Listen to Me

David Brandon with the Jack Newman Orchestra

I met Jack, for the first time, in Bournemouth, when the Johnny Lambe Orchestra was booked for a summer-season of shows with Cilla Black; but it would be another eighteen months before I recorded these songs with Jack’s line-up.

The funny thing about it was that Jack didn’t intend to form a band of his own; he’d been there and done that, very successfully in the past. What had happened was that he’d had a wonderful idea of a modern version of a ‘big-band’, built around a rock group, with a percussion section added, and an electric-organ; nothing particularly out of the ordinary now, but in the 70s, there was nothing like it, anywhere. He wanted to give the idea and arrangements to Johnny, but, for some reason, John wasn’t interested. So, Jack did it himself!

Listen to the marvellous backing to these three songs: ‘The Nearness of You’, Elvis Presley’s ‘My Boy’ and ‘Laura’. The bass-guitar part, in Laura, is a work of art! The man makes it sound like an express train; wonderful improvisation!
These were the finest TV and Film session-players of the day; many of them the original members of Jack’s orchestra in the 50s, and virtually the same line-up that had played for Sinatra, a week or so before.

It’s difficult to cry and sing at the same time, but I’d never performed with such phenomenal musicians before, and very rarely since. The emotions of that session still remain with me, to this day: four trumpets, five saxophones, four trombones, Drums, Percussion, Guitar, Bass-guitar and Electric organ/Electric piano, almost taking the roof off the studio. Stan Roderick, Leon Calvert, Don Lusher and Bobby Lambe, were just a few of those involved! It’s hard not to be impressed by the sound of the Jack Newman Orchestra.
Click the buttons. Judge for yourself.