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!!