The Sound of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra

The early albums of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra were not conceived as such, but were drawn from a pool of sessions — many of them considered experimental at the time — held over a period of months. Even so, this collection of snazzy sounds — reviewed in the two-disc 45 RPM edition — sounds and feels like a sequel to New Directions in Music, repeating a number of once-novel instrumental concepts and combinations. A close relative of "Midnight Sleigh Ride," "Now That I'm in Love," believe it or not, is a jumping treatment of Rossini's "William Tell Overture," with a perky lyric that could have been easily altered and adapted for a TV commercial. "Yankee Doodletown" takes its cues directly from their signature tune, "Doodletown Pipers." This collection is also more aggressively commercial than New Directions in Music, with a number of routinely naive big band-era style vocals by Joe Mooney, Anita Boyer, Florence Fogelson, the vocal group the Doodlers, and the band itself. Still, you do hear some novel effects, like the toy instruments on "Love Is a Simple Thing" and human kazoo effects on "The Honey Jump." And Sauter-Finegan certainly drew upon the top New York players for their hijinks; among the uncredited musicians who can be heard chiming in now and then are trombonist Bill Harris, pianist Ralph Burns, guitarist Mundell Lowe, and tuba player extraordinaire Bill Barber, with a rhythm section driven by bassist Trigger Alpert and drummer Don Lamond.