood, and Tony Pastor before going to the coast to join the Bob Crosby show. Dave had a small group around L.A. for a few years, and recorded an album for Trend Records with an octet made up of the nucleus of the Brown band which proved to be a big success. Since then, the group recorded two more albums for Trend and one for Atlantic Records. When the Les Brown band has open dates, Dave has no trouble booking the group for jazz concerts and teenage dances. In his "spare time", Dave maintains a photography studio and an advertising and publicity office in Hollywood. He is married, and his wife is expecting a child.

DON FAGERQUIST, 28, trumpet, started his career in music back in his home town, Worcester, Mass. Don studied with local teachers and played in his high school band. He has been associated with the following orchestras: Mal Hallett, Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, and a small combo with Anita O'Day, before joining Les Brown.

Don enjoys his record collection, and keeps in trim by swimming. He has two children: Tom, 8, and Donna June, 2.

Ronny Lang • Ray Sims • Dave Pell • Don Fagerquist

The Les Brown All Stars

The Les Brown All Stars are actually three groups — the Dave Pell Octet, Ronny Lang Saxtet and Don Fagerquist Nonet — comprised for the most part of members or alumni of Brown's popular and long-lived Band of Renown and encircling on this anthology from the mid-'50s three numbers by Zoot Sims' older brother, trombonist Ray, with string section. Pell's group, the precursor to the others, is heard on three tracks, as are the Fagerquist and Lang groups.

Pell, who joined Brown's band in 1948, formed his crowd-pleasing octet five years later. While the first group was made up entirely of personnel from the Band of Renown, others soon were enlisted, such as baritone saxophonist Bob Gordon, pianist Paul Smith and bassist Joe Mondragon, who are among the performers here. Pell is the common denominator in all three groups, manning the front line with Gordon and tenor giants Sims and Bill Holman in Fagerquist's nine-piece ensemble, with altos Lang and Bob Drasnin in the former's Saxtet.

The music, much of it taken from the Great American Songbook and neatly arranged by the likes of Holman, Marty Paich, Shorty Rogers and Wes Hensel, never strays far from Brown's dance-oriented philosophy (as Pell says, music that was "danceable and yet still had a jazz feel ). It's cheerful music that swings breezily along behind buoyant solos by Pell and the others. Pell, a remarkably durable musician who made his professional debut in 1941 plays a "happy tenor" that would put a smile on almost anyone's face. If you've heard Zoot or Bob Cooper, the tenors who perhaps came closest to Pell in style and temperament, if not in sound, you'll know what I mean.

*Jack Bowers (allaboutjazz.com)*

Four of Les Brown's most talented stars... leading four gifted groups through stimulating jazz performances! 

You may, quite rightfully, be bothered about the title "All-Stars" being applied to almost every musical group of more than four pieces. And then along comes a unit which has every right to use the title, and all of a sudden you feel sorry for the ones that try to bluff.

Such a group is the entire Les Brown Orchestra — a facile, skilled, sharpshooting gang of musicians who know what to do when jazz time rolls around.

A number of Brown's men lead bands in this album, augmented by a few sturdy West Coast jazzmen who are in complete rapport with them. See if you don't agree that this collection puts the phrase "All-Stars" back in the position where it belongs — a signification of strength and quality that corresponds to "sterling" on silver. *Jack Tracy (liner notes)*

Side 1

1 - Mike's Peak

(Shorty Rogers)

2 - Thou Swell

(Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)

3 - The Way You Look Tonight

(Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields)

4 - You Don't Know What Love Is

(Don Raye, Gene De Paul)

5 - The Man I Love

(George and Ira Gershwin)

6 -Sorta Moonlight

(Wes Hensel, Ronny Lang)

Side 2

7 - Love Is Just Around The Corner

(Lewis E. Gensler, Leo Robin)

8 - Klump Jump

(Marty Paich)

9 - My Funny Valentine

(Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)

10 - Love Me Or Leave Me

(Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn)

11 - Let's Fall In Love

(Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler)

12 - Poopsie

(David Pell)

#1, #8, #12: Dave Pell Ensemble

Dave Pell (tenor sax), Bob Gordon (Baritone sax), Ray Sims (trombone),

Don Fagerquist (trumpet), Tony Rizzi (guitar), Paul Smith (piano),

Joe Mondragon (bass), Ralph Peña (bass [#8]), Jack Sperling (drums).

Recorded at Capitol Melrose Studios, Hollywood, California,

June 15 (#1, #12) and June 17 (#8), 1955

#2, #6, #10: Ronny Lang Saxtet

Ronny Lang, Bob Drasnin (alto saxes); Dave Pell, Abe Aaron (tenor saxes);

Butch Stone (baritone sax); Donn Trenner (piano); Buddy Clark (bass); Bill Richmond (drums).

Recorded at Capitol Melrose Studios, Hollywood, California, June 23, 1955

#3, #5, #7: Don Fagerquist Nonette

Don Fagerquist (trumpet); Bill Holman, Dave Pell, Zoot Sims (tenor saxes);

Bob Gordon (baritone sax); Vernon Polk (guitar); Donn Trenner (piano);

Buddy Clark (bass); Bill Richmond (drums).

Recorded at Capitol Melrose Studios, Hollywood, California, June 21, 1955

#4, #9, #11: Ray Sims With Strings

Ray Sims (trombone, vocal [#11]), Ronny Lang (flute), Corky Hale (harp),

Donn Trenner (piano), Buddy Clark (bass), Bill Richmond (drums).

[String section led by Les Brown but unidentified personnel]

Recorded at Capitol Melrose Studios, Hollywood, California, June 27, 1955