CD1
Colors In Sound
1. Walkin’ Time
2. For You, For Me, Forevermore
3. What Is There To Say?
4. Deep Down
5. Easy Living
6. Yesterdays
7. You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me
8. Desert Fever
9. Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year
10. Periwinkle Blues
11.You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To
Tracks 1,2,4,&5
Ernie Royal, Joe Ferrante, Doc Severinsen, Foxy Corby - Trumpets
Frank Rehak, Eddie Bert - Trombones
Davis Amram - French horn
Bill Barber - Tuba
Ray Starling - Mellophone
Sal Salvador - Guitar
George Roumanis - Bass
Jimmy Campbell - Drums
Tracks 3,6 &11
Same as above except;
Jimmy Maxwell replaces Joe Ferrante on trumpet
Ray Starling - Trumpet & mellophone
Osie Johnson replaces Jimmy Campbell on drums
Tracks 7- 10
Foxy Corby, Al Maiorca, John Frosk, Bill Hodges - Trumpets
Frank Rehak, Eddie Bert - Trombones
David Amram - French horn
Bill Barber - Tuba
Sal Salvador - Guitar
George Roumanis - Bass
Osie Johnson - Drums
The Beat For This Generation
12. To Beat Or Not To Beat
13. That Old Feeling
14. Satin Doll
15. But Beautiful
16. Venice Anyone
17. Secret Love
18. The Mad Pad
19. I’m Glad There Is You
20. Bleecker Street Blues
21. The Dancing Beat
22. The Continental
23. I Concentrate On You
Ernie Royal, Jimmy Maxwell, Doc Severinsen, Foxy Corby, Danny Stiles, Jerry Kail, Charles Kamey - Trumpets
Jerry Tyree - Flugelhorn
Eddie Bert, Willie Dennis - Trombones
Ray Starling - Mellophone
Vinnie Dean - Alto sax
Larry Wilcox, Mike Citron - Tenor saxes
Jack Furlong - Baritone sax
Sal Salvador - Guitar
John Bunch Piano
Bucky Calla - Bass
Charlie Persip - Drums
CD2
You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet!
1. Space Walk
2. Boato
3. On The Street Where You Live
4. The Song Is You
5. Shade Three
6. All The Things You Are
7. Blues March
8. The Old Gnu
9. Love You Are Here
10. Ambulating
11. Another Page
12. Colors In Sound
13. Turkish Taffy
14. Chuckles
Jerry Tyree, Jerry Kail, Burt Collins, Al Stewart - Trumpets
Ray Starling, Dave Moser - Mellophones
Ray Wiegand, PeteVibona or Eddie Bert - Trombones
Andy Marsala - Alto sax
Charlie Mariano, Joe Farrell - Tenor saxes
Nick Brignola - Baritone sax
Sal Salvador - Guitar
Dave Frishberg - Piano
John Beal - Bass
Steve Little - Drums
Sheryl Easly - Vocals (tracks 3, 9, 11)
Sal Salvador was a guitarist in the single-note Charlie Christian tradition of playing, who first gained some measure of recognition in the Stan Kenton
Orchestra on his recording New Concepts Of Artistry In Rhythm in 1953. Although Salvador could not be considered an innovator on the instrument,
he nevertheless was an inventive player with a fluid and resourceful style. The three albums featured on this two-CD release are long on ambition but short
on content.
Colors In Sound
is an interesting construct in that the band is brass heavy, without reeds, with the colour to be provided by the tuba, French horn and mellophone. The
brass had to carry the leads over the rhythm section, with Salvador's guitar filling in the bulk of the solo space. Bassist George Roumanis wrote the
arrangements, all of which are relatively short, and designed for commercial airplay. While many of the eleven tracks in this session may be nothing more
than background music, there are several that are quite punchy and solid. Walkin’ Time has some rhythmic life built around solos from Salvador,
Ray Starling’s mellophone, and the tuba of Bill Barber. Deep Down is a swinger pushed along by the drumming of Jimmy Campbell with some fine muted
trumpet from Doc Severinsen and an eight-bar solo from trombonist Frank Rehak.
The arrangement for Jerome Kern’s Yesterdays is barely over two minutes but therein it combines a Latin rhythm with straight 4/4 to interesting
effect. In this case the drummer is Osie Johnson and he shows his mettle. Ray Starling takes a high-note trumpet solo, and Salvador is nicely effective in
his brief moment. Cole Porter’s You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To is a fitting closer to this particular album. It is a heady charmer filled with
some nifty interplay between trumpeter Starling and Salvador, as the brass blazes away in the out chorus.
The Beat For This Generation
is less brassy and more mushy than Colors In Sound. Recognizing that a full brass sound was not gaining any traction, Sal Salvador added reeds,
thus taking the bite out of the band. Although the section work continued to be tight and the harmony of the arrangements was interesting, no strongly
identifiable sound emerged. Listen to That Old Feeling, or Satin Doll or But Beautiful and you will get a good sense of the
range and style of the band. The ensemble work is fastidious, and the expression of the guitar with the reeds and the brass come together
succinctly. Venice Anyone is a number that is somewhat out of the box as it is swinger with a series of sixteen and eight bar exchanges between
tenor saxophonists Larry Wilcox and Mike Citron. Drummer Charlie Persip is a whirling dervish on his drum kit. The closer on this session is Cole Porter’s I Concentrate On You which gives Salvador space to show his stuff, along with Ray Starling on mellophone, and Vinnie Dean on alto sax.
The final album is entitled You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet!, which is probably a well-intentioned but hyperbolic statement. Although the band sounds
more like a band, there is still a sense that it lacks an identity, despite having some strong section players, and several nifty arrangements from Larry
Wilcox. Among these are Boato, a bossa nova number on which Salvador demonstrates his creativity, and Charlie Mariano rips off a strong tenor
solo. Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote The Song Is You and they surely could not have imagined the swinging arrangement offered here.
Salvador plays with creativity and fluency over the band, and the brass section is especially forceful. The band rarely delved into a pure jazz theme, so
it was a pleasant surprise to listen to their take on Benny Golson’s Blues March (although the liner notes show the title as Blue March). With drummer Steve Little setting the march tempo, the band settles into a groove, spinning out a rollicking version of the tune,
with Salvador sculpting an inquisitive niche.
There may be some Sal Salvador fanatics out there who were pining away for the re-release of these albums. However Fresh Sound Records might want to
consider devoting their resources to more promising titles.
Pierre Giroux
CD Reviews
Fresh Sound FSR-CD 852
