Customer Reviews

Best of Mercury Years

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This series dates back about a decade and covers the Mercury years of the likes of Eddy Howard, Vic Damone, Georgia Gibbs, The Crew Cuts, The Diamonds, The Gaylords, Tony Martin, The Penguins, The Danleers, and The Del-Vikings. Each presents the music in excellent sound reproduction and carries several pages of informative liner notes, in this instance four pages by noted author and music historian Joseph F. Laredo.

They also provide a discography of the contents, and from that you learn that no less than nine of the 25 tracks were failed singles, while eight were culled from Marterie E.P.'s or LP's. Which means eight represent what most collectors regard as an artist's "best" - the singles that got them heard on the radio and jukeboxes and sold in sufficient quantities to earn the sobriquet "hit."

And in a span of seven years while recording for Mercury, Ralph Marterie & His Orchestra had 11 such hits. So, why would they release a single volume labeled his "best" and then proceed to leave out three legitimate hits? And it isn't only for this volume in the series that they took this approach.

Omitted, for example, was his first hit, So Long (It's Been Good To Know Yuh), which peaked at # 26 in March 1951, although they do include his second and third hits which didn't come until 1953 when Pretend made it to # 6 early in the year, followed by Caravan which reached the same level in April/May. He then went head-to-head with Bill Haley with Haley's Comets on Crazy, Man, Crazy, losing out by the narrowest of margins after reaching # 13 that June compared to Haley's # 12. Doing the vocals on the Marterie rendition were Larry Rogen & The Smarty-Airs. Unfortunately, that is another omission from this compilation.

His next three hits are, however, included as Warsaw Concerto, from the film Suicide Squadron, topped out at # 27 in November 1953, The Creep from the Mexican film O Cangaceiro went to # 25 in January 1954, and Skokiaan, named for a Zulu tribal drink, peaked at # 3 in late summer 1954, becoming his best hit ever.

In early 1955, Blue Mirage (Don't Go) reached # 14 on the new Billboard Honor Roll Of Hits charts, and while that's here, his next is not: Theme From Picnic (# 64 Top 100 in May/June 1956 featuring Gus Bivona on alto sax - from the film of he same name). His last two hits, both here, then came in 1957 when Tricky reached # 25 that spring, and Shish-Kebab (also recorded by The Armenian Jazz Sextet as Harem Dance) made it to # 10 in May/June.

Ralph, who was born in Italy on December 24, 1914, and raised in Chicago, played trumpet in several bands before forming his own, including that of Enric Madriguera. He passed away at age 63 on August 10, 1978.

Good selection of music (see list of contents). Full orchestration with many different good instrumental solos. Marterie trumpet sound reminiscent of Doc Severinsen. Tempo is upbeat, uplifting and enjoyable. I bought my cd used from Amazon and was in 'like new' condition.

Ralph Marterie is one of those musicians / arrangers who have been largely and unjustly forgotten by the public. In Marterie's case, I think it can be partially attributed to the time period in which most of his best known music was cut.

The 25 tracks collected here span the years 1951 through 1958, with most of them falling into the first half of that decade. This puts him right on the cusp where the dog days of the Big Band Swing era had significantly given way to Rock 'N' Roll's infancy. You can hear that transition occurring in many of Marterie's numbers. And it makes for some interesting listening.

Due to some imaginative playing from myriad instruments that swing insouciantly, much of this material manages to present the facade of an improvisational approach confined within tightly arranged structures (only one track makes it all the way to the three minute mark). But there's plenty here that should be appreciated by both Jazz fans and early Rock 'N' Roll devotees. Marterie's sound is unique in that he combines Swing components (trumpet and multiple saxophones) with classical instrumentation (strings) and also employs a front and center electric guitar at times. And he occasionally pulls it all together over drumming that exhibits a nearly R 'N' B rhythmic style. (Of course, as Rock 'N' Roll took shape, the strings would get the heave-ho, the reeds would be pared down to a single sax, and the guitar would gain prominence.) It was that pronounced beat on several numbers (CARAVAN; SKOKIAAN; DRY MARTERIE; IN A PERSIAN MARKET; and TRICKY) that undoubtedly endeared Marterie to my Mom and others from her generation who stayed in shape via the dance floor.

This is not to say that everything on THE BEST OF RALPH MARTERIE falls into this upbeat, danceable category. There is also some "sweet" Swing; some Harry James-like trumpet workouts; a few melancholic, sentimental ballads; and a couple of feisty, baritone sax rumblers. All in all, a nice mix of some good stuffs. I don't play this album often, but everytime I do, I wind up asking myself why I don't.

It occurs to me that it's been quite a few reviews since I've poked fun at Arizonans. So, if you'll indulge me here - although it's entirely irrelevant to this review - I'd like to correct that oversight now :

I kid you not, these folks is D-U-U-U-MB! Case in point : The day before yesterday, I was driving to a wide spot in the road called Rock Springs to pick up some pies. A lady up there is famous for her pies (we like the Tennessee Lemon and the Jack Daniels Pecan) which they advertise as being "WORTH THE DRIVE FROM ANYWHERE." This was probably true before gas went above $2. a gallon, but if you hail from East of the muddy Mississippi, you may want to settle for something baked closer to home. But I digress from my digression...

So, I'm going North out of Phoenix on I-17 when traffic slows to a crawl. For a couple of miles I'm constantly shifting back and forth between 2nd and 3rd gears, and expecting to find a brush fire or an accident up ahead. But no, the disturbance was caused by an electronic highway sign stating, "Extreme Fire Conditions - see www.azfireprevention.com" or some such nonsense. The Airheadzonans were slowing down to read this sign (visible for more than a quarter of a mile) with its earthshaking news. Well, duh! It's July and we live in the middle of a desert where it's only 114 degrees in the shade every day!

I'm convinced that when I moved to Airheadzona, the State's collective I.Q. was doubled, and consider : I ain't none too bright myself! (I mean, I DID move here, didn't I?) I'm sure that my anti-Arizona comments are responsible for some of my "Unhelpful" votes, but if they think that's going to stop me, then they're just plain...well...you know.

Thanks for tolerating my tangent, and enjoy the tunes!