Nine Reasons Why Bobby Darin Matters

REASON SEVEN, Part One

Behind Bobby Darin's singing were some of the greatest swing big band/orchestral arrangements of all time. In his performances, Bobby lived and breathed each song. Every "Ho," every "Hut," every shoulder twitch was used to highlight, to emphasize, to punctuate the sounds behind him. Bobby Darin made his audience aware of the music and he always took the time to credit his arrangers, or to name his accompanists and musicians. He called his arrangers "the chefs"—the people who helped to make the album "cook." They were the designers of the sounds and the rhythms that inspired a Darin kick, a slide, a half-turn, an arm tug, a leg lift—all the enhancements that Bobby used to entertain his viewing audience. Bobby handpicked each and every one of his arrangers. Who were the Darin chefs? Let us take a look at seven of them. First up are three outstanding musicians whose arrangements for Bobby helped Darin rise to new peaks in his vocal artistry.

From the top . . . Roger Kellaway is a monster pianist. It is one of the reasons why he is such an outstanding arranger. He plays the piano as if it were an entire orchestra and he writes for an orchestra as if the players were each and everyone a virtuoso player as he himself is. He mastered the art of orchestration and utilizes the full palette of instrument families. The work he did for Bobby on the Dr. Dolittle album brought Bobby to a new peak of his career as a singer. Born in 1939, Kellaway belongs to a privileged musical generation. He came of age at a time when all kinds of music were in a very fertile period and it was all available to listen to on the radio: classical, jazz, pop, country, blues, folk—all of it. School music programs were in a building stage at the local, state and national level. Roger was in the right place at the right time.

Roger Kellaway was born in the Boston area, a very musically rich town. He began his music studies at the age of 7. Newton High School had one of the best music programs in the country at that time and probably still does. Kellaway played double bass in his high school band and in their big band. He was selected to play bass and drums in the All-State Music Festival and attended a fabled program in jazz for teens at Storyville, THE great jazz club in Boston in its day. He went on to attend the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied piano and composition. It was there that he learned to play in two different keys simultaneously (bitonal). In his Remembering Bobby CD, you can hear a sample of that in Splish-Splash. Of his studies Roger says, "I enjoyed piano music, but I listened mostly to orchestral music."

By the age of 22, Kellaway was in New York finding success in the recording studio. Over time he accompanied artists as diverse as Lena Horne and Joni Mitchell. He composed many film scores and received an Academy Award nomination for his work in "A Star Is Born." He worked with Clark Terry, Gerry Mulligan, Kevin Spacey (for the movie "Beyond The Sea")...and Bobby Darin.

Roger Kellaway is brilliant in every way. He plays and thinks on a higher plane. He took his native talents and developed them more broadly than most musicians would take the time to do. When Bobby and Roger entered the studio to record Dr. Dolittle in July of 1967, there were many factors working against it. Atlantic did not believe in the project. Ahmet Ertegun called them "those animal songs." When completed, it was not released with the marketing strategies you would expect would be employed. It hit the shelves and died there. For years and years and years, few had even heard it. And yet, Dr. Dolittle is a work of astonishing beauty, containing beautiful ballads, low-down blues and Broadway pizzaz. Kellaway, who had a few short weeks to score the arrangements,orchestrated the songs as if they were meant for the Boston Pops. Fabulous!

Bobby's maturity as a singer was in full bloom. Dolittle is the apogee of his art. Now that this album is available on CD, more and more people are tuning in to its musical gifts. Today it is considered a treasure. In the song Fabulous Places, Kellaway provides us with a wide variety of fragments of melodies from countries around the world. Vocal, orchestra and piano are all at their virtuosic best. Bobby's lyric readings have never been more sophisticated. His voice is infused with maturity and experience. The album is the antithesis of what Ahmet Ertegun described as "those animal songs." One could say that Dr. Dolittle is the pot of gold at the end of the Darin rainbow.

Note: In May of 2006, Roger Kellaway attended the first Darinfest, a gathering of fans from the U.S. and England to celebrate the anniversary of the 70th birthday of Bobby Darin. His love for Bobby showed and glowed throughout the night. This was a genuine connection from artist to artist. Darin fans are still talking about their quality time with Roger Kellaway. They are filled with admiration for him as a musician and human being.

Credits: Liner notes written by Gene Lees for Kellaway's Darin memorial CDs were very helpful in writing this short piece, as was the Lees book "Arranging the Score: Portraits of the Great Arrangers." London: Continuum, 2000.

It is difficult to find information about Richard Wess. I will share with you what one can find about him through an internet search. Wess did some arranging and conducting for jazz vocalist greats Betty Carter and Chris Connor. He also worked with Sammy Davis, Jr. and flutist Herbie Mann. His work can be found on many record labels including Verve, Capitol, Reprise, and Atlantic. Additionally, Wess contributed original music for the television comedy "I Dream of Jeannie" in its first year. He drops out of sight somewhere around the late sixties. It can be assumed that he passed on at a relatively young age.

There is no underestimating the importance of Richard Wess in terms of Darin's success as a hitmaker. Wess and Darin were co-creators of the Darin "template" which was to start small and gradually get bigger by adding excitement through more and more instruments (including color from the percussion section such as bongo drums); raise the key half-step by half-step, building to a climax of a knock-'em-dead ending, which may or may not include a spoken tag ending (such as "Look-out ol' Mackie is back") as its final sound. Sometimes the tag ending was preceded by a long-held, high, power note such as in Mack The Knife's "Now that Mackie's back in towwwnnn." Either way it was an exciting approach that worked for their partnership through the four excellent albums listed on the left. We have Harriett Wasser, Darin's friend and publicist to thank for bringing the two together. Ms. Wasser remembered hearing some sides that Wess did with singer Sallie Blair for Bethlehem Records in the mid-fifties and believed that Wess would be a good match for Darin. For his arrangement of Mack The Knife, Richard Wess received a 1959 Grammy nomination. Though he lost to Billy May, the record did receive the prestigious Record of the Year award.

In many ways Wess is to Darin what Nelson Riddle was to Sinatra, particularly with regard to the Riddle arrangement of I've Got You Under My Skin. Mack The Knife has a similar construction. It should be noted, however, that both Messrs. Wess and Riddle owe a nod to Maurice Ravel's Bolero as the source of the original "build-in-layers" concept.

Early in his musical life Wess was a cellist. He wrote very well for strings. For Darin's first standards album That's All, Wess wrote a luscious string accompaniment for Bobby's rendition of the Alec Wilder song Where Is The One. The strings shimmer with beautiful harmonies, a lovely cello solo sounds, then Wess composes a delicious solo for a colorful double-reed instrument known as the English Horn. There is a balanced carpet of sound for the listener. Bobby's vocal melody trades back and forth in equal parts with the instruments, and everyone gets an interesting melody to play. A 1960 Gene Lees' article in Down Beat magazine described the album as Darin's "turn from junk music." Great expectations of Darin as the savior of "good music" resulted.

Billy May, popular music's premier arranger of big band swing, arranged and conducted for many of the famous singers of his time. May began his life as a musician by playing tuba in his school band. He went on to play trumpet, honed his arranging skills and later arranged for some of the best-known big bands including Glenn Miller. His intricate arrangements are distinctive and easily identified through the use of his trademark swirling saxophones and bright writing for brass. Billy was 87 when he died in 2004—old enough to see the rise and fall of the big bands and young enough to do highly regarded work with singers and for television.

It is not easy to select just one May arrangement that formed a magnificent frame for Bobby's voice because you could pretty much say that is true for all of them. A quick listen to the song Two Of A Kind, from the album Two of a Kind gives the listener a taste of the brassy May approach, including his tendency to mute the trumpets. For this riff, however, I would like to highlight one of Bobby's most breathtaking interpretations and show how Billy May enhanced its beauty through a great arrangement for the song A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square.

To begin with an aside, let me just point out that "Berkeley" is pronounced BARK-lee. The song was written during the WWII year of 1940 by British composer Jack Strachey and lyricist Eric Maschwitz. It was an immediate hit for Vera Lynn because the song evoked a feeling of longing for home. It tells of a pair of true lovers who meet in Mayfair and a nightingale sings at special moments of their romantic evening. Bobby Darin is one of the only singers to sing all the lyrics to the song. It ranks among his finest interpretations.

Billy May's arrangement is a stellar example of balance between band and singer, and between instrument sections. First of all there is a rich, pulsating pizzicato bass that lays the harmonic foundation. That is about all the harmonic support Bobby gets, because the instruments are given their own counter-melodies which lend a haunting beauty to the moment. A full range of strings add sustained tender touches to the melody and identify the nightingale with luscious trills during the first measures of the song. May adds swinging bite through snappy trombones and, sassy brass accents that contrast with the tenderness of the text. It is tricky and full of syncopation, an arrangement of indepedendent musical lines. The arrangement is a testimony to Darin's vocal prowess, his surety with intonation and rhythm. He navigates effortlessly through an unusual key modulation at the bridge of the song. Bobby Darin is superb with a lyric, has a great ear, and swings like crazy. A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square is an example of Bobby and Billy at their best.

PART TWO: Bobby Scott, "Shorty" Rogers, Gerald Wilson, and Bob Florence

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			Nine Reasons Why Bobby Darin Matters
			REASON SEVEN, Part One Behind Bobby Darin's singing were some of the greatest swing big band/orchestral arrangements of all time. In his performances, Bobby lived and breathed each song. Every "Ho," every "Hut," every shoulder twitch was used to highlight, to emphasize, to punctuate the sounds behind him. Bobby Darin made his audience aware of the music and he always took the time to credit his arrangers, or to name his accompanists and musicians. He called his arrangers "the chefs"—the people who helped to make the album "cook." They were the designers of the sounds and the rhythms that inspired a Darin kick, a slide, a half-turn, an arm tug, a leg lift—all the enhancements that Bobby used to entertain his viewing audience. Bobby handpicked each and every one of his arrangers. Who were the Darin chefs? Let us take a look at seven of them. First up are three outstanding musicians whose arrangements for Bobby helped Darin rise to new peaks in his vocal artistry. From the top . . . Roger Kellaway is a monster pianist. It is one of the reasons why he is such an outstanding arranger. He plays the piano as if it were an entire orchestra and he writes for an orchestra as if the players were each and everyone a virtuoso player as he himself is. He mastered the art of orchestration and utilizes the full palette of instrument families. The work he did for Bobby on the Dr. Dolittle album brought Bobby to a new peak of his career as a singer. Born in 1939, Kellaway belongs to a privileged musical generation. He came of age at a time when all kinds of music were in a very fertile period and it was all available to listen to on the radio: classical, jazz, pop, country, blues, folk—all of it. School music programs were in a building stage at the local, state and national level. Roger was in the right place at the right time. Roger Kellaway was born in the Boston area, a very musically rich town. He began his music studies at the age of 7. Newton High School had one of the best music programs in the country at that time and probably still does. Kellaway played double bass in his high school band and in their big band. He was selected to play bass and drums in the All-State Music Festival and attended a fabled program in jazz for teens at Storyville, THE great jazz club in Boston in its day. He went on to attend the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied piano and composition. It was there that he learned to play in two different keys simultaneously (bitonal). In his Remembering Bobby CD, you can hear a sample of that in Splish-Splash. Of his studies Roger says, "I enjoyed piano music, but I listened mostly to orchestral music." By the age of 22, Kellaway was in New York finding success in the recording studio. Over time he accompanied artists as diverse as Lena Horne and Joni Mitchell. He composed many film scores and received an Academy Award nomination for his work in "A Star Is Born." He worked with Clark Terry, Gerry Mulligan, Kevin Spacey (for the movie "Beyond The Sea")...and Bobby Darin. Roger Kellaway is brilliant in every way. He plays and thinks on a higher plane. He took his native talents and developed them more broadly than most musicians would take the time to do. When Bobby and Roger entered the studio to record Dr. Dolittle in July of 1967, there were many factors working against it. Atlantic did not believe in the project. Ahmet Ertegun called them "those animal songs." When completed, it was not released with the marketing strategies you would expect would be employed. It hit the shelves and died there. For years and years and years, few had even heard it. And yet, Dr. Dolittle is a work of astonishing beauty, containing beautiful ballads, low-down blues and Broadway pizzaz. Kellaway, who had a few short weeks to score the arrangements,orchestrated the songs as if they were meant for the Boston Pops. Fabulous! Bobby's maturity as a singer was in full bloom. Dolittle is the apogee of his art. Now that this album is available on CD, more and more people are tuning in to its musical gifts. Today it is considered a treasure. In the song Fabulous Places, Kellaway provides us with a wide variety of fragments of melodies from countries around the world. Vocal, orchestra and piano are all at their virtuosic best. Bobby's lyric readings have never been more sophisticated. His voice is infused with maturity and experience. The album is the antithesis of what Ahmet Ertegun described as "those animal songs." One could say that Dr. Dolittle is the pot of gold at the end of the Darin rainbow. Note: In May of 2006, Roger Kellaway attended the first Darinfest, a gathering of fans from the U.S. and England to celebrate the anniversary of the 70th birthday of Bobby Darin. His love for Bobby showed and glowed throughout the night. This was a genuine connection from artist to artist. Darin fans are still talking about their quality time with Roger Kellaway. They are filled with admiration for him as a musician and human being. Credits: Liner notes written by Gene Lees for Kellaway's Darin memorial CDs were very helpful in writing this short piece, as was the Lees book "Arranging the Score: Portraits of the Great Arrangers." London: Continuum, 2000. It is difficult to find information about Richard Wess. I will share with you what one can find about him through an internet search. Wess did some arranging and conducting for jazz vocalist greats Betty Carter and Chris Connor. He also worked with Sammy Davis, Jr. and flutist Herbie Mann. His work can be found on many record labels including Verve, Capitol, Reprise, and Atlantic. Additionally, Wess contributed original music for the television comedy "I Dream of Jeannie" in its first year. He drops out of sight somewhere around the late sixties. It can be assumed that he passed on at a relatively young age. There is no underestimating the importance of Richard Wess in terms of Darin's success as a hitmaker. Wess and Darin were co-creators of the Darin "template" which was to start small and gradually get bigger by adding excitement through more and more instruments (including color from the percussion section such as bongo drums); raise the key half-step by half-step, building to a climax of a knock-'em-dead ending, which may or may not include a spoken tag ending (such as "Look-out ol' Mackie is back") as its final sound. Sometimes the tag ending was preceded by a long-held, high, power note such as in Mack The Knife's "Now that Mackie's back in towwwnnn." Either way it was an exciting approach that worked for their partnership through the four excellent albums listed on the left. We have Harriett Wasser, Darin's friend and publicist to thank for bringing the two together. Ms. Wasser remembered hearing some sides that Wess did with singer Sallie Blair for Bethlehem Records in the mid-fifties and believed that Wess would be a good match for Darin. For his arrangement of Mack The Knife, Richard Wess received a 1959 Grammy nomination. Though he lost to Billy May, the record did receive the prestigious Record of the Year award. In many ways Wess is to Darin what Nelson Riddle was to Sinatra, particularly with regard to the Riddle arrangement of I've Got You Under My Skin. Mack The Knife has a similar construction. It should be noted, however, that both Messrs. Wess and Riddle owe a nod to Maurice Ravel's Bolero as the source of the original "build-in-layers" concept. Early in his musical life Wess was a cellist. He wrote very well for strings. For Darin's first standards album *That's All, Wess wrote a luscious string accompaniment for Bobby's rendition of the Alec Wilder song Where Is The One. The strings shimmer with beautiful harmonies, a lovely cello solo sounds, then Wess composes a delicious solo for a colorful double-reed instrument known as the English Horn. There is a balanced carpet of sound for the listener. Bobby's vocal melody trades back and forth in equal parts with the instruments, and everyone gets an interesting melody to play. A 1960 Gene Lees' article in Down Beat* magazine described the album as Darin's "turn from junk music." Great expectations of Darin as the savior of "good music" resulted. Billy May, popular music's premier arranger of big band swing, arranged and conducted for many of the famous singers of his time. May began his life as a musician by playing tuba in his school band. He went on to play trumpet, honed his arranging skills and later arranged for some of the best-known big bands including Glenn Miller. His intricate arrangements are distinctive and easily identified through the use of his trademark swirling saxophones and bright writing for brass. Billy was 87 when he died in 2004—old enough to see the rise and fall of the big bands and young enough to do highly regarded work with singers and for television. It is not easy to select just one May arrangement that formed a magnificent frame for Bobby's voice because you could pretty much say that is true for all of them. A quick listen to the song Two Of A Kind, from the album Two of a Kind gives the listener a taste of the brassy May approach, including his tendency to mute the trumpets. For this riff, however, I would like to highlight one of Bobby's most breathtaking interpretations and show how Billy May enhanced its beauty through a great arrangement for the song A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square. To begin with an aside, let me just point out that "Berkeley" is pronounced BARK-lee. The song was written during the WWII year of 1940 by British composer Jack Strachey and lyricist Eric Maschwitz. It was an immediate hit for Vera Lynn because the song evoked a feeling of longing for home. It tells of a pair of true lovers who meet in Mayfair and a nightingale sings at special moments of their romantic evening. Bobby Darin is one of the only singers to sing all the lyrics to the song. It ranks among his finest interpretations. Billy May's arrangement is a stellar example of balance between band and singer, and between instrument sections. First of all there is a rich, pulsating pizzicato bass that lays the harmonic foundation. That is about all the harmonic support Bobby gets, because the instruments are given their own counter-melodies which lend a haunting beauty to the moment. A full range of strings add sustained tender touches to the melody and identify the nightingale with luscious trills during the first measures of the song. May adds swinging bite through snappy trombones and, sassy brass accents that contrast with the tenderness of the text. It is tricky and full of syncopation, an arrangement of indepedendent musical lines. The arrangement is a testimony to Darin's vocal prowess, his surety with intonation and rhythm. He navigates effortlessly through an unusual key modulation at the bridge of the song. Bobby Darin is superb with a lyric, has a great ear, and swings like crazy. A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square is an example of Bobby and Billy at their best. PART TWO: Bobby Scott, "Shorty" Rogers, Gerald Wilson, and Bob Florence home \| reina's riffs \| riff archives \| www.darintodream.com



© 2006 Reina Riley