No doubt this record should have been
in the Nostalgia section, but as the
band included musicians such as Charlie
Spivak, Glenn Miller and Bud Freeman,
it sneaked into the jazz section. Truthfully
there is not a lot of jazz to be found
anywhere, but the precision playing
is very good. Noble who was born in
Sussex, England in 1903 played piano,
he was also a skilled composer and arranger.
Many of his tunes are regularly played
today, including The Touch of Your Lips,
I Hadn’t Anyone but You and Cherokee,
which are all included on this album.
Readers will also note that many of
the other tunes are regularly played
standards, by other composers.
The band heard on the record was assembled
by Glenn Miller for Noble to front,
he was portrayed to the US market as
a rather silly upper class Englishman
and they loved him! It was a truly high
quality musical outfit however and the
musicians used were top class session
men.
The sound quality, considering the
age of these items is remarkable Martin
Haskell and David Lennick have done
a remarkable job for LIVING ERA and
whilst the arrangements are dated, they
are brilliantly played. The compilation
by Ray Crick and David Lennick is also
very good and although this is not my
favourite era of music, my interest
was sustained throughout. Various vocalists
are heard Al Bowlly on earlier tracks
as well as The Merry Macs, Howard Phillips,
Fred Astaire and Noble himself.
I enjoyed hearing the Indian Suite,
only Cherokee is heard today, but the
other four themes are too good to be
neglected. Cherokee is of course one
of the great jazz standard tunes.
Living Era have done lovers of music
from 1935 to 1941 a great favour with
this release, it also demonstrates how
sophisticated the playing of top class
professionals was at that time.
Don Mather
CD Reviews
LIVING ERA CD AJA 5535
