No one who has ever seen a James Bond film (and this probably takes in half the population of the Western world) will forget the driving, beat-filled music of John Barry which accompanied the adventures of the high-living spy. A parallel to the world of fast cars, ready women, and sudden death in which James Bond moved, the vibrant guitars and rich orchestral arrangements of John Barry’s themes have thrilled all who heard them, and set new standards in the business of setting excitement to music.
The themes from Dr. No, From Russia with Love and Goldfinger, together with the 007 theme, which wove its way through each of these wild adventures, are here played with dash and bravado by Danny Davis and his Orchestra. Another sensuous tension-filled composition, Henry Mancini’s great Peter Gunn theme, will bring back memories of that rugged. hard-hitting private eye; and tunes like Kenyon Hopkins’ eerie Chamber of Horrors and Monster Meeting show that you never can tell what might be lurking behind the microphones in a recording studio.
This is an album full of the pace and excitement of modern life. Here is sophisticated music with undertones of menace, hard-bitten tunes played with worldly insouciance, and music of mystery tainted with the threat of horror. Each note is alive with a tension ‘hat will set you on the edge of your chair. So don’t settle back —sit forward and enjoy it.
BLASE MACHIN
Although this album primarily features The Singers singing the words, there are two songs which feature the orchestra and chorus instrumentally. Ray plays trombone on one of these, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and he also features “Skeets” Herfurt on the amplified flute, as well as some exciting timpani work by Bernie Mattinson (stereo left), and Wally Snow (stereo right).
The album was recorded in Hollywood on 8-track machines with no overdubbing. The instrumentation was: 13 men singers, 12 girl singers, 3 trombones, 3 trumpets, 6 guitars, 2 pianos (organ double), 2 percussionists, string bass, electric Fender bass guitar, rhythm drums, amplified flute (doubling amplified clarinet) and solo trombone by Ray.
Other recent Ray Conniff albums include: “Somewhere My Love” (S) 62740, “This Is My Song” (S) 63037, “The Hawaiian Album (S) 63106, “It Must Be Him” (S) 63247 and “Honey” (S) 63334. Ray’s photo and the cover photo were taken bv Frank Bez.
The concept of the Stereo record is barely a decade old in this country, but it is as much a part of today’s musical scene as the family gathering around the piano was in the last century. Stereo has brought the full sound of the human voice and the musical instrument back into the home, but in a bigger and better way. The very best orchestral and vocal combinations can be heard to their fullest here on an LP of beautifully balanced works covering a range of instruments and a range of popular classical compositions that are a delight to listen to.
Stereo Spectacular gets off to a rousing start with Sousa’s ‘Stars and Stripes For Ever March’ played by the Halle Orchestra under the baton of Sir John Barbirolli. In complete contrast the Halle Orchestra return later in the LP with Purcell’s Trumpet Voluntary which features William Lang on solo trumpet.
So much of this record has been given to Brass bands because of their ability to bring out the best in a tune, and the tremendous effect obtained on a Stereo recording, where the varying facets of the brass instruments lend themselves so well to the Stereo technique.
The greatest bands with the greatest music: The Band of the Coldstream Guards under the direction of Captain Trevor Sharpe play Osterling’s ‘Winds On The Run’.
A combination of bands from the National Brass Band Festival — Brighouse and Rastrick Band: City of Coventry Band: Grimethorpe Colliery Band: G.U.S. (Footwear Band): Hanwell Band are all brought together under the baton of Sir Arthur Bliss to play the best known of all popular classics Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812 Overture’, a piece that is here given the performance it deserves.
The Black Dyke Mills Band and the Bradford Festival Choral Society are on two tracks both with chorus master George Stead and conductor Geoffrey Brand.
The first the soft and beautiful Robertson and Tynan composition ‘All In the April Evening’. The second with Roy Newsome at the Organ, Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah’. The most English of Musicians and singers performing a work that is part of the English heritage.
Also at the Organ is Ralph Downes playing Bach’s ‘Fugue A La Giga’ at the organ of the Royal Festival Hall.
Two top orchestras add their wealth of musical pleasure, The Pro Arte conducted by John Hollingsworth, with the opening dance from Sullivan’s ‘Pineapple Poll’; and Sir Adrian Boult leading the London Philharmonic in Berlioz’s gay ‘Roman Carnival’.
Two more vocal tracks complete the complement of this record; first the haunting melody of that traditional folk song ‘Greensleeves’ sung here by the St. Paul’s Choir directed by Christopher Dearnley. Second Ivor Emmanuel with the Rhos Male Voice choir and the very Welsh ‘All Through The Night’.
This is a record of contrasts; contrast in every hemisphere of Classical music that can conceivably be contained on one LP, but always the very finest of recordings have been selected to give a ‘Stereo Spectacular’.
Love Is Blue has proved to be one of the most delightful melodies of 1968, and one wonders how it could possibly have finished as low as fourth in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest. Still, Paul Mauriat has done much internationally to compensate for this lack of appreciation amongst the Eurovision juries. The tune is one of Andre Popp’s most melodic inspirations, matching the mood of its title perfectly, and Paul Mauriat’s arrangement and orchestral treatment added all that was necessary to make Love Is Blue a million seller throughout the world.
It also served to focus some welcome and overdue international attention on Monsieur Mauriat, already well known in his native France. Paul comes from a French family that can trace its connection with music back through the centuries. In the best Mauriat traditions, he began to play the piano at the tender age of four, and received a thorough grounding in the classics from his father, a successful musician. Paul entered a conservatoire when he was ten, and completed his studies four years later.
The future seemed to hold an illustrious career as a concert pianist, but Paul became aware of jazz and popular music, which until then had barely impinged on his musical life. He started visiting music halls, clubs and variety theatres to hear and see how the other musical half lived, much to the disgust of Mauriat pere. What Paul heard took root and blossomed to the extent that, when he was seventeen, he formed his own orchestra and made a tour of French and European night clubs and cabarets in the face of strong paternal disapproval. Travelling around the country enabled Paul to familiarise himself with audiences of all kinds, but he had set his sights on Pads as the only place where there were sufficient facilities and expert musicians to implement his ideas. Soon after arriving there, he got the chance of arranging and conducting for a singer on a recording session, and spent an agonising and sleepless week writing and re-writing the scores and wondering if he had the slightest hope of establishing himself. The session and the record were successful, however, and offers and assignments of a similar nature mounted in volume for Paul. Eventually he began working with Charles Aznavour, and rates that opportunity as one of the most important and valuable in his whole career.
And now his success with his own orchestra on record and in person provides an interesting and profitable extension to Paul’s musical activities on behalf of other stars. The personal Mauriat touch and ideas find an outlet in his own recordings, and Love Is Blue showed just how effective that touch is.
“Lady Madonna” demonstrates it with excellent effect. Paul has taken a wide range of tunes for his orchestral attention. There is La Peregrinacion, a lovely Christmas song from Argentina; the title song and Eleanor Rigby from the song book of John Lennon and Paul McCartney; the sad little number about Honey, the ingratiating one about the guy in love, and the one dedicated to the unique and active Madame Robinson, Plus some very welcome and worthwhile items from the Continent.
The melodic Mauriat approach invests each one with lasting charm and appeal, and while love may be blue on occasions, the entertainment provided by Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra never is.
With this album Studio Two presents just three of the many facets in the musical talent of the distinguished French conductor and arranger, Franck Pourcel. It contains some very individual arrangements of chart-toppers, a selection of Tangos and a collection of vintage numbers from the 1920s.
They say in France that if you were to make one large pile of all Franck Pourcel’s microgroove records which have been sold throughout the world you would have the equivalent in height of twenty Eiffel Towers one on top of the other On the personal level, despite so much success, Franck Pourcel is the “quiet man” of popular French music. This is perhaps surprising, for when you hear him speak you know immediately he comes from the warm-blooded, argumentative South of France. He’s only kept the accent!
In his orchestrations Pourcel has always put the emphasis on the string section. Even in 78 r.p.m. days the superb violin tone which came through his shellac recordings for La Voix de son Maitre (French H.M.V.) was phenomenal for the time. This impeccable string tone remains the Pourcel hallmark. just as the quality of the melody is the chief consideration in his choice of repertoire. His ‘pop. arrangements frequently transform the slightest thematic notion into a piece we can enjoy hearing time and again. One of his biggest successes was in the ‘singles’ field. He recorded Only You in the United States two years after it had gone out of the charts and sold 2,400.000 copies! The first recording Franck Pourcel ever made, back in 1952, was a tango – Leroy Anderson’s Blue Tango. His treatment of the four tangos here is majestic; the strings in full concert array playing in the grand manner with the renowned accordion virtuoso, Joss Baselli.
It’s to be expected that a Frenchman from the Midi knows a good vintage when he hears it I 1925 was the year of Chaplin’s Gold Rush, “bijoux de fantaisie” and The Charleston. 1925, too, was the year Maurice Chevalier, he was already 37 then, told his cheeky little tale of Valentine showing how the physical attributes of a young girl can so change with the time that you may not recognize her years later when she is all big feet and double chin.
Franck Pourcel finds 1926 a vintage year as well. How his strings can make the Black Bottom bounce again, likewise Tiptoe Through The Tulips. No, No Nanette was the musical show of that year, and we hardly think it was by accident that Franck Pourcel chose:
“I want to be happy, but I can’t be happy, Till I’ve made you happy too”.
Merci, maitre Pourcel.
Tahiti – never before has an island captured the hearts of so many persons both young and old an island that lives for ever in the memories of those who have been fortunate enough to visit it. This album has been produced to capture the moods of the Tahitian people who live between the clear mountain streams, the vivid green palms and the blue Pacific.
Many people visit these islands knowing that the Polynesians who live in this paradise are well suited to this group of islands for without the charm of these people, Tahiti would not be Tahiti, as we know it.
As a fortunate being, who has visited Tahiti many times, this album was produced with pleasure, for it returned to my mind many fond memories of Tahiti and its Polynesian people.
Charles J. Harley.
Label: Viking Records VP 289 Cover Photo by H. Sieben
Whatever your musical pleasure, stereo completes it, gives life and depth, clarity and brilliance. Here at last is the stereo introduction record everybody has been waiting for. Long famous for the quality of their stereo recording, Polydor present for your entertainment selections from our world-renowned catalogue of light music.
These SUPERSTEREO Albums bring to you a new concept in stereo recording. For, until now, most stereo has been of the ‘gimmick’ type exploiting the techniques of stereo whilst not fully realising the true musical value of the performances. Now, CBS Records are proud to present the recordings you have really wanted. The lush sounds of big, famous orchestras and the exciting rhythms of instrumental group flawlessly recorded. Spectacular records, but records that faultlessly retain the superb artistry and dramatic arrangements the artists intended. Superstereo will bring out the full potential of your playing equipment. You will thrill to the sensational sound of Superstereo.
Sit back, relax and enjoy this unique collection of hit tunes brought to you by twelve of the world’s greatest recording Stars. The distinctive styles of each artist make this a record to treasure as an example of all that’s best from the world of popular music. Here are many moods of music, all blended into a delightful album of vocal and orchestral hits.
Following the tremendous success of his first album, ‘HI-FLYING HAMMOND’, Keith Beckingham once again demonstrates the mastery of the Hammond Organ which has carried him round the world, playing before literally hundreds of thousands of people in Hammond Showcase Concerts.
Keith’s rapport with the Hammond Organ is very evident in this record in which he plays on the new model T.200. Each tune receives his treatment and his sparkling arrangements and registrations create another album which will seedy appeal to the whole family. As a delighted listener to ‘Hi-Flying Hammond’ recently said, “Keith Beckingham plays what people want to hear.”
Label: AD-Rhthym ARP-S1001 Cover photograph: Sen Lefton
