If you are a fan of the “Cool School” of jazz from the 50s and 60s,you’re in for a treat on this disc of some real obscurities. The first album on this single disc is a 1962 session arranged by Peter Matz (1928-2002), who put together a team of oboe, flute, bass clarinet, alto sax, baritone sax, bassoon as well as trumpet and trombone for the pianoless rhythm team of Joe Benjamin/b and Ronnie Bedford/dr-bong. The result is a lithe a floating collection of concise readings of material from the Richard Rogers Broadway production No Strings. There are some richly swinging moments such as on “Eager Beaver” and velvety reed work on “The Sweetest Sounds” and “Be My Host” with solos weaving in and out to n ever overstay their welcome. Amber moods.
Music from The Sound Of Music is arranged by Heinie Beau and Bobby Hammack as its performed by trumpeter Mannie Klein and his team of Hammack/p, Ronny Lang/as-fl, Al Hendrickson-Bobby Gibbons/g, Morty Corb/b, Irv Cottler/dr and Frank Flynn/vib-perc. The charts here are quite clever, having lives of their own, as on a tropical take of “Climb Every Mountain”, a bopping “Sixteen Going On Seventeen” and a deep dig on “So-Re-Mi”. The hills are alive!