Ted Heath Part 3
Here’s more Heath music:
Ron Roullier was one of Heath’s finest arrangers. “Moonrise” comes from a broadcast where he is on piano. Ron later moved the U.S. and soon became busy in the N.Y. music world. I am happy to say I knew him and we were friends, introduced by my mentor Jerry Graff, who used him a lot to score songs for Jerry’s acts. Ron had wonderful memories of Heath, but told me he hadn’t received royalties in many years since Heath’s publishing was sold and he was never informed until years later.
As I stated earlier, one of Heath’s Palladium concerts that was issued on LP in 1953 was later re-recorded in stereo in 1958. I include one selection from that performance; the rest of the album is also on YouTube. Decca’s sound engineers were among the best in the world and the Heath band always sounded sonically glorious.
One of Heath’s earliest stereo albums was called “Hits I Missed,” made up of songs Heath liked that he always wanted to play. “12th Street Rag” is an extravaganza with added instruments to the ensemble. This is one of my favorite Heath recordings, arranged by Bob Sharples, who had quite a career as composer/arranger. This truly is a masterpiece.
Heath’s Carnegie Hall album needs to be heard as it was released. I don’t think that this is the complete Heath set, but if there are others, they’ve never been issued. One hopes…
Heath was always looking for a hit record which would get the band more work. Canadian Moe Koffman’s “Swingin’ Shepherd Blues” proved that a big band could still sell copies of recordings, still get airplay, and still be heard on the radio these many years later. This turned out to be Heath’s biggest hit. The arrangement is by Ken Moule.
Two of Heath’s most popular albums were titled “Swing is King.” When they were recorded, many of the arrange