Esteemed internationally for his pioneering use of double
bass drums and phenomenal technique, Louis Bellson has
also been long regarded as an accomplished composer.
Bellson (b. Luigi Balassoni, 1924) contributed two important
originals, "The Hawk Talks" and "Skin Deep," to the repertoire
of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, in which he starred from 1951
to 1953. In the liner notes herein, Bellson acknowledges a
debt to Ellington, "as is obvious by the voicings and
structure," but the 21-piece orchestra he pilots on this 1978
session cuts loose with its own thoroughly modern
mainstream-to-bebop attack. Packed with the crème de la
crème of L.A. studio-jazz mavens (including two additional
percussionists who superbly complement the leader), the
band offers a host of estimable soloists. Bellson himself is in
especially dazzling form; on the drum solo during the title
suite's Fourth Movement he blazes and thunders like
fireworks across the night sky on Independence Day.

The Matterhorn Suite for Drums in Four Movements: First
Movement--Entrance; Second Movement--the Knuf Brothers
(Contemporary); Third Movement--Conversations
(Triangles/Jazz Trumpets); Fourth Movement--Then and Now
(Drum Solo/Jazz Saxes/Bellson's Solo/Finale); War Bird

with Ross Tompkins, Grant Geissman, Joel Di Bartolo, Conte
Candoli, Walter Johnson, Ron King, Bobby Shew, Snooky
Young, William C. Booth, Gil Falco, Dana Hughes, Alan
Kaplan, Robert Payne, Pete Christlieb, Andy Mackintosh, Don
Menza, Joe Romano, Richard Spencer, John E. Arnold, Robert
Zimmitti