While I was away over the past two weeks, I spent a few hours at a terrific vinyl record store nearby run by guys with long hair and great taste. You know the kind of shop I'm talking about, where everything they spin on their vintage stereo system with 1970s speakers sounds fetching and you must own it.
Fear not, I was merely killing time on a hot day, not hard shopping. But I did gather a bunch of titles that I tracked down digitally courtesy of my generous friends here and abroad. With time off, I also grabbed a handful of LPs on eBay after waiting months for them to surface.
Among my scores were the original 10-inch Kenton Showcase: The Music of Bill Holman (Capitol, 1954); Shorty Rogers's 10-inch Cool and Crazy (1953); the Australian pressing of Antonio Carlos Jobim's Wave (1967, CTI), which features the giraffe on the entire cover; a factory-sealed original copy of Frankie Laine's Torchin' (Columbia, 1959), which the owner must have thought was junk; and Jo Stafford's Swingin' Down Broadway (Columbia, 1958), her finest album.
But back to the point of the post. While browsing the jazz bins at the record store, I came across an EmArcy jazz album I hadn't seen or heard before. It was entitled Ralph Gari, featuring the Ralph Gari Quartet. Recorded in April 1955, the album featured Ralph Gari (fl,cl,as,pic,oboe), Clarence Shank (p), Dan Sherret (b) and Edward Julian (d). The LP features five originals by Gari followed by six standards.
What's amazing about the session is that Gari played many different instruments without overdubbing. According to the liner notes, Gari changed instruments in a flash. The tracks are Happy Daze, Kali, Fourth Dimension, Nocturne, Transition, Fine and Dandy, Dancing in the Dark, The Way You Look Tonight, I've Got You Under My Skin, That Old Black Magic and Thou Swell.
I decided not to buy the album at the store, since many imperfections aren't identified by store owners, and albums there couldn't be returned. Instead, I bought a near mint copy online. But I still wanted a digital version so I could share tracks with you. So I reached out to a dear friend in Cornwall, England, who told me that our mutual pal, Héctor Balbis, in Uruguay, had a copy digitized. Héctor sent it along. Thanks, Héctor!
Based on the liner notes and a bit of newspaper research, Gari (née Grofalo) was born in New Castle, Pa., in July 1927 and began studying music at age 9. Considered a prodigy, he played solo clarinet with an Italian concert band near Pittsburgh for four years starting at age 12. In Pittsburgh and New York, Gari took mundane music jobs that earned him money so he could continue his studies with tutors.
He soon joined a series of bands, including Frankie Carle in 1949, and worked with Paul Whiteman that year. Starting in 1950, Gari began working in Las Vegas, which at the time was still a dusty gambling and entertainment destination being carved into the desert and in desperate need of top orchestral musicians. Gari settled there with his wife and two sons.
Gari's originals are similar in many respects to the tonal music of Gil Melle and Lyle “Spud" Murphy. The tracks could easily have formed the soundtrack of an early independent movie about a young single woman moving into a Greenwich Village apartment and yearning for new friends as she figures out the city. Or some such. The standards are brighter and beautifully arranged and played. Variety in 1955 said the quartet had been playing the material at El Rancho Vegas before signing with EmArcy.
Gari appears on only two other jazz albums, both by Skip Martin. A search of Las Vegas and New Castle, Pa., newspaper archives turned up several articles on Gari. He joined the house orchestra of the Sands Hotel as principal saxophonist and woodwind player. In 1959, NBC hired him for its TV orchestra in Los Angeles. The network let him perform with symphony orchestras in Southern California and play in a number of film-scoring sessions.
Gari returned to music school in the 1960s and became a college professor in 1967. A year later he joined the Nat Brandwynne Orchestra at Caesar's Palace in Vegas. In the 1970s, Gari backed a long list of top pop singers in residence at the hotel, including Frank Sinatra and Steve Lawrence. After the 1970s, Gari's trail goes cold
Fear not, I was merely killing time on a hot day, not hard shopping. But I did gather a bunch of titles that I tracked down digitally courtesy of my generous friends here and abroad. With time off, I also grabbed a handful of LPs on eBay after waiting months for them to surface.
Among my scores were the original 10-inch Kenton Showcase: The Music of Bill Holman (Capitol, 1954); Shorty Rogers's 10-inch Cool and Crazy (1953); the Australian pressing of Antonio Carlos Jobim's Wave (1967, CTI), which features the giraffe on the entire cover; a factory-sealed original copy of Frankie Laine's Torchin' (Columbia, 1959), which the owner must have thought was junk; and Jo Stafford's Swingin' Down Broadway (Columbia, 1958), her finest album.
But back to the point of the post. While browsing the jazz bins at the record store, I came across an EmArcy jazz album I hadn't seen or heard before. It was entitled Ralph Gari, featuring the Ralph Gari Quartet. Recorded in April 1955, the album featured Ralph Gari (fl,cl,as,pic,oboe), Clarence Shank (p), Dan Sherret (b) and Edward Julian (d). The LP features five originals by Gari followed by six standards.
What's amazing about the session is that Gari played many different instruments without overdubbing. According to the liner notes, Gari changed instruments in a flash. The tracks are Happy Daze, Kali, Fourth Dimension, Nocturne, Transition, Fine and Dandy, Dancing in the Dark, The Way You Look Tonight, I've Got You Under My Skin, That Old Black Magic and Thou Swell.
I decided not to buy the album at the store, since many imperfections aren't identified by store owners, and albums there couldn't be returned. Instead, I bought a near mint copy online. But I still wanted a digital version so I could share tracks with you. So I reached out to a dear friend in Cornwall, England, who told me that our mutual pal, Héctor Balbis, in Uruguay, had a copy digitized. Héctor sent it along. Thanks, Héctor!
Based on the liner notes and a bit of newspaper research, Gari (née Grofalo) was born in New Castle, Pa., in July 1927 and began studying music at age 9. Considered a prodigy, he played solo clarinet with an Italian concert band near Pittsburgh for four years starting at age 12. In Pittsburgh and New York, Gari took mundane music jobs that earned him money so he could continue his studies with tutors.
He soon joined a series of bands, including Frankie Carle in 1949, and worked with Paul Whiteman that year. Starting in 1950, Gari began working in Las Vegas, which at the time was still a dusty gambling and entertainment destination being carved into the desert and in desperate need of top orchestral musicians. Gari settled there with his wife and two sons.
Gari's originals are similar in many respects to the tonal music of Gil Melle and Lyle “Spud" Murphy. The tracks could easily have formed the soundtrack of an early independent movie about a young single woman moving into a Greenwich Village apartment and yearning for new friends as she figures out the city. Or some such. The standards are brighter and beautifully arranged and played. Variety in 1955 said the quartet had been playing the material at El Rancho Vegas before signing with EmArcy.
Gari appears on only two other jazz albums, both by Skip Martin. A search of Las Vegas and New Castle, Pa., newspaper archives turned up several articles on Gari. He joined the house orchestra of the Sands Hotel as principal saxophonist and woodwind player. In 1959, NBC hired him for its TV orchestra in Los Angeles. The network let him perform with symphony orchestras in Southern California and play in a number of film-scoring sessions.
Gari returned to music school in the 1960s and became a college professor in 1967. A year later he joined the Nat Brandwynne Orchestra at Caesar's Palace in Vegas. In the 1970s, Gari backed a long list of top pop singers in residence at the hotel, including Frank Sinatra and Steve Lawrence. After the 1970s, Gari's trail goes cold
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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