From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Aug 26, 2002  2:11 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Ernie Fields
 
ERNIE FIELDS

Born 26 August 1905, Nacogdoches, Texas
Died 11 May 1997, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Bandleader / trombonist / pianist / arranger.
In 1959, amidst an ever-growing sea of teenage rock 'n' roll stars, along
came a 54-year old trombone player, scooping prestigious musical awards
as one of the hottest "newcomers" of the year. Ironically, the musician in
question had first started recording some 29 years earlier. More ironically,
Ernie Fields did not even play on "In The Mood", the million-selling record
that brought him sudden fame, nor had he been involved in its recording.

Ernie Fields led one of the better known territory bands of the Southwestern
United States during the 1930's and 1940's. His brand of music was typical
of the territory band scene - exciting, driving music that was designed to
carry away the troubles of poor southern audiences at ten-cents-a-head
tavern dances and open-air carnivals. In 1939, the band came to the attention
of legendary producer John Hammond, who auditioned the band and invited
them to New York in the fall of that year to cut half a dozen sides for the
Vocalion label. One of the tunes, "T-Town Blues", became a minor hit.
The band worked steadily through the 1940's featuring the work of stellar
guitarist/arranger Rene Hall, and popular vocalist Melvin Moore from
Oklahoma City. From 1947 onwards, Ernie's new recording band was
smaller, and now was featuring jump blues and R&B arrangements in
place of the older big band swing material. There followed a series of lounge-
blues recordings for sympathetic labels like Frisco, Bullet, Regal, Gotham,
Dootone and Combo.
The switch to rock 'n' roll came early in 1958, when Rene Hall sold the master
of "Annie's Rock" (produced in L.A. with Earl Palmer and Jackie Kelso) to the
reactivated Jamie label in Philadelphia, crediting the record to his old boss,
Ernie Fields. Soon thereafter, Rene Hall, Earl Palmer and Plas Johnson
(who had daily contact on the studio floor) pooled their talents in a production
company called Record Masters. In 1959 they offered a new arrangement of
"Christopher Columbus" by Rene Hall to the new Rendezvous label in L.A.
Rendezvous proved to be a willing taker, but they still needed a flipside. It
was
Earl Palmer who suggested (and arranged) "In The Mood", the old Glenn Miller
favourite. Before long their beaty new interpretation of the standard was moved
up to A-side status. Hall, Palmer and Johnson had yet to attribute the record
to any particular artist, knowing they wouldn't be available for any kind of
promotion or touring, owing to their studio commitments. After negotiations,
Ernie Fields was called up to work the record, with credits going to "Ernie
Fields
and his Orchestra". The gamble paid off and with some key support from Dick
Clark, the single hit # 4 by the end of 1959. The follow-up, again from the
Glenn
Miller songbook, was "Chattanooga Choo Choo", which went to # 54. (The flip
was "Workin' Out", one of the few tracks that actually featured Ernie Fields on
trombone.) A good LP and a string of hopped up big-band moldies followed, but
only "The Charleston" (# 47 in 1961) managed to enter the charts. By 1961-62,
Rendezvous Records was concentrating more on singles by B. Bumble and the
Stingers, a studio band comprising some of the same session men as those on
the Ernie Fields recordings. The Ernie Fields Orchestra switched to Capitol in
1963, recording eleven tracks under the supervision of producer David Axelrod,
only four of which were released on two singles in 1964. By then new sounds had
invaded the US and Hall, Johnson and Palmer soon abandoned the project.
Ernie Fields himself retired from the road in 1966, but his son, Ernie Fields,
Jr.,
carried on the tradition and continued in his father's footsteps as a
bandleader,
producer, and talent agent. Fields lived to be 91.

CD: The Ernie Fields Orchestra, In The Mood (Ace 540). 23 Rendezvous tracks
plus the Jamie single.
The CD "The Piltdown Men Ride Again" (Ace 681) includes 15 tracks by the
Piltdown Men and the complete Capitol recordings of the Ernie Fields Orchestra.
Both CD's are expertly annotated by Stuart Colman.