Jimmy Müller Orchestra - A Era de Ouro do Fox Trot (1975)

1. Cheek To Cheek
2. Night And Day
3. Misty
4. The Lady Is A Tramp
5. Stardust
6. Fly Me To The Moon
7. Stella By Starlight
8. Moonlight Serenade
9. Bubbles, Bangles And Beads
10. I've Got You Under My Skin
11. I'm In The Mood For Love
12. Laura
13. I Only Have Eyes For You
14. Tenderly

Fox Trot

Ray Conniff and His Orchestra and Chorus - Broadway In Rhythm (1959)

1. Oklahoma!
2. People Will Say We're In Love
3. The Surrey With The Fringe On Top
4. Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'
5. Hello Young Lovers
6. Getting To Know You / I Whistle A Happy Tune
7. On The Street Where You Live
8. I Could Have Danced All Night / I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face
9. A Wonderful Guy
10. Bali Ha'i
11. Younger Than Springtime
12. Some Enchanted Evening

Tracks 1, 2, 3 and 4 - From "Oklahoma!"
Tracks 5 and 6 - From "The King And I"
Tracks 7 and 8 - From "My Fair Lady"
Tracks 9, 10, 11 and 12 - From "South Pacific"

Broadway in Rhythm

Bert Kaempfert and His Orchestra - Tropical Sunrise (1996)

1. Footprints In The Sand (Huellas En La Arena)
2. Dreams (Sueños)
3. Your Move (Tu Movimiento)
4. Brazilian Love Song (Andorinha Preta)
5. Tropical Sunrise
6. Cachaca Mecanica
7. Jump In The Line
8. Shades Of Love (Sombras De Amor)
9. Wave
10. Canto De Ossanha
11. Swing And Sway
12. Island In The Sun
13. Tahitian Sunset *
14. Moon Over Baja *
15. In The Everglades *
16. Malaysian Melody *

Tropical Sunrise

* Bonus Tracks

After the great success of THAT LATIN FEELING in 1964, Bert Kaempfert produced a further album entitled TROPICAL SUNRISE which was also devoted exclusively to the rhythms of Latin America and released in 1977. Accompanied by exquisite harmonies and instrumental sounds, listeners were once again transported to exotic regions.

The original recording contained six numbers composed by Bert Kaempfert together with Herbert Rehbein. The title Footprints In The Sand even received an award in Argentina. In addition, such evergreens as Andorinha Preta (Brazilian Love Song) and Island In The Sun (sung by Harry Belafonte in the film of the same name in 1957 and famous in Germany as Wo Meine Sonne Scheint with Caterina Valente) were included in the compilation. Titles such as Wave, a hit by Antonio Carlos Jobim, composer of the Girl From Ipanema, and Canto De Ossanha by the legendary Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell catered for a "modern touch".

Of course such pieces call for all manner of South American percussion instruments such as the apito (whistle), bell tree, cabaza, claves (pair of hardwood sticks), conga (drum played with the hands), cowbells, cuica (friction drum), pandeiro (tambourine), reco-reco (scraper), timbales, triangle and even a donkey's jaw bone. In addition to Rolf Ahrens on the drums, Nippy Noya, Max Raths, Hans Bekker and Manfred Sperling were engaged as percussionists, with Herb Geller (flute), Ack van Rooyen (trumpet), Jiggs Whigham (trombone) and Jürgen Schröder (guitar) performing the solos.

Bert Kaempfert's love for distant countries is reflected in many of his melodies and arrangements. Four such compositions have been added here as a special bonus: Tahitian Sunset from 1966, Moon Over Baja and In The Everglades, both recorded in 1974, and - to carry us away to the Far East - Malaysian Melody, set down in 1968.

(from the original liner notes)

Peter Matz & His Orchestra - Thanks For The Memory

1. Canadian Sunset
2. Bei Mir Bist Du Shon
3. Jersey Bounce
4. Frenesi
5. Undecided
6. Heartaches
7. Chattanooga Choo Choo
8. Song Of India
9. String Of Pearls
10. The Music Goes 'Round And Around
11. Bye Bye Blues
12. Thanks For The Memory

Thanks For The Memory

You've heard these songs before...Jersey Bounce, String Of Pearls, Frenesi, Undecided...all the other happy memories that brightened the Big Band era.

Peter Matz has heard them before too. Like so many of us, he grew up with that Big Band sound ringing in his ears. BUT...Peter Matz hears things differently from the rest of us.

He hears songs in his own original and highly imaginative fashion. He hears them with that difference that he puts into his famous arrangements for Barbra Streisand, the unusual arrangements that played such an important part in helping to establish her as a star.

Peter Matz thinks in terms of today and tomorrow even while he is remembering yesterday. He hears the great hits of the Big Band era alive and vital with the musical feeling of today, renewing in contemporary big band terms the excitement they had the first time around.

(From the original liner notes)

Paul Mauriat - Quartet For Kobe (1995)

1. Quartet For Kobe
2. Love Is Blue
3. El Bimbo
4. Say Yes
5. Sunshine Tomorrow

Quartet for Kobe

Personnel:
Paul Mauriat, piano
Franck Pourcel, violin
Raymond Lefèvre, flute
Francis Lai, accordion

Bert Kaempfert and His Orchestra - Swing (1996)

1. At The Woodchopper's Ball
2. Little Brown Jug
3. One O'Clock Jump
4. Lullaby Of Birdland
5. Two O'Clock Jump
6. Airmail Special
7. Apple Honey
8. Intermission Riff
9. Jumpin' At The Woodside
10. Marie
11. It's Only A Paper Moon
12. In The Mood
13. Easy Glider *
14. Jumpin' Blue *
15. Walkin' And Shoutin' *
16. Soul Time *

Swing

* Bonus Tracks

Like many of his generation, Bert Kaempfert had a foible for swing. In October 1977 he fulfilled a long-cherished wish and recorded a complete album with 12 titles taken from the repertoire of the most famous swing bands. He breathed new life into these old favourites without detracting from their typical and highly unique original sound. Renowned soloists, all of whom were regular members of his orchestra as from the 1970s, performed the solos in this production:

Ack van Rooyen (trumpet and cornet), Herb Geller (flute and alto saxophone), Ferdinand Powel (tenor saxophone), James Towsey (baritone saxophone) and Jiggs Whigham (trombone).

Although Bert Kaempfert preserves the original tempo in his arrangement of Woody Herman's Woodchopper's Ball (original recording: 12 April 1939), his personal stroke of the pen is discernible in every other respect. Herman's clarinet solo is played here by Ack van Rooyen. Trombone, baritone sax and further trumpet solos follow before the well-known riffs are heard to conclude the piece.

If ever a research poll were carried out to determine the most popular post-war number, Glenn Miller's recording of In The Mood (original recording: 1 August 1939) would surely come out on top. Realising that nothing could possibly improve this classic work, Kaempfert arranged the piece in a traditional manner.

Over the years, Bert Kaempfert did not only chose the one or the other swing title for inclusion in his LP recordings but also wrote swing numbers himself which justifiably take their place among the classics. Four of these compositions are included in the present re-release as bonus tracks: Easy Glider and Jumpin' Blue, both recorded in 1974, Walkin' and Shoutin' from 1975, and Soul Time from 1968.

Glenn Miller's version of the American children's song Little Brown Jug (original recording: 10 April 1939) was a great hit. In his arrangement, Kaempfert allots the main theme to Herb Geller's flute thus lending the work a charmingly carefree character.

Count Basie's One O'Clock Jump (original recording: 7 July 1937) sold millions; hard on its heels followed Harry Jame's Two O'Clock Jump (original recording: 6 March 1939). The two works enjoy a similar structure. Conversation passes back and forth between the tenor sax, muted trumpet and trombone, while the continual build-up of the final choruses enhances the quality of this number.

Lullaby Of Birdland was originally conceived as a quintet (original recording: 17 July 1952 by the George Shearing Quintet). In Kaempfert's masterly arrangement for big band, nothing of the original atmosphere is lost: he merely replaces Shearing's typical combination of piano, vibraphone and guitar with that of flutes and vibraphone, thus imparting an even lighter touch to the piece.

With the composition of the swing standard Air Mail Special (original recording: 13 March 1941 by the Benny Goodman Sextet), whose fame was partly due to the scat singing of Ella Fitzgerald, one is already aware of the bebop era yet to come - and this of course makes itself felt in Kaempfert's arrangement.

Woody Herman, the "wild man" of the big band era, made his most remarkable recording, Apple Honey (original recording: 19 February 1945), at the zenith of his creative period. In his arrangement, Bert Kaempfert dispenses with the aggressiveness of the original recording and incorporates several relaxed and loosely connected solo passages.

It was Stan Kenton who effected the break with the tradition of swing and ushered in the era of orchestral jazz. Those who never really felt comfortable with Kenton's recording of Intermission Riff (original recording: July 1946) will very probably enjoy Bert Kaempfert's milder version.

Jumpin' At The Woodside is a further number by Count Basie (original recording: 22 August 1938) which has always been a great favourite with the public thanks to its hypnotic riffs. Kaempfert takes the pace more slowly in his arrangement, while the solo flute, muted trumpet and trombone provide for plenty of variety.

Like numerous other numbers by Tommy Dorsey, Marie also landed in the charts in the early 1940s (original recording: 17 October 1940). Kaempfert takes the tempo somewhat more slowly and gives prominence to the trombone - clearly a tribute to the great trombonist Dorsey and his velvety sound.

In It's Only A Paper Moon (original recording: December 1943 by the Nat "King" Cole Trio), Bert Kaempfert does not base his arrangement on any one particular version but concerns himself more with the title itself which was a tremendous hit in post-war years.

(from the original liner notes)

The Magnificent Strings Of Percy Faith - Broadway Bouquet (1965)

1. Hello, Dolly! (From "Hello, Dolly!")
2. Once Upon A Time (From "All American")
3. Somewhere (From "West Side Story")
4. Sunrise, Sunset / Fiddler On The Roof (From "Fiddler On The Roof")
5. Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me) (From "The Roar Of The Greasepaint")
6. A Quiet Thing (From "Flora, The Red Menace")
7. Make Someone Happy (From "Do Re Mi")
8. What Kind Of Fool Am I? (From "Stop The World - I Want To Get Off")
9. Long Ago (From "Half A Sixpence")
10. The Sweetest Sounds (From "No Strings")
11. As Long As He Needs Me (From "Oliver!")
12. Theme From "Golden Boy" (From "Golden Boy")

Broadway Bouquet

Percy Faith was one of the most popular easy listening recording artists of the '50s and '60s. Not only did he have a number of hit albums and singles under his own name, but Faith was responsible for arranging hits by Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, and Burl Ives, among others, as the musical director for Columbia Records in the '50s.

Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Faith was a child piano prodigy, giving his first recital at Massey Hall at the age of 15 and playing various movie theaters, providing the soundtrack to silent films. His career as a concert pianist was cut short when he injured his hands in a fire when he was 18. Faith moved into arranging, beginning with local, hotel orchestras but quickly moving to radio. It was here where he developed his lush pop-instrumental style. For most of the '30s, he worked on Canadian Broadcast Company. At the end of the decade his radio show, Music by Faith, was also being aired within the United States.

Upset with CBC slashing the budget of his program, Faith moved to Chicago in 1940. Shortly afterward, he relocated to New York; by 1945, he had become an official U.S. citizen. Working for NBC in New York, he arranged and conducted for a number of shows and singers, including Coca-Cola's radio show and Buddy Clark. During the late '40s, he recorded for both Decca and RCA Victor.

Faith joined Columbia Records as musical director and a recording artist in 1950. While he arranged traditional pop songs, as well as show tunes, folk songs, and traditional pop songs for the label's vocalists, Faith became a pioneer of easy listening "mood music" with his own albums. In addition to popularizing the light, orchestrated pop, he was the first to record albums solely consisting of songs from Broadway shows; he also was one of the first mainstream composers/arrangers to experiment with Latin rhythms.

Faith had his first number one single, "Delicado," in 1952. In the mid-'50s, he began composing film scores, beginning with the Oscar-nominated collaboration with George Stoll, Love Me or Leave Me. But he scored his biggest hit of the 1960s with a piece of music written by another film composer. His late-1959 recording of Max Steiner's "The Theme From 'A Summer Place'" became a number one hit in 1960 and earned Faith his first Grammy. As rock & roll took over popular music in the early '60s and his work became more schlocky in format (easy listening arrangements of Beatles and pop/rock songs, etc.), the musical quotient remained high, thanks in large part to Faith's arranging skills and penchant for picking good material. Faith slowly withdrew from a professional career in the late '60s, but continued recording until just before his death in 1976. 

(by Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Cub Kod from allmusic.com)

Bert Kaempfert and His Orchestra - Orange Colored Sky (1996)

1. Cracklin' Rosie
2. My Love
3. Don't Go
4. Tea And Trumpets
5. Friends
6. While The Children Sleep
7. (I'll Be With You) In Apple Blossom Time
8. Snowbird
9. That Old Sweet Roll (Hi-De-Ho)
10. Bye Bye Blackbird
11. Orange Colored Sky
12. Wake Up And Live
13. What's Up With You *
14. Living Easy *
15. Kiss Her Once With Feeling *
16. Grey Eyes Make Me Blue *

Orange Colored Sky

* Bonus Tracks

ORANGE COLORED SKY, surely one of Bert Kaempfert's loveliest albums, is at last available on compact disc. Recorded in November 1970, the album was the first of his productions to use multitrack recording technique (eight sound tracks) and it has everything that the name of Bert Kaempfert conjures up: his typical rhythm with its pithy bass, smooth-as-silk arrangements for strings and chorus, stereo-like entries of the winds from the right and left, and plenty of trumpet solos.

The six new compositions by the team of Bert Kaempfert and Herbert Rehbein range from pleasantly easy-going numbers such as Tea And Trumpets and Friends via the more gentle While The Children Sleep to the shuffle of Wake Up And Live. Also heard on this disc are new and old hits by other composers covering a time-span of 50 years.

Bye Bye Blackbird and In Apple Blossom Time are typical "Tin Pan Alley" songs from the '20s: the latter was one of the most popular hits of its day and a great success for the Andrew Sisters later.

The title-number Orange Colored Sky, composed by the accordeon-playing band-leader Milton DeLugg, became famous in the 1950s in vocal versions by Nat "King" Cole and Betty Hutton; Cracklin' Rosie was Neil Diamond's very first Number 1 hit in the 1970s; and the rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears landed in the Top 20 with Hi-De-Ho.

Snowbird, perhaps the most effervescent arrangement in this compilation, is a Country and Western number which brought the Canadian singer Anne Murray a gold record in 1970; Bert Kaempfert's recording was immensely popular too and became a real radio hit, being played over and over again both in Germany and abroad.

Three of Kaempfert's loveliest compositions, Living Easy, Kiss Her Once With Feeling and Grey Eyes Make Me Blue, from the LP BERT KAEMPFERT NOW! (1971) are included as bonus tracks on this CD. Only recently a very special discovery was made: What's Up With You, recorded in 1973 and never released - definitely a small sensation for all Kaempfert friends and the world of music!

(from the original liner notes)

Bert Kaempfert and His Orchestra - Strangers In The Night (1996)

1. Strangers In The Night
2. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
3. But Not Today
4. Time On My Hands
5. Milica (Sweet Maria)
6. Mexican Shuffle
7. Show Me The Way To Go Home
8. Two Can Live On Love Alone
9. Every Sunday Morning
10. Boo-Hoo
11. Tijuana Taxi
12. Forgime Me
13. I Stay With You *
14. Somewhere In The Sky *
15. Pussy Footin' *
16. Hold Back The Dawn *

* Bonus Tracks

Strangers in the Night

Bert Kaempfert and His Orchestra - Blue Midnight (1996)

1. Treat For Trumpet
2. Good Night, Sweet Dreams
3. L.O.V.E.
4. Blue Midnight
5. Love Comes But Once
6. Cotton Candy
7. Free As A Bird
8. Lonely Nightingale
9. Almost There
10. Java
11. Red Roses For A blue Lady
12. Three O'Clock In The Morning
13. Take Seven *
14. Gemma *
15. The Bass Walks *
16. Love After Midnight *

Blue Midnight

* Bonus Tracks

Relax and enjoy the album BLUE MIDNIGHT and the four gems which have been added to this CD as a bonus: Take Seven, recorded in 1966 (which in its present version was only released on the LP HOLD ME), and Gemma, The Bass Walks and Love After Midnight (from the German film "90 Minuten nach Mitternacht") - three often wished-for numbers from the LP LET'S GO BOWLING recorded in 1964.

Bert Kaempfert's circle of fans is sure to increase considerably with this CD, for who can fail to be spellbound by his timeless sound which imparts a real feeling of the Good Life!

(from the original liner notes)

Klaus Wunderlich - Hammond Fireworks - Vol. 1

1. Die Mühle Im Schwarzwald
2. Hello Dolly
3. Summertime
4. Donauweller
5. The Girl From Ipanema
6. The Breeze And I
7. Red Roses For A Blue Lady
8. Illusion
9. Japanischer Lanternentanz
10. Ballszenen
11. Echo In The Night
12. Die Millionen Des Harlekin
13. Elisabeth Serenade
14. Five Sons
15. This Guy's In Love With You
16. Bene Bene
17. Der Schleier Fiel
18. Boom Bang A Bang
19. Moon River
20. Sweet Souvenirs Of Stefan
21. Wunderland Bei Nacht
22. Twilight Time
23. Swing Relations
24. Adios

Hammond Fireworks

Klaus Wunderlich was born to a policeman in the Saxony town of Chemnitz in 1930. As a teenager he worked for the local opera rehearsing singers but soon chose popular music over classical. By 1951 he was ready to tour West Germany, which led to a standing gig at the Tiny Cabaret Simple in Mannheim. Here he was playing winsomely in a beer hall, and the owner and patrons liked him enough to buy an expensive organ. Then Telefunken found and signed him.

Wunderlich experimented with the Hammond, as all the great pop organists have done, to discover and add to its range of extraordinary sounds. It was not long before he was using organ and early synthesizer to reproduce strings, horns, and so forth. To overcome the early synthesizer's one-note-at-a-time limitation, he became an expert at multi-tracking, effects, and other production wizardry.

The magic was not all technical, however. Wunderlich, like a benign Black Forest gnome, played music that pandered to popular taste but also pushed the boundaries for keyboardists. He wrote some great tunes and arranged many others in a zany way not seen since Lenny Dee, whose career was peaking as Wunderlich picked up the baton. Wunderlich shared Ethel Smith's affinity for Latin and Brasilian rhythms, Lenny Dee's zany pop sense, and Jean-Jacques Perrey's lighthearted invention and technical facility.

A long series of albums for Telefunken included some Moog albums and demos for the Wersi super-organ, which was something like a Hammond stuffed with Moog capabilities. The Hammond Pops and other Wunderlich albums are notorious, mainly because the music and jackets are rife with cheese and cheesecake. There is a lot of "mush" to sift through, to be sure, but fine gems twinkle there too, as if out of a fairy tale by the brothers Grimm. 

(by Tony Wilds from allmusic.com)

Liberace - Sixteen Great Performances (16 Grandes Sucessos)

1. Two For The Road
2. A Man Without Love (Quando M'Innamoro)
3. The Look Of Love
4. Spanish Eyes
5. Easy To Love
6. Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
7. People
8. Love Is Blue
9. Somewhere My Love
10. Yesterday
11. All The Things You Are
12. A Taste Of Honey
13. Live For Life
14. Sunrise, Sunset
15. It Was A Very Good Year
16. I'm In The Mood For Love

Great Performances

Você está em Las Vegas no elegante Salão Versailles do Hotel Riviera, ansiosamente esperando que apareça um dos homens de espetáculos mais conhecidos de todo o mundo. As cortinas se abrem. Entra deslizando um enorme bolo enfeitado. Com uma acegante explosão de lantejoulas vermelhas e fumaça o bolo se parte para revelar o único e singularíssimo...LIBERACE!

Um divertimento para os entertainers, Liberace adora planejar shows. Ele acredita em estilo e boa apresentação e já regulou o passo com as espetaculares extravagâncias do rock de hoje. Em suas palavras "Eu me considero um entertainer. Quando me apresento, não toco apenas. Gosto de fazer o público se divertir". E divertimento certamente é o que LIBERACE trouxe a incontáveis milhões de pessoas. Muito antes que fans femininas suspirassem por Elvis Presley já havia as que murmuravam deliciadas com o sorriso famoso de Liberace.

Mas suas apresentações espetaculares, seus ternos de $10.000 dólares com aplicações de diamantes, abotoaduras em forma de piano e sua atraente personalidade não completam uma definição do que é ser Liberace. Na realidade ele é um pianista fenomenal, que toca tudo, desde Chopin até Gershwin, Bacharach e Mancini, com um estilo e graça próprios dos mestres consagrados.

Walter Valentino Liberace fez seu concerto de estréia no Wisconsin em 1930. Ele tinha 11 anos. Encorajado por seu pai, que tocava piston, e por sua mãe que adorava música, Liberace cresceu para tornar-se o primeiro concertista de piano que lotaria o Madison Square Garden em Manhattan. Com um repertório exclusivo e original paradoxalmente combinando clássicos com pop, Liberace trouxe nova expressão e vida à música clássica na América e por todo o mundo. Desde Liszt a "The Birth Of The Blues", da "Polonaise" de Chopin à esfusiante "Beer Barrel Polka", sua música cobre todo o espectro de estilos e gostos.

Aqui, com "16 Grandes Sucessos", encontramos Liberace numa veia romântica: o mestre da interpretação musical usa seu talento criativo excepcional para dar-nos algumas das mais conhecidas melodias românticas. O sucesso de de Bacharach/David - "The Look Of Love", de Lennon & McCartney - "Yesterday", de Cole Porter - "Easy To Love" e de Bert Kaempfert - "Spanish Eyes". Estão também incluídos temas de filmes famosos como "Two For The Road" de Henry Mancini e o ultra-popular tema de Dr. Jivago "Somewhere My Love".

Seja tocando Cole Porter ou os Beatles, sua incrível virtuosidade de interpretação e comunicatividade continua a agradar às audiências por toda a parte. Seus extraordinários talentos musicais, combinados com sua presença no palco, cheia de terno e confiante humorismo, fizeram com que ele ganhasse o título vitalício de Mr. Show-Man. Tendo trazido alegria aos amantes da música por mais de três décadas, Liberace hoje coloca-se entre os mais perfeitos executantes da época.

Eis então aqui, com alguns dos maiores sucessos da música romântica de hoje e de ontem - o maior mestre do mundo dos "Golden 88's" - o próprio LIBERACE!

(Extraído das notas originais do LP)

Liberace (born Wladziu Valentino Liberace) was the most flamboyant, popular easy listening pianist of the '60s and '70s by a wide margin. His campy, theatrical appearance and performances often disguised his prodigious talent.

Liberace was a child prodigy born to a musical family. His father, Salvatore, played French horn in John Philip Sousa's Concert Band, as well as the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Instead of following in his father's footsteps and playing horn, Wladziu Liberace decided to play piano instead. Liberace was exceptionally gifted at piano, earning strong words of praise from Ignace Paderewski, which helped him land a scholarship at the Wisconsin College of Music at the age of seven; he retained his scholarship for 17 years, the longest period of time in the history of the academy. When he was 11, he debuted as a concert soloist. When he was in his teens, he was performing with symphony orchestras.

Instead of following the accepted path of classical recitals and university courses, Liberace chose to be a showman. At encores at his concerts, he began playing novelty songs like "Mairzy Doats." To ensure that he had widespread appeal as an entertainer, he took elocution lessons in order to mask his Polish accent.

During World War II, Liberace performed in a variety of overseas entertainment units. When he came back to America, he began performing in clubs, playing and singing with dance bands. While he was on the club circuit, he began performing under the sole name of Liberace.

In 1940, he moved to New York City, where he became a fixture on the club circuits. However, his stint in New York wasn't particularly successful, as the Musicians Union banned the pianist after he began playing counterpoints to certain records played over the club's sound system. Undaunted, Liberace moved to California. While he was playing at a local hotel, he was spotted by Decca Record executives who offered him a contract. Decca attempted to make Liberace into a big-band leader, but it was unsuccessful. In the late '40s, he signed with Columbia Records and, under the direction of producer Mitch Miller, recorded an over-the-top rendition of "September Song." Along with a live concert album, the single helped bring Liberace to a national audience.

Liberace became a star in the '50s, both through his records and assorted television and film appearances. His appearance and repertoire were becoming increasingly campy, as he dressed himself in rhinestone, gold lame, furs, and sequins while playing everything from Gershwin and show tunes to lounge jazz and light classical pieces, with a candelabra placed on his piano. Liberace's star rose rapidly in the early '50s, as he had his own television show, appropriately titled The Liberace Show. His celebrity reached a peak in the mid-'50s. Not only did he star in the 1955 film Sincerely Yours, a movie about a deaf concert pianist, but he was mentioned in "Mr. Sandman" by the Chordettes and he published his own cookbook. In 1956, Liberace celebrated his 25 years in show business with an extravagant concert at the Hollywood Bowl. That same year, he made some headway in the U.K. market, playing three Royal Command Performances.

Though it was a heady time for the pianist, 1956 was also the year that his star began to dim somewhat. Cassandra, a columnist for the English tabloid The Daily Mirror, inferred that Liberace was homosexual. He sued the paper and won, yet he still made an effort to tone down his appearance. However, the public didn't want a subdued Liberace, and he reverted to his kitschy showmanship in the early '60s.

Liberace didn't have any more pop hits in the '60s,'70s, and '80s, yet he continued to sell out concerts around the world and sell a number of records, even though he never earned the favor of the critics. In 1982, a former chauffeur and bodyguard sued the pianist for palimony; the case was settled out of court. Liberace remained a celebrity and a popular performer until his death in 1987. 

(by Stephen Thomas Erlewine from allmusic.com)

Mantovani & His Orchestra - To Lovers Everywhere (1971)

1. The Way You Look Tonight
2. Tea For Two
3. September Song
4. Whispering
5. Quando Quando Quando
6. All Of A Suden
7. I Will Wait For You
8. Me And My Shadow
9. I Can't Stop Loving You
10. Yellow Bird
11. Winter World of Love

To Lovers Everywhere

It was appropriate that when Mantovani decided to record a selection of the world's most cherished love songs, just for once he departed Decca's usual London studio location and whisked his orchestra off to the city of romance: Paris

If music be the food of love, then where better than the surroundings afforded by this beautiful metropolis to seek inspiration as generations of artists, sculptors, architects and practitioners of l'amour have done before? Admist her boulevard cafes and striking monuments: the Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triomphe, Cathedral of Notre Dame and Louvre to name but a few, Monty's entourage embraced their musical instruments in the French capital's Sofrason Studios. Here is the result of those endeavours, a personal greeting from the maestro TO LOVERS EVERYWHERE...

(from the original liner notes)

Conductor, composer, violinist, and pianist Mantovani was one of the most popular and prolific easy listening artists of all time. His trademark "cascading strings" (or "tumbling strings") effect gave him an instantly recognizable sound, and his heavy reliance on the string section in general helped map out the blueprint for much of the light orchestral music that followed in his wake. His repertoire did feature original compositions, but was built chiefly on lush adaptations of familiar melodies: TV and movie themes, show tunes, pop hits (chiefly of the MOR variety), classical material, and the like. Starting his career in the '20s, Mantovani was very much a product of the recording age: he focused almost entirely on recording, instead of live performance; he was one of the first artists to utilize the LP as a primary medium for his releases (as opposed to singles); he was one of the first popular artists to use stereo recording technology, and likely the first to sell over a million records in the stereo format. Fascinated by the studio recording process, he experimented restlessly with miking methods and other technical nuances over the course of an astoundingly large discography -- more than 50 albums from the early '50s until his death in 1980 (not counting his numerous 78 rpm records, dating back to the late '20s).

Annunzio Paolo Mantovani was born November 15, 1905, in Venice, Italy. His father was an accomplished violinist who performed at the legendary Milan opera house La Scala under the direction of Arturo Toscanini. Mantovani himself began piano and music theory lessons at a young age. In 1912, the family moved to England, where Mantovani's father took over direction of the Covent Garden Orchestra. At age 14, Mantovani switched from piano to violin; although the latter became his instrument of choice, he would keep up his piano work for the sake of composing. Just two years later, he made his professional debut with a performance of Anton Bruch's "Violin Concerto No. 1." He joined a touring orchestra and quickly became a featured soloist; by age 20, he was leading the resident Hotel Metropole Orchestra, and made a few recordings with the group in 1928. He gave high-profile recitals in 1930 and 1931, performing Saint-Saëns' "Violin Concerto in B Minor" at the latter, and began to make a name for himself. Around the same time, he formed a new group, the Tipica Orchestra, and started a series of regular radio broadcasts from London's high-profile Monseigneur restaurant.

Mantovani and the Tipica Orchestra made highly successful appearances all over England, and recorded for Sterno, Regal Zonophone, and Columbia from 1932-1936; two of those records, "Red Sails in the Sunset" and "Serenade to the Night," were hits in the U.S. in 1935 and 1936, respectively. Columbia changed the billing on his records to Mantovani & His Orchestra in 1937, and in 1940 he moved over to Decca. By World War II, he was one of the most popular orchestra leaders in England, and in the '40s he also branched out into theater, serving as musical director for a number of productions including several by Noel Coward. Once World War II ended, Mantovani threw his energy into recording, and gradually moved away from live performances altogether. He experimented with different styles over a series of popular 78s for Decca, and hit upon his signature sound when he connected with arranger Ronald Binge, who'd once played accordion in the Tipica Orchestra. Binge was likely the man who devised Mantovani's dramatic "cascading strings" effect, which the two first employed on the 1951 single "Charmaine," a song originally written 25 years earlier. "Charmaine" was a major hit, selling over a million copies and definitively cracking open the U.S. market for Mantovani's music.

A steady stream of hit singles followed in the early '50s, including "Wyoming" (1951), "Greensleeves" (1952), the U.K. number one "Song From Moulin Rouge" (1953), "Swedish Rhapsody" (1953), "The Lonely Ballerina" (1954), "Toy Shop Ballet" (1956; it helped him win the U.K.'s Ivor Novello Award), and "Around the World" (1957). Additionally, Mantovani arranged, co-wrote, and backed David Whitfield on his U.K. chart-topper (and U.S. Top Ten) "Cara Mia" in 1954. Starting in 1953, he recorded what proved to be a deluge of LPs for Decca and its London subsidiary. The advent of rock & roll stunted his success on the singles charts, but his albums sold like hotcakes in America. From 1955 to 1972, well over 40 Mantovani albums reached the U.S. pop charts; 27 of those reached the Top 40, and 11 made the Top Ten. His biggest sellers included Christmas Carols (1953; it re-entered the charts several times), Strauss Waltzes (1953), Song Hits From Theatreland (1955), Film Encores (1957; his lone number one album), Gems Forever (1958), Mantovani Stereo Showcase (1960), Italia Mia (1961), and the smash Mantovani Plays Music From "Exodus" and Other Great Themes (1961), a number two hit that sold over a million copies and stayed on the charts for nearly a year. His version of the "Exodus" theme was just one of several successful recordings (others were by Ferrante & Teicher and jazzman Eddie Harris).

As the '60s wore on, Mantovani's brand of pleasant, light orchestral music increasingly diverged from mainstream tastes in pop, and his chart placings slipped lower and lower (his last entry was 1972's Annunzio Paolo Mantovani). Still, he stayed true to his own aesthetic, only adopting those contemporary trends that he could translate on his own terms. His recording activities were curtailed after the Decca label was dissolved and absorbed into MCA in 1973, though he continued to compose for several years afterward. He passed away on March 30, 1980, in his country home in Tunbridge Wells, England. 

(by Steve Huey from allmusic.com)

Bert Kaempfert and His Orchestra - Warm and Wonderful (1969)

1. One Lonely Night
2. I May Be Wrong (But I Think You'reWonderful)
3. Petula
4. Some Of These Days
5. Reminiscing
6. One Morning In May
7. Can't Take My Eyes Off You
8. Only In Your Arms
9. This Guy's In Love With You
10. The Maltese Melody
11. Our Street of Love

Warm and Wonderful

Bert Kaempfert had almost too much talent, ability, and good luck rolled into one career to be fully appreciated, even by his own chosen audience, the lovers of fine orchestral pop music. He was one of the most successful conductors, arrangers, and recording artists in the latter field, but was also a major producer and played a key (if indirect) role in the roots of the British beat boom of the early '60s, which evolved into the British Invasion of America in 1964. Berthold Kaempfert was born in Barmbek, a working-class section of Hamburg, Germany, in 1923. He was musically inclined as a boy, and found that interest indulged by an act of fate when he was six years old -- Kaempfert was injured in a car accident and his mother used the money from the settlement to buy him a piano. He became proficient at the keyboard, and also on the clarinet and saxophone, among other instruments. He studied at the Hamburg Conservatory and although he was interested in all facets of music, Kaempfert was particularly taken with American-style big-band music of the late '30s and early '40s -- his multi-instrumental skills made him a potentially valuable commodity, and he was recruited into a pop orchestra run by Hans Bussch while in his teens, but was later drafted and served as a bandsman in the German navy, before being captured and interned as an Allied prisoner.

He founded a band of his own and later toured American military installations in Germany, at last able to play his favorite kind of music. Returning to his native Hamburg, he began performing on British Forces Network radio and writing compositions, initially using the alias of Mark Bones. Kaempfert's reputation in Hamburg attracted the attention of Polydor Records, which hired him as an arranger, producer, and music director during the second half of the 1950s. Among the talent that he brought to the company's roster was the Yugoslav pop artist Ivo Robic, who chalked up an international hit (Top 20 in America), and Viennese singer/guitarist/actor Freddy Quinn, who had a German hit with "Die Gittarre und das Meer." His own orchestra generated such hits as "Catalania," "Ducky," "Las Vegas," and "Explorer," but he had bolder, more ambitious music in mind. He arranged, produced, and recorded an instrumental entitled "Wonderland by Night," which was pretty enough but couldn't seem to get a hearing in Germany, even from his own company. Instead, Kaempfert and his wife brought the track to Milt Gabler, the legendary producer at Decca Records in New York, who arranged for its release in America in 1959; with its haunting solo trumpet, muted brass, and lush strings, the single topped the American pop charts and turned Bert Kaempfert & His Orchestra into international stars. Over the next few years, he revived such pop tunes as "Tenderly," "Red Roses for a Blue Lady," "Three O'Clock in the Morning," and "Bye Bye Blues," bringing them all high onto the pop charts internationally, as well as composing pieces of his own, including "Spanish Eyes (Moon Over Naples)," "Danke Schoen," and "Wooden Heart," which were recorded by, respectively, Al Martino, Wayne Newton, and Elvis Presley (with Joe Dowell charting the hit single of "Wooden Heart"); for an old American jazz fan like Kaempfert, however, little may have brought him more personal satisfaction than Nat King Cole recording his "L-O-V-E."

At the turn of the decade into the 1960s, Kaempfert was still busily at work in his duties as a producer. He was well aware that a new generation of listeners had come along, whose interests lay far from the beautifully crafted instrumental music that he favored, which was an outgrowth of the pop sides of such '40s artists as Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, and Glenn Miller -- they preferred music drawn from country and R&B sources. He had signed a Liverpool-based singer named Tony Sheridan, who was performing in Hamburg, and needed to recruit a band to play behind him on the proposed sides -- he auditioned and signed a quartet from Liverpool called the Beatles, and even cut a couple of interesting sides of theirs, "Ain't She Sweet" (sung by rhythm guitarist John Lennon) and the instrumental "Cry for a Shadow" (co-authored by Lennon and lead guitarist George Harrison) during his sessions for Sheridan; with its pounding beat and raw singing, the former wasn't Kaempfert's kind of music, but "Cry for a Shadow," with its rich melodic line and sonorous guitar, was perhaps as close as this new music ever came to his own. The Beatles' own sides didn't emerge until a couple of years later, when events made it economically feasible to do so, but Kaempfert's recording of the Beatles, even as a backing band for Sheridan, proved a vital catalyst to their entire subsequent success. Stylistically, none of the Kaempfert-recorded sides closely resembled the music for which they became famous, and had their path to being signed by George Martin at Parlophone Records resulted from, say, their being heard in a performance, those Hamburg-recorded sides would rate nothing more than a footnote in their history -- but those Polydor sides cut by Kaempfert played an essential role in their story. As Beatles biographer Philip Norman recalled in his book Shout!, on October 28, 1961, an 18-year-old printer's apprentice named Raymond Jones walked into the music store owned by Brian Epstein to ask for a copy of "My Bonnie," recorded by the Beatles (though it was actually credited to Tony Sheridan); the store didn't have it, but Epstein noted the request and was so intrigued by the idea of a Liverpool band getting a record of its own out that he followed up on it personally. Thus began a chain of events that led to his discovery of the Beatles and, through his effort, their signing by George Martin to Parlophone Records (they first had to get clear of any contractual claim by Polydor).

Kaempfert had become so successful as a recording artist that he was forced to give up his duties as a producer -- his records were selling by the hundreds of thousands, the album of Wonderland by Night even topping the American charts for five weeks in 1961. By 1965, he'd joined the ranks of film music composers with the soundtrack to a movie entitled A Man Could Get Killed -- the title song from the movie became "Strangers in the Night," which Frank Sinatra propelled to the top of the American and British charts. He followed this up a year later with another hit for Sinatra, "The World We Knew (Over and Over)." For Kaempfert, whose admiration of American music began with the big-band pop sound whence Sinatra had begun his career, those hits must have represented a deep personal triumph, transcending whatever money they earned -- indeed, he was selling records during the early '60s in the kind of quantities that rivaled Tommy Dorsey or Harry James' successes 20 years before, and he'd proved himself a prodigiously talented composer as well, an attribute that few of the big-band leaders possessed.

Although Kaempfert's chart placements faded by the end of the decade, there could be no disputing his impact on the popular culture of the 1960s, which was so widespread into so many different areas that few individuals appreciated its scope; teenagers, had they known of his role, could be grateful to him for giving the Beatles that all-important first break, while their parents may well have danced to "Wonderland by Night" and its follow-ups, their older siblings might well have orchestrated their romantic endeavors to "Strangers in the Night," and television viewers and casual radio listeners might well have heard and hummed the Kaempfert tunes "That Happy Feeling" (an early piece of world music pop, adapted from a piece by Ghana-born drummer Guy Warren), "Afrikaan Beat," or "A Swingin' Safari" (which, in a recording by Billy Vaughn, became the theme for the long-running game show The Match Game). His success as a composer was reflected in the five awards that he received from BMI in 1968 for "Lady," "Spanish Eyes," "Strangers in the Night," "The World We Knew," and "Sweet Maria." Kaempfert's chart placements vanished in the 1970s as the music marketplace (especially on radio) finally squeezed out the adult and older dance music listenership he'd cultivated. His records continued to sell, however, and his bookings remained healthy for another decade, and Kaempfert piled up awards in Germany. As he had with rock & roll, he also changed somewhat with the times -- when disco became popular in the mid-'70s, Kaempfert recorded a disco version of Isaac Hayes' "Theme from Shaft" that even impressed the composer. His sales were always healthy, if not substantial, in America, but in Europe he was still a top concert draw as well. Kaempfert died suddenly, at the age of 56, of a heart seizure while at his home in Mallorca, resting up after a triumphant British tour. In the years since, he has finally been recognized for the breadth of his achievements -- virtually his entire album catalog (and all of his hits) from the late '50s through the end of the 1960s remains in print on CD. Additionally, Kaempfert's recordings of the Beatles have at last been given the recognition that they deserved, in the form of a Bear Family Records box. Additionally, his own music has acquired a new fan base in tandem with the late-'90s boom of interest in 1950s pop instrumental (i.e., "bachelor's den" audio) music, and "Afrikaan Beat" is arguably as popular as incidental music in 2003 as it was in 1965, as well as closely associated with that past in American popular culture, itself a great achievement for the bandleader from Hamburg. 

(by Bruce Eder from allmusic.com)

Richard Carpenter - Pianist, arranger, composer, conductor

 

1. Prelude
2. Yesterday Once More
3. Medley: Sing / Goodbye To Love / Eve / Rainy Days And Mondays / Look To Your Dreams / Superstar / Someday
4. I Need To Be In Love
5. Sandy
6. Time
7. For All We Know
8. One Love
9. Bless The Beasts And Children
10. Flat Baroque
11. All Those Years Ago
12. Top Of The World
13. We've Only Just Begun
14. Karen's Theme

Richard Carpenter

Richard Lynn Carpenter (New Haven, Connecticut, 15 de outubro de 1946) é um artista e pianista americano conhecido por ter feito parte da dupla Carpenters junto com sua irmã Karen Carpenter.

Richard Lynn Carpenter nasceu em 15 de outubro de 1946 em New Haven, Connecticut. Recebeu o mesmo nome do irmão mais novo de seu pai, Richard Lynn Carpenter. Coincidentemente, Richard e seu tio casaram-se com mulheres chamadas Mary.

Ele frequentemente tocava o piano enquanto sua irmã, Karen, jogava beisebol lá fora. Ele e Karen também gostavam de ouvir os discos infantis que seu pai lhe trouxe. Quando conheceu a música de Perry Como e Ella Fitzgerald, entre muitos outros, aos 12 anos, ele decidiu que queria estar na indústria da música.

A família Carpenter mudou-se de New Haven para Downey, Califórnia em junho de 1963. Eles queriam que Richard progredisse em sua carreira musical além de a família estar aborrecida com os invernos gelados da Nova Inglaterra. Àquela época, Richard estava com 16 anos e estudava música na California State University em Long Beach, lá encontrando Frank Pooler, maestro e compositor. Pooler escrever as letras para o clássico natalino "Merry Christmas Darling" em 1968. Ele também conheceu seu parceiro musical e amigo John Bettis, que coescreveu muitas canções com Richard.

Richard criou o Richard Carpenter Trio em 1965 com a irmã Karen e o amigo Wes Jacobs. Richard tocava piano; Karen, bateria e Wes tocava a tuba e o baixo. Em 1966 o Richard Carpenter Trio tocou "Iced Tea" and "The Girl from Ipanema" no Hollywood Bowl na Batalha das Bandas. Eles ganharam a competição e logo após gravaram três faixas nos estúdios da RCA: "Every Little Thing," "Strangers in the Night" e o original da banda, "Iced Tea". "Iced Tea" é a única gravação que foi oficialmente lançada para o público. Por volta de 1967, Richard e Karen juntaram-se a quatro outros estudantes de música da universidade para formar um sexteto, Spectrum, com: John Bettis, Richard Carpenter, Karen Carpenter, Leslie Johnston, Gary Sims e Danny Woodhams.

Embora o Spectrum tocasse com frequência em clubes noturnos da região de Los Angeles, eles tiveram uma recepção pouco calorosa, sua harmonias e a aversão ao rock'n'roll limitaram o potencial comercial do grupo. Mas ainda assim a experiência do Spectrum rendeu boas sementes para o futuro sucesso: Bettis tornou-se um letrista para as composições originais de Richard e todos os outros membros, com a exceção de Leslie Johnston viriam a ser membros dos Carpenters.

Richard e Karen finalmente assinaram com a A&M Records em 22 de abril de 1969. "Vamos ter esperança de que tenhamos alguns sucessos", disse Herb Alpert aos dois. De acordo com Richard, Herb Alpert deu-lhes carta branca nos estúdos de gravação e após Offering ter sido lançado e não conseguir boas vendagens, muitas pessoas lhe disseram para dispensar os Carpenters da gravadora, mas ele disse aos colegas que lhes daria mais uma chance.

Alpert sugeriu que os Carpenters gravassem uma canção de Burt Bacharach, chamada "(They Long to Be) Close to You." Embora Richard só tenha trabalhado nos arranjos após a insistência de Alpert, seus talentos foram evidenciados no produto final. Seus arranjos e talentos musicais, assim como os vocais de Karen, fizeram a música alcançar o topo das paradas da Billboard Top 100 e lá ficar por um mês. "(They Long to Be) Close to You" ganhou reconhecimento público da noite para o dia. De acordo com Richard, mesmo tendo a canção ganhado popularidade da noite para o dia, o mesmo não aconteceu para os Carpenters.

Certa noite, Richard estava em casa assistindo à televisão e viu um comercial para o Crocker National Bank. Reconheceu as vozes de Paul Williams e Roger Nichols, dois compositores da A&M. Era a canção "We've Only Just Begun". Richard confirmou o envolvimento deles e perguntou se havia uma versão completa da canção, o que foi confirmado por Williams. Richard conseguiu transformar um jingle de banco em um sucesso com disco de ouro certificado pela RIAA. Atingiu a segunda posição na Billboard Hot 100, e transformou-se numa canção comum em casamentos. A canção também lançou com sucesso as carreiras de Nichols e Williams com múltiplos sucessos, não somente dos Carpenters mas também de outros artistas.

Richard compôs muitos dos sucessos dos Carpenters, tais como:

    * "Goodbye to Love" (uma das primeiras baladas com solo de guitarra - 7ª posição -
       influenciou o desenvolvimento do estilo power ballad)
    * "Top of the World" (a única canção dos Carpenters no Top 10 - 1ª posição)
    * "Yesterday Once More" (2ª posição)
    * "Only Yesterday" (4ª posição)

Enquanto Karen sofria de anorexia nervosa, Richard sofria com a dependência de quaaludes, um tipo de sonífero. Foram-lhe prescritos pelo médico como forma de facilitar o sono, mas seu uso saiu de controle. Ele veio a procurar tratamento na clínica Menninger, em Topeka, Kansas em 1979 para um tratamento de oito semanas, o qual teve sucesso.

Três dias antes de seu trigésimo sétimo aniversário, a família Carpenter celebrou a inauguração da estrela dos Carpenters na Calçada da Fama em Hollywood. Ele disse em seu discurso que isso foi uma experiência ao mesmo tempo amarga e doce por causa da morte trágica de Karen, ainda que fosse capaz de celebrar a estrela.

Começou a gravar um álbum solo em 26 de junho de 1985 e terminou o álbum em 5 de julho de 1987[4] O álbum foi chamado "Time". Teve participações de Dusty Springfield e Dionne Warwick. Springfield cantou "Something in Your Eyes" e Warwick cantou "In Love Alone". Richard criou uma canção dedicada a Karen chamada "When Time Was All We Had".

Em 1984, Richard casou-se com Mary Rudolph (cujo irmão, Mark Rudolph, era o road manager dos Carpenters, assim como ouvinte que participa durante o pot-pourri de músicas antigas do álbum de 1973, Now & Then. Richard e Mary têm cinco filhos: Kristi Lynn, Traci Tatum, Mindi Karen, Colin Paul e Taylor Mary. Richard e os filhos às vezes se apresentam juntos em vários eventos relacionados aos Carpenters. A família hoje reside em Thousand Oaks, Califórnia.

Recentemente, Richard participou das produções dos documentários "Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters" (1997) e "Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story" (2007). Ele lançou os DVDs "Gold: Greatest Hits (DVD)|Gold: Greatest Hits" e "Interpretations (Carpenters DVD)|Interpretations." Richard está preparando um novo disco natalino que será lançado em 2009.

Origem: Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre.

Billy Vaughn - Crepúsculo (Twilight Time)

 

1. Sail Along Silv'ry Moon
2. Sunrise Serenade
3. Sweet Georgia Brown
4. Sentimental Journey
5. Until Tomorrow
6. Jealous
7. Raunchy
8. Twilight Time
9. Sleepy Time Gal
10. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
11. Moon Over Miami
12. Tumbling Tumbleweeds

Crepúsculo

 

É sempre uma notícia auspiciosa para os discófilos o aparecimento de um novo LP de Billy Vaughn e sua Orquestra. Efetivamente, Billy é um dos artistas mais populares do mundo, pois suas gravações figuram reiteradamente nas paradas de sucessos dos cinco continentes.

No Brasil, quer seja em LP, em compacto ou em 78 rotações, a presença de Billy Vaughn entre os mais vendidos, é constante.

Talvez o principal segredo do sucesso desta consagrada Orquestra resida no comedimento que norteia todo o trabalho de Billy Vaughn. Ele conseguiu criar um estilo de interpretação que agrada a gregos e troianos. Em outras palavras, seus discos são dançáveis e audíveis. Mesmo quando executa melodias de caráter mais moderno, Billy o faz de maneira a que os saudosistas e os tradicionalistas da música popular americana e internacional também possam ouvi-las com prazer.

Neste LP Billy rende tributo a uma coleção de êxitos de todos os tempos, salientando-se "Twilight Time" (que dá título ao álbum), "Sunrise Serenade" - que os velhos admiradores do cancioneiro popular ianque recordam através da gravação de Glenn Miller, "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You", imortalizada por Tommy Dorsey, "Sentimental Journey", "Sleepy Time Gal" e muitas outras. Todas elas interpretadas à maneira de Billy Vaughn, tão do agrado de nosso público.


(Ricardo Macedo, das notas originais do LP)

Maestro Zezinho e Orquestra TVSom - Para Ouvir e Dançar

01. Pennsylvania
02. La Paloma
03. Pou Pourri - Bolero: Solamente una vez/Contigo en la distancia/Desesperadamente
04. Pou Pourri - Mambo: Mambo-Jambo/More-More Mambo
05. Nel blu dipinto di blu
06. Tô arretado
07. Pou Pourri - Italiano: Al di la/Dio come ti amo/Non pensare a me
08. Pou Pourri - Samba: Ainda ontem chorei de saudade/É o amor
09. Pou Pourri - Cha, cha, cha: Fio de cabelo/Meu primeiro amor
10. Mulher
11. Moliendo cafe
12. Pou Pourri - Maxixe: Gavião calçudo/Jura/Capim gordura
13. Exodus

Para Ouvir e Dançar

Quem não gostaria de ter a experiência de dançar "cheek-to-cheek" ao som das grandes orquestras? Parece até uma viagem no tempo, para décadas passadas. Mas para quem ainda não experimentou essa deliciosa sensação, esta gravação vai fazer notar que os antigos pés-de-valsa estão aí de novo, presentes nas festas e casas noturnas.

A Orquestra TVSom tem-se apresentado junto com o maestro Zezinho em muitas cidades do Brasil, num show musical feito para ver, ouvir e dançar. As músicas são acompanhadas por bailarinas e cantores que agradam não só os que sabem dançar mas também aqueles que gostam de apreciar a beleza especial das coreografias e interpretações.

Dançar junto em sincronia: está aí o grande prazer de mover os pés no balanço gostoso do maestro Zezinho e sua Orquestra, completos, diga-se de passagem. Isso fica demonstrado quando se percebe a qualidade do naipe de metais se destacando dos outros instrumentos. É a composição ideal. São os trompetes, trombones e saxofones que proporcionam brilho e animação aos arranjos, mantendo o estilo e a sofisticação das grandes orquestras.

Maestro Zezinho e televisão têm os nomes irremediavelmente ligados. Mas sua história começa mais longe, sempre ao lado de Silvio Santos, desde os tempos da extinta Rádio Nacional de São Paulo. Agora, nesse seu primeiro trabalho em estúdio, fica registrada a vocação do maestro e a Orquestra TVSom: fazer o público ouvir e deixar todo mundo com vontade de sair dançando pela sala, ao som dos grandes sucessos do mambo, samba, bolero, axé music, regae, salsa, forró, cha-cha-cha, fox e outros ritmos.

(Extraído das notas originais do álbum)

O pernambucano José Batista da Silva Jr, mais conhecido como Mestro Zezinho, tantas vezes chamado por Silvio Santos no Qual é a Música?, do SBT, começou desde cedo a trabalhar na vida noturna tocando em festas e boates:

“Nos anos 60, São Paulo tinha uma vida musical muito rica, com muito trabalho”, explica o maestro que, além de tocar piano, se arrisca no violão além de tocar trompete.

Exatamente em 1963, quando o então radialista Silvio Santos decidira iniciar sua carreira televisiva, maestro Zezinho estava lá:
“Ele começou comprando uma hora no domingo na extinta TV Paulista”, lembra Zezinho, que conheceu Silvio Santos na Rádio Nacional fazendo o Programa do Meio Dia, que era comandado pelo saudoso Manoel da Nóbrega:

“O programa era ao vivo e com auditório. Começamos na rua Sebastião Pereira, na Santa Cecília, e, depois, fomos para a Rua das Palmeiras”.

Na época, os cantores do rádio Hebe Camargo, Cauby Peixoto, Francisco Egídio, Roberto Luna, além dos humoristas Canarinho e Ronald Golias participavam do programa da rádio Nacional, que, na época, era uma das empresas das Organizações Victor Costa.

O programa de calouros Cuidado com a Buzina, que começou com apenas uma hora, ia ganhando espaço e passou para três horas meses depois:

“Com o sucesso do Silvio como apresentador, chegamos a ficar em duas emissoras. Aos sábados, fazíamos programa na TV Tupi, que, além de São Paulo, abrangia o Sul de Minas e aos domingos continuávamos na TV Paulista”, conta o maestro, que comandava uma orquestra de 14 músicos.

Zezinho passou por todos os programas musicais de Silvio: Cuidado com a Buzina, Domingo no Parque, Qual é a Música, Cidade contra Cidade, Show da Loteria, Os Galãs Cantam e Dançam, Viva o Samba, Silvio Santos Diferente, além do Show De Calouros, por mais de 20 anos.

Zezinho também trabalhou com outros apresentadores: Flávio Cavalcanti, Raul Gil e até Gugu Liberato trabalharam com o maestro, que liderou por muitos anos a Orquestra do SBT.

No auge dos 72 anos, e casado há mais de 40 com a D. Petronilha, Zezinho decidiu afastar-se um pouco de São Paulo e vive em uma chácara, na região metropolitana paulista, junto com o neto de 18 anos.

Na chácara, o maestro tem uma vida pacata, cria galinhas, gansos e cachorros. Não faz shows há um bom tempo, mas planeja voltar aos palcos brasileiros, através de espetáculos que deverão percorrer os grandes teatros brasileiros.

(From ofuxico.terra.com.br)