Big Band Jazz and Gentle Jazz Vocals by Alan Hartwell Big Band featuring COZY COLE and SAVINA

(With several albums released in his own name, Alan has also produced hundreds of sessions which are heard within other albums and compilations.)

Each of the Artists' LOVE RECORDS CD's ("COZY COLE and all that Big Band Jazz" and "SAVINA and all that Gentle Jazz")is on current release individually ($17.97 retail)in many stores and on line. THIS CD IS A SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL DUAL CD, WITH BOTH ALBUMS COMBINED ON ONE COMPACT DISC!

You not only get ten tracks of Cozy Cole's Hits, but also SAVINA's 12-track Album of the great jazz standards as a Bonus, all on one CD. A total of 22 tracks cut right from the original stereo studio tapes. BRAND NEW factory-sealed. You may already have heard samples from this CD as it is circulating through various music channels, and the jazz underground, but here is your chance to own it.

A hot pressing, the 22 tracks embody 22 GREAT JAZZ STANDARDS, SCORED BY 4 OF THE MOST-TALENTED ARRANGERS, FEATURING THE PERFORMANCES OF 2 OUTSTANDING ARTISTS, ACCOMPANIED BY AN AGGREGATION OF 45 RENOWNED MUSICIANS!

"COZY COLE and all that Big Band Jazz" is a compilation of recordings for which the drummer is best known, which became Best-Sellers. The album contains the ORIGINAL Love Records Million-seller #1 hit "Topsy I" & "Topsy II", the chart follow ups "Turvy I & II and "Topsy-Turvy I & II", the classic original "Bad" (Stripper's Favorite), and his notable and enduring "Caravan" and "Crescendo", and includes the laid back "Late & Lazy".

All the musicians in the Alan Hartwell Big Band on various tracks: Dick Hyman, Al Williams, Bert Farber, Bill Bauer, Al Caiola, Jack Lesberg, Milt Hinton, Wendall Marshall, Peanuts Hucko, John Muenberger, Pepper Adams, Barney Bigard, Joe Wilder, Bernie Previn, Ernie Royal, Harold Johnson, Urbie Green, Frank Rehak, Henderson Chamber, Hale Rood, Frank Sarocco, are equally famous in their own right!

"SAVINA and all that Gentle Jazz" contains her original two Best-Sellers "HOW COME YOU DO ME LIKE YOU DO?" AND "DEED I DO!" As well as her signature versions of "You Go TO My Head", "In My Solitude" and "Body & Soul". If you haven't heard Savina before, you will thank your lucky stars that her sensuous album is included on this CD.

The balance of the material are "torch" Love Songs and Jazz evergreens: "The Man I Love", "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing", "Can't We Be Friends", "Too Marvelous For Words", "I Cover The Waterfront", "Mood Indigo" and "I Can Be Soft As A Kitten", that are most associated with the Cabaret and SupperClub singer who performed in major-city up-scale Hotels and Nightclubs.

And, as you would expect from the people at Love Records, the musicians in the Alan Hartwell Jazz EnsembleAlan Hartwell has been producing backing Savina on the various tracks: Nat Pierce, Mal Waldron, Hank Jones, Al Williams, Don Abney, Dick Hyman, Milt Hamilton, Wilbur Ware, George Duvivier, Gene Rayme, Mundell Lowe, Kenny Burell, Barry Gailbraithe, Jim Raney, Chuck D'Orazio, Mike Capobianco, Joe Wilder, Jimmy Scara, Mike Nerlino, Vince Nerlino, Kenny Clarke, Danny Venditti, Sonny Igoe, Ed Shaunessy, and Cozy Cole, are the "Best of the Best" in this genre of music.

The liner notes identify which players are performing on each song.

SAVINA( pronounced sah-VEE-nah) born and raised in Chicago, was a child performer and studied from an early age winning among other credits, a 5-year scholarship to the American Conservatory of Music. During her schooling she was restricted to working in Chicago and then schooling completed, she was able to accept bookings out of town and she began to travel extensively - she literally played all over the country - north, east, south and west, soaking up the culture of each area. Whenever possible (on a day off, or after her last show) she would go to another club or to an after hours spot to hear local musicians jamming - often jumping in on a number at the musicians request.

Travel broadened her horizons and the numerous types of clubs she played gave her a solid foundation as a performer. Almost fanatically, she immersed herself in music and her work, studying live bands and singers, listening to records, and absorbing all that she could. Ultimately she gained a reputation as a good solid performer and her bookings became more lucrative.

Which, ultimately, brought her to New York (where she studied dramatics with Lee Strasberg) and to the attention of .Love® RECORDS (notable for their many instrumental million-sellers) who had her record a couple of singles. She was exceptionally well received by the Radio Performers and her records sold well. The radio stations programmed her records often and "How Come You Do Me Like You Do" was among the 10 best on Art Ford' s Brussels Music Selections. She quickly won acceptance on the music scene.

But, Rock and Roll, in all its glory was upon us at that time and there was little room on the stations (less on the charts) for good music , so (with several releases to her credit) rather than chase a trend which would take her out of her element, she decided to cease recording as an artist temporarily (until middle of the road music returned) and to become an independent producer.

She did, and several of her productions (released through .Loveand other labels) hit high marks on the charts - building for her still another reputation, this time as a consultant to a number of independent labels for whom she handled artist and repertoire duties, coaching, session preparation, co-ordination and actual recording dates which resulted in her name being linked to several chart making hits. After some years had passed, she began to develop strong feelings that the trend in music was due for a change and consequently that night clubs, which had all but disappeared, would return. So she set about preparing herself for a return to performing in nightclubs with her own group and recording as an artist again. Then during a session she was doing for RAVE ®RECORDS (Primarily a jazz label, but leaning to the middle of the road sound) she mentioned her feelings about the change and the Rave people admitted that they had quietly been lining up some of the best talent around in preparation for the new direction the felt music was about to take. The decided to run one down for reference with Savina doing the vocal and immediately after hearing the playback shook hands with her on a deal calling for 3 albums and an unspecified number of singles for release. Rave had the contacts drawn, Savina signed and she was back, in her own element, as a featured recording artist on the Rave label and her first album was a clear indication she was also back in the groove!

Savina began her recording career on the Love label and it is especially appropriate that this, her last album is being released on Love. She chose these songs for their meaningful lyrics and she sang them as only she could sing them.

If it's jazz you're after- that is, the listening and dancing kind- you'll go a long way before you hear anything as truly great as Savina and her Gentle Jazz . She calls it "Gentle Jazz" because it is composed, arranged, and performed for both listening and dancing audience, and, while using original ideas incorporating "new sounds" into the music, she doesn't lose the general structure of the melody, line or rhythm. Using this approach as a fundamental basis, she doesn't alienate the many who are just now discovering Jazz (or rediscovering it) or those who have yet come to completely accept the rapid change being made in popular music and Jazz these days.

The songs are favorites and Savina's treatments on both the vocals and the arrangements are unique. Some of these songs were written and played for the first time almost 60 years ago. In retrospect, it's amazing how they have weathered the test of time, and inevitable how they must continue to for they sound as comfortable today as they did in the 30's and 40's, the 50's, even in the 60's 70's and 80's, and now in the new millenium.

Many of the finest composers and lyricists such as: Gershwin, Mills, Bigard, Swift, James, Coots, Green, Whiting, Mercer, Artie Shaw, etc. are represented in her albums which include many Ellington compositions, selected by Savina because the are old favorites of hers and because. as she has said "I love the music of Duke Ellington and I respect him too, as a person - he is the greatest". She was in tune with his thinking too: she felt the same way about her singing as Ellington did about his playing and writing, "I don't believe in a lot of elaborate plans and preparations, just pour it out as it comes - if you create something according to your own tastes and there happens to be somebody else around the world who like it, whose taste is compatible to yours, then you're lucky" - but she continues, "You have to do what comes out of your own head without any thought of whether it falls in the wake of a trend or not." Hastily, she adds,"Of course, I want people to like what I do - but what I do has to be genuine, believable, and what I feel".

Ellington, always very happy with Savina's recordings of his songs, often invited her to an intimate party (members of the band and few friends) which marked his closing after a very successful engagement. Most of Duke's time at one party was spent with Savina - having pictures taken, toasting the success of her newest album, talking about future engagements of the band and the singer and as a climax, giving Savina a fond kiss on the cheek ("for the photographer").

At one time or another in her varied career, Savina has worked and recorded with some of the greatest names in contemporary music... people such as Jimmy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, Cozy Cole, All Caiola, Bert Farber, Dick Hyman, Bernie Previn, Urbie Green, Peanuts Hucko, Kenny Burrell, Gene Rayme, Al Williams, Sonny Land, Nat Pierce, Mundell Lowe, George Duvivier, Sy Mann, Bill Bauer, Kenny Clarke, Joe Wilder, Hank Jones, Jimmy Raney, Oscar Pettiford, Bobby Donaldson, Don Abney, Barry Gailbraith, Addison Farmer, Milt Hamilton, Bedford Hendricks, Ed Shaughnessy, Mal Waldron, Wilbur Ware and Osie Johnson to name some.

Listening to and tirelessly studying the performance of the many great musicians she had worked with over the years helped her develop the "hornlike" qualities of phrasing, scatting, and bending of notes and beat that your hear in her voice. While soaking up instrumental mannerisms, she also made it her habit to hear everything she could by Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O'Day, Mildred Bailey, Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington and Peggy Lee. If you have an inborn respect for people who know their craft - then you must respect Savina as well as enjoy her - she has a solid musical background... her schooling (The American Conservatory of Music)... well rounded club experience, and expert use of voice and microphone are reflected in her knowing and tasteful delineation of songs.

However, the essence of Savina's unparalleled skill and the power of her impact on the mind of the listener is not primarily from technical expertise - far more than any Jazz singer today, her strength is in her capacity to personalize the songs she is singing so deeply that the very act of performing is an insight into her deepest recesses.

To project a mood these days, ones' art must override the distractions of this tumultuous world and it is a tribute to Savina's sure musicianship, feeling for lyrics and deft dramatic sense, that she brings all of the elements of a song into genuinely affecting focus.

While other singers tend to draw on the poetry of a song to set the mood, Savina largely creates her own. She takes familiar numbers and, by infusing them with all she herself has learned about life and love and the twists of fate, she gives them depth and warmth which (to quote Nat Hentoff in his description of Billie Holiday), "make the attempts of most other singers with this material sound like the work of little girls playing house."

There are but a handful of singers who can transmit warm vibrations, so it is rare indeed to find and artist like Savina, who creates a mood so valid that he listener can't avoid personal involvement in the song.

Love, warmth and sheer pleasure are all present in Savina's sound and reading of meaningful lyrics. It can be heard and felt in its lightness on the up-tempo numbers, in its tenderness on ballads and in its depth on love songs. You'll find all of these qualities and more in her albums. Savina is known for her ability as a delineator of song - a storyteller, if you will - and in her albums that ability is reiterated again and again, but you' ll find that she maintains a harmonic-awareness rarely found in singers - a quality usually attainable only by outstanding instrumentalists (I refrain from using the term musicians because Savina is a musician, a "vocal Musician" ) - her outstanding ability to sing Jazz, perhaps as no other singer ever has, is due in large part to the fact that she has the same basic tonal qualities vocally as those of a Tenor or Alto Saxophone and when creating her vocal arrangements, she hears herself in terms of the instrument rather than in terms of voice. You will hear this "horn-like" quality throughout the numbers she performs.

The foundation of any arrangement inevitably rests with the rhythm section, and for her albums, Savina's choice of the basic rhythm sections is not accidental - she is always in the elite company of the tastiest, most consistently swinging Jazzman ever assembled. (Used as 4 to 7 pieces on different numbers because Savina is most relaxed and natural with a good small group.) Thus, the way the arrangements are worked out with Savina, comes with solid experience and the open - mindedness of a "loose" session.

The relationship between Savina and the musicians who work with her is almost spiritual or magical - the interplay between them is unbelievable - they just borrow form each other musically, pick up on each other's vibrations, and lay down a solid groove on each number. Her records are not recorded in nightclub performances, but in their informality, they match the relaxed atmosphere that the best of those made in that manner engender.

Along with Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and especially Billie Holiday, her albums solidly established Savina as one of the most innovative and captivating Jazz singers of all time. She had a "hip", husky sound and as familiar as her songs became to her, she was able to continually re-animate them to make each new performance provide a further insight into the potential of the song - and of her. She never performed any song, no matter how familiar, quite the same way more than once - so each new performance was always in a fresh new perspective. She sang Jazz more warmly, more wisely and perhaps more wonderfully than anyone ever has.

Although she rarely made appearances, when she did, she drew the kinds of response from the audience that you knew was not mere hand service, and the enthusiastic endorsements of musicians who heard or played for Savina explain why she was always asked to "jump in" on a number when she dropped in at a club to hear some of her favorite musicians at work.

Savina was a great advertisement for live Jazz. When she started to groove on a number and her body started to move gently to the rhythm, the intense warmth of her delivery had a natural visual counterpart. It's true that you cannot see her in her albums but you can feel the impact of her personality and the emotional content of her singing as it is poured into her music.

You'll groove to the imaginative sound, the verve and versatility, the change of mood and the mastery of style, which makes Savina one of the unquestioned greats among the great Jazz artists.

Hers are albums that will have you going right back to track 1, as soon as you have finished listening to the album in its entirety with several side trips to repeat choice spots in each track.

There will never be anybody like Savina...

PRESS NOTICES FOR..Savina. and all that GentleJazz !

"EVERY BIT AS GOOD AS ELLA"...H. N. Lieber, BROADCAST---

"JUST EXCELLENT"...NAT Hentoff, noted Musicologist & Critic-

-- "REFRESHING!"...Jim Smith WBBA-FM Chicago

"Savina is superb...she has a quality in her voice that sets one's mind dreaming of star-filled nights and rolling surfs"... Chuck Mitchell, Chicagoland Broadcasters

"Savina is reminiscent of the great sound of June Christy- Anita O'Day and Chris Conner.She should receive national attention...she has a refreshing approach to many evergreens and she has brought back"taste" with the help of some jazz giants"...Art Vincent, The Art of Jazz

"At a time when jazz and pop music are becoming increasingly specialized and rarefied, Savina's music will come as a balm to ears of the more mature nightclub type audience"...Graham Masterson, Penthouse Magazine, Lndn

Savina has a great feel for Jazz ...very intimate and personal stuff, glows with warmth... her choice of material and musicians is excellent"... Al Kaessler, WJMD, Washington DC

"Savina is most enjoyable to listen to...her singing is superb. Especially delighted with her Ellington numbers"... William Gunther, WEVD, New York

"This is Jazz Royale! Savina's album is really right for jazzophiles who dig music especially for dancing and relaxed listening. Thank good musicianship, the jazzman featured on this album bring back classic sounds that for too long have not been heard with a good singer. This album will warm you on a cold winter night and keep you cool in the heat of summer - that's the balanced artistry of Savina and these fine Musicians. Give us more Savina, so we can get to know you better!"... Barbara Williams, Reflected Expressions: Jazz Magazine

"When Savina sings, she not only reaches you, she touches you!"... Bob Bruno, WVIP, Mt. Kisco, N

"I did an hour of my show, playing cuts from the (pre-release) album and talking with Savina...It was the best hour of my entire radio career. She knows her stuff and her history. She looks, sounds great. Earthy and real, has a great sense of humor, and is a classy lady."...Tom Davis, (Syndicated show) WRVR, NY

COZY COLE - the swinging-est Drummer ever!

When our epoch of Jazz is chronicled among the arts, the outstanding percussionist of both, the current era and the entire Twentieth Century, will be Cozy Cole, an individual star-drummer (Exclusively on Love Records 1958 - 1965), whose heart of rhythm, warmth and good nature carried him into prominence from the swinging spots of Harlem and of 52nd Street, to the finest hotels and the most important music halls in the nation.

Cozy was about five years old, when his parents decided that there was only one way to solve the problem concerning knives, forks, spoons, pencils and nicked furniture. When Christmas morning rolled around, Cozy was probably the happiest and most wide-eyed boy in East Orange, New Jersey (where he was born in 1909), for under the tree was his first set of drums. Although this solved one problem, it created four more. Soon Mom and Dad Cole found that the other three sons and daughters also had musical aspirations. Two of Cozy's brothers became accomplished pianists, and his sister a concert pianist, and third brother is also a drummer.

Of course, Cozy's heart was with percussion from the very beginning, as most youngsters do now; he used to bang away on anything solid. As he began to mature, he learned to create melody and warmth, rather than rhythmic noise, and this in time led him to his studies at Julliard Conservatory with private teachers.

Cozy began playing around New York City with different small hands to gain experience. His first recording was made in 1930 with Jelly Roll Morton. Thereafter he played in groups led by Blanche Calloway, Benny Goodman, Willie Bryant, Cab Calloway (who was the first maestro to realize that Cozy had the making of a fine first class percussionist) and has, as an individual, been featured with such musical greats as Raymond Scott, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Louis Armstrong. He is one the favored accompanists for vocalists as Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Mildred Balley, Savina and scores of others to numerous to mention in this limited space.

With Stuff Smith and Jonah Jones, he contributed enormously to the animation of New York's 62nd Street, which became known as "Swing Street", in the late 1930's.

In 1957, he toured Europe with Earl "Fatha" Hines and Jack Teagarden, scoring a tremendous success everywhere with a solo version of "Caravan" intrinsically as recorded here. While always much in demand for recording purposes, he was also one of the major attractions at New York's celebrated Metropole. It was here that a long-term exclusive recording contract with Love Records was negotiated; and thus began not only a business relationship, but an enduring friendship between Cozy Cole and Alan Hartwell of Love Records, who saw in Cozy, a potential talent, musical knowledge and vast experience which he felt could be combined, with fresh ideas, proper exposure and his own dedicated promotion to produce natural hits.

Cozy is recognized as a truly great percussionist and has been in the limelight for many years, and his crowning achievements prior to "TOPSY Part Two", were his work in the pit of "Carmen Jones" on Broadway (and of course his stellar performance on stage of that same great show) and his sensational appearance in "The Seven Lively Arts."

"TOPSY Part Two" (a multi-millions seller worldwide) represented an achievement more outstanding that his Broadway stage work in Carmen Jones, because this recording mode Cozy the first drummer to ever have an international hit featuring the drum solo. Also of note is the fact that this was one of the longest records (three minutes and thirty seconds) to make national lists, when the average recording was about two minutes. As it happened, this was the first single that Cozy had made for Love Records.

This hit allowed Cozy to develop his own groups: Cozy's Big Seven, Cozy Cole's Quartet, and The Cozy Cole Drum School (which he formed after spending more than four years with the Louis Armstrong aggregation) and his work with the CBS Orchestra, his great enthusiasm is directed to work for Love Records Inc. which this album exemplifies well.

"COOL"

Cozy Cole, more than most drummers, is to be seen as well as heard, but for quite the reverse of the expected reason; he is NOT an exhibitionist!

Musicologist & Felsted Producer Stanley Dance observed that "Where the normal concert-hall drum solo disintegrates into a vile, beat less barrage accompanied by exaggerated gestures indicative of extreme physical exertion, Cozy will sitting almost trance-like, no part of him visibly moving except for his arms, while the drums mutter and roll in meaningful patterns all around him. As he reaches the climax, the famous, noble grin may becomes a little broader, but the beat is still steadily there, and Cozy-like just one or two of the greatest- is still swinging.

Swinging drummers were never common, and they as rare today as ever. Jazz drumming is a precision matter, but not merely in the metronomic sense. To maintain a strong regular beat is essential, but not enough. To adorn it with a multitude of demonstratively decorative accents as many vigorously do, is literally too much, in whatever way the work of the great drummers is analyzed, in terms of tempo, dynamics and technique, there remains a word defying difficulty in this question of swinging.

It is not hard to think of drummers, well- known and technically very gifted, who fail to swing. They know all the tricks and they can maintain a regular beat, but somehow their work almost invariably sounds stiff and poorly related to the rest of the music. Others, with possibly less technique, swing sassily and immediately, and so appear to inspire a band. The secret is surely one of integration in the group. Beyond technical adequacy, it requires self-discipline and an intuitively sympathetic understanding of the idiom. From this is derived that poise, that relaxation, which is personified in Cozy Cole, even when the beat is driving and most urgent. When Cozy begins to play and the melody of the Tom-Toms, the snares and the bass fill the room, you understand why Cozy is held in such high regard.

No note on Cozy would be complete without reference to his personal charm. Beyond his infectious smile, his warmth, tolerance, and consideration for others, there is his self-spoken congeniality of a kind too rare in the world of jazz. Nor are these qualities by any means irrelevant to a consideration of his music.

"COLESY"

"Cozy" may seem an odd name, but like all tags it had a logical beginning. Seems that during his High School days William was never shortened to "Bill", or if it was to it didn't stick. This caused the football team, on which Cole played a fast running end, to adopt the yell "hey, Colesy." When throwing a forward pass to him. So "Colesy" Cole acquired two last names. Eventually though repetition the "LE" was dropped and the nickname "Cozy" did stick.

COZY COLE HITS!

This album is a collection of specially recorded songs for which Cozy Cole has achieved fame; each song in this album has its own story which, if pieced together could highlight the life of Cozy Cole and his successes in the entertainment business.

This was a newly recorded album, in which all of the finest stereo facilities were used to present Cozy at his best.

The co-producers of this album, Alan Hartwell (VP/Marketing Manager) and Lee Scalia (President) truly believe that Cozy's performances on this album make this one of the best records ever made, one that will endure long after we are gone, one that we were proud to be able to produce to preserve these performances of this great artist...

PERSONNEL

It is with sincere regret that we are unable to list the names of the 22 talented musicians who comprised the Alan Hartwell Big Band, and assisted Cozy Cole on this album. These players, all great performers in their own right, are under contract as featured artists to various other recording companies, and although their musicianship warrants it, their contracts unfortunately forbid us from using their names. To all of them, our appreciative thanks.

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Cozy Cole Quicknotes bio:

A popular performer throughout much of his career, Cozy Cole was one of the top drummers to emerge during the 1930s. He recorded with Jelly Roll Morton in 1930 (including a song titled "Load of Cole") and played with the big bands of Blanche Calloway (1931-1933), Benny Carter (1933-1934), and Willie Bryant (1935-1936). His stint with Stuff Smith at the Onyx Club (1936-1938) gave him some recognition. Cole was well-featured with Cab Calloway's Orchestra (1938-1942), playing in a strong rhythm section with Bennie Payne, Danny Barker, and Milt Hinton; his showcases included "Crescendo in Drums" and "Paradiddle." Cole popped up in many different types of jazz and studio settings throughout the 1940s, and headed several record sessions with swing all-stars. He was with Louis Armstrong's All-Stars (1949-1953), opened a drum school with Gene Krupa, and in 1957 toured Europe with Jack Teagarden and Earl Hines.

The 1958 recording of "Topsy" (produced by Alan Hartwell with his Big Band and released on Hartwell's own Love Records label) became an instrumental million-seller mega hit all over the world, allowing Cole to lead his own band throughout much of the 1960s; he also played with Jonah Jones' quintet later in the decade.

I'll bet you'll play this CD over and over (and probably "share" it with friends)

Anyway DON'T MISS THIS CHANCE TO OWN IT!

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