CD :: Detail

Back Again / Now  (1994)

MPS 523520-2 (German) / POCJ-2330 (Japan)

     

German and Japanese releases.

Liner Notes:

Since the middle of the fifties, the history of vocal jazz is inseparable from the name of Gene Puerling. In April 1953, he founded The Hi-Lo's. Gene mentions The Modernaires (with Glenn Miller), of course The Four Freshmen (often with Stan Kenton), and the Mel-Tones, Mel Torme's excellent quintet, as ideals and influences. Gene, however, developed his own unmistakable style. His ingenious concept was substantially supported by his co-singers, first and foremost Clark Burroughs, who opened up the region of the two-line octave for the male quartet with his ambitus, and as first tenor, essentially influenced the sound of the band. But also Bob Morse and Bob Strasen - who was replaced by Don Shelton in 1959 - set no limits to the arranger's musical imagination with their phenomenal security of intonation. Straight from the start Gene dispensed with augmented part-writings and the chord structures of close-harmony bands. Instead of that, he experimented with alterations and the high notes from ninth to thirteenth. Gene managed to pick up counterpoint, change of key, chromatic alternating notes, and passing notes or chords as well as style features from instrumental jazz music, all of that flew into his elaborated choral compositions. This kind of arrangement was new for the vocal domain and convinced mainly by its masterly presentation. What seemed to be an artificial composition in the analysis, reached the listener directly by the fizziness and freshness of its performance as well as the excellence of the voices. Puerling never used the virtuosity of his quartet as an end in itself, but employed effects as glissando, shake, smear down, and so on for the interpretation of the words. With Gene Puerling, music and language formed an authentic unity. The impulse, the desire for artefact - without abandoning musical humour and esprit - and last, but not least, the high musicality of the four singers with the desire for perfection made The Hi-Lo's and with them Gene Puerling the norm for polyphonically arranged vocal music in jazz.

Together with The Hi-Lo's the vocal ensembles stepped out of the shadow of the big bands, which had engaged the close-harmony bands as accompaniment or features for decades, because the audience had wanted vocalists for indentification objects. With The Hi-Lo's, the instrumentalists played the musical accompaniment for the singers, the choral composition became the focus of the musical performance and was supported by the orchestra.

In 1971, after Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer had made productions with the mixed vocal quartet The Singers Unlimited - another child of master mind Gene Puerling - at MPS in Villingen in the Black Forest, The HiLo's, after a long absence from the music market, also produced two LPs there: first of all "The Hi-Lo's - Back Again". The close connection between The Singers Unlimited and The Hi-Lo's was not only manifested in producer Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer on the one hand and Gene Puerling on the other, but also in the musical co-operation with Rob McConnell. He wrote the instrumental arrangements for the record of The Singers Unlimited ("With Rob McConnell And the Boss Brass") and for "Back Again". Both records were recorded at the same time. Just as convincingly as Gene Puerling set the norm for vocal jazz, Rob McConnell wrote the instrumental arrangements for his excellent big band. Here, two arrangers came together; both writing extremly individually and both bearing a signature the listener can already detect after a few notes.

The order of the production is essential for the quality of the music, you can listen to here. First Gene arranged the vocal parts and then Rob the instrumental arrangements. That way it was secured that the polyphonic singing was in the limelight and there were no ties to stop Gene's harmonious "excursions". The result of the co-operation of these two top-arrangers is thrilling. Choral compositions and big band form a musically convincing unity.

Already the first title, "Seems Like Old Times", presents the multiple qualities of the quartet: the homogeneous sound, the substantial unison, the choral discipline of the individual voices subordinated to the unique sound, or the "instrumental" effects like shakes or fall offs. The vocalists are in no way inferior to the orchestral musicians.

The songs "When Sunny Gets Blue" and "I Remember You" reveal Gene's preference for complex chord alterations which often end unexpectedly in unison or alternate full of contrast with monophonic phrases.

One of Gene's great qualities is his continually sparkling sense for musical esprit. Not for its own sake but for a purpose the arranger employs a diversity of style features, as can be heard in "Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries": The stressing of the chords or glissandi manifest the word "laugh", the frolicsome waltz expresses the joy of living, the change of register at the end nearly comes up to a fit of laughter and the change between three-four and four-four time at the end illustrates how imponderable and changeable life can be.

The standard "My Funny Valentine" resounds here in the Latin style.The choral arrangement with a solo part against background harmonies is rather untypical for The Hi-Lo's. But instrumental and choral movement support each other splendidly. Here, the symbiotic co-operation between Gene Puerling and Rob McConnell strikes perfectly well.

"Come Rain Or Come Shine" is a typical up-tempo song for The Hi-Lo's, which radiates their masterly ability: change of tempo, double time-feeling, shake, glissando, explosion-like change of register. What a musical drive in the voices and the orchestra!

Gene thinks of himself as a romantic. What can be heard in recordings with The Singers Unlimited at all points - as in the numerous a capella introductions - remained the exception with The Hi-Lo's: chordal sound expansion, tempo-free a capella insertions, the play with melodic decorations and suspensions. In the movement of the male chorus in "Everything Must Change" Gene demonstrates his artistic skill to change romantic moods into music without running the risk of giving, in to sentimental rubbish.

"Easy Swing" resounds in the last three titles: "Misty", "Then I'll Be Tired Of You" and "Georgia". Gene, however, does not dispense with his typical, advanced harmony in the close harmony movement. He also varies the original melodies to an unfamiliar sound. Here Gene is also a jazz musician. He takes the basic material, the composition and the words, and by his own arrangements of this material leaves his personal mark.

The co-operation with Gene Puerling's second arranger, Clare Fischer, goes right back to the year of the formation of The Hi-Lo's. Clare wrote a vocal arrangement for the first LP "Listen To The Hi-Lo's" from 1954. In 1957, Clare was engaged as musical accompanist for concerts with The Hi-Lo's and as orchestral arranger for their recordings. Again, a congenial co-operation of two individualists succeeded - also from the musical point of view.

The last production, "The Hi-Lo's Now", bears Clare Fischer's "Latin" signature judged by the stylistic outline of the titles, his typical e-piano play, as in "Just The Way You Are" or "Quiet Nights", his sound, his solos. The flautist Gary Foster, a musical companion of Clare for decades, and percussionist Luis Conte joined up.

The Hi-Lo's sound different from early days in their last recording but yet unmistakable. There was still the security in style, the integrity in taste, the musicality - how finely chiselled the "Lazy Afternoon"! -, the homogeneous sound of the band, the vocal-instrumental effects, the careful intonation, the ambitus of the quartet as at the end of "No More Blues".

The elements that changed were the choral movements on one hand, which reflected Gene's harmony setting experiences with The Singers Unlimited stronger than before, as in "After The Love Has Gone" or in "The Night We Called It A Day". On the other hand the possibilities of the studio technology provided a more differentiated basic sound, i.e. more acoustic or choral movement with a fuller sound, which were produced by means of overdubbing.

The Hi-Lo's set a new standard for vocal jazz 40 years ago. Still today, they are norm and guiding principle at the same time, as Gene Puerling's harmony setting and the vocal effects sound forth with bands like Take 6. The tasteful aesthetics of the sound of the male quartet remains ideal and has seldom been reached again. You want to make yourself comfortable and just enjoy the music. To listen to The Hi-Lo's is still a pleasure.

Matthias Becker

(Musicologist, freelance journalist & author of "Choral Music in jazz" and other publications)

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