Big Band Percussion – TED HEATH****

Johnny One Note/Blues In The Night/The Peanut Vendor/More Than You Know/Poinciana/Drum Crazy/Take A Chance On Love/It Ain’t Necessarily So/Daddy/Mood Indigo/Thou Swell/But Not For Me

The Ted Heath Band was the top British big swing band during the 1940s and 1950s. Their Big Band Percussion LP was one of the first released on the new Phase 4 recording series. (US:28 UK:17)

“The culmination of his career brought him into contact with the producers of the magnificently overstated London Phase 4 Stereo series. With arrangements by Heath's trombonist Johnny Keating, the new sound of Ted Heath caught on so successfully that it outlived Heath himself. Big Band Percussion is a genuine latter-day Heath production using jazz standards and popular melodies but tending more towards the Dick Schory style, in accordance with the then prevailing space age pop preference for exaggerated percussion and occasional novelty effects.”

“Big Band Percussion, found Ted and his orchestra performing jazz standards under the influence of the space age pop of the day. Hence the big sound of the bongos and drums (and even the occasional sound effect).”

“Big Band Percussion, one of the earliest Decca Phase 4 albums, showcases Ted and his musicians powering their way through scintillating arrangements of standards including Mood Indigo, Thou Swell and But Not For Me among many others. As the album's title suggests, percussion instruments are to the fore, adding an extra dash of musical colour to the proceedings.”