Pete Jolly

Pete Jolly (June 5, 1932 – November 6, 2004) was an American West Coast jazz pianist and accordionist. He was well known for his performance of television themes and various movie soundtracks.

Biography

Jolly began playing the accordion at age three, and appeared on the radio program Hobby Lobby at the age of seven. Pete Jolly was raised in Phoenix, AZ, a hotbed of jazz and jazz talent at the time. One of his best friends and collaborators in Phoenix was guitarist Howard Roberts, whom he met at the age of 13. Following Roberts to Los Angeles in 1952, Jolly immediately began working with the best players on the West Coast jazz scene, including Shorty Rogers. He moved easily into studio and session work. Besides his brilliance on the piano, he was a virtuosic accordionist.

His composition "Little Bird" (a minor hit on Fred Astaire's Ava label) was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1963, and he formed the Pete Jolly Trio in 1964. With the Trio and as a solo artist, he recorded several albums, one of the last of which was a 2000 collaboration with Jan Lundgren. His final album, recorded in Phoenix in May 2004 shortly before his death, was "It's a Dry Heat" with saxophonist Jerry Donato. He also worked with other notable jazz artists, including Buddy DeFranco, Art Pepper and Red Norvo, and for many years with music arranger and director Ray Conniff as well as Herb Alpert, recording on Alpert's record label, A&M as both a sideman and a leader.

Say "Si Si"

"Para Vigo me voy", known in English as "Say Si Si", is a popular song written in 1935 by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona with lyrics by Francia Luban (original Spanish version) and Al Stillman (translated English version). Early bands to record the song include Xavier Cugat's orchestra (1935) and Lecuona Cuban Boys (1937). The song was copyrighted in the United States in 1940. It became a hit in the US when it was recorded by The Andrews Sisters and Glenn Miller in 1940, and The Mills Brothers in 1953.

Style

Releases including "Para Vigo me voy" often label the song as a "conga", or occasionally a "rumba". Thus, it is considered an early example of a "salon conga" or "ballroom conga", in the same vein as the famous "ballroom rumbas" such as "The Peanut Vendor" ("El manisero"). According to musicologist Alberto Pérez Perazzo, "Para Vigo me voy" is one of the first popular songs with a true conga rhythm.

Recordings

One of the earliest recordings of "Para Vigo me voy" was made by Xavier Cugat and his orchestra featuring vocalist Desi Arnaz in December 1935 for Victor. Cugat re-recorded the song in 1945. In 1937, Lecuona Cuban Boys, the ballroom rhumba band established by Ernesto Lecuona himself, recorded the song for Columbia with a 1936 recording of "Patica y Mondonguito" as the B-side.