“Lover’s Leap”
Composed and arranged by Bob Higgins.
Recorded by Les Brown and His Orchestra for Columbia on February 25, 1946 in New York.
Les Brown, directing: Al Muller, Bob Higgins, Don Jacoby and Jimmy Zito, trumpets; Bill Forman, Dick Gould and Warren Covington, tenor trombones; Clyde “Stumpy” Brown, bass trombone; Steve Madrick and Mark Douglas, alto saxophones; Eddie Scheer, tenor saxophone; Henry “Butch” Stone, baritone saxophone; Geoff Clarkson, piano; Bobby Gibbons, guitar; Bob Leininger, bass; Dick Shanahan, drums. Ted Nash, alto saxophone soloist.
The story:
For any band to be musically and commercially successful during the swing era, several factors were essential. First and foremost, the band’s leader had to be extraordinary in several ways. He had to be someone with a strong personality, strong enough to lead highly talented and sometimes rowdy young musicians who often did not take to being led in a cooperative fashion. He had to be attractive to audiences in some way. Many bandleaders were virtuoso instrumentalists who could and did impress audiences with their ability to play their instrument very well. A few leaders who were not virtuosos had personalities that were attractive both to audiences and to the musicians in their bands. Some bandleaders who were not virtuosos and who did not have booming personalities were musically knowledgeable and excelled at the multitude of mundane tasks that had to be attended to in order to run any organization successfully. It was into this category that Les Brown fell. (Above right: Les Brown interacting with his fans. All successful bandleaders had to to this – Brown excelled at it.)
Brown was a strong leader who had the respect of his sidemen because he was very knowledgeable musically, he was firm but fair in his dealings with them, and he definitely ran his band well as a business operation. A somewhat curious but very important sidelight to this is that Les Brown’s booking agent/personal manager was Joe Glaser, who guided the career of Louis Armstrong so successfully for many years. Glaser operated Associated Booking Corporation (ABC), a small but successful operation that somehow was able to compete with the two much larger booking agencies, Music Corporation of America (MCA), the largest and most powerful agency, and General Artists Corporation (GAC), a bit smaller, but still quite aggressive and successful. Although Glaser/ABC had created a niche for himself in the music business by representing many black artists, the Les Brown band was definitely not in that niche. As it turned out, the Brown-Glaser relationship, which lasted for over twenty-five years(1), was mutually beneficial. As the Brown band became more successful, more white bands sought Glaser’s services. (Above left: Joe Glaser with his most famous client – Louis Armstrong – 1940. A link to a brief biography of Joe Glaser can be found at endnote 2.)
An advertisement Joe Glaser put in various band business trade publications in late 1942.
The fact that Joe Glaser operated his own booking agency did not mean that he did not work cooperatively with MCA and GAC whenever that benefitted his clients. He did, rather often, and the result was usually a win-win-win for Glaser, his clients and MCA or GAC.
In addition to Les Brown’s talents as a businessman and public-facing bandleader, he was a solid musician, and understood completely what was needed to make a band swing. Although he played alto saxophone and clarinet competently, he was aware of his limitations as an instrumentalist, and made sure that he hired musicians who could play those instruments much better than he could. And although he was a competent arranger, he used his knowledge of arranging to guide him in working with other arrangers, again, those who were much more talented than he was. In this group were Ben Homer, Bob Higgins and later Frank Comstock, from his own band, and outside writers like Skip Martin, Ed Finkel, Joe Lippman and Abe (Glenn) Osser. After Brown received any arrangement, he used his great talent in shaping the music in rehearsal to bring it to a place of sharp-edged swing. 
Staring in the early 1940s, Brown’s bands presented their music with panache that was the equal of the best bands of the swing era. (Above left: Les Brown as a young bandleader in the late1930s: he rarely featured himself as an instrumentalist, but often presented his talented sidemen as soloists.)
Finally, Les Brown interacted with the musicians in his band honestly. He never promised anything he could not deliver, and always delivered on what he had promised. His sidemen respected him as a result, and together they achieved a good deal of commercial success, and not incidentally, made good music together. (Above right: Les Brown with his band on a theater date in the 1940s.)
The music:
Trumpeter Bob Higgins was a member of Les Brown’s band starting in the mid-1940s. Prior to that, he had worked for Charlie Spivak and Glen Gray. Although at first he jumped back and forth between the Brown band and Bobby Sherwood’s, by 1945 he began an association with Brown that lasted into 1952. After that, he began to free-lance in Los Angeles. He left music probably in the 1970s and began a successful career as an entrepreneur and businessman.(3) (At left: Bob Higgins in the 1990s, during the time he was a successful businessman.)
Higgins was also a good arranger, and on occasion would compose jazz originals. In addition to composing and arranging “Lover’s Leap” as a vehicle for Les Brown’s star saxophonist Ted Nash, soon after doing that, Higgins composed “High on a Windy Trumpet” for Les Brown’s star trumpeter, Jimmy Zito. (That recording can be accessed via the link at endnote 4.)
This performance demonstrates what an excellent band Les Brown had in the immediate post-World War II period. Pianist Geoff Clarkson provides the introduction. He plays the band on at a medium tempo, being shadowed by unison guitar and bass ( Bobby Gibbons and Bob Leininger). The entire band plays the main melody for sixteen bars, getting a rich ensemble sound. The piano notes and runs add a glistening topping to the sonic mix in this sequence. The massed ensemble sounds continue through the bridge, but here arranger Higgins takes the muscular brass up a bit in register, an effective musical contrast. The last eight bars are a reprise of the main melody. (Above right: pianist Geoff Clarkson.)
Ted Nash and Butch Stone, along with drummer Dick Shanahan, shown above in a photo from the Les Brown band’s engagement at the Paramount Theater in Manhattan in 1946.
The second chorus belongs to saxophone virtuoso Ted Nash. His usual role in the Brown band was to play jazz solos on his tenor saxophone. Those solos were characterized by his his quicksilver technique and his great control of the upper range of that instrument. Here however, he plays alto saxophone, and brings the same qualities to his playing on that instrument. His improvisation is compelling jazz that swings mightily. Once again, arranger Higgins creates an effective series of backgrounds for Nash to play against. They build in density and volume from just the rhythm section in the first eight bars, with the cup-muted brass added in the second. This scheme is repeated in the last eight bars of the second chorus.
Then the entire band comes in, open blasting brass and swirling saxophones, to carry Nash through the final sixteen bars of his solo. This is followed by an immediate drop-off of the ensemble, save for the rhythm section, with pianist Clarkson keeping the swinging momentum going through sixteen bars. Notice how he plays spare, simple chords at first, then builds to a lightning run at the end of his solo. (At right: Ted Nash and Butch Stone at a New York Yankee’s baseball game in 1946.)
The final tracts spot the entire ensemble playing together in similar fashion to how they had played in the first chorus. Higgins slyly added as brief, colorful interludes, a quasi-bebop figure in the muted trumpets and a low, resonant trombone chord between the two eight-bar sections. Then after the second one, he does the same thing, but this time has drummer Dick Shanahan cue the band with a snare drum roll, after which the band comes in forte, with trumpeter Jimmy Zito flying overhead.
This is an excellent swing arrangement with lots of color, contrasts, and effective pacing. The Brown band and soloists do full justice to it with a bracing performance.
“Lover’s Leap”
Composed and arranged by Bob Higgins; original arrangement reconstructed by Billy May.
Recorded by Billy May and the Swing Era Orchestra for Capitol on January 20, 1971 in Hollywood.
Billy May, directing: John Audino, first trumpet; John Best, Shorty Sherock, Uan Rasey, Pete Candoli and Bud Brisbois, trumpets; Dick Nash, first trombone; Francis “Joe” Howard, Lloyd Ulyate and Lew McCreary, trombones; Les Robinson, first alto saxophone; Abe Most, alto saxophone; Justin Gordon, solo alto saxophone; Don Raffell, tenor saxophone; Chuck Gentry, baritone saxophone; Ray Sherman, piano; Jack Marshall, guitar; Rollie Bundock, bass; Nick Fatool, drums.
The music:
The superb fidelity of this recording allows the listener to hear the nuances that were barely audible in the original recording. Ray Sherman’s piano playing is immaculate and swinging through the introduction. In the first two eight-bar segments of the first chorus we can clearly hear the jaunty main melody that the brass instruments are playing – it is being done with open horns, but into their derby mutes, creating a soft brass sonority that was very much a part of big band performances during the swing era. The eight bar bridge, by contrast, has the brass octet point their open horns straight out above the derbies, augmented by the saxophones, creating a warm wave of ensemble sound. The final eight bars of the first chorus are a repeat of the sounds of the first two eight bar tracts. (Above left: Hollywood piano virtuoso Ray Sherman.)
The second chorus presents Justin Gordon playing the solo originated by Ted Nash on his alto saxophone. He produced a nice, edgy, bright alto sound, with tasty comping by pianist Sherman to keep him swinging. Cup-muted brass add a bit of color as well. The last sixteen bars have Mr. Gordon showing that he too had control of the upper reaches of his alto saxophone as he soars over the roiling ensemble. (At right: Justin Gordon.)
Ray Sherman returns for a fleet solo, and then high-note sharpshooter Bud Brisbois salutes his trumpet-playing colleague Jimmy Zito (who was also then a successful Hollywood free-lance who sometimes played on these Billy May swing era recordings), playing brilliantly.
This recording definitely captures the swinging excitement of the original Les Brown recording, and has more than a little of its own charm.
The recordings presented with this post were digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.
Notes and links:
(1) The Big Bands, by George T. Simon (1967), 102.
(2) https://aaregistry.org/story/joseph-glaser-entertainer-manager-born/
(3) Bob Higgins left music probably in the 1970s and began a very successful career as an entrepreneur and businessman. Here is a link to the details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Higgins_(trumpeter)
(4) Here is a link to Les Brown’s recording of “High on a Windy Trumpet”: https://swingandbeyond.com/?s=High+on+a+Windy+Trumpet
Here are links to other great recordings by Les Brown:
https://swingandbeyond.com/2016/12/06/ive-got-my-love-to-keep-me-warm-1946-les-brown/
And the most famous of all Les Brown recordings, with a vocal by Doris Day:
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