If you haven’t been collecting Fresh Sound Records’ series of soundtracks from B movies and TV shows from the 50s and 60s, you’re missing out on some of the hippest and swingingest sounds to ever filter through your malleus, incus and stapes.
This single disc has Ralph Marterie and his All Star Men, which includes Buddy DeFranco/cl, Pete Candoli/tp, Bud Shank/as, Bob Cooper/ts, Jimmy Rowles/p, Al Viola/g, Frank Rosolino/tb and Gus BIvona/ts for starters, and the team is conducted by Pete Rugulo, with arrangements by Rugulo, Johnny Mandel, Bill Holman and other studio studs.
The Music for A Private Eye includes music made for Bass Weejuns; themes from “ M Squad”, “Perry Mason”, “77 Sunset Street” and, of course “Peter Gunn” mix Basie-like velvety saxes and irresistibly swinging rhythm.
There’s a second album, Big Band Man, and it’s from the same date with an almost exact same band. These guys hit like a heavyweight on pieces like “Diga Diga Doo” while getting as smooth as silk on “Where Are You” and “Don’t Blame Me.” This material sounds amazingly fresh and alive; all of the charts have more angles than an English garden and the solos are concise with lots to say. When did big band music start becoming sterile? It was some time after this one!
Fresh Sound Records