I can't remember who it was on which forum, but there was this guy prancing around asking everyone if they had heard "Art Pepper Meets Tarzan". To cut a long story short, everyone's instinct was right when they told this person to look for other places to hang. Art Pepper would never ... but Shorty Rogers would. If you know your Art Pepper, you know that he wasn't the Hollywood guy, but Shorty Rogers was, almost exclusively from about 1962 onward.
This is what AMG has to say about Shorty:
A fine middle-register trumpeter whose style seemed to practically define "cool jazz," Shorty Rogers was actually more significant for his arranging, both in jazz and in the movie studios. After gaining early experience with Will Bradley and Red Norvo and serving in the military, Rogers rose to fame as a member of Woody Herman's First and Second Herds (1945-1946 and 1947-1949), and somehow he managed to bring some swing to the Stan Kenton Innovations Orchestra (1950-1951), clearly enjoying writing for the stratospheric flights of Maynard Ferguson. After that association ran its course, Rogers settled in Los Angeles where he led his Giants (which ranged from a quintet to a nonet and a big band) on a series of rewarding West Coast jazz-styled recordings and wrote for the studios, helping greatly to bring jazz into the movies; his scores for The Wild One and The Man With the Golden Arm are particularly memorable. After 1962, Rogers stuck almost exclusively to writing for television and films, but in 1982 he began a comeback in jazz. Rogers reorganized and headed the Lighthouse All-Stars and, although his own playing was not quite as strong as previously, he remained a welcome presence both in clubs and recordings.
So, after all of this confusion about Tarzan, Pepper and Rogers, along comes John (thanks, mate!) and sends me a link to Happy Dreamer's Time ... and a download of that obscure album. Once you've unzipped the files, you'll find this text file amongst the 13 tracks from the album:
Shorty Rogers Meets Tarzan
MGM, Late 50s
Quite possibly our favorite Shorty Rogers album ever -- an incredible soundtrack that's unlike most of his other work of the time! The record features Shorty's score for the film Tarzan The Ape Man (and a cover that has Shorty being carried in the arms of same!) -- and as you might guess from the setting, there's a heck of a lot of drums on the album -- a highly rhythmic, junglistic approach that's carried off by 5 drummers who are clearly using a lot of Latin percussion too. Shorty tops them off with a great horn sextion that includes Don Fagerquist, Buddy Childers, Bud Shank, Frank Rosolino, Bill Perkins, Bob Cooper, and Bill Holman -- and the reed players really make for the best moments on the set -- stepping out in snakey lines that complement the driving rhythms nicely, all pushed along their path by the rest of the horns. The record's got a blasting, savage quality that's really great -- jungle jazz at its best, and carried off perfectly throughout! Side two features the extended "Tarzanic Suite" -- and other tracks include "The Elephants Wail", "Los Barbaros", "Paradise Found", and "Trapped".
I couldn't have said it better. I think you should run over there and grab the file before it's gone. This one is just so much fun and it's worth your time.
Go.
Now.
Shorty Rogers Meets Tarzan:
(01) The Elephant's Wail
(02) Los Barbaros
(03) Paradise Found
(04) Trapped
(05) Los Primitivos
(06) Oomgawa
(07) Tarzanic Suite (Part A)
(08) Tarzanic Suite (Part B)
(09) Tarzanic Suite (Part C)
(10) Tarzanic Suite (Part D)
(11) Tarzanic Suite (Part E)
(12) Tarzanic Suite (Part F)
(13) Tarzanic Suite (Part G)
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