Photo above: Sampling of LPs pressed over the course of the band's history.
Below: Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan.
In spite of the band's success in the studios and in the music journals, touring the country was a different story. "From the first time out," Sauter reminisced, "we began losing money and it was suggested from the Willard Alexander Agency that we cut down the size of the band and stop playing what we're doing and play dance music."
This meant giving up on the mission that he and Finegan had set out to accomplish with the creation of their band. The bandleaders resisted the push of their agency as much as they could.
While Sauter and Finegan would not compromise the size of their ensemble, they did take work they did not really desire. This included playing dances and helping to push Camel cigarettes on the CBS Camel Caravan.
The band attempted to break even, but their tax debt mounted as the large organization realized it did not have the commercial potential of groups that pandered to popular culture.
As far as Sauter was concerned, the Sauter-Finegan period was beginning to wind down towards the end of 1956 into 1957.
Freelancing in 1956, Sauter composed "The Moon Walks" ▶ for Tony Scott's LP A Touch of Tony Scott. Scott's band included among other luminaries Bill Evans, Zoot Simms, and Milt Hinton along with Sauter-Finegan regulars Ralph Burns and Mundell Lowe.
His next big opportunity came about through a member of his own band.
Sperie Karas, a member of the Sauter-Finegan percussion section, was drafted into the Army in 1955. He ended up being posted with the 7th Army Symphony in Stuttgart, Germany.
While there, he befriended a German radio producer named Peter Mordo. Through Mordo's contacts, it was learned that the musical director's position at radio station SWF in Baden-Baden was opening up with the departure of bandleader Kurt Edelhagen. Mordo told Karas about it and they decided to approach Sauter to see if he might have an interest in taking the spot.
In the meantime, German jazz critic Joachim "Joe" Berendt contacted radio station SWF about offering Sauter the position and received a favorable response. Mordo and Karas then flew to New York to discuss the prospect with Sauter. His response was in the affirmative.
And it was thus that Eddie Sauter became director of SWF Big Band in April 1957. (See archival film of Sauter's jubilant reception in Baden-Baden, Germany.)
The German management seemed to exercise little censorship over the pieces that Sauter could or could not perform. Evidence of this freedom can be heard on the live recording, The Historic Donaueschingen Jazz concert 1957.
Billed alongside the Modern Jazz Quartet and Andre Hodeir and his Jazz Group of Paris, the Eddie Sauter Big Band (as it was called on the recording) played two of the more adventurous works Sauter had produced in his career, including a piece entitled "Tropic of Kommingen." The second work, "Kinetic Energy," was a smaller-ensemble piece that contained an extended drum feature.
"In Germany," an LP of the 16-piece Eddie Sauter Big Band, was released in 1958 with mostly German players.
In August of 1958, after seventeen months as the director of the SWF Orchestra, Eddie Sauter and his family returned to their home in Nyack, NY. Eddie again found himself as an incredibly talented big band era arranger/composer in search of work.
In 1959, Sauter and Finegan were engaged to write the music for a series of commercials promoting the 1960 Buick. These commercials marked a rare departure from the typical commercial format. Each ran something over two minutes and each had very little in the way of voiceover by an announcer. Mostly, they consisted of just film and music. As it turned out, these were to be the final collaborations that Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan would undertake.
Recommended: Listen on headphones or external speakers.
Sauter-Finegan Orchestra
"Paradise" – March 1957
Eddie Sauter arrangement
1957 SAUTER-FINEGAN BAND: Al Maiorca, Joe Ferrante, Nick Travis (trumpets); Sonny Russo, Rex Peer (trombones); Tom Mitchell (bass trombone); Jay McAllister (tuba); Harvey Estrin, Wally Kane (alto sax, clarinet); Al Block, Ray Shiner (tenor sax, reeds); Gene Allen (baritone sax); Nanette Norton (harp); Dave Hildinger (piano); Barry Galbraith (guitar); Milt Hinton (bass); Don Lamond (drums); Sperie Karas, Joe Venuto (percussion); Eddie Sauter, Bill Finegan (arrangers, conductors).
Eddie Sauter Big Band
The Historic Donaueschingen Jazz Concert
"Tropic of Kommingen" – 1957
Eddie Sauter composition
1957 EDDIE SAUTER BIG BAND: Rolf Schneebiegl (trumpet); Otto Bredl (trombone); Hans Koller (tenor sax); Rudi Flierl (baritone sax); Dave Hildinger (piano, percussion); Blanche Birdsong (harp); Dave Moore (bass); Sperie Karas (drums); possibly others; Eddie Sauter (director).
"'Tropic of Kommingen' is one of the most adventurous works" of Sauter's career." — Alex Chilowicz
Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan
TV Commercials for the 1960 Buick
Recorded on acetate
"Family Fun"
"Electra Styling"
Sauter-Finegan Orchestra LP Releases
1952 — 1961
New Directions in Music (1952)
That's All (1953)
Concert Jazz (1953)
Inside Sauter-Finegan (1954)
The Sound of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra (1954)
Sons of Sauter-Finegan (1955)
Adventure In Time (1956)
Under Analysis (1957)
Straight Down The Middle (1957)
One Night Stand with Sauter-Finegan Orchestra (1957)
The Return Of The Doodletown Fifers (1960)
The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra Revisited (1961)