GLCD 5119 1950's Volume 3 - Say It with Music Reviews & Broadcast

THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIGHT MUSIC 1950's Volume III - Say It With Music GLCD 5103 The 1950s Volume I GLCD 5111 The 1950's Volume II - Midnight Matinee STANLEY BLACK AND HIS ORCHESTRA, DAVID ROSE ORCHESTRA, CHARLES WILLIAMS AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA, NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by DOLF VAN DER LINDEN, LEROY ANDERSON AND HIS ‘POPS’ CONCERT ORCHESTRA, FRANK CHACKSFIELD AND HIS ORCHESTRA, JOE “MR PIANO” HENDERSON with LAURIE JOHNSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA,LES BAXTER AND HIS ORCHESTRA, GEOFF LOVE AND HIS ORCHESTRA, PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA featuring BERNIE LEIGHTON, Harpsichord, ROGER ROGER AND HIS CHAMPS ELYSEES ORCHESTRA, AUGMENTED HAMBURG RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by HARRY HERMANN, DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON Track 01 Say It With Music Track 25 Holiday in Hollywood

Contents:

Unless a Compact Disc is devoted to the works of only one or two composers, it is usually very difficult to do full justice to the careers of everyone whose music is featured within the space available in most CD booklets. We try to cover the important composers and conductors with brief pen portraits outlining their work, but it has always been a difficult choice deciding who has to be omitted when space runs out. In some ways the task is becoming a little easier, because regular purchasers of these CDs will already be familiar with many of the names. This does allow us to investigate some of the other writers who, for various reasons, have a lower public profile, but it must be emphasised that every composer and orchestra chosen for inclusion in this series of Guild CDs is regarded as being of the very highest calibre.

On this occasion it is the turn of the composers, rather than the conductors, to come under the spotlight, but some of them really need little introduction to music lovers. For example, there can be few who aren’t already familiar with the magnificent contributions made by Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers, Arthur Schwartz and Jerome Kern to the great American songbook of the 20^th century. It would be hard to write anything new about their achievements, so we will assume that they will graciously allow us to concentrate on some of the other composers who have enriched our enjoyment of music.

In order of appearance we start with the Italian Mario Nascimbene (1913-2002). From the 1940s until his last in 1982, he scored numerous international films, with the most notable including “The Vikings”, “Alexander the Great” and “Room at the Top”. “The Barefoot Contessa” was described by one critic as possibly ‘the silliest film of 1954’ but the main theme certainly proved popular.

Edward White (1910-1994) enjoyed considerable acclaim with his Runaway Rocking Horse when it emerged as one of the most popular pieces of light music in the immediate post-war years – the version by the Orchestre Raymonde can be heard on Guild GLCD5102. But he was to achieve even greater success a few years later with Puffin’ Billy (featured on Guild GLCD 5101), thanks to its use in Britain as the signature tune of “Children’s Favourites”, and as the theme for “Captain Kangaroo” in the USA. Many other White originals found their way into the recorded music libraries of several London publishers, and this time we feature his White Wedding from Boosey and Hawkes.

Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) is probably the best-loved American light music composer of his generation. For many years he was the chief arranger for the Boston Pops and its famous conductor, Arthur Fiedler, introduced many Anderson novelties to an appreciative world. Perhaps Sleigh Ride has been the most enduring, but numerous others like Serenata, Belle Of The Ball, Blue Tango (GLCD 5114), Forgotten Dreams, The Waltzing Cat and Fiddle Faddle (GLCD 5105) have ensured his rightful place in musical history. In 1955 he had another big hit with Sandpaper Ballet which possibly owes its popularity on the concert stage due to the participation required from the percussionist. Can there be another work that features a solo for sandpaper?

Georges Auric (1899-1983) was a French composer who scored the music for many popular British films in the immediate post-war years, such as “Passport to Pimlico”, “The Lavender Hill Mob” and “It Always Rains on Sunday”. Other notable contributions included “Caesar and Cleopatra” and “Moulin Rouge”; in total over a period of forty years he worked on almost thirty British films, and well over one hundred for French, American, German and American companies.

Richard Addinsell (1904-1977) is one of the most famous British film composers of the last century, his Warsaw Concerto from the film “Dangerous Moonlight” (1942) being the work which spawned countless soundalikes in the ensuing years. Rather than rest on his laurels, he continued writing for the stage and films, and Out of the Clouds was the theme for a 1954 compendium movie which featured some less than enthralling events in the lives of several characters grounded by fog at London’s Heathrow Airport. However, the location shots are fascinating.

Philippe-Gérard was born (as Philippe Bloch) in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1924. After moving to Switzerland, he eventually settled in France where his melodies proved popular with singers such as Yves Montand and Édith Piaf. Frank Sinatra recorded his Chevalier de Paris which, with an English lyric, became When the World was Young.

Ill-health in later life plagued the career of Eddie Heywood (1915-1989). As a pianist he accompanied the likes of Billie Holiday and Alberta Hunter, but partial paralysis in his hands eventually forced him to concentrate more on composing. This produced his biggest hit Canadian Sunset, as well as other delightful numbers such as Soft Summer Breeze and Rainfall, here given the magic touch from Percy Faith.

Roger Roger (1911-1995) was a leading figure on the French music scene for many years, and his fine compositions and arrangements also won him many admirers internationally. He started writing for French films towards the end of the 1930s (firstly documentaries, then feature films), and was responsible for the famous pantomime sequences in Marcel Carné’s Les Enfants du Paradis (1944). After the Second World War Roger played piano and conducted a 35-piece orchestra for a major French weekly radio series "Paris Star Time" (Paris a l’heure des Etoiles), which was sent all over the world and even broadcast in the USA. His own instrumental cameos that were featured in the show brought him to the attention of the London publishers Chappell & Co., who were rapidly expanding their Recorded Music Library of background music at that time. Roger’s quirky compositions soon became available to radio, television and film companies around the world, one of the earliest being The Toy Shop Window (La Vitrine aux Jouets) selected for this CD.

Frank Perkins (b. 1908) gained a degree in Economics at university, but he soon discarded the idea of a financial career for his first love, music. After studying in both America and Europe, he became noticed in 1934 following a successful collaboration with lyricist Mitchell Parrish which resulted in Stars Fell on Alabama and Emmaline. At the end of the decade he settled in Hollywood, where his name can be spotted in the music credits for many Warner Bros. pictures during the war years. Later he tended to concentrate more on light orchestral works for concert performance producing some catchy novelties with intriguing titles such as Kentucky Trotter (GLCD 5114), The Frustrated Floorwalker and The Deserted Patio.  One of his biggest hits was Fandango (GLCD 5103) which also became a song with the benefit of an added lyric by John Bradford. Barbara, featured in this collection, seems to have been rather a lively fun-loving lady!

The composer of Eleanora (also known as Eleonora) was the Dutch pianist and composer D. Arendo, born Arend Honhoff in 1918.

Len Stevens (d. 1989) (his full name was Herbert Leonard Stevens) was a prolific composer, contributing mood music to several different libraries, with a style that his admirers quickly grew to recognise. Like so many of the talented musicians employed in the business, he could turn his hand to any kind of music that was needed, and he was also involved in the musical theatre. Easy Street is typical of the bright and breezy numbers that were always being heard in cinema newsreels of the 1950s.

Philip Green (1910-1982) began his professional career at the age of eighteen playing in various orchestras. Within a year he became London’s youngest West End conductor at the Prince of Wales Theatre. His long recording career began with EMI in 1933, and he is credited with at least 150 film scores, including “Golden Ivory” from which comes the attractive piece Wagon Trail.

Benjamin Frankel (1906-1973) is today remembered more for some of his serious works, although his name first came to the public’s attention through several of his film scores, particularly “The Seventh Veil” (1946), “So Long At The Fair” (1950) from which comes the charming Carriage and Pair (GLCD 5105), “The Man In The White Suit” (1951) and “A Kid For Two Farthings” (1955). In total Frankel scored over 80 feature films and documentaries, plus television plays and theatrical productions.

Frederic Curzon (1899-1973) devoted his early career to working in the theatre and like so many of his contemporaries he gradually became involved in providing music for silent films. As well as being a fine pianist and a conductor, he also played the organ, and his first big success as a composer was his “Robin Hood Suite” in 1937. This encouraged him to devote more of his time to writing and broadcasting, and several of his works have become light music ‘standards’, notably The Boulevardier, Dance of an Ostracised Imp and the miniature overture Punchinello. He was eventually appointed Head of Light Music at London publishers Boosey and Hawkes, and for a while was also President of the Light Music Society. He wrote a large amount of ‘mood music’ himself – Savoir Faire being a charming example.

George Melachrino (1909-1965) was one of the top British conductors of light music, with his records (especially LPs) selling in large numbers around the world. He served his musical apprenticeship in British dance bands before World War 2, during which he fronted the British Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, alongside Glenn Miller and Robert Farnon – respectively in charge of the US and Canadian bands. As well as conducting, Melachrino was a fine composer, and pieces such as Winter Sunshine and Starlight Roof Waltz have become light music standards. Waltz in Water Colours finds him in a gentler, mellow mood.

Austrian-born Oscar Straus (1870-1954) had a brief career as a conductor, before turning entirely to composing. His operas and instrumental works are eclipsed by his successful operettas, particularly “A Waltz Dream” (1907) and “The Chocolate Soldier” (1908 - based on George Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man”). During the early 1930s Straus wrote scores for several films, although his most well-known came later in 1950 with “La Ronde” from which the big international hit was Love’s Roundabout (GLCD 5110). In 1939 he fled from the Nazis and became a French citizen, but when France was invaded in 1940 he moved to the United States. Waltz Dream is widely regarded as probably his most enduring orchestral work.

Born in Toronto, Canada, Robert Farnon (1917-2005) came to England in 1944 to conduct the Canadian Band of the AEF, and when he was demobbed he 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. Being so prolific, it was inevitable that some of his pieces would be less heard than others, but surely En Route deserves not to be forgotten.

Frank Cordell (1918-1980) was a fine composer, arranger and conductor whose work first became noticed through the tuneful backings he often supplied to some contract singers on HMV singles in the 1950s. Occasionally he was allowed his own 78s, and he was also responsible for several fine LPs which quickly became collectors’ items. The cinema beckoned with some prestigious projects including “The Captain’s Table” (1959), “Flight From Ashiya” (1964), ”Khartoum” (1966), “Mosquito Squadron” (1969), “Ring Of Bright Water” (1969), “Hell Boats” (1970), “Cromwell” (1970) – he was nominated for an Oscar, “Trial By Combat” (1976) and “God Told Me To” (1976). From time to time he contributed to publishers’ production music libraries, and also composed (and conducted) under the name Francis Meillear (or Meilleur). Frank’s sensitive arrangement for strings of the English air Oh Dear What Can The Matter Be is included on Guild GLCD5104.

Peter Dennis hides the true identity of Dennis Alfred Berry, who also composed (sometimes in collaboration with others) under names such as Frank Sterling, Charles Kenbury and Michael Rodney. For part of the 1950s he ran the Paxton library, and Holiday in Hollywood was probably his biggest success for them; he was also the composer of Packet Boat (GLCD 5112). In the booklet notes for “Reflections of Tranquility” it was stated that Dennis Berry went on to form Berry Publishing, but subsequent research has revealed that this is incorrect. It was a director of Campbell Connelly, Ron Berry, who was involved with Berry Music and the Conroy Recorded Music Library. At the end of the 1950s Dennis Berry was head-hunted to start the Southern Library of Recorded Music (now owned by BMG); eventually he emigrated to South Africa, before finally returning to England where he died during the 1980s.

Joyce Cochrane wrote several attractive songs for shows and films (such as You’re Only Dreaming for the 1950 film “Dance Hall” featuring the Ted Heath and Geraldo orchestras), and her Honey Child was recorded by Gracie Fields with an orchestral version by Robert Farnon (GLCD 5104). Several of her works appeared in publishers’ recorded music libraries, and a few others were recorded commercially. The pianist on Prelude to Peace is Sidney Bright, brother of the orchestra’s conductor Gerald Bright, who was always known as ‘Geraldo’.                                                                                                                               David Ades

Page revised 17.05.2006