GLCD 5127  Great Light Orchestras Salute Cole Porter Reviews & Broadcast

THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIGHT MUSIC Great Light Orchestras Salute Cole Porter GUY LUYPAERTS AND HIS ORCHESTRA - ANDRE KOSTELANETZ AND HIS ORCHESTRA - GORDON JENKINS AND HIS ORCHESTRA - ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA - EDDIE BARCLAY AND HIS ORCHESTRA - PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA - GUY LUYPAERTS AND HIS ORCHESTRA - SIDNEY TORCH AND HIS ORCHESTRA -  MANTOVANI AND HIS ORCHESTRA - STANLEY BLACK AND HIS ORCHESTRA - DAVID ROSE AND HIS ORCHESTRA - PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA - THE PITTSBURGH STRINGS arranged and conducted by RICHARD JONES - GLENN OSSER AND HIS ORCHESTRA - LOUIS LEVY AND HIS “MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES” – 01 Begin The Beguine - GUY LUYPAERTS AND HIS ORCHESTRA 03 I Concentrate On You - GORDON JENKINS AND HIS ORCHESTRA 05 I Love Paris - EDDIE BARCLAY AND HIS ORCHESTRA  09 C’est Magnifique - MANTOVANI AND HIS ORCHESTRA 16 Wunderbar - MANTOVANI AND HIS ORCHESTRA 18 Blow, Gabriel, Blow - ANDRE KOSTELANETZ AND HIS ORCHESTRA

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The last century was certainly an amazing period in the history of popular music. Theatrical productions, gramophone records, talking movies, radio and then television all created an almost insatiable demand for music of all kinds. Tuneful melodies with immediate appeal provided a good number of songwriters with a reasonable living, but the truly great composers whose works have remained constantly in the repertoire of singers and musicians probably number no more than twenty.

One of the finest was Cole Porter. 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.

Cole Albert Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, on 9 June 1891. Unlike most of his famous contemporaries he wasn’t Jewish, and came from a wealthy background. As a child he had piano and violin lessons, then went on to study law and music at Harvard. During the First World War he served in the French army, married Linda (once described as “the most beautiful woman in Britain”) in 1919, and the couple spent the 1920s in Paris.

A few hits emerged during this period (Let’s Do It was one of the best) but Porter could see that his future lay back home in the USA where Hollywood badly needed songwriters of his calibre. A string of successes confirmed his position among the elite of his chosen profession, and even a terrible riding accident in 1937 (which made him a semi-invalid) failed to stem the flow. After numerous operations his right leg had to be amputated in 1958, which made him reclusive. He died on 15 October 1964 at Santa Monica, California, following a kidney stone operation.

Students of Porter’s life and career have been well served with biographies in recent years (over ten at the last count) so these notes can now concentrate on some of the orchestras performing his works.

Making his debut on a Guild Light Music CD is Guy 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.

Andre Kostelanetz (1901-1980) was one of the biggest names in American light orchestral music during the middle years of the 20th century. He created a rich symphonic style of scoring that was to transform many popular melodies way beyond their humble origins, and there is little doubt that he influenced many of his contemporaries. During a period of 20 years from around 1940 onwards Kostelanetz conducted a series of recordings that stand as fine examples of the art of the orchestral arranger. With hindsight, it is kinder to ignore his later work, when his record company obliged him to alter his style to pander to changing musical fashions, and the fact that the average age of record buyers was getting lower each year. Fortunately he was a prolific recording artist during his ‘glorious years’ and his tracks in this collection both come from that golden period. Andre Kostelanetz died at Port-au-Prince on the Caribbean island of Haiti on 13 January 1980, aged 78. 

Stanley Black (1913-2002) was one of England’s foremost musicians during an impressive career which spanned seven decades. Originally a pianist in dance bands, he soon added arranging and conducting to his numerous talents. Later on he was to gain respect for a number of film scores, and he became internationally known for his many recordings and concert appearances.   

Gordon Jenkins (1910-1984) arranged for many of the top bands in America during the two World Wars, and he soon carved out an impressive career in radio and films. He signed with US Decca in 1945, and eventually became their managing director. Under his guidance the label had several big hits, although it has to be said that his own instrumental records sometimes disappointed. His ambitious “Manhattan Tower” first appeared in the mid-1940s, and it was later re-recorded by Capitol in 1956. Sadly time has not been kind to it. Far better were his arrangements for Nat King Cole (especially Stardust) and Frank Sinatra (the album No One Cares).

David Rose (1910-1990) was born in London, England, and the family moved to the USA when he was just four-years-old. After leaving the Chicago College of Music at the age of 16, he joined Ted Fio Rito's dance band, and three years later became a pianist/arranger/conductor for NBC Radio. He moved to Hollywood, and in 1938 formed his own orchestra for the Mutual Broadcasting System, and featured on the programme “California Melodies”. Rose began working in movies in 1941 and is credited with scoring 36 films. In 1943 he had a big hit with his own composition Holiday For Strings which firmly launched him as a light music composer in the eyes of the public. He later wrote scores and themes for over 20 television series and won Emmy awards for his 14 year stint on “Bonanza”, 10 years with “Little House On The Prairie” and his work on three much-acclaimed Fred Astaire specials. After chart success with Calypso Melody in 1957, Rose had a worldwide smash hit in 1962 with another of his own tunes, a humorous and satirical piece called The Stripper. In total he won five Grammy awards and six gold records.

Born in Toronto, Canada, Robert Farnon (1917-2005) 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 Chappell & Co., 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 conduct for major international stars such as Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne and George Shearing.

Another new name to Guild, 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’.

Sidney Torch (1908-1990) 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.

Glenn Osser (b. 1914) is also making his first appearance in Guild’s “Golden Age of Light Music” series with Do I Love You – perhaps one of Porter’s lesser known songs. 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 usual enemy of CD booklet notes – lack of space – prevents us from mentioning the other conductors in detail on this occasion, but their careers have all been highlighted in previous CDs in this series.

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 wish purchasers to be aware that the three tracks featuring the Guy Luypaerts Orchestra have been edited. This 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 appears as the opening track 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 collection.                                                                                                       David Ades

Page revised Wednesday December 06 2006