The last time I posted on saxophonist and clarinetist Al Belletto was in January, when I wrote about his first album in 1954, Kenton Presents, an Introduction to the Al Belletto Quintet. Today, my focus is on perhaps Belletto's finest leadership album, The Big Sound. Recorded by a Belletto-led sextet in Cincinnati for King Records in July 1960, the band featured Billy Hunt (tp), Kenny Rupp (tb,p, celeste), Al Belletto (as,bar), Don Menza (ts), Dave Sibley (b) and Bobby Pike (d).
The album's songs and arrangements are most interesting...
- The album opens with a swinging arrangement by Jimmy Guinn of John Lewis's Afternoon in Paris, with solos by Rupp and Menza. This was Menza's first studio date in the States.
- Next is Belletto on alto playing a mournful lead on Gordon Brisker's arrangement of Only the Lonely, which Frank Sinatra recorded in 1958.
- Basically Blues, with Menza on lead, is a bouncy, swinging blues. Interestingly, the Phil Wilson song and arrangement would become part of Buddy Rich's book, recorded live on Swingin' New Big Band in 1966.
- It's A Wonderful World, with Menza soloing, is taken at a jaunty tempo.
- Menza arranged the harmony-rich Li'l Darlin', composed by Neal Hefti for Count Basie. It features a solo by Rupp on trombone and then celeste. Belletto loved the Basie band's feel.
- It's You Or No One is a bouncy swinger arranged by Brisker, with a fine solo by Belletto.
- Judy was arranged by Gary Lillbert with Four Freshmen-esque vocals added by members of the band.
- If You Go also was arranged by Lillbert and includes vocal harmony.
- Ernie Bernhardt arranged the ballad When I Fall in Love, with vocals added. It's one of the finest tracks on the album.
- Cheerful Little Earful is a hard-charger arranged by Wilson, with a solo by Belletto on alto saxophone and Hunt on trumpet.
- Lillbert arranged Our Love Is Here to Stay as a mid-tempo tune and added terrific vocal harmony parts.
- It's Sand, Man! was arranged by Brisker in the Basie style. Lambert, Hendricks and Ross recorded the song first on their 1957 album, Sing a Song of Basie.
So who were the arrangers? Crane and Guinn were members of Belletto's 1952 band; Bernhardt sang and played at the time with the Ray McKinley-led Glenn Miller orchestra; Wilson taught at Philips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., and Brisker once worked with Belletto.
It's tough to know who's doing the singing. They're on par with the Four Freshmen, but it's hard to know who in the band could sing in this style and whether they put their instruments down to sing live to tape or whether the vocals were overdubbed. A nice addition, either way. The sound certainly improved the sextet's income from the Midwest college dance prom circuit.
So how did the arrangers get a big band feel out of six musicians? According to the album's liner notes by Dale Stevens, a Cincinnati Enquirer jazz writer, "By using Basie's swinging bluesish attack and a forceful use of dynamics that Belletto calls 'leaning up against each other,' you get a driving six-piece instrumental outfit that sounds gutsy even on neal Hefti's Li'l Darlin' ballad. That 'leaning up against each other,' Belletto explains, makes up for the lack of a five-man trumpet section, plus the usual trombones and saxes."
The Big Sound is worthy of a reissue. Like many jazz albums, this one was never re-issued in the digital age and is exceedingly rare.
Al Belletto died in 2014.
JazzWax tracks: In very good (VG) condition, the vinyl is going for around $50 at eBay. So rare it's not even on YouTube.
JazzWax clips: Here's It's You or No One...
Here's Li'l Darlin'...
Here's Afternoon in Paris...
And here's Cheerful Little Earful...
A special thanks to Joe Alterman.
