LES BROWN And His Band Of Renown
Arrangements: James L. Hill. Produced by Gerhard Narholz & Gunter Greffenius. Recorded May 1985 at Angel Studios, London. Engineered by John Timperley. Special Thanks to Walt S. Heebner for preparations and coordination. Original Publishers: VIVATONE EDITIONS/EDITION SPORTIVA (GEMA).

Born in the year 1912 Les Brown started his musical career in 1935 at Duke University leading the “Duke Blue Devils” dance band. In 1937 he was writing arrangements for Ruby Newman, Isham Jones, Jimmy Dorsey, Larry Clinton and Red Nichols and a year later formed the big band which became known as “Les Brown And His Band of Renown”. A clean-cut, hard swinging band playing outstanding arrangements which quickly established an international reputation, performing at the “New York World’s Fair” in 1939 and recording the million sales record hit “Sentimental Journey” sung by Doris Day in 1944.

1947 saw the beginning of the band’s long association with Bob Hope, which continued into the 80’s, on radio and T.V. shows and overseas tours. During this period Les Brown recorded regularly and in 1948 had another international record hit “I’ve got my love to keep me warm”.

“Les Brown And His Band Of Renown” appeared in films such as “Will Cowan Shorts” (Universal), “Seven Days Leave” (RKO), “The Nutty Professor” (Paramount) and played at the inauguration balls for President Nixon (1973) and President Reagan (1981 and 1985) and is one of the very few great big bands still an active part of the American Show Business scene even after all these years.

BILLY MAY And His Orchestra
Arrangements: Billy May. Produced by Walt S. Heebner & Gerhard Narholz. Recorded 1980 at Capitol Records Studio Hollywood L.A. By Hugh Davis. Remixed at Trixi Tonstudio, Munich by Willi Schmidt. Original Publishers: FIGURATA/ATLAS (GEMA).

. . . The portly, bearded, Pittsburgh-reared arranger and conductor whose dance band with its slurping saxophones created an international stir in the early 1950s has taped a new LP in Los Angeles with a rocking aggregation comprised of many of the musicians who performed with him almost 30 years ago. Says May: “With men like Justin Gordon, Willie Schwartz, Dick Nash, John Best, Alvin Stoller and Ray Sherman, going into the studio again was a pleasure. We all are aware that big bands are a hard sell these days, but with fresh tunes and contemporary recording techniques we believe there’s a market for musical big band sounds.”

... May’s music is