4 STARS ALL MUSIC GUIDE

This collection of recordings by the Elliot Lawrence band features generous amounts of the work of Tiny Kahn, Johnny Mandel, and Al Cohn, arrangers who in the 1950s set standards by which writers of jazz are still judged. In addition, its presents some of the music's finest soloists: saxophonists Cohn, Zoot Sims, and Hal McKusick, trumpeters Nick Travis and Ernie Royal, and trombonists Eddie Bert and Urbie Green, Straddling the fields of commercuial music and jazz, Lawrence provided music for radio and television shows and, often, for dancing. He played piano and was himself an arranger, but his primary role with the band was as a leader and catalyst organizing and encouraging the efforts of his talented writers and sideman, The result of the free hand he allowed them was some of the most stimulating big band music of the era.

TRACKS:

01. TNT
02. Blue Room
03. Who Fard That Shot?
04. My Heart Stood Still
05. Jeepers Creepers
06. Blues Alley
07. Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
08. Ponce
09. Tenderly
10. Snapped Cap
11. Moten Swing
12. El's Bells
13. Alone Together
14. Maybe
15. Good Wood
16. Walkin' My Baby Back Home
17. Handmade
18. Cupcake
19. Music For Swingin' Dancers
20. Ivy Walk
21. Hackin' Around
22. Mood Midnight
23. Nightfall
24. Jazz Lullab