Tex Williams, Artistry in Western Swing

[Billy Tonnesen]

In thinking about the post of Smokey Rogers band in the fifties it brought to mind when basically this same band was fronted by Tex Williams. Sometime in the middle to late 40's Stan Kenton had a record called Artistry in Swing which created quite a stir in the Jazz venue. Well Tex William's band with most of these musicians made a record on Capitol called "Artistry in Western Swing". It was basically the Stan Kenton arrangement done with Violins (fiddles)and electric guitars. They added only one trumpet to the mix. Spike Featherstone played flute and Joaquin had his eight bar ride. I think the record was done to show that Western Swing had some very wide parameters. Most of these musicians were very well trained and some were studio musicians.
Does anyone remember this recording or heard it in later years. I had a 78 of it when it first came out but it is long gone.
When this band played at the Riverside Rancho the drummer, Muddy Berry, had big kettle drums (Tympani) which was incorporated into their arrangements. As I remember the band memorized the arrangements and did not read music during the gig.

[Bryan Bradfield]

Rhino Records re-issued that cut a few years ago on an album called "Hillbilly Fever! Vol. 1: Legends of Western Swing".

Today I found the same cuts on a Rhino album with a slightly different title, however, it seems to be out of print.

Here is the on-line listing:
http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetai ... mber=72440

[Mitch Drumm]

Here is the label shot, with personnel listed. Released circa March 1948 and Kenton is reported to have appreciated it. Even Capitol managed to misspell Joaquin and Johnny Weis' names. I guess it's hopeless. I see that Manny Klein is on trumpet and wonder if he may have been imported from the Kenton band for this session?

Billy, let me know if you need a recording of this.

[Mike Gross]

Billy,

That is an awesome recording that I have played many times on my "Swingin' West" radio shows. Ironically enough, I remember one show not too many years ago where I had that and "Did the Man in the Moon Come from Texas?" in the same set.

Mike
www.swinginwest.com

[Jody Sanders]

Hi Billy, Thanks for posting these history of western swing posts. Jody.

[Jussi Huhtakangas]

Here's another cd release with that song:
http://www.amazon.com/Thats-What-Like-A ... 37-6426235

[Jerry Hayes R.I.P.]

Billy, do you have the CD from the Capitol Records vintage collections series of Tex Williams? It has most of his hits on it and some very informative liner notes which includes the dates of the recordings and the personnel including what instruments they played including steelers Joaquin Murphy, Eddie Mitchell, Les Anderson, Fred Tavares, Wayne Burdick, Pete Martinez, & Denny Mathis. This is one of my favorite albums of all time.

You can really tell the difference in "Western" (California) swing as opposed to "Central" Swing (Texas, Oklahoma). The western group(s) seemed more polished IMHO but the Texas guys seemed to have maybe a little more "soul" in their sound......JH in Va.

[Jimmy Youngblood]

We had the honor of performing with this great man in the 1970's.

http://www.angelfire.com/nv/calnev/tw.html

[Andy Volk]

That was quite an ambitious arrangement and the band really pulled it off amazingly well. It was a typical Kenton chart. Kenton didn't get many critical kudos from jazz critics for his bombastic style but college audiences loved his group and whatever you think of "Artistry" as music, Tex and crew sure threw down a gauntlet with that record proving that they weren't just a bunch of guys in cowboy clothing but a group of professional musicians who could play absolutely anything.

[Dayna Wills]

What I have noticed is that I can sit in with western swing bands and call almost any big band standard and these guys know it. On the other hand, the "jazz" players do not know any western swing. I wonder if they see the hats and boots and go deaf, not realizing that WS is a jazz idiom and not country music...????

[Mike Gross]

Dayna,

It is all that exactly! For about 10 years I was the MC for a big band and they played Miller, Ellington, etc. The Western Swing stuff that I play on my "Swingin' West" radio show is the same but with different instruments. I would talk to these guys in the band about Western Swing and they would right away think we are talking "Cheatin Heart" material. It is really a lack of exposure of these "sophisticated" but really narrow minded musicians.