Tommy Newsom - Live from Beautiful Downtown Burbank (1978)

"Chimes Festival" by Tommy Newsom

Whenever Doc Severinsen took over for Ed McMahon as announcer or took a break of his own, first chair saxophonist Tommy Newsom led the Tonight Show Band. Like many veterans of touring Big Bands, Newsom found himself working for one of the last bastions of those sizable orchestras when he joined the Tonight Show band in 1962 just before Carson took over. He arranged for the band and garnered a reputation for his dry wit when ad-libbing with Johnny. He released his debut album Live from Beautiful Downtown Burbank in 1978 for Direct-Disk Labs, a label that cut live performances straight to lacquer.

The album showcases Tommy Newsom, the arranger. Performed by a (sort of) Big Band orchestra, the music is not jazz and not orchestral but somehow both. The highlight of the album is the opener "Chimes Festival," a piece written by Newsom and inspired by the NBC jingle. The composition starts with a brassy blast of the familiar chimes and gradually weaves its way through a string of primetime genres, from adventure to game show, all composed and delivered with pomp and bombast. The final touch comes from Doc Severinsen's featured trumpet, and he elevates the piece for his good friend delivering the album's best solos. The rest of the songs on the album are arranged in the same style: brass heavy and winding and pleasant; a familiar jumble of musical influences and genres that only seems to have a place in the repertoire of a 70s television orchestra.

Here is the discography surrounding Tommy Newsom's debut album:

"Happy Go Lucky Local" by The Tonight Show Band

Johnny Carson Digs at Tommy Newsom

Johnny Carson and Tommy Newsom Banter

Pass the Headphones!!

Doc Severinsen and His Orchestra - Tempestuous Trumpet (1961)

"After You've Gone" by Doc Severinsen and His Orchestra

Johnny Carson preferred to pepper his routines with unscripted dialogue between himself and anybody on the Tonight Show payroll. After two years leading the Tonight Show Band, Milton Delugg proved not to be the best foil for Carson and, in 1968, trumpeter Doc Severinsen took over as bandleader. Severinsen was a wunderkind trumpet player and was touring with Big Bands before graduating high school. He'd continue to do so after serving in World War II before landing a job with NBC where he was a member of the Tonight Show Orchestra under Skitch Henderson during Steve Allen's run. Skitch brought Severinsen back for Carson's tenure as first chair trumpet until his eventual ascension to bandleader and "second sidekick." Between Tonight Show eras, Doc Severinsen and His Orchestra recorded their debut album Tempestuous Trumpet in 1961 for Command Records.

Rather than stormy and chaotic as the album title might suggest, Doc Severinsen plays his trumpet sunny, bright and crisp. My first thought was that Doc is as precise and virtuosic on his instrument as Bobby Byrne is on the trombone, and it turns out that Byrne actually plays on the record and arranged for it. Byrne's arrangements enjoy similar fair weather and are executed to perfection by a rehearsed, brass-heavy orchestra. The occasional touch of bongos brings further levity; the flutes do, too, but date the recordings a bit. The orchestra plays similarly to how the outstanding album cover art by S. Neil Fujita suggests: designed, organized and edited. Beautiful jazz, to be sure, but not tempestuous at all.

Here is the discography surrounding Doc Severinsen's debut album:

"I've Gotta Be Me" by The Tonight Show Band

Doc Severinsen with "All Star" Trumpet Quartet on Steve Allen's Tonight

Doc Severinsen Talks Thanksgiving with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show

"Stardust" by Doc Severinsen and His Orchestra

Pass the Headphones!!

Milton Delugg and The All-Stars - Add-A-Part Jazz (1956)

"I'm in the Mood for Love" by Milton Delugg and The All-Stars

José Melis left the Tonight Show band when Jack Paar left, so Johnny Carson started his tenure with the returning Skitch Henderson as bandleader. But Henderson had greater aspirations than just working in television and left Tonight after four years with Carson. Arranger, composer, bandleader, producer and accordion player, Milton Delugg got the call to take over the job. Delugg had a long-running relationship with NBC that started in 1950 where he conducted for the pioneering late night program Broadway Open House. Before that, he was a ready session musician and had no shortage of work as the "only" jazz accordionist in Los Angeles. He wrote prolifically and recorded occasionally releasing a debut album Add-A-Part Jazz with The All-Stars in 1961 on Columbia Records.

Milton Delugg gives the album most of its listenability just for the rarity of the accordion in jazz. He shows off the instrument's flexibility by shifting between laying down a melodic line overtop the rhythm section or adding volume to the horns. He uses the accordion's nimble dynamic shifts to give a little subtlety to the brass and even uses its breath for the occasional sustained drone (though not nearly often enough.) The other standout instrument is the piano (played by either Hank Jones or Bernie Leighton) which hits such soft and minimal solos that are beautiful in their spareness...except that they're not actually piano solos if you buy into the album's novelty...because this is a jazz album to which the listener can play along.

So during those otherwise daringly quiet moments where it's just the rhythm section, that's actually when the listener gets to solo. Just imagine the instruments that could be given a jazz turn: sousaphone, jewish harp, mellotron, talk box, ocarina, tubular bells, otamotone, etc. The violin is a good choice if you want to sound even more like you're playing inside a French cafe or perhaps the recorder for the aspiring, jazz-curious student. And to play with such All-Stars who, even without the add-a-part, take simplified material and rudimentary arrangements and make them worth the spin.

Here is the discography surrounding Milton Delugg's debut album:

Pickle in the Middle (And the Mustard on Top) (1946 single with The Swing Wing and Artie "Mr. Kitzel" Auerbach)

Hoop-De-Doo Polka (1950 single)

Love, Mystery and Adventure (1951 single with His Orchestra)

Shake Hands with Santa Claus (1951 single with His Orchestra)

The Wang Wang Blues (1951 single with His Orchestra)

Add-A-Part Jazz

Milton Delugg with Matty Malneck and His Orchestra

"One O'Clock Jump" by Milton Delugg and The All-Stars

"Pickle in the Middle (And the Mustard on Top)" by Artie "Mr. Kitzel" Auerbach with Milton Delugg and The Swing Wing

"Love, Mystery and Adventure" by Milton Delugg and His Orchestra

Pass the Headphones!!

Ed McMahon - And Me...I'm Ed McMahon (1967)

"Beautiful Girl" by Ed McMahon

After building a comic rapport over five years on the show Who Do You Trust?, it was only natural for Johnny Carson to bring along his friend Ed McMahon to be The Tonight Show's announcer and Johnny's sidekick. McMahon always worked through his big, baritone voice. As a teenager, he started as a carnival barker, bingo caller and pitch man, then switched, after war service and college, to radio and, finally, television where he made for a natural announcer. So, it was probably inevitable that Ed McMahon release an album: And Me...I'm Ed McMahon in 1967 on Cameo Parkway Records.

Although some of the internet lists this album as a 1963 release, the fact that two songs sung by McMahon weren't published until 1966 means 1967 is the actual release date. Rather than the songwriting data, it's the jarring mix of a distorted guitar with big band and dixieland touches on the opening track "Claudia" that really screams late Sixties Pop. The production calms down the genre fusion after this but only to scatter the genres throughout the rest of the record. Whether led by strings, brass or guitar, Ed McMahon still can't find a note. He slides in and out of them, and for having such a rich speaking voice, delivers his lines weakly. At least by the end of the album, McMahon does make some interesting—though not necessarily good—decisions, starting with the storybook epic "Beautiful Girl" and ending with genres he finally shows some affinity for: country ("Loving Heart") and western ("They Call the Wind Maria.") It's not much of a reward for making it to the end of the record, however.

Here is the discography surrounding Ed McMahon's debut album:

And Me...I'm Ed McMahon

Beautiful Girl (1967 single)

"They Call the Wind Maria" by Ed McMahon

"Claudia" by Ed McMahon

Ed McMahon Argues with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show

Ed McMahon Budweiser Commercial

Pass the Headphones!!

Johnny Carson - Johnny Carson's Introduction to New York and the World's Fair (1964)

After six months finishing out his contract with ABC as host of the daytime game show Who Do You Trust?, Johnny Carson started his historic tenure as the host of The Tonight Show on October 1, 1962. Like the hosts before him, Carson built his career through variety shows and hosting gigs on radio and early television. Despite being a prestige television job, not many comedians wanted the workload The Tonight Show required, even Carson (but he "relented.") Already a rising star, Carson ascended even higher to become one of television's and New York's most familiar faces. As a major star in New York, Carson was a natural choice to help promote the 1964 New York World's Fair. Thus, his debut album was Johnny Carson's Introduction to New York and the World's Fair which released in 1964 on Columbia Records.

Part curio and entirely promotional, Johnny Carson weaves together travel tips, comedy bits and an aural tour of popular exhibits for the upcoming World's Fair in New York. The album sounds like a piece of reportage where Carson escorts the listener through New York and then through the Fair making wisecracks during encounters with denizens and funny scenarios one might run into as a tourist. On television, Carson has a knack for making the most scripted and rote material seem off-the-cuff and fresh. He has less success without an audience or a camera to perform to. Carson still maintains his conversational charisma but is too scripted to allow for one of his greatest strengths: making a bad joke go down a little easier. Unfortunately, the album is full of the expected bad jokes that Carson can't do much about or with (about cabbies and panhandlers, parking and traffic, restaurants and tipping) and that's before the minefield of standard racist and misogynistic jokes that comes with a 60's tour of the "world." It's a fascinating album all the same as a capsule of an event and a transformed New York even if the jokes are so common that they would have sounded just as tired promoting the 1939 New York World's Fair.

Note: This album has not yet made its way online.

Here is the discography surrounding Johnny Carson's debut album:

Johnny Carson's Introduction to New York and the World's Fair

The Johnny Carson Show (Sep. 1, 1955)

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (Jan. 14, 1964)

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (Dec. 31, 1965)

Pass the Headphones!!

Merv Griffin - Songs by Merv Griffin (1946)

"Lullaby of the Leaves" by Merv Griffin

By his own account, Jack Paar left Tonight too soon, but the workload of a nightly 105 minutes of screen time was a strain to fill. Even after rerunning "Best-of" material and employing guest hosts to lighten the stress, Paar would make March 30, 1962 his last episode as the host of Tonight. In his five years as host, Paar had made the late night show an institution and set its format for all the hosts who would come after him. When Paar left, NBC had no thought, like there was with Steve Allen's departure, to try something different. Their only thought was to find somebody who could fill Jack Paar's shoes and maintain the show as "must watch" television. In fact, NBC already had the next host signed, but an inflexible ABC wouldn't let him out of his previous contract. So, a series of guest hosts filled the months on the freshly christened The Tonight Show until the new host could be introduced. Famous and familiar faces took turns behind the desk but none was as natural in the chair as Merv Griffin.

NBC executives were so impressed that they gave Merv Griffin his own hour block show to preempt The Tonight Show and keep him around in case Tonight's new host didn't make the grade. Going back in time, Merv Griffin had already been a familiar face with NBC as a game show host, starred in films for Warner Bros., played nightclubs, and started his career as a radio singer at the age of 19. While at KFRC in San Francisco, Merv Griffin saved his money to record a couple singles and the compiling debut album Songs of Merv Griffin released in 1946 on his own, one-off Panda Records.

Despite being a personally funded effort, the "album"—really, it's just four songs—has a professional veneer thanks to his connections at KFRC. Station band leader Lyle Bardo provides his full orchestral support to Merv Griffin's croon. Together, the songs have a cinema quality and a cinematic quality. It's a dreamy sound popular in Hollywood musicals of the 30s and 40s, and Bardo's arrangements paint the scenes of the art songs: a windy day with scattered leaves, waves on the beach. Rather than an artistic statement though, the album is more a calling card for Griffin. He's young, ambitious, an entrepreneur and a professional...who also sings quite well.

Here is the discography surrounding Merv Griffin's debut album:

Lullaby of the Leaves (1946 single)

Sand (1946 single)

Songs by Merv Griffin

"Falling in Love with Love" by Merv Griffin

"Sand" by Merv Griffin

Pass the Headphones!!

Regis Philbin - It's Time for Regis! (1968)

"Pennies from Heaven" by Regis Philbin

Concerning these many tour stops covering The Tonight Show (if you hadn't caught on yet,) Regis Philbin is the first to have no background in radio. His first job was in television—circa 1955—as a page for...Tonight and NBC. Regis went on to work as a local news anchor in San Diego for KOGO-TV, where in 1961 he got his first opportunity to host a talk show that was a nationally syndicated, short-lived and poorly reviewed replacement to The Steve Allen Show. After that was when Regis returned to Tonight to fill in as announcer for Hugh Downs. (Much later, he would take over for Hugh Downs again: this time in the Guinness Book of World Records for most time spent on air on network television.) Regis finally broke out becoming a household name in 1967 as the sidekick to Joey Bishop on The Joey Bishop Show. It was on one of these episodes when Regis was gifted the opportunity to sing "Pennies from Heaven" to his idol Bing Crosby. The next day after this impromptu, live television performance, he signed a record deal with Mercury Records leading to his 1968 debut album It's Time for Regis!

Regis sings what he knows and what he knows are songs from the Bing Crosby songbook. Despite the influence of his idol, Regis does not have a crooner's voice. It's higher pitched and better suited for faster tempos. His television experience and sense for the live audience make him less a Crosby impersonator, whose style was honed through the intimacy of radio and film, and more the inheritor of the vaudevillian tradition and performers like Al Jolson (especially audible on Southern-set songs like "Swanee" and "Mame" or Jolson classics like "Toot, Toot, Tootsie!") Throughout the whole album, Regis competes with the album's production. It's not that the production and Regis's voice are at odds (though their wills were,) but that the production is always in danger of outshining him. Helmed by Wrecking Crew veteran Steve Douglas, the album's sound runs on bass and brass and is bulwarked by a choral group; mixing nostalgic musical styles with a popular, buoyant maximalism. (Sometimes these qualities are juxtaposed in jarring ways as when, on "Swanee," a Motown intro suddenly gives way to minstrelsy banjos.) Douglas orchestrates to take the load of musical entertainment that Mercury and Douglas didn't trust Regis to deliver probably because he was untrained and inexperienced or because he wanted to be a crooner singing old popular songs in a time when they were no longer popular in a fashion that wasn't either. Regis actually performs well despite his limitations but he ends up on a record that floats toward the timeless past while being mercilessly pinned to the more dated sounds of 1968.

Nobody bought the record and nobody seemed to like it, including Regis. The negative reaction scared Regis from trying again (at least not for another thirty years,) and he stowed away the album as an embarrassment. But he treasured the experience, that made for a great story and a childhood dream fulfilled then put away.

Here is the discography surrounding Regis Philbin's debut album:

It's Time for Regis!

"Swanee" by Regis Philbin

Regis Philbin Singing to Bing Crosby on The Joey Bishop Show

Regis Philbin on Late Night with David Letterman

Pass the Headphones!!

Jack Haskell - Let's Fall in Love (1957)

"Have You Met Miss Jones" by Jack Haskell

When announcer Hugh Downs took time off from Tonight, Jack Haskell was his replacement. A veteran of radio since his college days, Haskell built his career after World War II announcing for television shows. But he was also a singer and first made his name singing for Les Brown and His Orchestra alongside Doris Day. He released his debut album Let's Fall in Love in 1957 on Jubilee Records.

Of the crooners we've covered lately, Haskell proves himself to be most in tune with what jazz vocals really sound like—rather than pop interpretations of standards with light Big Band arrangements. But although Haskell knows how to sing jazz, he's not good at it. It is a daring choice to lay ones voice bare with only guitar and bass for accompaniment, but on these selections of standard love songs, there ends up being no place to hide his faults or highlight his strengths. His blue notes can turn sour. He has limited range and limited dynamics. Alongside the singular tones of the accompaniment, the album makes for a set of songs that do not differentiate themselves. Only on a couple of them does he break out with a belting finale or a faster tempo, while the rest of the songs are left to sit in a boring limbo meant to be romantic but are mostly sleepy. To top it off, Haskell has no feel for the structure of a song. He might be able to phrase but the phrases never build. They might follow a logical musical path, but in performance, the lines blend together and no song seems to find a hook or a climax or a satisfying ending—like listening to a series of run-on sentences.

Here is the discography surrounding Jack Haskell's debut album:

Over the Hillside (1949 single)

Too-Whit! Too-Whoo! (Bring My Loved One to Me) (1949 single)

Ashes of Roses (1950 single with Connie Russell)

Be Anything (But Be Mine) (1952 single)

Goodbye Sweetheart (1952 single with The Heathertones)

Tell It to My Heart (1955 single)

I Remember Mambo (1955 single)

Today's Hits (1955 EP with the José Melis Trio)

Today's Hits (1955 EP with Johnny Guarnieri and His Orchestra)

Today's Hits (1955 EP with Johnny Guarnieri and His Orchestra)

I-M-4-U (I Am for You) (1955 single with Jack Paar)

Theme Songs from Michael Todd's "Around the World in 80 Days" (1957 EP)

I'm Playing Solitaire (1957 single)

Let's Fall in Love

Be Sure, Make No Mistake (1958 single)

The Love Theme from "The Vikings" (My Heart Has Gone to Wander) (1958 single)

Wedding Invitations (1961 single)

"I'm Thru with Love" by Jack Haskell

"I Wish I Were in Love Again" by Jack Haskell

Pass the Headphones!!

Hugh Downs - An Evening with Hugh Downs (1959)

"Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" by Hugh Downs

With a new Tonight show host, came a new Tonight show announcer: so with Jack Paar, came Hugh Downs. Hugh Downs was not Tonight's first announcer, but he was the first announcer who released an LP: An Evening with Hugh Downs in 1959 on Epic Records.

Hugh Downs, every six months on Tonight, broke out his guitar to show off his hidden talent as a folksinger. Actual folksinger Burl Ives witnessed one of these performances and was impressed enough to quip that Downs "deserved to wear a beard" like a proper folkie. Hugh Downs wouldn't go that far for folk music, but such praise meant that he could not not cut a record as a result.

But it's one thing to play a song or two every six months and another to string twelve into a sequence. Downs, thus, expands his catalogue of genres from folk to add a spiritual, hymn, cowboy ballad, work and war songs and a sea shanty (a favorite: the short and funny "The Delaware Light.") Due to Downs's limited range and serious style, the tracks all would have sounded like one meandering 30 minute song without the arrangements of Mundell Lowe. Lowe's touches are spare, almost medieval, and focuses Hugh's singing (Hugh Sings!) and the guitar (though I doubt he's the one playing on the record as he is on the cover.) The record is a pleasant surprise: the kind of surprise a hobbyist enjoys enticing when they play for friends at a party or...on a television show to fill time. Surprising, that is, but not memorable enough for the audience to give it much thought in the sixth months between performances.

Note: This is another album that hasn't been digitized but for a couple songs crate diggers have put on the internet.

Here is the discography surrounding Hugh Downs's debut album:

An Evening with Hugh Downs

"The Ride Back from Boot Hill" by Hugh Downs

Jack Paar Walks Off Tonight

Pass the Headphones!!

José Melis and His Latin-American Ensemble - Piano Classics – The South American Way (1947)

"Moonlight Sonata" by José Melis and His Latin-American Ensemble

When Jack Paar took over Tonight, he brought on his good friend from USO days José Melis to be the show's musical director. They had worked together, with the same job dynamic, previously on both radio and television. Alongside his career beginnings as a musical director after World War II, Melis recorded instrumental singles with Mercury Records, first packaged together as an album and released in 1947 as Piano Classics – The South American Way. (The album and other contemporary singles were re-released in 1952 as a proper LP rather than just a set of 7"s.)

On the heels of the Good Neighbor Policy and a boom in popular Latin Orchestras in the United States, José Melis mixes his classical training with Latin rhythms (as the album's title implies.) On the six songs that make up the first album's release, the "South American Way" is driven just as much by the continual conga rhythm and bass as by Melis on the piano. It feels like the conga drums often force Melis away from his classical comforts into syncopation and staccato touches. Still, the piano arrangements do their part to make the genre mix work while also showing off Melis's virtuosity.

It's on the later singles (that appear on the re-release) where the piano arrangements take Melis's virtuosity to vaudevillian levels. The piano also takes over for the drums as the crucible for genre mixing, this time adding a sprinkle of jazz to the blend. The jazz, though, is mostly found on the aftertaste of the arrangement, the spare saxophone or guitar, and not from the piano itself—unless you mistake tasteful flourishes for jazz. The recordings as a whole are a fine dish of skill mixed in such a bland way as to not be any flavor in particular. Though, with all those runs, you'd expect there to have been a little more heat.

Here is the discography surrounding José Melis's debut album:

Hungarian Dance No. 6 (1946 single with His Latin-American Ensemble)

Hungarian Rhapsody (1946 single with His Latin-American Ensemble)

Prelude in G Minor (1946 single with His Latin-American Ensemble)

Stardust (1947 single with His Latin-American Ensemble)

Piano Classics – The South American Way

Eli Eli (1947 single)

Cumana (1947 single with His Orchestra)

Don't Call It Love (1947 single with His Orchestra)

Pasion Oriental (1947 single with His Orchestra)

Tamanaco (1951 single)

The Hour of Parting (1952 single)

Piano Classics - The South American Way (1952 album re-release)

Run Away (1954 single)

José Melis Interprets the Classics the South American Way (compilation album with His Latin-American Ensemble)

"Anitra's Dance" by José Melis and His Latin-American Ensemble

"Pasion Oriental" by José Melis and His Orchestra

"Keyboard Kapers" by José Melis and His Latin-American Ensemble

Pass the Headphones!!

Jack Paar - The Best of "What's His Name" (1961)

The Best of "What's His Name" by Jack Paar

Tonight! America After Dark busted, so NBC veered quickly back to the proven format Steve Allen had established during his late-night tenure, continuing what was never intended to continue after Allen's departure. In 1957, NBC chose comedian Jack Paar to save their failing time slot's ratings. Jack Paar had an extensive resume by the time he had a contract with NBC. This included time as a disc jockey, as an emcee with the USO during World War II, as a host of his own comedy radio program, as a film actor, and as a game show host. Tonight Starring Jack Paar was the next step in a restless career. Where Steve Allen's Tonight was like a well-kept secret, Jack Paar would make Tonight nightly must-watch television, moving TV sets from the living room to the bedroom.

Steve Allen ran Tonight as an "anything goes" variety show filled with singers, sketches, gimmicks and anything else that would fill the allotted time. The show ran on Allen's improvisational comic styling just as Jack Paar's iteration of the show ran on his more scripted experience in stand-up comedy. Under Paar, the monologue and the interview became the foundation stones of every late night program that came after. Some of Paar's monologues were gathered and cut into a record, The Best of "What's His Name", and released in 1961 on the obscure Ramrod Superrecords. It would be his only album.

Jack Paar was a quick wit, a curious mind, a tastemaker, and an incisive interviewer. None of that is evident on this record. In many ways, the record is a bit of a mystery and seems like a cheap—or even bootleg—release from Paar's peak with Tonight. It was put out by a nothing label with anonymous liner notes and an oversized ad for Jiffy Sew - The Miracle Liquid Mender on the back of the record. It is a collection of the more average, daily Jack Paar performance with less-than-great material. But he manages the material with a veteran's ability to win over a tough crowd and play off a flat joke or a string of them. So, it's not "the best of" Jack Paar. But when "the best of" is all that really survives these days, the not-so-best helps paint a clearer picture of a hard-working, gifted and impactful comedian.

Here is Jack Paar's discography:

I-M-4-U (I Am for You) (1955 single with Jack Haskell)

Paar for Tonight (1957 single)

Funny What You Learn from Women (1958 single)

The Best of "What's His Name"

JFK on The Jack Paar Show

The Jack Parr Program with guests Bette Davis and Jonathan Winters

The Jack Parr Program with guests Liberace and Muhammad Ali

The Jack Parr Program with guest Robert Kennedy

Pass the Headphones!!

Johnny Guarnieri Trio - Hot Piano (1945)

Hot Piano by Johnny Guarnieri Trio

Johnny Guarnieri led the last of the Tonight! America After Dark bands. Enjoying his tenure under Jazzbo Collins for the freedom he was allowed in performing on TV, Tonight! was a highlight of Guarnieri's second "career" as a staff musician. The first stage of Johnny Guarnieri's career was as a Swing pianist during the peak of the Big Band era with two of the era's most popular bandleaders: Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman. Despite Goodman's proclamation that Guarnieri was one of the worst pianists he'd ever employed, he earned a reputation as a swinger and held court with a number of small combos including his own Johnny Guarnieri Trio which released its only album Hot Piano in 1945 on Savoy Records.

The trio is Johnny Guarnieri on "hot piano," Slam Stewart on bass and Sammy Weiss on drums. The album starts generically with an approachable interpretation of "I'm in the Mood for Love." That is, until Slam Stewart introduces himself fully. As he will throughout the record, Slam's plucked bass becomes a bowed bass for his solos—and every song features a Slam solo—to which he hums along. His novel, nearly novelty, elastic bass style highlights Guarnieri's original compositions best and is a playful contrast to Guarnieri's own punchy wit on the piano.

Guarnieri's clear articulation on the piano begets a strange marriage of two contrasting styles: the minimal and fractured solos of Count Basie with the full and fluid Stride of Fats Waller. Guarnieri somehow makes the oxymoronic fusion work. Sometimes a song might bring out the Basie or the Fats more from Guarnieri, but he manages to find that balance through his minimalist approach to soloing, relying on repetition and slight variations that make witty the occasionally florid.

With Slam Stewart bringing in a humanly absurdist sense of humor alongside Guarnieri's more structured, punchline oriented wit (said three times so you know I mean it,) Sammy Weiss plays the straight man of the group: keeping the act together and on time, setting the tone of each "sketch," and occasionally given to fits of high energy surrounded by the madcap of it all. The result is a wonderful album that is contagiously fun, gregarious and surprising at all turns. And occasionally you hear the future, Ahmad Jamal's own landmark trios are a decade away but theoretically might start here.

Here is the discography surrounding the Johnny Guarnieri Trio's debut album:

Basie English (1944 single with his All Star Orchestra)

Salute to Fats (1944 single with his All Star Orchestra)

Bowing Singing Slam (1944 single)

Band Aid (1944 single)

I'm in the Mood for Love (1945 single)

Firebird (1945 single)

My Blue Heaven (1945 single)

Deuces Wild (1945 single)

Hot Piano

"Basie English" by Johnny Guarnieri's All Star Orchestra

"Salute to Fats" by Johnny Guarnieri's All Star Orchestra

Pass the Headphones!!

Mort Lindsey - An Organ and Mort Lindsey (1957)

"Scratch" by Mort Lindsey

Mort Lindsey and His Orchestra were another musical headliner during the short tenure of Tonight! America After Dark. A radio show veteran, Lindsey got his start as a staff pianist for NBC before freelancing as a general keyboard player for various radio quiz and variety shows. He found his big break as a conductor and arranger for television on The George Skinner Show. He released his debut album An Organ and Mort Lindsey in 1957 (probably just before he'd work on Tonight!) on Dot Records.

Sitting here, I'm thinking more about the album cover than the album's instrumentals. Mort Lindsey, unrecognizable even to his friends, sitting at a Hammond and emitting shimmering, light music. It's not "Mort Lindsey and an Organ" or "Mort Lindsey and His Organ" (good choice to avoid that one,) but "an organ and Mort Lindsey." The organ gets top billing because the audience needs to know that this record is all organ—like a warning label—while Mort Lindsey gets the vaunted and uppercase last billing to remind listeners that the organ isn't playing itself.

The liner notes read like Mort Lindsey's CV: "can arrange even for organ." (Though I'm not sure I'd trust those notes too much after multiple, deliberate lies saying more than a few songs "really rock.") Lindsey arranges mostly for the organ's imitative qualities (sounding like an harmonium, trumpet sections, drums,...) to help explore various genres and music styles but ends up sounding like a tired comedian: lots of imitations, no punchlines. I'm not familiar enough with the organ to say whether or not Mort Lindsey plays it particularly well or not—he's probably just fine—but it's nice enough music for when it's still winter and you can't wait for Spring Training.

Note: Once again, this album has not yet been digitized so I can't share any of those rockin' organ jams. We'll have to settle for his first novelty single instead. Unfortunately, no organ.

Here is the discography surrounding Mort Lindsey's debut album:

Scratch (1953 single)

An Organ and Mort Lindsey

"Jeepers Creepers" by Mort Lindsey

Pass the Headphones!!

Lou Stein - Lou Stein at Large! (1953)

"Poinciana (Song of the Tree)" by Lou Stein Trio

Tonight! America After Dark had a series of house bands as it did hosts. The Lou Stein Trio started with the new late-night experiment, and Lou himself had some past history with Al "Jazzbo" Collins. Before either's tenure with Tonight!, Lou Stein provided the backing jazz for a couple of Collins's bebop fairytales while Collins wrote the liner notes for Lou Stein's debut album Lou Stein at Large! released in 1953 on Brunswick Records.

It's true what the album says: Lou Stein is at large! After bassist Bob Carter gets a couple bars to solo on "You Stepped Out of a Dream," you don't hear much special from him again and never anything but perfunctory percussion (on drums or bongos) from Cliff Leeman. The rest is Lou Stein. Lou's style of jazz is rudimentary. He hugs the original material closely, filling in as much of the time-space as he can with whatever arpeggiations, and doesn't have such an engaging style to make any interpretation a must-listen. So instead, a little structuring and genre fusion build the noteworthy tracks. A close listen reveals a busy left hand that consistently plays something close to a boogie-woogie rhythm while overtop is a melody that can at times bring in adept classical flourishes, extended minor chord progressions, latin touches and cocktail lounge solos. The most interesting songs combine everything together in "sections" divided by time signature changes. But "interesting" doesn't mean much here, Lou Stein is doing something jazzy but doesn't bring these arrangements and touches to a whole. And those are the good tracks ("Poinciana (Song of the Tree)," "Tenderly," "Carioca,") the rest are just—and this seems to be a recent Tour trend—background jazz and so much filler.

Note: This was another album not available online (but for the "Poinciana" single and "Tenderly" B-side.) I bought a used vinyl for this entry, and I hit lucky with a record that was once Jazzbo's own personal copy. It has his unique Jazzbo signature/caricature stamp and is dedicated and signed by Lou Stein himself: "To MY MAN JAZZBO 'THE ABSOLTE [sic]! WHAT CAN I SAY.' Lou Stein (orch)"

Here is the discography surrounding Lou Stein's debut album:

Poinciana (Song of the Tree) (1953 single as the Lou Stein Trio)

Lou Stein at Large!

"Tenderly" by Lou Stein Trio

Pass the Headphones!!

Al Collins - Spotlight on Percussion (1955)

Spotlight on Percussion by Al Collins with Arnold Goldberg and Kenny Clarke

The dual hosting format lasted only a few months before NBC forced Steve Allen to focus all his attention on The Steve Allen Show to better compete, on Sunday nights, with the juggernaut that was CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show. Ernie Kovacs had a future in film and wasn't disappointed to be overlooked as the possible solo heir to Tonight! Really, NBC didn't have much love for Allen's late night format and didn't think it could survive in the ratings without him. In fact, the original concept for Tonight! was to be a scheduled bookend to NBC's top-rated morning show Today and focus on news, culture and promotional fodder (before Steve Allen signed on, refused the very idea, and just did the same show he'd done locally in New York.) So with Steve Allen's desk empty, NBC had a chance to finally try out its original concept with Tonight! America After Dark. It was a bust. Jack Lescoulie, a Today cast member, hosted this iteration for the first six months. NBC then sacrificed veteran radio DJ Al "Jazzbo" Collins to finish out another five weeks until the next Tonight! host could step in. Jack Lescoulie doesn't have many recordings to speak of, but Al "Jazzbo" Collins does, so he'll be our next stop on the Tour with Spotlight on Percussion released in 1955 on the Vox record label.

"Jazzbo" was his radio handle, and from it, you can guess what kind of radio shows Al Collins hosted. "Jazzbo" was cool, laid back and well-versed in the lingo of the fifties beats (which he also built upon and created whole jazz worlds out of such as on his WNEW show live from the imaginary Purple Grotto which was inhabited by an anthropomorphic bestiary of jazz fans.) This jazz jargon was the basis for Steve Allen's own hipster fairy tales which "Jazzbo" would cover, play with and add to to make his own. Other recordings featuring Collins were a series of jazz concerts labeled as "Al 'Jazzbo' Collins Presents" where he would invariably get in the way of a great session and try to elucidate, through the players, how he understood jazz to be. It probably worked a lot better on the radio in between 45s. This instructional bent is also found on the scripted Spotlight on Percussion (under the more necktied moniker of "Al Collins".)

This educational record is a listing of classical, latin and jazz percussion where Al Collins details the instruments' sound qualities and uses in popular classical pieces. Arnold Goldberg performs the classical percussion and the complex pieces that combine them all. Kenny Clarke takes over for the closing jazz section where he furiously improvises two tracks over eight minutes. Jazz is where the "Jazzbo" comes out and though Collins doesn't have to say very much—smartly leaving that to Clarke—his excitement for the genre is focused on elevating jazz percussion above the highbrow reputation of classical music. If there is any narrative to Collins's narration to be found, it's that classical music is the beautiful past and jazz is the present and future of the highest individual and ensemble art of musical expression.

Here is the discography surrounding Al "Jazzbo" Collins's debut album:

Little Red Riding Hood (1953 single)

Jack and the Beanstalk (1953 single)

The Invention of the Airplane (1953 single)

Little Hood Riding Red (Little Red Riding Hood) (1954 single)

Jazz at the Metropole Cafe (1955 "presented" album)

Spotlight on Percussion

Max (1956 single)

Al "Jazzbo" Collins Presents the East Coast Jazz Scene - Vol. 1 (1956 "presented" album)

The Space Man (1957 single)

Prehistoric Hop (1959 single)

Al "Jazzbo" Collins Presents Swinging at the Opera (1960 "presented" album)

In the Purple Grotto (1961 "presented" album)

Al "Jazzbo" Collins Tells Fairy Tales for Hip Kids (2008 compilation album)

"Pee Little Thrigs (Three Little Pigs)" by Al "Jazzbo" Collins

"The Discovery of America" by Al "Jazzbo" Collins

"Jack and the Beanstalk" by Al "Jazzbo" Collins

Pass the Headphones!!

LeRoy Holmes and His Orchestra - Alone Together (1953)

"Brazil (Aquarela do Brasil)" by LeRoy Holmes and His Orchestra

When Ernie Kovacs got his two days to host Tonight! he got to work with his own orchestra. Where Steve Allen employed Skitch Henderson, Ernie worked with LeRoy Holmes and His Orchestra. Starting his career as a songwriter and arranger, Holmes then signed—after World War II when he was a pilot and flight instructor—with MGM Music Studios as a record producer where he'd arrange and conduct backing music for MGM stars. A benefit of leading a house band meant that LeRoy Holmes and His Orchestra got to release their own singles and their first album Alone Together in 1953 on MGM Records.

Singles are where LeRoy Holmes shines as an arranger and bandleader. From 1950 to 1953, his orchestra releases the variety of music you'd expect from a versatile house band: uptempo dance music, slow dance music, ballads, dixieland, popular songs, classics, novelty and throwback World War II propaganda songs all by way of a Big Band. Cleverly arranged with layered brasses, generous with solos (even if the soloists go nameless,) and with a rhythm section dominated by a driven bass, the singles make for memorable and danceable instrumental hits. When there's a singer to take the lead, the musical interplay can be even more fun like with the playful guitar dancing around Elly Russell's voice on "The Lately Song."

There are no singers on the album though. Alone Together is all instrumentals of songs by Howard Deitz and Arthur Schwartz. In a short eight song set, the orchestra doesn't aspire to be more than forgettable background music. The arrangements are simple and the same general formula is applied across all eight songs: alternating bars and tones between sleepy strings, blaring trumpets and a selection of deeper, melodic brass. There is some interplay between the sections but not enough to make for exciting listening, and sometimes the layering is non-existent like in "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan." The occasional soloists make for the most dynamic part of the arrangements but are just part of the arrangements and lack any surprise or personality. The songs themselves are classics and hard to do wrong, but the album opts instead to do nothing with them at all.

Note: Normally, I'd include a link to a song from the album in the post, but Alone Together has yet to be digitized. All the songs linked to in this Tour stop are singles released before the album.

Note 2: It's either LeRoy Holmes or Leroy Holmes. Or both. I couldn't come to a definitive answer. I chose LeRoy because a few of his early singles list him as such, but everything after is labeled all in uppercase and so: inconclusive.

Here is the discography surrounding Leroy Holmes and His Orchestra's debut album:

The Sheik of Araby (1950 single)

When You Wore a Tulip (And I Wore a Big Red Rose) (1950 single)

The Billboard March (1951 single)

I Shall Return (1951 single)

In a Persian Market (1951 single)

In Your Arms (1951 single)

Little League (1951 single)

Make Believe Land (1951 single)

Old Soldiers Never Die (1951 single)

Pretty Little Bells (1951 single)

Pretty Polly Polka (1951 single)

This Is the Time of Year (1951 single)

Baia (1952 single)

The Gypsy in My Soul (1952 single)

I'll Walk Alone (1952 single)

Idaho (1952 single)

Isn't This a Night for Love (1952 single)

Would You (1952 single)

Alone Together

Songs by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz: Dancing in the Dark (1953 EP)

Brazil (Aquarela Do Brasil) (1953 single)

Caravan (1953 single)

I'll Be Hangin' Around (1953 single)

Serenade (1953 single)

"The Sheik of Araby" by LeRoy Holmes and His Orchestra

"The Billboard March" by LeRoy Holmes and His Orchestra

"Isn't This a Night for Love" by LeRoy Holmes and His Orchestra

"The Lately Song" by LeRoy Holmes and His Orchestra

Pass the Headphones!!

Ernie Kovacs - The Ernie Kovacs Album (1976)

"Tom Swift" by Ernie Kovacs

For Steve Allen, Tonight Starring Steve Allen was just a stepping stone to primetime and the culmination of a decade of hard work across radio and television. The reward was The Steve Allen Show, a Sunday evening variety show and NBC's challenge to CBS's top-rated The Ed Sullivan Show. With the workload for Allen's new program on top of the behemoth output required for Tonight, comedian and fellow television pioneer Ernie Kovacs signed on to share the load by hosting Tonight on Mondays and Tuesdays in 1956. Before and after his Tonight run, Kovacs was the star and creative impetus for several iterations of the skit-driven The Ernie Kovacs Show. Some of the more aural-friendly skits from The Ernie Kovacs Show are collected on The Ernie Kovacs Album released in 1976 on Columbia Records.

Ernie Kovacs seemingly never turned down an opportunity in television and, no matter the job, always found a way to play with the new medium and infuse into the work his unique brand of comedy. Dry, absurdist, satirical, irreverent, anarchic, experimental, subversive, antiestablishment aren't enough adjectives to pin down Ernie's comic energy. With his experimentation, he's more of a visual artist than his contemporaries and with his experience in radio, he's more of a an aural artist than his contemporaries. In short, where his fellow television pioneers were satisfied remaking vaudeville, Ernie Kovacs was a comic artist.

As a compilation of some of his best TV skits, The Ernie Kovacs Album can't help but only show half an art form. Although the experimentation is still present in some of the sound collages, the album favors character sketches and satirical bits. The most common subject of his comic criticism is television itself: both its advertising and its stodgy and already calcifying tropes and formats. Under his focus, Ernie captures the human element to get the most laughs whether through the natural or performed awkwardness that television inspires. The record is a dry delivery that multiplies the humor as the straight-faced absurdities layer upon themselves incessantly. "Tom Swift" in particular could go on forever and you really want it to because...will good ol' Tom lead his "feetsball" team (as Tom called it), down 210-to-nothing, to a comeback in the Big Game with only four seconds left to play?

Here is the discography surrounding Ernie Kovac's first album:

Hot Cakes & Sausage (1954 single with the Tony DeSimone Trio)

The Ernie Kovacs Album

The Ernie Kovacs Album (Centennial Edition) (2019 reissue)

"J. Walter Puppybreath / Albert Gridley"

The Ernie Kovacs Show

"Eugene"

"Kitchen Symphony"

Kovacs on the Corner Episode

"Hot Cakes & Sausage" by Ernie Kovacs with Tony DeSimone Trio

Pass the Headphones!!

Andy Williams - Andy Williams Sings Steve Allen (1956)

"Meet Me Where They Play the Blues" by Andy Williams

Three singers for Tonight Starring Steve Allen was the limit, but Kay Thompson, former radio star and former head of the vocal department at MGM, called in a favor to get her protege Andy Williams a bonus slot in the lineup. Thompson also helped cement his first recording contract with Cadence Records on which he released his debut album Andy Williams Sings Steve Allen in 1956.

Whether it was because of their personal familiarity or a favor owed, Andy Williams chose twelve Steve Allen songs to make up his first album. Allen was a prolific songwriter, if not a very good one, writing songs with others and for his show as another source of income. Steve's wit pushed the output but the bunches of material get lost in formula and the overuse of rhyming dictionaries. They lack hooks and the human touch and, at least in this selection, are void of inspiration. (A good counterpoint to Steve Allen's songwriting would be Johnny Mercer.)

The best written song on the album is "Meet Me Where They Play the Blues" and is the song best suited to Andy's tone. It fits so nicely it apparently warrants a sound-alike on Side B ("An Old Piano Plays the Blues.") Andy Williams has a unique and quality singing voice but, much like Steve Lawrence at the time, he can't help but deliver his lines through the nose, throat or top of the palate. These vocal affectations limit the types of songs he sounds natural singing, and Steve Allen's catalogue doesn't give him much to work with (even with the casual jazz orchestrations by Alvy West.)

Here is the discography surrounding Andy Williams's debut album:

You Can't Buy Happiness (1953 single)

Here Comes That Dream Again (1954 single)

Christmas Is a Feeling in Your Heart (1955 single)

Andy Williams Sings Steve Allen

"The Wind, the Sand and the Star" by Andy Williams

"Moon Over Miami" by Andy Williams

Pass the Headphones!!

Pat Kirby - What Is This Thing Called Love? (1957)

"What Is This Thing Called Love?" by Pat Kirby

Pat Kirby is next among the regular singers that would appear on Tonight Starring Steve Allen. With a distaste for showbiz, Kirby's career on TV and on wax was short. She released only a few singles and one album What Is This Thing Called Love? in 1957 on Decca Records.

With Tonight Starring Steve Allen having two female singers to promote the latest songs, their juxtaposition in the lineup leads to a highlight of their strengths. Where Gorme holds the listeners with her bombast, Pat Kirby does so with her precision. Her voice is clear and controlled and allows her to effortlessly navigate volume, mood and style. Like her coworker Steve Lawrence, the quieter she sings the more magical her voice, finding its height as it dips into a conversational, jazzy tone. The album starts with jazz as Kirby introduces the timeless question: What Is This Thing Called Love? The subsequent songs look for an answer but sonically turn to the traditional pop orchestral arrangements that just aren't as vital. But Pat Kirby's diamond-clear voice shines throughout and finds its exquisite home again in the concluding song "Love," a multi-faceted answer to that first question.

Here is Pat Kirby's discography:

Don't Tell Me Not to Love You (1955 single)

Wildwood (1955 single)

Don't Tell Me Not to Love You (1956 single)

I Keep a Little List (1956 single)

Somebody Somewhere (1956 single)

What Is This Thing Called Love?

Please Be Gentle with Me (1957 single)

Tammy (1957 single)

Sayonara (1957 single)

Lemon Soul (1969 single)

"Like Someone in Love" by Pat Kirby

"The Gentlemen Obviously Doesn't Believe" by Pat Kirby

"Love" by Pat Kirby

"I'm Glad There Is You" by Pat Kirby on Tonight Starring Steve Allen

"The Girl Next Door" by Pat Kirby on Tonight Starring Steve Allen

Pass the Headphones!!

Eydie Gorme - Eydie Gorme's Delight (1957)

"Frenesi" by Eydie Gorme

Eydie Gorme was another of the family of singers at Tonight starring Steve Allen. With a couple years of experience singing in Big Bands, she became an asset to Steve Allen for her versatility and repertoire. Eydie Gorme would release her debut album Eydie Gorme's Delight in 1957 on Coral Records.

Eydie Gorme's debut was released as she was exiting Coral Records. As such, the album is simply a collection of singles she cut for the label over the previous five years. Many of the song selections play into her "exoticism" (her parents were born in Turkey and of Sephardic Jewish heritage) and her Spanish fluency (she worked as a Spanish translator for the UN before starting her singing career.) Each song is performed with a veteran's enthusiasm that makes any track an infectious listen, and when her voice soars at its full breadth, it's a delight.

Here is the discography surrounding Eydie Gorme's debut album:

Love Me Not Just a Little (Love Me a Lot) (1952 single)

Tell Me More (1952 single)

Cocoanuts (1953 single)

Frenesi (1953 single)

Gimme Gimme John (1953 single)

I Danced with My Darling (1953 single)

Chain Reaction (1954 single)

Crocodile Tears (1954 single)

Tea for Two (1954 single)

Make Yourself Comfortable (1954 single with Steve Lawrence)

A Girl Can't Say (1955 single)

Soldier Boy (1955 single)

Knickerbocker Mambo (1955 single with Steve Lawrence)

Besame Mucho (1955 single with Steve Lawrence)

"Tea for Two" by Eydie Gorme

"Climb Up the Wall" by Eydie Gorme

"Close Your Eyes (Take a Deep Breath)" by Eydie Gorme and Steve Lawrence

"Cry Me a River" by Eydie Gorme (on The Steve Allen Show)

Pass the Headphones!!