Just One More Dance with Les Elgart

My recent post devoted to an obscure Larry Elgart record elicited a plea for something by Larry's bandleading brother, Les. So here we have Les's second Columbia LP, Just One More Dance, from 1954.

Les Elgart

Back then, the remaining big bands competed for recognition among the college set, as we have seen with releases by Les Brown, Eliot Lawrence, Ralph Flanagan and others. Les Elgart claimed the title of "America's Prom Favorite," which may have been overstating things, but he was indeed popular.

This LP shows why, with its smooth sound and its slick arrangements by Charles Albertine, who also did the charts for the previously mentioned Larry Elgart album.

If you are seeking jazz heat, you will find little of that here. Solos are few, although the alto sax you occasionally hear is probably the sound of brother Larry. Les played the trumpet, or at least he toted it around for photos. He did not have the reputation as an instrumentalist that Larry achieved.

This transfer of Just One More Dance is from the 12-inch version of the LP, which also exists in 10-inch form with the same cover but minus "When Day Is Done," "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire," "Night and Day" and "Stardust." There also is a double-EP edition, and these various permutations can be found with pink, green and blue covers, in addition to the brown above. (Collect 'em all!)

My near-mint pressing was thin sounding, but the sonics have come around nicely after some adjustments.

At Duke University, 1956

Larry Elgart and Charles Albertine

Bandleader Larry Elgart died last week, so I thought I might post one of his most unusual records, this 1954 LP of Music for Barefoot Ballerinas and Others. It's not in the big-band realm occupied by so many of the records issued by Elgart, either under his own name or in conjunction with older brother Les, himself a prolific recording artist. Instead it is putative ballet music featuring Larry's alto saxophone as a solo voice.

Larry Elgart

Although Elgart is listed as directing the record, the music was composed and arranged by Charles Albertine. Little known today, Albertine worked extensively with the Elgarts and later with the Three Suns and Sammy Kaye. (More info here.)

The "Barefoot Ballerinas" music is most enjoyable, with Albertine drawing on French and Russian composers for inspiration, and Elgart's alto adopting a purer sound than is usually found in pop or jazz alto solos. (I find it hard to listen to many jazz altos.) You may find this album described on the web as avant-garde or akin to Bob Graettinger's City of Glass. Neither claim is true; it is entirely euphonious.

Albertine had begun working with the Elgarts in 1952 or 1953, and had already arranged one LP for Larry, 1953's Impressions of Outer Space, a record I wish I owned for its fantastic cover alone. Albertine composed five of the eight tunes on that record; one other was by Kermit Levinsky (Leslie), who recently made an appearance on this blog.

Much of Albertine's work for the Elgarts was far more conventional than "Barefoot Ballerinas." Earlier in 1954, Les had taped Albertine's "Bandstand Boogie," which I have included as a bonus track to demonstrate the type of music that the Elgarts and Albertine usually concocted. It's quite a good big-band riff tune in a Jerry Gray vein, one that will be familiar to most Americans of my generation as the theme music for Dick Clark's television show American Bandstand. The flip side of that single was a version of the immortal "When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba," which I didn't record for you. (Sorry!)

Larry continued recording into the 1980s, scoring a hit with his album Hooked on Swing, which was not as disreputable as its counterpart Hooked on Classics. Both were mainstays of an 80s record library.

Decca's cover for "Barefoot Ballerinas" is much different from its usual blatant approach to art. It does not even display the Decca logo, which makes an appearance on the back (see below). I will admit, though, that the drawing looks like it might have been scribbled by a lovesick high school student. The sound is fine.

Marc Myers has a good appreciation of Larry Elgart here.