Born in Wilmslow in 1923, Lawrence was a talented trumpet player during World War II. He wrote and arranged music. He was based in Cairo during the war years, playing and arranging for the RAF service bands. After he left the armed forces, he played with some of the leading British dance bands of the 1940s, finally being invited to join the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra in 1953. He stayed with this band for sixteen years playing alongside fellow trumpet player Stan Hibbert.
In 1967, Lawrence teamed up with several of his colleagues at the Northern Dance Orchestra to play the music that he was most enthusiastic about, that of Glenn Miller. Early concerts at the Mersey Hotel in Manchester were a success, and larger venues were found to play in as the reputation of his band grew.
Yorkshire Television gave the Syd Lawrence Orchestra a regular spot on the comedy show Sez Les. As the music became more popular, Lawrence and his band started touring around the UK, which they did with great success for many years. Several records were made along with radio and television appearances on variety shows.
Lawrence retired from touring in 1994 and died of an aneurysm in 1998. Following his death, the Syd Lawrence Band continued on and still tours. The orchestra has been led by Brian Pendleton, and presently by Chris Dean.
Icy strings swoop and sway in an ocean wave of sound on Percy Faith's Bouquet, one of this talented conductor/arranger's most popular albums. Piano chords swell and xylophones delicately plink in the distance, but Faith's arrangements are really all about the massed strings: the melodies, the counter-melodies, the gorgeous undulation of violins (32 of them!). If you have a good stereo system, find a CD or clean vinyl copy of Bouquet and turn up the volume -- immerse yourself in the glorious flux and reflux of pure sound. This is one of the most beautiful and distinctive mood music albums ever made, and if hearing it does not give you a new appreciation for the genre, then there is no hope for you. Highly recommended.
Herb Alpert was still using an array of SoCal studio all-stars as his Tijuana Brass when South of the Border (1964) began to restore the combo's good name after the modest Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, Vol. 2 (1963) failed to ignite a fire in listener's ears. In his essay accompanying Shout! Factory's 2005 Signature Series reissue of South of the Border, Alpert comments that the Sol Lake composition "Mexican Shuffle" "opened a new door for me." That passageway meant the loss of the Tijuana Brass' practically forced mariachi style and the rise of Alpert's approach in arranging familiar melodies in fresh, creative settings. Nowhere would this stylistic progression be as pronounced as in the horn-driven updates of several then-concurrent chart hits. For instance, the mod sonic wrinkle in "Girl from Ipanema" emits a darkness veiled in mystery, directly contrasting the light buoyancy of "Hello! Dolly" or the footloose feel of the Beatles' "All My Loving." They seamlessly fit in with Sol Lake's "Salud, Amor y Dinero" and a cover of Julius Wechter's playful mid-tempo "Up Cherry Street" -- which Wechter's own Baja Marimba Band had just recorded for their 1964 self-titled debut. The ballads "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," "Angelito," and "Adios, Mi Corazon" provide contrasts with Alpert's sensitive scores never seeming maudlin or unnecessarily over the top. If the regal "El Presidente" sounds particularly familiar, it may well be due to Alpert's slight renovation of the "Winds of Barcelona" from the Tijuana Brass' previous effort, the less than impressive Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, Vol. 2. It was renamed "El Presidente" presumably to honor the recent memory of the slain U.S. leader John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Building upon South of the Border's (1964) Top Ten success, Herb Alpert dismissed the contingency of Los Angeles-based studio instrumental all-stars, which he had christened the Tijuana Brass. Because there was enough demand for live dates, just like a musical Gepetto, Alpert formed a real Tijuana Brass. The bandleader/trumpeter was joined by Tonni Kalash (trumpet), Robert Edmondson (trombone), Pat Senatore (bass), John Pisano (guitars), Lou Pagani (piano), and Nick Ceroli (drums). Ostensibly, the personnel wasn't a primary consideration as Alpert and company had already begun making serious inroads on the pop music scene. Not bad, considering the market was being heavily infiltrated, if not practically dominated by the British Invasion. With Whipped Cream & Other Delights (1965), they would take that momentum to new heights -- including three Grammy Awards alone for the update of the Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow-penned theme to Shelagh Delaney's play of the same name, "A Taste of Honey." The remainder of the material on the dozen-song album was chosen with food as the underlying thematic motif. Sol Lake -- who provided Alpert "The Lonely Bull" and "Mexican Shuffle" returns, and this time he has custom-made the upbeat and, above all, catchy trio of "Green Peppers," "Bittersweet Samba," and "El Garbanzo." Allen Toussaint's title composition "Whipped Cream" garnered significant attention, but not as a chart hit. Rather, it could be heard as bachelorettes were being introduced on ABC-TV's The Dating Game. Early in the series run, additional Alpert offerings were also incorporated as incidental music: "Spanish Flea," as the bachelors were being announced, "Lollipops and Roses," when the lucky winners were being told where they would be spending their date, and both "Ladyfingers" and "Lemon Tree" were in rotation as contestants mulled over their answers.
After several poor analogue-to-CD transfers in the '80s and '90s, Whipped Cream & Other Delights was reissued as part of Shout! Factory's Herb AlpertSignature Series and boasts remarkably improved sound.
(by Lindsay Planer from allmusic.com)
One of the most successful instrumental performers in pop history, trumpeter Herb Alpert was also one of the entertainment industry's shrewdest businessmen: A&M, the label he co-founded with partner Jerry Moss, ranks among the most prosperous artist-owned companies ever established. Born March 31, 1935, in Los Angeles, Alpert began playing the trumpet at the age of eight. After serving in the Army, he attempted to forge an acting career, but soon returned to music, recording under the name Dore Alpert for RCA.
With Lou Adler, Alpert co-wrote a number of Sam Cooke's most enduring hits, including "Wonderful World" and "Only Sixteen." Under the name Dante & the Evergreens, he and Adler also recorded a cover of the Hollywood Argyles' "Alley Oop"; additionally, Alpert produced tracks for the surf duo Jan & Dean. In 1962 he teamed with Moss to found A&M Records, scoring a Top Ten hit with the single "The Lonely Bull."
From its humble origins as a company run out of Alpert's garage, A&M grew to become the world's biggest independent label; among its greatest successes were the Carpenters, Cat Stevens, Joe Cocker, and Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66. Nevertheless, Alpert and his backing unit, the Tijuana Brass, remained the label's flagship act: on the strength of the hit "A Taste of Honey," his 1965 LP Whipped Cream and Other Delights topped the charts, popularizing his Latin-influenced style (dubbed "Ameriachi"). The follow-up, 1965's Going Places, also hit number one, launching the hit "Spanish Flea."
After 1966's What Now My Love -- his most popular effort, remaining at number one for nine weeks -- Alpert continued to dominate the charts with records including 1966's S.R.O. and the following year's Sounds Like and Herb Alpert's Ninth. In 1968, he scored his first number one single by taking a rare vocal turn on a rendition of Burt Bacharach's "This Guy's in Love With You"; the album Beat of the Brass followed the hit to the top of the charts, becoming Alpert's fifth and final number one LP.
Released in 1969, Warm was the first of Alpert's 11 albums not to crack the Top 20; by 1971's Summertime, his commercial fates had fallen to the point where he no longer reached the Top 100. As A&M continued to thrive, he moved his primary focus from music to industry, although he regularly recorded throughout the early '70s; 1974's You Smile -- The Song Begins was his most successful outing in several years, but subsequent releases like 1975's Coney Island and 1976's Just You and Me met with greater chart resistance.
In 1979, Alpert staged a major comeback with Rise; not only did the album reach the Top Ten, but the title track topped the singles charts and became the biggest hit of his career. The follow-up, 1980's Beyond, was a Top 40 success, but subsequent efforts like 1982's Fandango and 1985's Wild Romance fared poorly. In 1987 Alpert enjoyed another renaissance with the album Keep Your Eye On Me; the lead single "Diamonds" hit the Top Five and featured a guest vocal from Janet Jackson, one of A&M's towering successes of the late '80s.
Alpert continued recording throughout the 1990s, producing work like 1991's North on South Street, 1992's Midnight Sun, and 1997's Passion Dance. After selling A&M to PolyGram in 1990 for a sum in excess of $500 million, he and Moss founded a new label, Almo Sounds, in 1994; among the imprint's hit artists was the group Garbage. His own albums, including 1997's Passion Dance and 1999's Colors, were also released on the label. Alpert also tackled other forms of media, exhibiting his abstract expressionist paintings and co-producing a number of Broadway successes, including Angels in America and Jelly's Last Jam. He also established the Herb Alpert Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to establishing educational, arts, and environmental programs for children.
After the ballad-heavy In the Wee Small Hours, Frank Sinatra and Nelson Riddle returned to up-tempo, swing material with Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, arguably the vocalist's greatest swing set. Like Sinatra's previous Capitol albums, Songs for Swingin' Lovers! consists of reinterpreted pop standards, ranging from the ten-year-old "You Make Me Feel So Young" to the 20-year-old "Pennies From Heaven" and "I've Got You Under My Skin." Sinatra is supremely confident throughout the album, singing with authority and joy. That joy is replicated in Riddle's arrangements, which manage to rethink these standards in fresh yet reverent ways. Working with a core rhythm section and a full string orchestra, Riddle writes scores that are surprisingly subtle. "I've Got You Under My Skin," with its breathtaking middle section, is a perfect example of how Sinatra works with the band. Both swing hard, stretching out the rhythms and melodies but never losing sight of the original song. Songs for Swingin' Lovers! never loses momentum. The great songs keep coming and the performances are all stellar, resulting in one of Sinatra's true classics.
Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week)
Day In - Day Out
Cheek To Cheek
Baubles, Bangles And Beads
The Song Is You
The Last Dance
Arranged and conducted by Billy May
Working with Billy May again, Frank Sinatra recorded his hardest swing album ever with Come Dance with Me! Driven by an intensely swinging horn section, the album has a fair share of slower numbers, but the songs that make the biggest impression are the up-tempo cuts. With May's charts wildly careening all over the place, Sinatra relies on his macho swagger; as a result, Come Dance with Me! is an intoxicating rush of invigorating dance songs.
All selections arranged and conducted by Billy May
Constructed around a light-hearted travel theme, Come Fly With Me, Frank Sinatra's first project with arranger Billy May, was a breezy change of pace from the somber Where Are You. From the first swinging notes of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen's "Come Fly With Me" -- which is written at Sinatra's request -- it's clear that the music on the collection is intended to be fun. Over the course of the album, Sinatra and May travel around the world in song, performing standards like "Moonlight in Vermont" and "April in Paris," as well as humorous tunes like "Isle of Capri" and "On the Road to Mandalay." May's signature bold, brassy arrangements give these songs a playful, carefree, nearly sarcastic feel, but never is the approach less than affectionate. In fact, Come Fly With Me is filled with varying moods and textures, as it moves from boisterous swing numbers to romantic ballads, and hitting any number of emotions in between. There may be greater albums in Sinatra's catalog, but few are quite as fun as Come Fly With Me.
Alone At Last (Theme From "Something To Live For") (1953)
The Wonder Of You (1956)
Stringin' Along (1951)
Theme For Love (1951)
My Love (1951)
Rita (1955)
The Call Of Far-Away Hills (Theme From "Shane") (1953)
Twilight Nocturne (1951)
Bright Lights (1954)
Wintertime Of Love (1953)
Love Theme to Love You (1956)
Latin Rhythm (1949)
Apresenta Victor Young
Track 1 - with Bernie Leighton, piano soloist
Track 4 - with Ray Turner, piano soloist
Track 5 - with Tommy Dorsey, trombone soloist
Track 7 - with Carl Prager, sax-alto soloist
Falecido em 1956, aos 56 anos de idade, Victor Young foi considerado, através de sua carreira de compositor, orquestrador e regente por 22 anos consecutivos, um dos campeões mundiais da música ligeira. Nascido em Chicago, EUA, estudou música durante 10 anos em Varsóvia, no Conservatório Imperial. Em 1920, ao retornar a seu país, Victor Young tentou desenvolver carreira de violinista, chegando a apresentar-se como solista com orquestras importantes, inclusive a Sinfônica de Chicago, a esse tempo dirigida por Frederick Stock.
A música popular, todavia, acabaria por atraí-lo, principalmente porque o recebeu de braços abertos, dando-lhe oportunidades de trabalho. Victor Young, decididamente, não era violinista para competir com um Heifetz ou um Mischa Elman. Quanto a isso, ele não alimentava ilusões. Mas seu talento teria lugar em outra área que não a do recitalista, e isso Victor Young compreendeu logo. Trabalhou durante algum tempo com diversas orquestras de dança (inclusive a de Ben Pollack, onde também começou Glenn Miller), até que formou a sua própria. Entrementes, já se pusera a compor e, uma das baladas de sua autoria, Sweet Sue, Just You, seria um dos maiores sucessos dos anos 20.
Em 1934, foi um dos primeiros contratados do novo selo Decca (hoje MCA), juntamente com Bing Crosby, Guy Lombardo e Mildred Bailey. À frente de uma orquestra com muitas cordas, metais e madeiras, Victor Young não só fazia a maioria dos acompanhamentos para cantores da Decca, como também gravava num estilo semelhante ao de Paul Whiteman e Nathaniel Shilkret, produzindo discos que logo chamariam a atenção pela inventividade e bom gosto.
Em 1935, Hollywood requisitou-o para fazer música de filmes. Trabalhou durante muitos anos com exclusividade para a Paramount Pictures, mas, com o correr do tempo, tornar-se-ia "free-lance", produzindo partituras para a Warner, Republic, etc. Muitas dessas partituras receberiam prêmios, destacadamente as feitas para sucessos de bilheteria como "Por Quem os Sinos Dobram", "A Volta ao Mundo em 80 Dias", "Sansão e Dalila", "Palavras ao Vento", "Um Amor em Cada Vida", "Os Brutos Também Amam" e "O Meu Maior Amor"; mas, ao lado disso tudo, Victor Young também entraria várias vezes em "paradas de sucesso", assinando, como autor, canções ainda hoje em repertório, ressaltando-se My Foolish Heart, Stella By Starlight, Love Letters e Beautiful Love.
O número de gravações que Victor Young com sua orquestra fizeram para a Decca é incontável, se somarmos as só instrumentais às de acompanhamento para cantores. Em reedições que lançamos recentemente ("Temas de Hollywood com Victor Young" e "Oscars com Victor Young"), selecionamos muitas dentre as melhores, mas, como o título dos LPs bem o demonstram, não nos preocupamos senão com o repertório, dando Victor Young como o intérprete.
Neste disco, contudo, o assunto é somente Victor Young. Reunimos algumas de suas melhores composições (não reeditadas, evidentemente, nos lançamentos anteriores) sob sua própria regência. Resultou, é lógico, um LP onde Victor Young apresenta Victor Young, disco há muito aguardado pelos apreciadores de nosso saudoso focalizado.
Há duas faixas que se colocam entre as derradeiras gravações que o músico fez, ambas realizadas em 1956: o tema do filme "O Fruto do Pecado" e a canção The Wonder Of You. Aparecem pela primeira vez em LP. Note-se, por outro lado, a presença do também saudoso Tommy Dorsey na faixa My Love, uma das melodias mais notáveis que Victor Young criou em sua carreira. Incluímos, outrossim, composições sem vinculação com o cinema, valendo observar que uma delas - Latin Rhythm - embora constitua peça independente, teve o seu "trio-central" melódico aproveitado como tema de abertura do filme "Chaga de Fogo", em 1951.
No programa deste disco, enfim, buscamos por um pouco de tudo. Há líricas peças noturnais, baladas românticas, ritmos latino-americanos, fantasias de grande brilho orquestral, ternos solos de piano, coberturas melódicas para filmes e, sobretudo, a até hoje inimitável capacidade de Victor Young para levar ao ouvinte uma linha melódica clara e precisa, usando, a seu modo, de meios orquestrais altamernte sofisticados e com equilíbrio sonoro fora do comum.
Repondo em catálogo antigas matrizes há muitos anos reclamadas de volta pelos apreciadores, esperamos, de nossa parte, ter contribuído para a preservação dessas autênticas jóias fonográficas, mantendo-as ainda intactas junto do convívio de quem realmente aprecia a boa música.
I Could Have Danced All Night / I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face
A Wonderful Guy
Bali Ha'i
Younger Than Springtime
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"
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.
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.
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.
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)
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!
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!
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.
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.
