Bobby Rosengarden & his police-whistle version of GLITTER AND BE GAY. Tommy Newsom wrote the arrangement. Joe Wilder is the trumpetist. George Duvivier is the bassist.
Bobby and I were partners in our production company and orchestra in the 80s in CT. We met on Benny Goodman's Septet. He was a dear friend and we had a great time he surely is missed.
That is amazing! My great uncle Alfonse Introduced me to the great music created by artists like Mr. Rosengarden! I am eternally grateful. Also, I was the only 5th grader who liked Benny Goodman. Knew who Tommy Dorsey was...and could dance to Cigars beat!!! I can only imagine the amazing Collaborations You witnessed, contributed to...and sat alongside legendary Artists Jamming!! You're kinda my new hero today!!
What astonishes me is that no one else has covered or recorded this... a samba version of Bernstein's Glitter and Be Gay... So much more delicious than the original... Even the Kristin Chenoweth version!
This is very Brazilian, of course. Bobby begins playing a "cuica" and then blows a drummaster's whistle, the way it is blown in any self-respecting "escola de samba" in Brazil. In fact, it is the drummaster's "baton" - the tool used to conduct the percussionists. The other percussionist plays a "pandeiro" (tambourine, in English) , exactly in the way it is played in Brazil. Magnificient drumming.
The music is derived from "Candide," a 1956 broadway show (operetta), music composed by Leonard Bernstein. A segment was taken from one of the show songs "Glitter and Be Gay," and jazzed up for this arrangement. The well-known "Overture" from "Candide" also includes a repeating element of the tune. You can find Leonard Bernstein conducting the Overture on RU-vid.
What a perfect performance by Bobby and the all star band. Perfect conga, too. A typically great Newsom chart! I remember when Rosengarden would shake his sleigh bells behind certain Carson monologue jokes in the east coast Tonight Show band prior to Cavett. This performance will be stuck in my head for days, and I'm glad of it!
I love watching the video of Woody Allen playing the clarinet on the Dick Cavette show around 1970, especially the drumming. After 2 days of internet searching, I found out today that it was Bob. I actually bought a used set of drums this past Sunday because Bob made it look like so much fun !
bobby and the orchestra were the best talk show band, still to this day. I wish someone could upload "the blues theme" that Bill Cosby orchestrates with them from his tv movie.
He appears to be leading a standard "big band" instrumentation of five reeds, seven brass, and four rhythm plus two french horns and an auxiliary percussionist for a total of nineteen players.
I think this Dick Cavett closer was an arrangement based on part of the overture to the Leonard Bernstein musical "Candide". It was later used to open Dick's PBS show in the late '70s and early '80s. Dick's PBS show did use an instrumental of "Glitter and Be Gay", also from "Candide" but different from this, as a closing theme during much of its run.
