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Claus Ogerman - Soul Searchin'
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RCA Victor LSP-3366

Soul Searchin'
What'd I Say
House of the Rising Sun
Comin' Home Baby
The End of the Line
Tell It As It Is

Green Onions
The Sidewinder
Fever
Memphis
Watermelon Man
Shindig


It's really only a short time since Soul emerged from an "in" kind of music and exploded as the "Third World Force" (musically speaking, of course) from America. Ray Charles wrote and recorded What'd I Say. Then it all happened.

I regard Soul as the "Third Force of Music" W ("Pop" rates Number 1, "Jazz" Number 2) from America because there is hardly a jukebox or radio or dance hall in Paris or London, Tokyo or Timbuktu, that programs without it. Soul is vibrant and fresh, emotional and sophisticated. It is stirring; soul-stirring.

For five years now I have had a close identification with a great many of the Soul artists. I arranged and conducted for Dinah Washington, Ben E. King, The Drifters, Solomon Burke, Jimmy Smith and so many others. My rapport with them sparked the idea to record this album of famous and authentically arranged instrumentals.

Here is Soul Searchin', my musical tribute to Soul. As I hear it, it is a brew of rhythm and blues and jazz-oriented emotion. It blends the exceptional excitement of heat with heart. It swaggers and boils. It sustains moments of meaning. It feels good.

When I listen to Ray Charles I get the message. It is loud and clear in his writing, his singing and his performance on piano and occasionally on alto saxophone. What'd I Say, naturally, is included in this album.

There are other well-known Soul songs dedicated to the artists who made them famous. We include Green Onions which was first recorded by Booker T. and the M.G.'s; Comin Home Baby, which Mel Torme did originally (I arranged and conducted his record); Fever, launched by Little Willie John; House of the Rising Sun from The Animals; Shindig from The Shadows; The Sidewinder, which gained note from the Lee Morgan record; Vinny Bell started The End of the Line; Memphis is a tribute from Chuck Berry and Watermelon Man found its beginning with Mongo Santa-Maria. Soul Searchin' and Tell It As It Is are original compositions.

This, then, is Soul Searchin', an instrumental album dedicated to Soul and the sense of good feeling it has spread around the world. This Soul music reaches the hearts of young dancers. It's stimulating, pulsating, with a rhythm common to "Soul Searchers" everywhere. The young enthusiasts who have made Soul music their own may dance in the spirit of Soul to our instrumental variations of their Soul favorites.

It's really only a short time since Soul has locked the world in a passionate embrace. I share the great enthusiasm for it.  Soul Searchin' is my dedication to it.

CLAUS OGERMAN


© 1965, Radio Corporation of America