In the late 1940s and early 1950s, tenor saxophonist Buddy Arnold played in a wide variety of New York big bands. These included the orchestras of Joe Marsala, Georgie Auld, Herbie Fields, George Williams, Tex Beneke, Claude Thornhill, Buddy DeFranco and Jerry Wald. In January 1956, he recorded his first and only leadership album called Wailing for ABC Paramount. It also happened to be one of Creed Taylor's first albums produced for the label after coming aboard from Bethlehem, where he had produced since 1954 after arriving in New York. Last week I spoke to Creed about Arnold:
“Buddy was a nice guy. I met him at one of the musicians' hangouts, like Charlie's Tavern, on 51st St. between Broadway and 7th Ave., or Jim and Andy's on West 48th St. I heard him playing at jazz joints in Greenwich Village and loved how he could swing. Back then, I was living on Waverly Place in the Village. I loved no-vibrato reed players. It was a dry tone that wasn't affected and was rather uncommon. That's all I remember about Buddy. The guys I brought in for the session and the arrangers I knew from hanging out at those bars. That's how it was back then. If you put in the time with the guys where they killed time or kicked back, you grew to become friends and they were great on record sessions."
Wailing is a swinging small-band album with musicians and arrangers who were hitting their stride at the start of the 12-inch LP era. The album was recorded in two sessions. The first featured Dick Sherman (tp,arr), Frank Rehak (tb), Gene Quill (as,cl), Buddy Arnold (ts,b-cl), John Williams (p,arr), Teddy Kotick (b) and Shadow Wilson (d) with Nat Pierce, Bob Brookmeyer and Phil Urso (arr). This ensemble recorded Oedipus (np arr), Patti's Cake (ds arr), It's Sand, Man (np arr) and No Letter Today (bb arr).
The second session featured Dave Schildkraut (as), who replaced Quill, and Osie Johnson (d), who replaced Wilson. This group recorded Old Devil Moon (jw arr), Footsie, P.U. Stomp [Phil Urso Stomp] (pu arr), Moby Dick (ds arr) and You Don't Know What Love Is (ds arr).
Arnold had a troubled drug history. According to his obit in the Los Angeles Times in 2003 by Dennis McLellan, “In 1950, a year after making his first recording, Arnold used heroin for the first time, setting off a 31-year addiction that led to 34 narcotics arrests, including a 1981 conviction that sent him to San Quentin."
While struggling with his habit, Arnold played in Stan Kenton's bands in the second half of the 1950s and '60s. Once he was released in the early 1990s, Arnold and his wife co-founded the Hollywood-based Musicians' Assistance Program, a unified effort by the recording industry to combat drug abuse by musicians. Arnold died in 2003 of complications from open-heart surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
“Buddy was a nice guy. I met him at one of the musicians' hangouts, like Charlie's Tavern, on 51st St. between Broadway and 7th Ave., or Jim and Andy's on West 48th St. I heard him playing at jazz joints in Greenwich Village and loved how he could swing. Back then, I was living on Waverly Place in the Village. I loved no-vibrato reed players. It was a dry tone that wasn't affected and was rather uncommon. That's all I remember about Buddy. The guys I brought in for the session and the arrangers I knew from hanging out at those bars. That's how it was back then. If you put in the time with the guys where they killed time or kicked back, you grew to become friends and they were great on record sessions."
Wailing is a swinging small-band album with musicians and arrangers who were hitting their stride at the start of the 12-inch LP era. The album was recorded in two sessions. The first featured Dick Sherman (tp,arr), Frank Rehak (tb), Gene Quill (as,cl), Buddy Arnold (ts,b-cl), John Williams (p,arr), Teddy Kotick (b) and Shadow Wilson (d) with Nat Pierce, Bob Brookmeyer and Phil Urso (arr). This ensemble recorded Oedipus (np arr), Patti's Cake (ds arr), It's Sand, Man (np arr) and No Letter Today (bb arr).
The second session featured Dave Schildkraut (as), who replaced Quill, and Osie Johnson (d), who replaced Wilson. This group recorded Old Devil Moon (jw arr), Footsie, P.U. Stomp [Phil Urso Stomp] (pu arr), Moby Dick (ds arr) and You Don't Know What Love Is (ds arr).
Arnold had a troubled drug history. According to his obit in the Los Angeles Times in 2003 by Dennis McLellan, “In 1950, a year after making his first recording, Arnold used heroin for the first time, setting off a 31-year addiction that led to 34 narcotics arrests, including a 1981 conviction that sent him to San Quentin."
While struggling with his habit, Arnold played in Stan Kenton's bands in the second half of the 1950s and '60s. Once he was released in the early 1990s, Arnold and his wife co-founded the Hollywood-based Musicians' Assistance Program, a unified effort by the recording industry to combat drug abuse by musicians. Arnold died in 2003 of complications from open-heart surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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