Composed and arranged by Ray Conniff.
Recorded live in performance by Bunny Berigan and His Orchestra at the Trianon Ballroom in Cleveland on April 9, 1939.
Bunny Berigan, trumpet, directing: Johnny Napton, first trumpet; Jake Koven and George Johnston, trumpets; Ray Conniff and Bob Jenney, trombones; Arcuiso “Gus” Bivona, first alto saxophone; Charlie DiMaggio, alto saxophone; Don Lodice, tenor saxophone; Larry Walsh, tenor and baritone saxophones; Joe Bushkin, piano; Tommy Moore, guitar; Morty Stulmaker, bass; Eddie Jenkins, drums.
The story:
Bunny Berigan did not know that Ray Conniff could arrange when he hired him in April of 1938. Conniff got the job because he was a fluent reader of music, and played fine jazz trombone. Conniff’s first couple of months in the Berigan band were filled with playing jazz trombone solos, as well as the second parts in the trombone book because that was his job, of course, and the Berigan band was very busy touring, playing ballrooms and theaters, and recording. At some point, however, something happened that changed Conniff’s relationship with the Berigan band.
Here is the essence of that story, as related to me in approximately 1980 by Buddy Rich. I encountered Rich by happenstance as I was about to enter Carnegie Hall to hear him and a number of other jazz greats perform.
As a friend and I began to kill a bit of time before the concert, we walked south on the Seventh Avenue sidewalk next to Carnegie Hall. It was there that we saw Rich walking toward us, smoking something. I knew that Mr. Rich could be nasty, but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to attempt to speak with the great Buddy Rich. As we met on the sidewalk I said, “Excuse me Mr. Rich, I want to tell you that I have always enjoyed your playing.” He glared at me and exhaled smoke through his nostrils like a bull in a bull ring. “Yeaaaaah,” he said. Sensing that I was getting nowhere fast, I decided to try an abrupt change of direction. Knowing that Rich dearly loved Count Basie, I then asked him: “When did you first hear Count Basie?” The expression on his face suddenly changed to a toothy smile. “How did you know about me and Basie?” he asked. I mumbled something stupid, and he cut me off: “I was with Bunny Berigan. We were in New York for a few days, and Bunny had a rehearsal and wasn’t too happy with the way we were playing. So he stopped the rehearsal and said, ‘You guys need to go and hear Count Basie’s band. He’s playing over on Fifty-second Street at the Famous Door. That will do you more good than rehearsing!’ So I went with Georgie Auld, Joe Dixon, Ray Conniff, and Joey Bushkin. We were all overwhelmed by the way the Basie band played. They swung so hard; it was so light, but powerful. Everyone was blown away by Lester Young. Everyone but Georgie, that is. He dug Herschel Evans.” Rich then took another puff, and said, “Hey, I gotta go in and do the show.” He then turned and walked south on the Seventh Avenue sidewalk to the rear of Carnegie Hall and disappeared into the stage door.
Almost immediately after the event described by Rich, Ray Conniff and the others who had seen and heard the Basie band began asking Bunny if he would start to work some Basie-styled arrangements into the Berigan band’s “book.” Bunny was amenable to this, but his two main arrangers then, Joe Lippman and Andy Phillips, balked at trying to write arrangements in a style they were not really familiar with. It was then, with the brash confidence of youth, that Conniff told Bunny that he could write in the Basie style. Conniff himself told me what happened next: “Bunny said to me, ‘You can write kid? Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? Well, if you think you can write something like what Basie plays, then go ahead.’ I really wasn’t sure I could write something in the Basie style, but I started. I took a couple of my attempts to Bunny, and we tried them out, but they weren’t right. Then he suggested that I try to write something based on the chords of ‘King Porter Stomp.’ Bunny constantly got requests for that, and he played the Fletcher Henderson arrangement he had recorded with Benny Goodman. He was sick of playing it because he rightly thought that every time he played it, he was giving Benny a boost. ‘Benny doesn’t need any free advertising from me,’ he said. So I started fooling around with the chords of ‘King Porter Stomp,’ and finished up an original called ‘Gangbusters’ Holiday.’ It was in the Basie style, Bunny liked it, the band liked it, and most importantly, audiences liked it. That was the start of my writing for Bunny Berigan.” (A link to two recordings by the Berigan band of Ray Conniff’s “Gangbusters’ Holiday” can be found at endnote (1) below.)
The music:
Ray Conniff began submitting original compositions to Berigan band during the last few months of 1938. Included in this grouping were in addition to “Gangbusters’ Holiday,” “Little Gate’s Special,” and “Familiar Moe.” He also wrote a very swinging arrangement on “Moten Swing,” long a Basie favorite, even in 1938. (2)
“Familiar Moe” is a clever Conniff concoction blending the riff tune “Time Out,” composed Edgar Battle and Eddie Durham, and arranged by Durham for the early Count Basie band, with the chords behind the trombone solo (played many times by Conniff) in Joe Lippman’s arrangement for the Berigan band on “A Study in Brown.” (“Familiar Moe” is the antecedent for Conniff’s later marvelous study in chromaticism “Prelude in C Sharp Major,” which was recorded by Artie Shaw in December of 1940.) (A link to that Shaw recording can be found at endnote (3).
This jazz romp begins with zig-zagging saxophones (two altos, one tenor and one baritone) cushioned by warm open brass. The first chorus begins with the riffy melody presented by saxophone quartet (Gus Bivona leading, Larry Walsh on baritone) playing against open brass chords. Pianist Joe Bushkin plays through the eight-bar bridge, and then after a burst of brass on into the final eight bars of chorus one.
The second chorus begins with a piping sixteen-bar improvisation by Gus Bivona on clarinet. He is followed by trombonist Conniff who shows that he was a very capable jazz player. Bunny plays next, rocking away atop drummer Eddie Jenkins’s back beats and fashioning a jazz statement that as usual is beautifully constructed. Don Lodice then takes his tenor saxophone through some lively and agile passages.
The next sequence spots the band riffing hard, brass on top against reeds below. Bushkin returns for another brief and brisk solo, then the streamlined finale, consisting of more riffing, but at a much lower dynamic level.
“Familiar Moe” is first-class swing, brought vividly to life by Bunny Berigan and his talented sidemen.
The recording presented with this post required a good bit of audio restoration and remastering, done by Mike Zirpolo.
Notes and links:
(1) Here is a link to two different recordings of Ray Conniff’s “Gangbusters’ Holiday”: https://bunnyberiganmrtrumpet.com/2019/05/25/gangbusters-holiday1938-1939-bunny-berigan-ray-conniff/
(2) Ray Conniff also put together the pieces of the Berigan small band recording of “Walkin’ the Dog.”
— Here is a link to the story and music of Conniff’s original design on the blues for the Berigan band: “Little Gate’s Special”: https://bunnyberiganmrtrumpet.com/2019/12/31/little-gates-special-1939/
— Here is a link to Conniff’s take on “Moten Swing” given a great performance by the Berigan band: https://bunnyberiganmrtrumpet.com/2017/08/16/buddy-rich-at-100-moten-swing-1938-bunny-berigan/
(3) Here is a link to Artie Shaw’s recording of Ray Conniff’s “Prelude in C Sharp Major’: https://swingandbeyond.com/2016/03/25/88/
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