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martedì 10 settembre 2013

Jazz at Liberty - American Musicians Play Soviet Originals over Radio Liberty

Jazz at Liberty
American Musicians Play Soviet Originals

over Radio Liberty

LP (12" album, 33 rpm) Record Label Name: RKO Label's Catalog Number: 131542
Arrangements By Al Cohn mx 131542 pressed by RKO Sound Studios 1 side microgroove, Not for broadcast label.
1.Believe (You May Believe - Or Not)
2 Madrigal # 1 Art Farmer, and others, Zoot Sims, Phil Woods
3 Madrigal New York Phil Woods, Art Farmer, and others, Zoot Sims
4 Nyet (You Will Say No) Phil Woods, and others, Zoot Sims, Art Farmer
It can now be revealed that one (in reality, two - ed.) of the four songs written was by Gennadi Golstein, a well-known composer and saxophonist. 

Joseph Valerio, a Radio Liberty producer in my New York division, had contacts in the jazz world and arranged for some of the Goodman group and other well-known performers to record the forbidden music from Russia in our studios, taking strict precautions to protect the identity of the Soviet composers. The noted jazz expert George T.Simon reported the unique "jam session" and the program series that evolved, which was inaugurated on June 30 [1963]: Radio listeners who tune in Radio Liberty will hear the modern swinging sounds of eight American jazz musicians on a new show called THIS IS JAZZ. But they won't be playing the usual American fare. Instead they'll blow four jazz pieces composed by Russians which they recorded exclusively for Soviet consumption.The octet is headed by Bill Crow, bass, and alto saxophonist Phil Woods, members of the Benny Goodman band that toured the Soviet Union last year. Playing with them are two other Goodman alumni, tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims and pianist John Bunch, plus trumpeter Art Farmer (using mostly the fluegelhorn) trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, baritone saxophonist Nick Brignola and drummer Walter Perkins. The songs were sent in rough form to Crow and Woods who assigned them to Al Cohn, a top jazz arranger, to score for the octet...liner cover carries a photograph of the Radio's transmitter site in Spain, along with Simon's review, and pictures .