CYRIL STAPLETON AND EDMUNDO ROS THEMES OF BRASS AND SAMBA! TWO GEMS FROM RECENT SALE BY DUTTONVOCALION COMPANY

I choose to twin the reviews of these two orchestras simply because they were bought together and bring out the old world charm of that classic era of mood music characterized by large sedan cars decked in dual colour schemes accompanied by the sounds of the ‘jazz age’. Edmundo Ros was beginning to turn up the heat of the Latin music hype with his bold percussion-and-brass-centred arrangements. At the same time, Cyril Stapleton was attempting to match the ‘now sound’ of the late 1950s and early 1960s by transcribing some of the most popular hits of the Hollywood movie screen for a large big band accompanied by a string section. These two discs are on sale through the website duttonvocalion.com at the time of this review – get them before they are gone!

   
CYRIL STAPLETON & HIS ORCHESTRA
GREAT MOVIE HITS VOLUMES 1 & 2 CDLK 4383
GREAT MOVIE HITS – VOLUME 1
ORIGINAL LP ACL 1011 (1960) STEREO
GREAT MOVIE HITS – VOLUME 2
ORIGINAL LP ACL 1029 (1960) STEREO
April Love from ‘April Love’ (Fain; Webster)
Young at Heart ‘Young at Heart’ (Richards; Leigh)
September Song ‘Knickerbocker Holiday’ (Weill; Anderson)
A Certain Smile ‘A Certain Smile’ (Fain; Webster)
Unchained Melody ‘Unchained’ (North; Zaret)
Friendly Persuasion ‘Friendly Persuasion’ (Tiomkin; Webster)
Secret Love ‘Calamity Jane’ (Fain; Webster)
Hold My Hand ‘Susan Slept Here’ (Lawrence; Myers)
Love Me Tender ‘Love Me Tender’ (Presley; Matson)
The Harry Lime Theme ‘The Third Man’ (Karas)
Three Coins in the Fountain
‘Three Coins in the Fountain’ (Styne; Cahn)
I’ll Never Stop Loving You
‘Love Me or Leave Me’ (Cahn; Brodszky)
Around the World ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ (Young; Rouzaud; Adamson)
Anniversary Song ‘The Jolson Story’ (Jolson; Chaplin)
Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo ‘Lili’ (Kaper; Deutsch)
Theme from ‘Limelight’ (Chaplin)
Theme from ‘Moulin Rouge’ (Auric; Engvick)
The High and the Mighty
‘The High and the Mighty’ (Tiomkin; Washington)
True Love ‘High Society’ (Porter)
No One But You ‘The Flame and the Flesh’ (Lawrence; Brodszky)
The Loveliest Night of the Year
‘The Great Caruso’ (adpt. Aaronson; Webster; Rosa)
Tammy ‘Tammy and the Bachelor’ (Livingston; Evans; Skinner)
Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)
‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ (Evans; Livingston)
Be My Love
‘The Toast of New Orleans’ (Cahn; Brodszky)
This Stapleton double album is now a favourite of mine because its arrangements are both nostalgic and timeless – this is thoroughly a ‘big band’ album, but the arrangements have produced a slow, consistent, charming rhythm to the two sequenced LPs that evoke a classic romance. The soundstage is opulent and gives your stereo a good test. Although I’m not a regular fan of Stapleton, hearing these two LPs for the first time is a true ‘ear opener’!
 
EDMUNDO ROS & HIS ORCHESTRA
DANCING WITH EDMUNDO & HEADING SOUTH OF THE BORDER
DANCING WITH EDMUNDO
ORIGINAL DECCA LP SKL 4100 (1960) STEREO
Cuban Love Song (Stothart; McHugh; Fields) Rumba
Toku (Lecuona) Rumba
Brasil (Barroso) Samba
Lua do Brasil (Rios) Samba
Spanish Gipsy Dance (Marquina) Paso Doble
Te Quiero Y Ole (Laredo) Paso Doble
Tony’s Cha Cha Cha (Osborne) Cha Cha Cha
Pao Pao Cha Cha Cha (Monchito) Cha Cha Cha
Te Quiero Dijiste (Grever) Rumba
Divina Mujer (Moral) Rumba
Copacabana (Ribeiro; De Barro) Samba
Rio Brasil (Carvalinho; Monteiro) Samba
La Morena de mi Copla (Catellanos; Villegas) Paso Doble
Que me Estas Queriendo (Guijarro) Paso Doble
Puerto Rican Peddler (Brandon) Cha Cha Cha
Fanfare Cha Cha Cha (White) Cha Cha Cha
HEADING SOUTH OF THE BORDER
ORIGINAL DECCA LP PFS 4193 (1970) STEREO
Heading South (Rios)
Mrs Robinson (Simon)
Light My Fire (Morrison; Manzarek; Krieger; Densmore)
What Now My Love (Becaud; Sigman; Delanoe)
Forbidden Games (Yepes; Stellman)
United We Stand (Hiller; Simons)
Up, Up and Away (Webb)
My Cherie Amour (Wonder; Moy; Cosby)
I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman (Greenaway; Cook)
The Skaters’ Waltz (Waldteufel arr Ros; Hanmer)
I’ll Never Fall in Love Again (Bacharach; David)
Hey Jude (Lennon; McCartney)
2 LPS ON 1 CD - CDLK 4334
This set from Ros can be listened to as a sampler of the maestro’s music or as a set of instrumental sambas. ‘Dancing with Edmundo’ captures many original Latin compositions not recorded by most easy listening orchestras, and makes use of an intimate ‘Latin big band’ setting to make out its dancing rhythms. 1970’s ‘Heading South of the Border’ showcases a different recipe altogether: Ros is trying to put the samba into contemporary pop hits of the 1968-70 period. ‘Light my Fire’, ‘United we Stand’, ’Up Up & Away’, ‘Mrs Robinson’ and ‘Forbidden Games’ adapt very well but the rest are somewhat mixed in terms of their Latin credentials. Perhaps a more relaxed arrangement with strings and piano might help. ‘My Cherie Amour’ dazzles because of its unexpectedly slow reflective piano led introduction and keeps the rest of the Latin rhythm in moderate tempo. Ros sings on ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’ and that’s a show stealer in itself: his perfect semi-melancholic tone, coloured with a hint of playfulness beings out the subtlety in Bacharach-David’s classic song.