GLCD 5104 Great British Light Orchestras Reviews Broadcasts

THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIGHT MUSIC Great British Light Orchestras With Ray Martin, Robert Farnon, Norrie Paramor, Mantovani, Ron Goodwin, Frank Cordell, Jack Leon, Charles Williams, Sidney Torch, Peter Yorke, George Melachrino, Stanley Black etc. Sound Clips Track 13 Goodwood Galop Track 22 Parade Of The Clowns

Contents:

When looking back over the history of recorded sound, and the involvement of British Light Orchestras in what has become known as the ‘Golden Age of Light Music’, there is a tendency to concentrate on the 1940s and 1950s. Indeed this was a period of great musical riches, as has already been touched upon in the three previous Guild CDs in this series. Possibly one of the main reasons for concentrating upon these two decades was due to the fact that sound recording had advanced to the stage where reproduction in the home was achieving satisfactory results, and the availability of new recordings (especially as the 1950s dawned) greatly increased the choice on offer.

However it would be wrong to dismiss the earlier years of the 20^th century as being unworthy of consideration, and even the Victorian era can make a rightful claim to having been responsible for ‘educating’ the general public in the pleasures of light music. These factors may well merit future investigation, but before commenting upon some of the music in this collection, it is perhaps appropriate to mention two reasons why British musicians seemed to be so much in demand for this repertoire around half a century ago.

It really all boils down to the sound that was being achieved – both from the performers and the sound engineers. And the British weather can take some credit as well: the mild, often damp climate has been found to favour string instruments. In the post-war years new microphones were making big improvements in sound quality, but perhaps the greatest advantage that the British orchestras possessed was human, rather than technical. The European political situation during the 1930s meant that many talented musicians decided to make a new life in Britain, and their contribution to the nation’s culture was immeasurable. In particular many gifted string players from leading central European orchestras discovered that their talents were warmly welcomed in Britain, and the beneficial effect lasts to this day.

The opening number Honey Child was a popular song of the late 1940s composed by Joyce Cochrane, but it is really elevated to something rather special by the impeccable arrangement from the fertile imagination of Robert Farnon (b. 1917), one of the truly great talents to emerge in light music during the middle years of the last century. Born in Toronto, Canada, Farnon had a distinguished career in Canadian Radio during the 1930s. He was a member of the legendary "Happy Gang", and became first trumpet player in Percy Faith’s CBC Orchestra. When Faith went to the USA in 1940, Farnon picked up the baton, but the Second World War was to make a major impact upon his life and career. As Captain Robert Farnon, he was posted to Britain in 1944 as conductor of the Canadian Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, working alongside Glenn Miller and George Melachrino, who fronted the American and British bands.

After the war, Farnon remained in Britain where he quickly established himself in radio, records, films and television. His gift for composition resulted in hundreds of his works being accepted for the background music library operated by the London publishers Chappells, and many of his catchy themes (notably Jumping Bean and Portrait of a Flirt) became instantly recognisable worldwide. In his later career he was in demand to arrange and conductor for major international starts such as Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne and George Shearing. There are two further examples of the talent of Robert Farnon in this collection: his own composition Goodwood Galop receives a stunning performance from the Queen’s Hall Light Orchestra under his baton, and he conducts his own orchestra in his arrangement of the standard Sand In My Shoes, from one of his many Decca albums of the 1950s.

Ray Martin (1918-1988) was one of the biggest names in British popular music during the 1950s. He conducted his orchestra regularly on radio and television, and was also an Artists and Repertoire Manager at EMI’s Columbia label, where he produced many hit records by their top contract stars. But today he is fondly remembered for his numerous recordings with his own orchestra, many of which were big sellers.

Born in Vienna, Austria, on 11 October 1918, Ray Martin studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 1933 to 1938, then came to Britain in 1938, touring with the famous Jack Hylton band in "Band Wagon", and Carroll Levis as a solo violin act in his "Discoveries". Upon the outbreak of war a year later, he joined the Intelligence Corps, and eventually served in Germany where he conducted a dance band on the British Forces Network (BFN). He wanted a larger, full orchestral sound, which he achieved through his "Melody From The Sky" orchestra, which comprised members from the 30 Corps Orchestra (mainly American musicians) with the strings from the Hamburg Philharmonic.

Upon his discharge from the Army in 1946, Ray Martin returned to England where he wrote arrangements for Mantovani, Geraldo, Stanley Black, Peter Yorke and Billy Ternent, among others. He used his composing skills by contributing several pieces of mood music for Charles Brull’s Harmonic Music Library. In 1947 he was given his first BBC Radio series "Reprise", and his many subsequent broadcasts included "Fanfare", "Waltz Time", "Top Town", "Morning Music", "In the Still of the Night", "Mr. Music" and "Music in the Ray Martin Manner".

Television beckoned with popular shows like "Quite Contrary", "More Contrary", "The Toppers Show", "Ray’s Half Hour", "Roof Top" and "Isn’t it Romantic". Ray also found time to compose film scores, and his song "You Are My First Love" (from the 1956 film "It’s Great To Be Young") won him an Ivor Novello Award. Nat ‘King’ Cole recorded it in the USA. Other films included "Yield To The Night" (1956), "A Secret Place" (1957) and "My Wife’s Family" (1957).

Around 1950 Ray recorded two 78s for the small Polygon company, and just one disc for Decca, before working exclusively for EMI’s Columbia label. From his short visit to the Polygon studios we hear Gypsy Fiddler, which bears all the hallmarks of the distinct sound that made him so popular in the 1950s. His own compositions proved to be some of his greatest successes (notably Marching Strings), but he never recorded Magic Circles himself, so we have chosen to include the rarely heard Geraldo version in this collection.

In 1957 Ray decided to try his luck in the USA, and signed with RCA Records. Thereafter he made occasional visits to Britain and recorded six LPs in Paris for the German Polydor label. He returned to live in Britain in 1972, then departed for Cyprus in 1977, settling briefly before moving on to South Africa at the end of 1978 where he built a new career in broadcasting. He died at his home in Johannesburg on 7 February 1988, at the age of 69 after a long battle against cancer.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Cyril Stapleton was a well-known orchestra leader in Britain and overseas, thanks to his regular BBC broadcasts and his many recordings. He was born on 31 December 1914 at Mapperley, Nottingham, in the East Midlands of England and like so many of his contemporaries, Cyril’s early professional career found him playing in cinema ‘pit orchestras’ accompanying silent films. At 17 he won a scholarship to Trinity College of Music in London, and by the mid-1930s he was working with top British dance bands such as Henry Hall and Jack Payne.

His musical career had to be put on one side when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II where he served for five years, initially as an air gunner. During his last year in the RAF he was stationed in Uxbridge where he became a member of the RAF Symphony Orchestra. This rekindled an earlier interest in the classics, and back in civilian life he decided to concentrate on this area of music. At one particular time he was a member of three orchestras, but having to keep playing the same repertoire started to pall, and in 1947 he reformed his own dance band and he started broadcasting regularly with the BBC.

His fame was assured in 1952, when the BBC Dance Orchestra was changed to the BBC Show Band, and Cyril Stapleton was appointed as its conductor. This was the BBC’s prestige outfit for the playing of popular music, employing the finest musicians and arrangers, and the first programme went out on the Light Programme on 2 October 1952. The Show Band Show was also seen in several BBC Television broadcasts, making Stapleton even more of a household name to the British public.

In 1957 the BBC decided to discontinue its Show Band, but Cyril kept busy touring with his own orchestra, making records and broadcasting, and appearing around the country in theatres and dance halls. In the mid-1960s he was appointed an Artists and Repertoire Manager at Pye Records and later on, while still an executive with the same company, he was persuaded to return to making his own LPs, and conducted several excellent albums. Towards the end of his life he started to tour again, with a large band, trying to re-create his success with the BBC Show Band. Sadly he died aged only 59 on 25 February 1974, but he has left us with a fine collection of recordings, including the catchy novelty Carnavalito.

Charles Williams (born Isaac Cozerbreit 1893-1978) began his career accompanying silent films, then played violin under the batons of Beecham and Elgar. Right from the start of the ‘talkies’, he provided scores for numerous British films, and his Dream Of Olwen is still remembered long after the film in which it appeared – "While I Live". In 1960 he topped the American charts with his theme for the film "The Apartment", although in reality the producers had resurrected one of his earlier works Jealous Lover. By far the majority of his composing skills were employed in mood music, providing hundreds of works for Chappells alone, many of them also conducted by him. Devil’s Galop will forever remind schoolboys of the 1940s of "Dick Barton", while early television viewers became familiar with Girls in Grey, the theme for BBC newsreels. The Young Ballerina accompanied the famous ‘Potter’s Wheel’ TV interlude. This time we hear the fine Charles Williams orchestra performing the works of two other leading light music composers – Clive Richardson’s Romantic Interlude and David Rose’s Parade Of The Clowns.

Clive Richardson (1909-1998) was part of ‘Four Hands in Harmony’ (with Tony Lowry), but that was just a small interlude in a long and successful career. He accompanied several artists on the piano, and was an early contributor of scores to British films (especially some of the Will Hay comedies, although he wasn’t credited on-screen). London Fantasia was a big success in the 1940s, when mini-piano concertos were all the rage. Other Richardson compositions to succeed were Melody On The Move (included in Guild GLCD5102 – the 1940s) and Holiday Spirit, that exuberant theme for BBC Children’s Television Newsreel. Like the previous two titles, Romantic Interlude was originally commissioned by the Chappell Recorded Music Library, but its ensuing popularity prompted the commercial recording by Charles Williams, as featured in this collection.

David Rose (1910-1990) was born in England, but he became a giant of American light music. His Holiday For Strings proved to be the launch of a glittering career, and his place among the finest purveyors of tuneful popular music receives its rightful acknowledgment in other Guild CDs in this series. Parade Of The Clowns is typical of the zany melodies he sometimes wandered into, but there are admirers of his work who prefer this Charles Williams recording to the original, somewhat brash, version by the composer himself.

Eric Coates (1886-1957) was known as ‘The Uncrowned King of Light Music’ – a title richly deserved. His importance is reflected in his frequent inclusion in this Guild series of CDs, and the 1930s collection (Guild GLCD 5106) discusses his career in greater detail. Coates was particularly gifted in being able to write catchy melodies which broadcasters delighted in using as signature tunes for popular programmes – "In Town Tonight" and "Desert Island Discs" being two famous examples. When the BBC Television Service resumed transmissions in June 1946 following the break during World War 2, they required a march to play at the start of each day’s broadcasting, and Coates was the obvious choice to provide it. A fancy title seemed unnecessary, so he simply called it Television March, and he conducted the commercial recording for the Columbia label.

Norrie Paramor (1914-1979) tended to be better known by the public for his work with pop stars such as Cliff Richard, but he also made numerous instrumental recordings and wrote several catchy numbers that greatly appealed. As Artists and Repertoire Manager at Columbia (part of the time with Ray Martin) he often handed the best tunes to his contract artists, but in the case of April In Portugal he decided to take his own orchestra into Studio 2 at Abbey Road.

Ron Goodwin (1925-2003) appears with his orchestra twice on this CD, in both instances in recordings he made for Polygon just before signing with EMI’s Parlophone label. He was a brilliant composer, arranger and conductor, whose tuneful music reached the furthest corners of the world, thanks to his numerous recordings and film scores. Before becoming famous, he had a thorough grounding in the music business, securing his first important job at the age of 18 when he went to work with the famous publishers Campbell, Connelly & Co. as a music copier. At the same time he pursued his studies on the trumpet and arranging at the Guildhall School of Music, and he began to play trumpet professionally with Harry Gold and his Pieces of Eight.

In 1945 he was appointed head of the arranging department at Bron Associated Publishers, where he was involved in working with the best British bands such as Ted Heath, Geraldo and the BBC Dance Orchestra. Ron’s talents were noticed by the top people in the business, and ‘Ron Goodwin and his Concert Orchestra’ soon became a familiar name through recordings and broadcasts. With Parlophone he made numerous singles and LPs – often featuring his own catchy compositions. Initially Ron’s work in the film industry was at Merton Park Studios on documentaries, but in 1958 his big chance came with a commission to write his first score for a major feature film "Whirlpool". Two years later he was signed by MGM British Studios to compose and conduct for most of their British productions.

In total, Goodwin worked on some 60 films, and an early success was his attractively spirited ‘Miss Marple’ music, inspired by the casting of Margaret Rutherford as Agatha Christie’s famous amateur sleuth and originally written for "Murder She Said" (1962). "633 Squadron" (1964) was his first big blockbuster. The following year Ron hit the jackpot again, this time also up in the clouds but in humorous vein, with "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines". The story of an international air race in the early days of aviation, afforded numerous opportunities for different styles of comic and romantic themes to suit the wild antics of the participants, and Goodwin’s score (including the catchy main theme) was a masterpiece. Thereafter he was frequently in demand by the top studios, and he combined this work with increasing concert appearances around the world. His arrangement of Heyken’s Serenade appears on Guild GLCD 5101, and this time we hear two more of his scores from the same period – Rainbow Run (probably the best-known composition by Edy Mers) and Robert Vollstedt’s The Jolly Brothers which older music-lovers will recognise as the theme adopted by the comedian Albert Whelan.

Mantovani (1905-1980) is widely known for his famous ‘cascading strings’ effect (created in 1951 by his gifted arranger, Ronald Binge) but that was only one aspect of his distinguished career. Kashmiri Song was a favourite ballad of the earlier years of the century, yet how well it responds to the sensitive Mantovani treatment.

Frank Chacksfield, Frank Cordell, George Melachrino, Philip Green, Peter Yorke and Stanley Black were also highly respected conductors around fifty years ago. Several have already been mentioned in previous Guild CDs, and all will receive attention in later releases. Similarly lack of space does not allow proper recognition to be accorded to all the composers, among them: Henry Croudson (an organist who wrote some impressive light music); Edward White (already heard on GLCD 5101 and 5102); Reginald King (one of his major works is in a Guild 1930s collection – GLCD 5106); and the German Josef Rixner.

To conclude these present notes, it would be remiss not to salute the genius of Sidney Torch (1909-1990) – both as a conductor of the work of his peers (in this case Angela Morley’s arrangement of Canadian Capers), and as an arranger in his own right, as heard in his scintillating treatment of that landmark musical "Oklahoma". From the opening excitement created by the brass, through all those memorable hit songs to the rousing finale, the distinctive Torch style is indelibly stamped on every bar. The world of Light Music would have been a much poorer place without him.

Page revised 07.04.06