Notes and Editorial Reviews
Plenty of romance, vitality and verve.
We’ve had ‘Bright and Breezy’, and now it’s time for ‘Light and Easy’. It’s just a convenient handle on which to hang more tracks from the genre in recordings made between 1947 and 1960. The orchestras and associated maestri are very well known by now and for those versed in the genre there will be nothing but pleasure.
You couldn’t open with much more of a stunner than Leroy Anderson’s
Pyramid Dance, a dazzling piece of bravura originally heard in the musical
Goldilocks. It’s from a rip-roaring 1960 Brunswick. It’s followed by The Clebanoff Strings and Orchestra essaying
Mack the Knife. They remove it wholly from its Weimar milieu
Read more
and transplant it to the sunny West Coast with considerable alacrity. The result is more David Hockney than Otto Dix, but there you go. There’s an unusually brooding
I Love Paris from the Paris Theatre Orchestra and a well recorded 1957 Paxton from Dolf van der Linden of Cyril Watters’
On A Cheerful Note. On the subject of record labels, one of the consistent features of this long series has been the way it has mixed and matched from the big companies and the smaller fry – all have valuable recordings to offer. So RCA and Mercury share space with Urania and Somerset and we profit thereby.
Bruce Campbell gives us one of the best things here, an alluringly ardent
Main Line, though Sidney Torch’s recording of Philip Green’s
Pan American Panorama offers richly orchestrated vistas. Part of this Guild disc is programmed to present a ‘holiday’ theme, a typically droll piece of work from a company that does this kind of thing with tongue firmly attached to cheek – sometimes, at least. The
Las Vegas Lady has been around a bit, geographically speaking, but don’t confuse her with plain
Las Vegas which, in this Laurie Johnson-Group-Forty Orchestra recording, became widely known as the theme song for BBC TV’s
Animal Magic.
Kermit Leslie provides outstanding work on
Bermuda Holiday – taut sectional contributions and interjections make this one really fly. I think I know what Bernie Wayne was trying to do in
Blues on the Rocks on a 1957 ABC LP. It’s just that this Gershwin-and-Bourbon number falls between the stools in attempting mini-piano concerto status. Tune in, instead, to the echo chamber strings swinging hard on David Rose’s
4.20 AM. The elite Pittsburgh Strings shine on
Stella by Starlight – a beautifully performed piece. For instrumental fans Ronnie Chamberlain takes the soprano sax solo for Frank Cordell on
There’s A Lull in My Life.
Once again there’s plenty of romance, vitality and verve in this well transferred selection, complete with typically fine booklet notes.
-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International
Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Pyramid Dance, for orchestra (with optional chorus) by Leroy Anderson
Conductor:
Leroy Anderson
Period: Modern
Written: 1960
Length: 3 Minutes 16 Secs.
2.
Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (The Ballad of Mack the Knife), song for voice & piano (from "Die Drei by Kurt Weill
Period: Modern
Written: 05/1928-08/1928; Germany
Length: 2 Minutes 18 Secs.
3.
Can-can: I love Paris by Cole Porter
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1953; USA
Length: 4 Minutes 20 Secs.
4.
Light and Easy, for pops orchestra by Harry Rabinowitz
Conductor:
Curt Andersen
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 56 Secs.
5.
On a Cheerful Note, for pops orchestra by Cyril Watters
Conductor:
Dolf van der Linden
Length: 2 Minutes 27 Secs.
6.
Wind-Bells, for pops orchestra by Mahlon Merrick
Conductor:
Mahlon Merrick
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 5 Secs.
7.
A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich and You by Joseph Meyer
Conductor:
Johny Clegg
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 12 Secs.
8.
Main Line, for pops orchestra by Bruce Campbell
Conductor:
Bruce Campbell
Length: 2 Minutes 53 Secs.
9.
Fashion Show, for pops orchestra by Angela Morley
Conductor:
Angela Morley
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 40 Secs.
10.
Pan American Panorama, for pops orchestra by Philip Green
Conductor:
Sidney Torch
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 40 Secs.
11.
Las Vegas Lady, for pops orchestra by Clive Richardson
Conductor:
Erich Börschel
Length: 2 Minutes 51 Secs.
12.
Hilltop Holiday, for pops orchestra by Anthony Mawer
Conductor:
Phillipo Andez
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 29 Secs.
13.
Bermuda Holiday, for pops orchestra by Walter Leslie
Conductor:
Kermit Leslie
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 9 Secs.
14.
Animal Magic (Las Vegas), theme from the television score by Laurie Johnson
Conductor:
Laurie Johnson
Length: 2 Minutes 26 Secs.
15.
Gay Time, for pops orchestra by Alan Perry
Conductor:
Erich Börschel
Length: 2 Minutes 4 Secs.
16.
Blues on the Rocks, concerto for piano & orchestra by Bernie Wayne
Conductor:
Bernie Wayne
Period: Modern
Length: 6 Minutes 49 Secs.
17.
4:20 a.m., for pops orchestra by David Rose
Conductor:
David Rose
Length: 2 Minutes 50 Secs.
18.
Lazy Day, song by Robert Farnon
Conductor:
Leslie Jones
Period: Contemporary
Length: 2 Minutes 54 Secs.
19.
I'll Be Seeing You, song by Sammy Fain
Conductor:
Glenn Osser
Period: Modern
Written: 1938; United States of Ame
Length: 2 Minutes 50 Secs.
20.
Now I Know by Harold Arlen
Conductor:
Reg Owen
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 51 Secs.
21.
This Might Be Love, for pops orchestra by Jerry Bock
Conductor:
Acquaviva
Period: Modern
Length: 3 Minutes 20 Secs.
22.
The Uninvited: Stella by Starlight by Victor Young
Conductor:
Richard Jones
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1944; USA
Length: 3 Minutes 7 Secs.
23.
More Than You Know, song (from "Great Day") by Vincent Youmans
Conductor:
Robert Farnon
Period: Modern
Written: circa 1929; United States of Ame
Length: 3 Minutes 12 Secs.
24.
There's a Lull in My Life, song by Harry Revel
Performer:
Ronnie Chamberlain ()
Conductor:
Frank Cordell
Length: 3 Minutes 16 Secs.
25.
Waitin' for the Dawn, for pops orchestra by Ron Goodwin
Conductor:
Cyril Stapleton
Period: Modern
Length: 3 Minutes 31 Secs.
26.
That's All by Bob Haymes
Conductor:
Henry Mancini
Period: Modern
Length: 3 Minutes 6 Secs.
Customer Reviews
Be the first to review this title
Review This Title
