André Previn and His Pals, Shelley Manne & Red Mitchell: “West Side Story” 

 The musicians on this recording are André Previn on piano, Shelley Manne on drums and Red Mitchell on bass.

André Previn was born in Berlin in either 1929 or 1930, and emigrated to America in 1938 with his family. While primarily known for his successful career in Hollywood where he composed, orchestrated and conducted film scores (he started at 17 years of age, and by the time he was 31 had been involved on upwards of thirty), his abilities as a jazz musician are sometimes overlooked. Which brings us to this record. The musical West Side Story (inspired by Romeo and Juliet) was composed by Leonard Bernstein. To quote the liner notes on the back of this album’s jacket, written by Lester Koenig (the founder of the jazz label Contemporary Records, on which the album being reviewed was released) “The music by Leonard Bernstein is an integral part of the total conception, its unconventional song structures and harmonic progressions are not the kind which would seem to lend themselves readily to modern jazz treatment. Yet, possibly because of the challenge provided by the Bernstein material, André Previn, Shelley Manne and Red Mitchell have improvised on it brilliantly, transforming it into one of their most imaginative show-jazz albums.” One of the things that I noticed when listening to the record was the detail and care given to how the songs were arranged, and the space between the instruments. André Previn constructed interesting musical alterations to the music in order for the trio to perform their version of the songs. While the musicianship of all three players is exemplary, as a bassist I will always been drawn to what is happening on the bottom end. Red is one of my favourite bassists, and on this recording you get to hear some outstanding playing from him. A jazz trio interpretation of a musical may not be to everyone’s taste, but this one is certainly a favourite of mine.