20/1/2019 10:55 am  #1


John Scott Trotter's Music Hall

I wonder how many of you know of this LP? I only recently came across it.
It's an interesting album of 1959 vintage of John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra performing songs of eight musical stars, combined with a 'musical portrait', e.g. a song written by John Scott Trotter which portrays the artist in question.
 
For Bing, the selections are 'Where the blue of the night' (what else?) and the musical portrait is entitled 'Sing for me'. As far as I am aware, this is the only instrumental tribute to Bing. But I would like to be corrected if I'm wrong!
 
I think it's a quite clever way of making up an album and I liked it very much. It's a wonderful version of Bing's theme song and the 'portrait' is a laid back song which I can easily 'connect' with Bing. Anybody familiar with the album?
 
Below are some links pertaining to the album and John Scott Trotter.
 
Discographical information:
https://www.discogs.com/John-Scott-Trotter-John-Scott-Trotters-Music-Hall/master/1233655
 
Text on the backside of the album sleeve:
https://archive.org/stream/johnscotttrotter00trot/johnscotttrotter00trot_djvu.txt
 
Biographical information on John Scott Trotter from David Lobosco's blog:
http://greatentertainersarchives.blogspot.com/2016/01/john-scott-trotter-musical-heavyweight.html
 
And, most important of all of course, a (legal) link to the music itself:
https://archive.org/details/johnscotttrotter00trot
 

Last edited by frans (20/1/2019 10:57 am)

 

20/1/2019 11:03 pm  #2


Re: John Scott Trotter's Music Hall

Every time I see A Charlie Brown Christmas I have to tell my kids that the orchestra leader on that TV special was also the orchestra leader for Bing for years. My wife told me this past Christmas (sarcastically): "Wow, you never shared that tidbit of knowledge before". LOL

Last edited by Lobosco (20/1/2019 11:03 pm)

 

21/1/2019 12:42 am  #3


Re: John Scott Trotter's Music Hall

Archiefit wrote:

That's a strange thing for that Charlie Brown Christmas show, I know it was Vince Guardali who is famous for the piano music heard and Vince is credited for the music too, I have the Vince album of Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack.  SO what's funny is, what the heck did John Scott Trotter do?   He's not listed on the album, he's not the one playing on the soundtrack, how does Trotter become a music credit there?  Never have understood this.  When I think Charlie Brown music, I think Vince Guardali.

I do too, but he  directed the music for the Charlie Brown[/url] cartoon specials. In 1970, Trotter was nominated for an [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Awards]Oscar award[/url] and a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_award]Grammy award for his musical score for the movie A Boy Named Charlie Brown.

I feel Trotter did a lot of good for Bing to make him more of a popular artist, but I blame Trotter and Jack Kapp for getting Bing away from his jazz roots. They advanced his career as well as hold it back.

 

 

23/1/2019 2:58 pm  #4


Re: John Scott Trotter's Music Hall

Archiefit wrote:

I'm glad Bing didn't turn into Mel Torme/Louie Prima type singer.   I love his pop songs the best, those songs he recorded all thru the '40's and '50's are my favorites.  I don't need to hear Bing sing "Autumn Leaves" or "Willow Weep For Me".   Give me a "One Rose Left In My Heart" anytime.

I think that type of jazz is the other extreme. I wish John Scott Trotter took more chances with Bing in the mid 1940s to early 1950s. Bing's voice changed but Trotter's orchestrations for the most part didn't. When Bing recorded with Louis Jordan or had orchestrations by Vic Shoen, Bing seemed to come alive.
 

 

24/1/2019 10:16 am  #5


Re: John Scott Trotter's Music Hall

It's always interesting to read the views here in the forum, even though they don't always correspond with my own.
I wouldn't consider Autumn leaves or Willow weep for me as jazz. More as standards - and by the way, Bing did record both songs, the first on a commercial recording in the early fifties and the latter on his radio show Music that satisfies on Feb 1, 1933.

I, for one, have always found it a pity that Bing didn't record more standards in the fifties and sixties. It has always been said that Bing was an excellent interpreter of songs so I consider it a missed chance not being able to hear him do the standards which enjoyed such a great success in the fifties, in the interpretations of Fred Astaire, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como (to name just a few). The Buddy Cole sessions show a glimpse 'what might have been'.

Just one person's opinion of course.

Last edited by frans (24/1/2019 10:19 am)

     Thread Starter
 

24/1/2019 2:03 pm  #6


Re: John Scott Trotter's Music Hall

frans wrote:

It's always interesting to read the views here in the forum, even though they don't always correspond with my own.
I wouldn't consider Autumn leaves or Willow weep for me as jazz. More as standards - and by the way, Bing did record both songs, the first on a commercial recording in the early fifties and the latter on his radio show Music that satisfies on Feb 1, 1933.

I, for one, have always found it a pity that Bing didn't record more standards in the fifties and sixties. It has always been said that Bing was an excellent interpreter of songs so I consider it a missed chance not being able to hear him do the standards which enjoyed such a great success in the fifties, in the interpretations of Fred Astaire, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como (to name just a few). The Buddy Cole sessions show a glimpse 'what might have been'.

Just one person's opinion of course.

I agree with you. I wish Bing would have done more "concept" albums like Sinatra did. 
 

 

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