Les DeMerle & Sound 67: Once in a Lifetime

Every once in a while, the discovery of a forgotten recording from the past results in the history of jazz being altered. Until now, it was believed that the hard-driving and swinging drummer Les DeMerle made his first recordings in 1969 with his debut as a leader, Spectrum. The first-time release of Once In A Lifetime, which was recorded in 1967, rewrites the history books a bit.

At the time, Les DeMerle was 20 and already had quite a bit of musical experience. Born in Brooklyn, he grew up in Queens and began playing drums when he was eight, playing at socials, proms and private parties and organizing his first band, the Capitols when he was 12. During the next three years, the group played every weekend at high school proms and socials, They appeared on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour television show and in Tony Grant's Stars Of Tomorrow at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. At the suggestion of his drum teacher, Bob Livingston, Les' parents began bringing him to New York City to see some of the great jazz players he had been studying. "I started sitting in with a Dixieland clarinetist, Tony Parenti, at Eddie Condon's and he took me under his wing, We played at Jimmy Ryan's on 52nd Street, Nick's in the Village, the Metropole Café on Broadway, and I worked with my trio at the posh New York super club Barbara Kelly's Hat and Cane on the upper East side. I also learned a lot jamming with trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen, clarinetists Sol Yaged and Edmond Hall, and pianist Ralph Sutton. My drum heroes were Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich, and I later got into Max Roach, Art Blakey and Elvin Jones. I'm glad that I got to start with Dixieland because it teaches you to swing and get good some snare drum chops." He recalls being so enthusiastic at seeing Lionel Hampton at the Metropole that his father went up to the vibraphonist between sets and asked if his 16-year-old son could sit in. At first Hampton said no but he later noticed Les in the audience scatting some of the riffs that his band was playing. When his father approached Hampton a second time and offered to buy the entire 17-piece orchestra a drink, the bandleader gave in. He was so impressed by the youth's drumming that when Les' Dad came up to thank him and pay for the drinks, Hampton said "Hey Pops, that kid can play. Forget the band—just buy me a double." Hampton asked for Les' business card and a year later had the teenager sub for his drummer on a few gigs in Atlantic City.

The Metropole played a key role in Les DeMerle's career. One time he sat in with Gene Krupa at the Metropole and Krupa's agent Joe Glaser (best-known for his association with Louis Armstrong) happened to be in the audience. Glaser soon signed the young drummer to his Associated Booking Agency and started booking jobs for Les as the featured drummer with the Billy Williams Revue and also booked Les' jazz trio to appear at Jazzland at the New York's World's Fair opposite such headliners as Krupa, Maynard Ferguson and Carmen McRae. Desiring to have a regular group, in 1967 the 20-year-old drummer formed Sound 67. "I wanted to have a five-piece band that sounded like a little big band and I hired such arrangers as Frank Foster (a good friend famous for his work with Count Basie), Bob Hammer (who worked with Woody Herman and Charles Mingus) and David Sandridge who also played piano with us and was a great if underrated player. I got the best players that I could including trumpeter Randy Brecker who had just come to New York about two weeks earlier. I also had Lanny Morgan on alto when he was not working with Maynard Ferguson and his sub Lee Konitz."

Soon after Les DeMerle started Sound 67, Joe Glaser had the group headlining at top jazz clubs including Basin Street East and the Riverboat in NYC and Paul's Mall in Boston. The band went on tours, opening for major acts including the Toys (which at that time had the pop hit "Lover's Concerto") and Jay & the Americans. They also appeared on television including three episodes of the Mike Douglas Show. It is remarkable that Sound 67 had that much success without releasing a single record. They did record a series of songs that they submitted to the Atlantic label but it got lost in the shuffle and the acetates sat in Les DeMerle's library, until now.

Five of the ten selections on 'Once in a Lifetime' feature the quintet of Les DeMerle, Randy Brecker (in his earliest studio recordings, nine years before he became co-leader of the Brecker Brothers), altoist Alan Gauvin, pianist Danny Sandridge, and bassist Terry Plumeri. While Sandridge's later activities are not known, Gauvin would work with the big bands of Woody Herman (playing baritone), Bill Watrous (on soprano and flute) and extensively with Buddy Rich (mostly on alto). Plumeri became a member of the Airmen Of Note and led a few albums of his own including a little-known quintet date with keyboardist Herbie Hancock and guitarist John Abercrombie.

"Come Back to Me," which had been featured by Sammy Davis Jr. on his earlier Reprise album, Sound 66, with Buddy Rich, was turned into a very up-tempo instrumental by Bob Hammer that has the quintet sounding like a much larger unit. The high-energy arrangement features explosive drum breaks and was used an opener by Les on numerous occasions. The Anthony Newley hit "Feelin' Good" starts in dramatic fashion, has a boogaloo funk rhythm, features a strong solo by Gauvin followed by two shout choruses before its heated, sanctified conclusion.

"On a Clear Day" is the first of three songs to feature singer Genya Raven. "She was a rock singer before she joined my band," says Les, "and was well known in New York with her group Goldie and the Gingerbreads. She had an Aretha Franklin-type vibe with bluesy inflections in her singing and fit in really great with the band. After her time with us, she became part of Ten Wheel Drive and had a lot of success." Despite her rock background, the vocalist sounds natural singing a soulful and swinging "On a Clear Day" arranged by Ray Starling. The version of Sound 67 that accompanies the singer consists of DeMerle, Brecker, altoist Lanny Morgan, pianist Mel Olman, and bassist Jack Greg.

Frank Foster's "Raunchy Rita" which Foster first recorded in 1965, was adopted by both Elvin Jones and Lionel Hampton. The bluesy tune has a catchy rhythm along with inventive solos by Brecker, Gauvin, and Sandridge and infectious ensembles. Les' "Signifyin,'" a soul jazz original inspired by some of the organ groups that he heard during the era, could have caught on if it had been more widely heard. It is easy to imagine Ramsey Lewis, Les McCann or Cannonball Adderley performing this number. Be sure to catch its surprising extended ending.

Genya Raven returns for a heart-felt version of "Alfie" that was arranged by Sandridge. Joe Zawinul's "Sticks," which had recently been recorded for Cannonball Adderley's Mercy Mercy Mercy album, displays the drummer's love for Adderley's group while giving the song a fresh twist that includes a bowed bass solo. Les originally recorded Bob Hammer's arrangement of "That's Life" as his own vocal but he thought twice about it, had Genya Raven record the same chart, and preferred her powerful version, being content to propel the performance with his drums.

The final two selections are rare bonuses, both taken from appearances on the Mike Douglas television show. Leading a group with Gauvin, Sandridge, trumpeter Charlie Camaleri, and bassist Bill Takas, Les DeMerle sounds remarkable during a very fast and spectacular drum showcase on "Once in a Lifetime," showing that at 20, he was already a masterful musician.

The final performance is quite unusual and spontaneous. At the end of the program, Mike Douglas generally had his guests sitting together on stools while someone sang a song. "Rosemary Clooney was singing 'Taking a Chance on Love' and, since I had my sticks, I started keeping time at first on my leg and then on the wooden stool. Mike liked the fact that it was something different for a closer so he gave me his own stool to play on and someone got a chair from the audience so I had a makeshift drum set. I upstaged Rosemary a bit but she dug it, smiled at me while she was singing, and later said that I had a lot of cajones to do that!"

That appearance on the Mike Douglas Show eventually resulted in the next major phase of Les' career. Trumpeter-bandleader Harry James just happened to catch that episode of the program, was quite impressed, and arranged for Sound 67 to open for his band for three weeks at the Riverboat in New York. Sound 67 lasted until the beginning of 1969. By then, Les had become too busy to keep the band going, having accepted a high-paying gig to work with Wayne Newton in Las Vegas and planning his Spectrum big band album for United Artists. In 1970 Harry James offered him a job to join his big band. Les began working with James the next night and stayed for 12 years.

After the James years ended, Les DeMerle spent a period based in Los Angeles where he had a club called the Cellar Theater, leading the group Transfusion (which featured Don Menza, Eric Marienthal and David Benoit). In 1983 after Harry James' passing, he moved back to New York to form a trio that worked with Jimmy Witherspoon and Helen Forrest. A call from Wayne Newton resulted in him going out on the road again. While playing in Chicago with Newton, Les was offered a supper club jazz gig so he put together a new band and hired Bonnie Eisele as his featured vocalist. The couple married and, at the invitation of the Ritz Carlton, moved to Amelia Island, Florida where, as the house band (which ranged from a trio to the full 17-piece Les DeMerle orchestra), they performed six nights a week, 11 months a year during 1991 to 2001. In 2001 they founded the Amelia Jazz Festival which is now celebrating its 20th year in 2023. "These days I'm playing jazz as much as I can. We have many lead up events to the jazz festival, play at Heidi's in Cocoa Beach and Breezy Jazz House in Jacksonville, perform jazz cruises all over the world for RCCL, and I do a lot of teaching online and in person at my Amelia Island Drum Studio."

'Once in a Lifetime' gives listeners a chance to hear Les DeMerle near the beginning of his career. "The recordings were on acetates in my files. I had them cleaned up, digitally remastered, and sent them to Randy Brecker, Alan Gauvin and John Bishop, the owner of Origin Records. They all said that we have got to put this out. The music has a lot of fire and I think it is exciting and fresh. It still sounds good to me today, 56 years later."

Liner Notes copyright © 2025 Scott Yanow.

Once in a Lifetime can be purchased here.

Contact Scott Yanow at All About Jazz.
Scott Yanow, jazz journalist/historian and author of 12 books including 'Life Through the Eyes of a Jazz Journalist'

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