The Four Freshmen (Bob Flanigan (lead tenor, trombone
and double bass); Don Barbour (second tenor and guitar); Ross Barbour
(baritone, drums and piano); Hal Kratsch (1951)*, Ken Errair (1951-56)**
or Ken Albers (1956-60)^ (bass, trumpet and double-bass)
rec. 1951-1960. ADD [78:57]
If you needed proof how versatile an
institution Nimbus is, it’s well illustrated by the two CDs from that
label which arrived in the same post: this and a recording on the
Nimbus Alliance label of Piano Quartets by Frank Bridge, Arnold Bax,
William Walton and a young composer, Ian Wilson, performed by a young
Irish group, the Cappa Ensemble, thereby doing more than their share
to support the cause of British music and young musicians on the one
hand and to bring us refurbished music from the past on the other.
Back in the day when The Gramophone
magazine still possessed its definite article and cost 1/6 (8p), The
Four Freshmen’s records received regular airings and won praise not
just for the quality of their vocals but for the instrumentalists
who appeared with them. Five of the items here, for example, come
from a Capitol LP – apparently their first to be released in the UK
in 1956 entitled Four Freshmen and Five Trombones (LC6812)
– which earned credit for the singing but also – indeed, mainly –
for the quality of the arrangements, made principally by Pete Rugolo,
and the trombones-plus-rhythm backing which matched and gave point
to the singing. That LP cost £1.5.0½ (£1.25), the equivalent of at
least £40 in today’s currency, so the CD under review, with three
times the content, offers excellent value: £7 post free from MusicWeb
– here.
That’s exceptionally good value when
reissue albums from this period often contain much less than the 79
minutes on offer here. Of several CDs of The Four Freshmen currently
available, I haven’t found any that rival this Nimbus reissue, though
a couple come close. The Freshmen went on with different personnel
well after 1960, with albums released well into the 21st
century, with the release of Love Songs in 2012, but the
decade represented here constituted their glory days.
The first nine tracks, dating from
1951 to 1955, are performed solely by the Freshmen themselves; the
additional accompaniment to which I’ve already referred consists variously
of Pete Rugolo, the arranger, with trombone quintet (tracks 10-15)
or with orchestra (tracks 27 and 28), Dick Reynolds with trumpet quintet
(tracks 18-22 and 30) or with orchestra (tracks 16, 17 and 25) and
Jack Marshall and orchestra (track 26).
If you’re expecting nothing but unvaried
close harmony, there is, of course, plenty of that, but that’s not
all that there is. Try Mood indigo (track 6), for example;
with Duke Ellington as one of its creators, there’s inevitably a great
deal more than smoochy harmony, so it’s surprising to read in the
booklet that it made hardly any impact in the charts.
I expected the least recommendable
tracks to be those where it’s not easy to forget other interpreters
who had or were about to make the music their own. Tuxedo Junction
(track 2) will always be associated with Glenn Miller, but I enjoyed
what the booklet describes as the Freshmen’s idiosyncratic interpretation.
Surprisingly, there seem to be very few CDs available in the UK of
the Glenn Miller original; perhaps now would be a good time for Nimbus
to reinstate NI2001, which Ian Lace praised as an album not to miss
– review.
There’s a modern replacement on a Miller tribute album from the US
Air Force Orchestra (Altissimo 75442260542), which can be downloaded
from classicsonline.com.
Charmaine (track 16) was one
of the glories of Mantovani’s smooth string arrangements and that’s
the version lodged deep in my unconscious but here again the Freshmen
make it sound very different, with Dick Reynolds and the orchestra
sounding jazzy and quite unlike that silky Mantovani sound. There
will never be another you (track 21), like its near-relative
I know I’ll never find another you, often receives a melancholy,
even doleful arrangement in the Jim Reeves manner, but here it responds
well to a perky interpretation. What you won’t find here is the true
sound of the blues. Despite the apparent promise of the title track,
there’s nothing really intense here.
The advantage is that there’s probably
more here to appeal to a wider potential audience. For the older generation
there’s plenty of sentimental repertoire, such as Goodnight Sweetheart
on the closing track (30), though it’s not performed in an over-sentimental
manner, and for those looking for something livelier there’s music
such as Crazy Bones (track 5), an even jazzier relative of
the more familiar Dry Bones, and the perennial favourite
Get your Kicks on Route 66 (track 28). Perhaps the most sentimental
track here is Their Hearts were full of Spring (track 29)
and even that isn’t too overdone. If you’re a fan of the Beach Boys
– no, I’m no relation, despite my name – and need further encouragement
to try this CD, I understand that they were admirers of The Freshmen;
indeed, the influence is there to hear. Fans of Manhattan Transfer,
too, have been known to fall for the appeal of The Freshmen.
Even the earliest tracks, from 1951,
have come up sounding extremely well in these transfers by Alan Bunting.
Nimbus are renowned for getting the best out of 78 and early LP material
and they’ve done an excellent job here. I regularly listen to transfers
of classical and light-classical recordings of this vintage from Beulah
for my Download News reviews and I’m always very impressed with the
way that Barry Coward coaxes the information out of the old grooves,
but these Freshmen recordings have, if anything, come up even better.
There’s not a trace of surface noise and no tape hiss is audible unless
you listen on headphones at high volume, all achieved without any
impairment of the musical sound. Some of the louder instrumentals,
such as those on track 4 ( It happened once before), would
have presented a challenge to the BSR turntables and arms that were
common in 1950s players, but there’s not a trace of distortion here.
I’d been aware of the Freshmen as a
teenager – yes, I am that ancient – without knowing much about them,
so Ray Crick’s excellent booklet notes filled in the details admirably,
including the important part played in their discovery and early recording
career by Stan Kenton.
Those of a certain age will be the
obvious target group for this CD – I’m thinking in particular of a
group of elderly patients at my local hospital whom I visited weekly
until recently – but potential younger listeners should give it a
try, too. The price is attractive enough to encourage not just those
of us past our sell-by date.
Brian Wilson
Another review of the same album by Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
NIMBUS RETROSPECTIVE RTR4219
