Jazz sextet of up and coming musicians and seasoned professionals commemorate release of Richard Rodgers film "Pal Joey"

This is an album of efficient, well player, clean west coast jazz by a group of musicians who certainly deserved wide recognition than they actually achieved.

The sextet contained a number of up and coming young men as well as a couple of seasoned professionals; Allyn Ferguson on French horn and piano; Dent Hand on trumpet and bass; Frank Leak on alto; Modesto Briseno on clarinet, tenor and baritone; Fred Dutton on bass and bassoon; Tom Reynolds on drums.

This album commemorated the release of the film version of Richard Rodgers "Pal Joey," a musical adaption of some short stories by John O'Hara which appeared first as a stage production. It opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway on December 30, 1940 with a cast which included a young Gene Kelly and June Havoc. Only four of the tunes heard here are from the original stage show, namely ‘Zip,’ ‘That terrific rainbow,’ ‘Betwiched’ and ‘I could write a book.’

Allyn Ferguson scored six of the pieces calling in Bill Holman to arrange ‘Lady is a tramp’ and ‘I could write a book. It’s refreshing to know that he is still active in the field of jazz writing and remains a most popular and admired writer by musicians who have worked with him.