‘Scot Passes Scot’ is the cover art for this release, an LMS poster of 1937. Sleek speed: gloriously coloured livery flashes past, plumes of smoke trailing across the carriage tops, as awed passengers in the slower train going up the line look on. Despite the train, however, this release simply celebrates the genre of Light Music itself - there is no overarching theme. Much of it, it seems, derives from requests from followers of the long-running Guild series. If so, then those followers have good taste, having selected discs released between 1942 and 1962.
There are some familiar orchestras and directors here, though some out-of-the-way items too, which keeps interest levels high. Florian ZaBach impresses with his strong-toned violin playing, whilst Percy Faith unveils, in the love theme from the film
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse a sure sense of languorous lyricism and more than a hint, in André Previn’s score, of Aaron Copland.
It’s always good to hear the piano duettists - at two pianos - Rawicz and Landauer as they perform a showy and rather over-decorative piece by Joe Reisman called
Ballad of the Sea. Maybe Landauer, who arranged it, bears more responsibility than Robert Farnon, who conducts it.
The title track is played by The Piccadilly Strings and is a fine product of the genre written by Tony Hatch, then sheltering under the name Mark Anthony. He was only 23 and at the start of his distinguished career.
The Awakening of Pedro is a rather buffoonish affair, the gentleman of the title presumably represented by a fat trumpet tone, which smooches its way about for a bit, before the music gets well and truly worked up. Bruce Campbell, by contrast, provides a slinky and sinuous
Desiree whilst Roger Roger unveils some dapper Parisian
Badinage, with Big Band hues. George Siravo certainly knows his
American in Paris if his genially dispatched
Hey! Taxi is anything to go by.
The Crawford Light Orchestra is recorded on the Josef Weinberger record library label [JW156] in a disc issued in 1958. They play Ken Warner’s attractive
Poppet. (I’d like to enter a personal plea here for information on the whereabouts of any of the Warner family.) Sidney Torch takes us back to 1947 in stirring fashion, though the mood music sawing away in
Frantic Fiddles is strictly for connoisseurs of such things. But such is also Light Music and it’s right that even lesser pieces like this are included. Far different are the wide-open vistas provided by Dolf van der Linden in
Pennsylvania Dutch and the confident brio of Farnon’s conducting of Leslie Statham’s
Ten to One. There’s a debut in this series for British composer Alec Rowley, whose
Down Channel is a ‘Nautical Overture’. It quotes
Shenandoah beautifully. Finally we hear one movement from Percy Fletcher’s
Rustic Revels suite for Chappell in 1942. This had actually first been recorded back in 1919 by Alick Maclean - Fletcher fared quite well on acoustic discs.
Four of these tracks are in stereo and the rest is in mono. Excellent notes, as always. I know I may be flying a kite here, but perhaps one day Guild will consider an appendix volume or two devoted to acoustically recorded Light Music, such as Fletcher’s. It would be a transfer challenge - but the results would be rewarding.
Jonathan Woolf
And the first review by John France ...
Guild Records could have easily sold me this latest CD on the strength
of the cover alone. The former London, Midland & Scottish Railway
poster entitled ‘Scot passes Scot’ by the artist Bryan
De Grineau is a definite bonus. For many years the named train ‘The
Royal Scot' departed simultaneously from Glasgow Central and London
Euston stations at 10am. The journey would have taken some seven hours.
Just quite where the two trains passed I leave to railway enthusiasts,
but I guess it must have been somewhere north of Crewe.
This present CD does have a few fine railway-inspired pieces included
in the track-listings, however the basic premise of this release is
a pot-pourri of all kinds of ‘light’ music.
Beginning with the travel-themed pieces, the album’s title track
refers to a bouncy number by Tony Hatch. Older listeners will readily
associate his name with Petula Clark and Jackie Trent. Hatch has had
a long successful career writing a wide variety of ‘popular’
and ‘light’ music, including a huge number of TV theme-tunes.
His work as a producer included the ‘fab’ Merseyside group,
The Searchers. ‘Non-Stop to Nowhere’ was written under
the pseudonym of Mark Anthony.
I enjoyed George Siravo’s musical picture of a taxi journey
through the streets of New York or Chicago. ‘Hey Taxi’
makes use of motor horns and muted trumpets to give it that frenetic
mood. We are back on the railways again with Ernest Tomlinson’s
(Alan Perry) ‘Starlight Special’. Not too sure whether
this train leaves from Crewe or Clapham Junction, but progress seems
smooth and uninterrupted by red signals or leaves on the line. It
is a classic piece of transport music. I must confess I expected something
a little more romantic: Tomlinson has actually given us a jaunty dash
along the tracks by night.
I am not sure if Arnold Steck’s (Leslie Statham) ‘Ten
to One’ is meant to refer to a train time or good odds on a
horse. In actual fact it is a worthy march tune. But as Major Statham
was director of The Band of the Welsh Guards, it is a safe bet that
this tune certainly makes the running.
Alec Rowley is best known for his massive output of piano music, much
of it designed for teaching purposes but there is a serious side to
this composer. Listeners may be aware of his Piano Concerto released
on Naxos a number of years ago. Then there is a fine corpus of organ
music that warrants exploration. Included in his output are a number
of orchestral suites and overtures. ‘Down Channel: Overture’
is a nautically inspired piece: it makes use of two or three shanties
including ‘A-Roving’ and ‘Shenandoah’. This
overture is an attractive work that cries out for a modern day recording.
Certainly there are a number of other striking pieces in Alec Rowley’s
repertoire that could form part of a ‘retrospective’ CD
of orchestral music - these include the evocative-sounding ‘From
a Devon Headland’, ‘Miniatures in Porcelain’ and
the ‘Nautical Suite’.
The opening track on this CD is a big romantic piece that reflects
what it is like to be ‘On the Side of the Angels’. I have
not heard of Sheldon Harnick (and the other co-composers) however
this American is quite capable of writing great film music. Alas,
this is what this piece never was. Made up from cuttings from a projected
movie score it makes use of orchestral and big band pyrotechnics.
Another American is the well loved André Previn who presents
the darkly named 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’. It is
not quite as dramatic as the title suggests. A good, well written
piece that is just a little different from most of the works on this
CD.
The CD contains a good clutch of breezy, jolly tunes that largely
epitomise the world of light music in the 1950s and 1960s. ‘Candy
Floss’ by Peter Dennis (Dennis Arthur Berry) most likely describes
a vivacious lady at the Opera House in Blackpool rather than the delicious
spun sugar served along the Golden Mile. This mood is repeated in
Van Phillips’ ‘Twinkle Toes’. This certainly does
not refer to my attempts at the foxtrot or the tango on the floor
of the Tower Ballroom. Yet there is something warm and comforting
about this carefree music. In the same vein is Onslow Boyden Waldo
Warner’s (quite a mouthful and better ‘kent’ as
Ken) ‘Poppet’. She is very definitely a classic example
of a late ’fifties miss.
Florian ZaBach hailed from the good ole’ US of A and gave the
world considerable pleasure with his fiddle playing. He had a million-selling
hit in 1951 with
‘The
Hot Canary’. The present ‘Harum Scarum’ defies
analysis - it is just a good romp with a superbly challenging violin
part.
‘Frantic Fiddles’ by Johnny Gregory is exactly what is
written ‘on the tin’ - there is a definite touch of Leroy
Anderson here; I am not quite sure whether they are Scottish or bluegrass
fiddles. Cyril Watters is a name that crops up quite frequently in
the annals of light music and ‘Folies Parade’ is typical
of his ‘bright and breezy’ compositional style. ‘Folies’
I guess refer to theatrical ‘types’ specialising in variety
- I think of Caitlin’s Folies in Llandudno. Not convinced that
there is a Parisian connection here.
‘Badinage’ means playful or frivolous repartee or banter.
Roger Roger’s piece fits the bill. Lots of twittering woodwinds,
good string tunes and the occasion blue-note gives the piece pizzazz.
I enjoyed the Netherlands composer Dolf Van Der Linden’s ‘Pennsylvania
Dutch’ - this is lovely hoe-down music that crosses the ‘herring
pond’ in its mood and is certainly appealing. Equally diverse
is Ray Martin’s ‘Piccadilly Hoe-Down’ which balances
the American exemplar with a lush romantic tune more appropriate to
the West-End by night. Look out for ‘Oranges and Lemons’
and ‘London Bridge is Burning Down’. A great piece. Still
in The Smoke (I assume) is Roger Barsotti’s ‘Metropolitan
March’. This is hardly ‘pomp and circumstance’ but
a good tune that could have been used as a TV Sports theme. In fact
it was used in the BBC series ‘Blott on the Landscape’
(Tom Sharpe).
Novelty pieces include the anthropomorphic ‘Poor Butterfly’
by Raymond Hubbell and John Golden. This is a lovely romantic little
number with sweeping strings and electric guitar obbligato. Herbert
W. Spencer’s ‘Grasshopper’ is a skittish little
number. I have never really studied the habits of grasshoppers but
I guess this is probably the kind of music they will party to.
A couple of Latin-American inspired pieces include the fine ‘The
Awakening of Pedro’ by Mitchell Ayres - sounding a bit like
Henry Mancini’s voluptuous strings. It comes complete with choral
backing. Jacques La Rue takes the listener down to the Dutch ‘Antilles’
in the Caribbean with a catchy little number. Still on the briny is
Joe Reisman’s ‘Ballad of the Sea’: a little bit
of a mixed bag. Nothing to do with nautical types, Bantockian seascapes
or ‘jack the lad’. This is mermaids singing in a summer
night somewhere quite unspecified. ‘Desiree’ by James
Kriegsmann is just a pen portrait of a lovely lady that the composer
must have met. Pleasant music.
Clive Richardson is well-known to light music fans. Best recalled
for his ‘London Fantasia’ depicting the war-torn Capital,
the present ‘Jamboree’ seems to have little to do with
boy scouting. More likely a trip to the seaside with a lot of fun,
fish and chips and fresh air. It certainly zips along at a fair pace.
Gilbert Vinter is best recalled for his contributions to the world
of brass bands. His early ‘Salute to Youth’ and ‘Fancy’s
Knell’ are still played. From his orchestral works his ‘Waltzing
with (Arthur) Sullivan’ is one of my favourites. ‘Toward
Adventure’ is a big powerful number. What the adventure is,
I am not sure, but it definitely involves some ‘Boy’s
Own’ type of heroics.
The final number on this CD is Percy Fletcher’s ‘All the
Fun of the Fair’ from his ‘Rustic Revel’s Suite’.
It is a cheerful piece that gloriously lives up to its title.
It seems superfluous to say that I enjoyed every bar and every moment
of this CD. Everything is designed to give pleasure, raise the spirits
and make the listener feel optimistic, if sometimes just a little
sentimental for past times. The quality of the sound is superb. I
hardly realised that I was listening to a so-called historical recordings.
The liner-notes are outstanding and give all the information that
the listener requires. Once again Guild, the recording engineer Alan
Bunting and producer David Ades have dipped into the vast treasure
store of light music, In fact, it is more a cornucopia: it never shows
any sign of drying up - thank goodness.
John France
Track listing
Sheldon HARNICK, Jerry BOCK On the Side of the Angels
(from The Show "Fiorello") - Alfred Newman & His Orchestra (1959)
[3:18]
Florian ZABACH (1918-2006) Harum-Scarum - Florian Zabach,
his Violin & Orchestra (1957) [2:16]
Raymond HUBBELL, John GOLDEN arr. Philip GREEN
(1911-1982) Poor Butterfly - Philip Green & His Orchestra
(1959) [3:13]
Andre PREVIN (b.1929) arr. Percy FAITH (1908-1976)
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Love Theme from the film - Percy
Faith & his Orchestra (1962) [3:38]
Joe REISMAN arr. Walter LANDAUER (1910-1983)
Ballad of the Sea - Rawicz and Landauer (Two Pianos) with Orchestra
& Chorus/Robert Farnon (1962) [2:53]
Mark ANTHONY (b.1939) (real name Tony HATCH)
Non-Stop to Nowhere - The Piccadilly Strings (1962) [2:13]
Mitchell AYRES (1909-1969) Danny HURD The Awakening
of Pedro - Mitchell Ayres & his Orchestra (1956) [2:46]
Jacques La RUE, Jean Paul Rene GUILBERT Antilles - Joe
Reisman & his Orchestra (1956) [2:09]
James KRIEGSMANN arr. Bruce CAMPBELL - Desiree - The
Coronet Orchestra [Actually Bruce Campbell & his Orchestra] (1955)
[2:56]
Herbert SPENCER (1905-1992) Earle H. HAGEN (1919-2008)
Grasshopper - The Spencer-Hagen Orchestra (1955) [2:24]
Chris ARMSTRONG (1918-1998) (real name Ray MARTIN) Piccadilly
Hoe-Down - Ray Martin & his Concert Orchestra (1952) [2:03]
Roger ROGER (1911-1995) Badinage - The Mode Symphony
Orchestra/Roger Roger (1962) [2:30]
George SIRAVO (1916-2000) Hey! Taxi - George Siravo
& his Orchestra (1956) [2:09]
Ken WARNER (1902-1988) (real name Onslow Boyden Waldo WARNER)
Poppet - The Crawford Light Orchestra (1958) [2; 57]
Peter DENNIS (1921-1994) (real name Dennis Alfred
BERRY) Candy Floss - The Harmonic Orchestra/David Johnson [Actually
Dolf Van Der Linden] (1953) [3:01]
Roger BARSOTTI (1901-1986) Metropolitan March - Queen's
Hall Light Orchestra/Sidney Torch (1947) [2:43]
Johnny GREGORY (b.1924) Frantic Fiddles - Westway Studio
Orchestra (1962) [2:05]
Cyril WATTERS (1907-1984) Folies Parade - Lansdowne
Light Orchestra (1960) [2:41]
Van PHILLIPS (1905-1992) Twinkle Toes - Lansdowne Light Orchestra
[actually Stuttgart Radio Orchestra/Kurt Rehfeld] (1956) [2:35]
Dolf Van Der LINDEN (1915-1999) Pennsylvania Dutch - Symphonia
Orchestra/Ludo Philipp (1955) [2:54]
Clive RICHARDSON (1909-1998) Jamboree - Queen's Hall
Light Orchestra/Robert Farnon (1948) [2:45]
Alan PERRY (b.1924) (real name Ernest TOMLINSON
Starlight Special - New Century Orchestra/Erich Börschel (1956)
[2:38]
Arnold STECK (1905-1974) (real name Leslie STATHAM)
Ten to One - Danish State Orchestra/Robert Farnon (1954) [2:56]
Alec ROWLEY (1892-1958) Down Channel: Nautical Overture
- London Promenade Orchestra/Walter Collins (1946) [2:48]
Gilbert VINTER (1909-1969) Toward Adventure - Lansdowne Light
Orchestra [actually Stuttgart Radio Orchestra/Kurt Rehfeld] (1957)
[2:23]
Percy FLETCHER (1879-1932) All the Fun of the Fair (From
"Rustic Revels" Suite) - Queen's Hall Light Orchestra/Charles Williams
(1942) [2:31]
All track in mono except 1-4 which are stereo.
Dates refer to recording not composition.
