With Lawrence Welk Orchestra

Johnny Hodges | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 25, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ranwood Records
• ASIN: B000000BB4
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #339,039 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Someone to Watch over Me

2. Misty

3. Fantastic, That's You

4. Stardust

5. I Can't Get Started

6. Haunting Melody

7. When My Baby Smiles at Me

8. Blue Velvet

9. Sophisticated Lady

10. Canadian Sunset

11. In a Sentimental Mood

12. I'm Beginning to See the Light

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I can do it in one word...wonderful!!!, February 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: With Lawrence Welk Orchestra (Audio CD)

No one would believe how great thiscombination is. Johnny has a "PoPs"accompaniment that makes his talentshine. This C/D is a sensationalsurprise...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was Astounded, April 21, 2004

By 

R. Howard Courtney (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: With Lawrence Welk Orchestra (Audio CD)

Having grown up during the Lawrence Welk years and with his music considered a bad joke in the jazz world (Stan Kenton stated that he made Guy Lombardo sound progressive), I was astounded to find that he left his "rickity, tick, tick" beat behind while recording with Johnny Hodges. The resulting album is good music by anyone's standard. Of course my uncle who thought Lawrence Welk was a "great" musician, would not have thought much of this album. That's his loss.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What's next? Lawrence Welk and Ornette Coleman?, August 15, 2011

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: With Lawrence Welk Orchestra (Audio CD)

No, this is no joke (though the Stan Freeberg parody breaks me up to this day). But only non-musicians would dare put down the musicianship of the Lawrence Welk Orchestra (I didn't say "music"). The arrangements are at times less than "fresh," but the Rabbit is the feature, not Lawrence, and Jeep makes the most of his turns. It would have been nice to have heard him do a few more of Duke's tunes, but tunes like Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me" allow him to show off that singularly smooth, velvety sound (no one could make a saxophone sound like a violin like Hodges, his portamentos all but erasing distinctions between individual notes).

This one should please Hodges' fans and not disappoint Lawrence's regulars in the least. In fact, if Lawrence had had the good sense to go with Duke's bass player--Jimmy Woode or Jeff Castleman or Joe Benjamin--the album might merit a high 5.

As for the bass player employed on the date (or whatever it is that produces quasi-musical sounds vaguely suggestive of a double-bass), the less said (or heard) the better.