Reynold A. DeMichel knew how to instill his youthful enthusiasm and excitement into just about any big band. He started as a trumpet player in Ashtabula, Ohio, where he was born in 1928, and as an ex-sideman himself he was well aware of how important self-expression was to a musician. He lived by the motto “Play it as you feel,” which is why the modest bandleader always got great mileage from his crew— everyone in the band respected him.

His albums "Cookin’ with Rey" and "For Bloozers Only!," both issued on Challenge Records, showcase the powerful big band he assembled for these recording dates that took place in Los Angeles in the early part of 1959. To take care of the band’s library, DeMichel recruited two talented arrangers, one young, the other a seasoned veteran: John W. DeFoor and Kenneth L. Farrar, from the famed Westlake College of Music on Sunset Boulevard, which was from 1947 and until 1960 the college for aspiring big band musicians.

The whole band delivered a marvelous funky bluesy feeling, and not only in their uptempo escapades —their treatment of ballads and standards is equally praiseworthy. Excellent soloists who particularly catch the ear in these sessions are trumpeter Marv Brown, trombonist Dave Wells, saxophonists Lanny Morgan, Teddy Edwards, Jay Corre and Dave Madden, pianists Dick Grove and Joyce Collins, guitarist Buddy Mattlock (son of Matty Matlock, famed Dixieland clarinet player with Bob Crosby’s Bobcats), and drummer Roy Roten. This is happy-sounding big band music that will get your feet tapping at the drop of a downbeat.

Jordi Pujol (taken from the liner notes of FSRCD 970)