The Great Light Orchestras Salute Cole Porter

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The Great Light Orchestras Salute COLE PORTER

1 Begin The Beguine (from "Jubilee" - 1935)
GUY LUYPAERTS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
2 Night And Day (from "The Gay Divorce" - 1932)
ANDRE KOSTELANETZ AND HIS ORCHESTRA
3 I Concentrate On You (from "Broadway Melody of 1940")
GORDON JENKINS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
4 Just One Of Those Things (from "Jubilee" - 1935)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
5 I Love Paris (from "Can-Can" – 1953)
EDDIE BARCLAY AND HIS ORCHESTRA
6 All Through The Night (from "Anything Goes" - 1934) (arr. Percy Faith)
PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
7 Anything Goes (from "Anything Goes" - 1934); You’re The Top (from "Anything Goes" – 1934)
GUY LUYPAERTS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
8 "Kiss Me Kate" (1948) selection (arr. Angela Morley)
SIDNEY TORCH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
9 C’est Magnifique (from "Can-Can" - 1953)
MANTOVANI AND HIS ORCHESTRA
10 Easy To Love (from "Born To Dance" - 1936)
STANLEY BLACK AND HIS ORCHESTRA
11 I Get A Kick Out Of You (from "Anything Goes" - 1934)
DAVID ROSE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
12 I Love You (from "Mexican Hayride" - 1944) (arr. Percy Faith)
PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
13 I’ve Got You Under My Skin (from "Born To Dance" - 1936)
STANLEY BLACK AND HIS ORCHESTRA
14 In The Still Of The Night (from "Rosalie" - 1937)
GORDON JENKINS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
15 Love For Sale (from "The New Yorkers" – 1930)
THE PITTSBURGH STRINGS arranged and conducted by RICHARD JONES
16 Wunderbar (from "Kiss Me Kate" – 1948)
MANTOVANI AND HIS ORCHESTRA
17 What Is This Thing Called Love? (from "Wake Up And Dream" - 1930); You Do Something To Me (from "Fifty Million Frenchmen" - 1929)
GUY LUYPAERTS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
18 Blow, Gabriel, Blow (from "Anything Goes" - 1934)

ANDRE KOSTELANETZ AND HIS ORCHESTRA
19 You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To (from "Something To Shout About" - 1942) (arr. Percy Faith)
PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
20 Do I Love You? (from "Du Barry Was A Lady" – 1943)
GLENN OSSER AND HIS ORCHESTRA
21 Cole Porter Suite Night And Day, I Get A Kick Out Of You, My Heart Belongs To Daddy, In The Still Of The Night, Let’s Do It, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Don’t Fence Me In, Anything Goes
LOUIS LEVY AND HIS "MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES"

Guild Light Music GLCD 5127

Somewhat surprisingly, this collection of fabulous melodies wasn’t as easy to compile as Alan Bunting and myself originally imagined when we started on this project. We knew which ones we would like to include, but it wasn’t always easy to find suitable non-vocal recordings. Probably the main reason was that so many Cole Porter creations are admired equally for their lyrics, as well as the music, and performers (and record companies) usually chose to offer collectors both. In the end we did manage to find some excellent performances from 1955 and earlier (the sound copyright deadline), although we were somewhat frustrated that some fine albums from later in the 1950s were just beyond our reach.

The Guild "Golden Age of Light Music" series prides itself for offering collectors often rare recordings restored to today’s high standards, with the minimum amount of interference to alter the original performance as captured by sound engineers of the time. Very occasionally some modest enhancements are made in an effort to achieve a uniform sound quality which does not vary too much between different tracks, although this can sometimes be difficult to achieve when one considers that some collections may contain 78 rpm discs made almost 30 years apart.

In the case of this Cole Porter collection we are bracing ourselves for some criticism from purists who feel that not a note of the original performance should be changed, but we are fully prepared to stand by our decision to allow a few edits in order to make the music more complete.

These edits mainly involve the three tracks featuring the Guy Luypaerts Orchestra. The music originally appeared as one continuous suite, with some titles not coming to a satisfactory ending on their own, but merging into the next melody. Because we wished to include some compositions not available to us from other sources, the decision was taken to make edits as necessary so that the music could be enjoyed in a complete form. The Louis Levy selection has also been edited to remove one number which already appears elsewhere on the CD. Levy’s version of Begin The Beguine has been omitted in favour of the exciting Guy Luypaerts version which opens the collection as there wasn’t room to include both of them. Luypaerts cleverly incorporates snatches of a number of Porter tunes which set the tone for the entire CD.

Cole Porter was one of the finest of that elite group of 20th century songwriters whose melodies entertained the entire world. Not only did he compose the music, but he also wrote the catchy lyrics which were often far more clever than the average listener appreciated at the time (Irving Berlin was the only other major composer who preferred to write the words to accompany his melodies). Today we can only marvel at the way in which Porter introduced unbelievable rhymes and hidden innuendoes, which occasionally may have lost their full meaning in later years when referring to personalities of a bygone era. He was also a master of the double entendre which often went over the heads of many listeners lacking his sophistication.

Happily Porter’s music still stands up well without the lyrics, and in the hands of the gifted arrangers represented in this collection these are surely miniature masterpieces – priceless examples of the superb music just there for the taking over fifty years ago.

Students of Porter’s life and career have been well served with biographies in recent years (over ten at the last count) and readers of Journal Into Melody may care to get out their copies of issue 167 and read again Murray Ginsberg’s affectionate portrait (page 18).

Making his debut on a Guild Light Music CD isGuy Luypaerts (b. 1917) who was born in Paris to Belgian parents during the First World War. He became known in French musical circles and conducted an orchestra called the Nouvelle Association Symphonique de Paris. This was in the era when live music featured prominently on the radio, and his broadcasts with this orchestra resulted in invitations to conduct other radio orchestras in European cities. He worked with Edith Piaf, Georges Guetary, Charles Trénet and Yves Montand and also had a reputation as a jazz pianist.

Two other orchestras are also appearing on a Guild Light Music CD for the first time – Eddie Barclay and Glenn Osser.

Eddie Barclay(1921-2005)(real name Edouard Ruault – he changed it in 1944 when he came into contact with American liberation forces) was famous in France for two reasons: his music, and his nine wives. His career took off at the end of World War 2 when he realised that his jazz with a French flavour was much in demand. He launched what he claimed to be the first discothèque, Eddie's Club, based on the American clubs that had opened to serve US military personnel, and started his own band in 1947. Gradually he began extending his talents into conducting and record production for several leading singers, and eventually he formed Barclay Records. Thanks to his contacts with the American record industry he was able to take a leading role in the production and distribution of LP records in France where he became known as the ‘king of microgroove’.

Glenn Osser (b. 1914) (real name Abraham Osser) became a familiar name in the USA during the 1950s for his work on various television shows, although he first came to prominence though his close association with Paul Whiteman for whom he provided arrangements and often conducted the orchestra, usually for the vocalists. Other top bands which used his scores included Les Brown, Jan Savitt, Bob Crosby, Bunny Berigan and Charlie Barnet. For much of his career he freelanced as a conductor and arranger, and became closely associated with the "Miss America" beauty pageants for many years.

The other conductors in this collection will be familiar to JIM readers, and their impressive careers do not need to be examined again on this occasion. But we would like to mention the track featuring the great orchestra fronted by Sidney Torch(1908-1990), who distinguished himself in two musical spheres. In his early years he gained a reputation as a brilliant cinema organist, but in the second half of his career he switched to writing and conducting Light Music, with even greater success. As well as his conventional work for radio and commercial records, he became a master of composing, arranging and conducting Mood Music (now better known as Production Music) for London publishers Chappell & Co. and Francis, Day & Hunter. His "Kiss Me Kate" selection includes most of the popular numbers from the show including Another Opening Another Show, So In Love, Wunderbar, Always True To You In My Fashion and Why Can’t You Behave.It is notable for being an early example of the considerable arranging talents of Angela Morley (b. 1924) who at the time was working as ‘Wally Stott’. Angela is now recognised as one of England’s foremost composers, and her work in Hollywood (assisting John Williams on "Star Wars" is one prime example) has placed her at the forefront of her profession. Torch’s 78 of "Kiss me Kate" seems to be quite hard to find, so hopefully its inclusion on this CD will please his many aficionados who may have missed it previously.

David Ades

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