Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Ray Anthony & His Orchestra: The Navy Show Broadcasts

121

Ray Anthony & His Orchestra: The Navy Show Broadcasts

By

View read count
Ray Anthony & His Orchestra: The Navy Show Broadcasts
Trumpeter Ray Anthony, a bandleader for more than half a century, led his first ensemble for the U.S. Navy during World War II, and performed a number of times on behalf of the Navy recruiting service from 1946–54, broadcasts from which the selections on this disc were taken. This is exclusively standard fare designed for dancing, some of which sounds quite dated (“Wheel of Fortune,” “Bermuda,” “Blacksmith’s Blues,” for example). Solos are entrusted almost exclusively to the leader’s emphatic trumpet (brother Leo, on baritone, makes it a twosome on “Dinah,” while tenors Wise and Usselton have nice choruses alongside Ray on “Perdido”). The band itself is as polished and alert as most dance bands of the period, and shows its mettle on several of the instrumentals including “Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” (solos by Anthony and Wise), “Deep Night” (an excellent chart featuring Sarvisi’s piano and Anthony’s muted trumpet), “I Get a Kick Out of You” and “Trumpet Boogie.” The vocalists, Marcie Miller, Tommy Mercer and the Skyliners, are no better than adequate, and sometimes even less so (especially Mercer). The uncredited announcer, by the way, is Don Wilson, who assumed that role for many years as a member of Jack Benny’s beloved radio family. Sound quality on these radio broadcasts is respectable, and the disc is easily recommended to Ray Anthony/big–band completists.

Track listing: Young Man with a Horn (theme); Lullaby of Broadway; Sentimental Journey; Wheel of Fortune; The Continental; As Time Goes By; Walkin’ My Baby Back Home; You’re Driving Me Crazy; Bermuda; Begin the Beguine; I’ll Walk Alone; They Didn’t Believe Me; Deep Night; I Hear a Rhapsody; Dinah; I Get a Kick Out of You; That Old Black Magic; Delicado; Perdido; I’ll Remember April; Blacksmith Blues; Sometimes I’m Happy; Trumpet Boogie; I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart; For Dancers Only (62:57).

Personnel

Ray Anthony
trumpet

Ray Anthony, leader, trumpet; Bruce Brukert, Jack Laubach, Dean Hinckle, Knobby Lee, trumpets; Keith Butterfield, Walter Shields, Ken Trimble, Dick Reynolds, trombones; Jim Schneider, Earl Bergman, Bill Usselton, Buddy Wise, Leo Anthony, saxes; Fred Sarvise, piano; Vince Terri, guitar; Billy Cronk, bass; Archie Freeman, drums; Marcie Miller, Tommy Mercer, The Skyliners, The Anthony Choir, vocals.

Contact: Montpellier Records, 7, The Courtyard, Montpellier Street, Cheltenham, Glos., UK GL50 1SR.

Album information

Title: The Navy Show Broadcasts | Year Released: 1999 | Record Label: Montpellier

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.