Buddy Bregman - A Jazz Portrait of the Hollywood Arranger. The Wild Party and Other Swinging Moments (2020)

Starting in 1955, Buddy Bregman became one of the busiest conductors, composers, and arrangers in the Hollywood music business, whether it was pop or jazz, with a spread of activities covering records, television, and motion pictures, so much so that he seemed ubiquitous.

This release celebrates the jazz side of his considerable talents in two significant ways, beginning with his first instrumental album fully in the jazz vein: Swinging Kicks, which was the reorchestrated music score of an obscure movie, The Wild Party. For this ambitious project, recorded in December 1956, he put together a handful of the best Hollywood jazz musicians, featuring a roster of great soloists, among them Ben Webster and Stan Getz.

But Bregman was also responsible for a number of other fine, but so far neglected, recordings all reissued here for the first timefeaturing different all-star groups he conducted, including some vocal tracks with Rex Middletons Hi-Fis. The set closes with The Delinquent, the big band theme song of the Jerry Lewis film The Delicate Delinquent, originally issued as a 45 rpm single. It completes a jazz portrait of a wunderkind Hollywood arranger whose experiences in the jazz field, despite their rarity, were of enduring quality.