Those of us fortunate enough to be conducting studio orchestras doing radio, recording, and television work in Hollywood from 1943 through 1960 were privileged to be able to employ some of the finest musicians this country has ever known.

Many of them came from the "Big Bands" to settle in California. When we came to the Palomar Ballroom with Tommy Dorsey in 1938 many of us made definite plans to return, and did.

Then the great Bob Crosby Orchestra broke up here in 1942, and the nationally known star instrumentalists who stayed in Hollywood were all soon busy with studio work.

From 1943, when I made my first Capitol "mood music" album - "MUSIC FOR DREAMING", I enjoyed the pleasure of having in my orchestra at one time or another all of the musicians who performed on this "EASY JAZZ" album, and while at Columbia I decided to write some arrangements which could give them a chance to display their unusual improvisational ability.

We made two albums, "MOOD FOR TWELVE", and "SOLO MOOD", and these newly released tracks represent some of the outstanding solos played for these two albums. I was then, and still am, very grateful to these artists and all the other fine musicians who worked for me through the years.

I always looked forward to going to work - whether it was a Johnny Mercer radio program, a Jo Stafford recording date, or a Danny Kaye television show - because I knew that my friends, "the players", were waiting there to make music with me.

Paul Weston