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Thursday 22 December 2016

Celebrating an Easy Listening Legend at 90: Mr Tony Bennett

Celebrating an Easy Listening Legend at 90: Mr Tony Bennett

“I love what I do, I love to make people feel good, I don’t want to retire,” he added, describing his 90th birthday concert as "the biggest thing I've ever done in my life, in my whole career." [As reported by Jane Levere at this news site: http://www.forbes.com/sites/janelevere/2016/12/20/lady-gaga-alec-baldwin-leslie-odom-jr-celebrate-tony-bennetts-90th-birthday-on-nbc-special/#2f382b048a98]
These words uttered by Tony Bennett on the occasion of his 90th birthday concert held on 19 December 2016 says it all about the amazing inspiration that easy listening sounds – call it jazz, pop song, American classics or whatever that is melodic – bring to each and every listener regardless of age.

Bennett’s wonderfully edgy phrasing and deeply emotive intonation made virtually every song his own even if they had originally been popularized by someone else. Since his early hit albums I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO and I WANNA BE AROUND became standard airplay on radio in the early 1960s, his voice had acquired a huskier tinge across the years. Life’s sweet and bitter experiences must have been etched in there somehow. When he sings any note today, you can literally feel the gravity of Tony’s every heartfelt expression. His is not an ‘aged’ voice, it is inexpressibly evergreen.
In salute to Tony Bennett’s gift of song, I offer the following photo collage of my personal favourites of his, some reinterpreted by instrumentalists – of course!

The highlights:

Reader’s Digest compilations have always adored Bennett and placed him as a standard feature in virtually all vocal easy listening compilations. MELODIES LINGER ON from a UK RD release dating back to 1989 inserted Bennett’s renditions of ‘It Had to be You’ and ‘Laura’. In both tracks, the orchestration was kept to a bare minimum to avoid distracting the listener from the dramatic command of Bennett’s vocal prowess!

The instrumental compilation from PHILIPS features one of the best orchestral versions of ‘I Left my Heart in San Francisco’ around played by Acker Bilk accompanied by the Leon Young String Chorale. If you haven’t heard it, try it and it’ll stay in your head for a very long time. Another great version not shown here is the brass heavy symphonic rendition by Arthur Fiedler conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra – available on a Reader’s Digest compilation titled MELODIES, MOODS AND MEMORIES released in 1991.

Finally I close with one of my favourite later Bennett albums, HERE’S TO THE LADIES from 1995. His articulation of ‘Cloudy Morning’ and ‘Tangerine’ blew me away!
Here’s to you Mr Bennett – happy birthday!

AC
23 December 2016

Sunday 11 December 2016

Standard Google Announcement About Cookies When Viewing this Review Blog

Dear Visitors based in the European Union,

Google requires me to place this notice reminding you that cookies may be required to view this site under EU rules on blogs. Furthermore, the viewership tracker on the right hand column of the Web version of this blog also contains cookies from a third party source beyond my control. In any case the tracker column is simply for your amusement, especially if you like my music and Hi Fi reviews and wish to know which are the most heavily viewed. Enjoy the information and I hope it continues to enrich your listening experience offline!

ALAN

PAUL MAURIAT – ANTHOLOGIE ORCHESTRALE 1957-1962 – A 2CD Collection curated by Serge Elhaik, 2015 ...PLUS 'REFLECTIONS', a 3CD box set released on Nippon Phonogram in 1994-8 reviewed,


PAUL MAURIAT – ANTHOLOGIE ORCHESTRALE 1957-1962 – A 2CD Collection curated by Serge Elhaik, 2015

And…REFLECTIONS    a Japanese triple Disc retrospective collection from 1994-8.
 


Imagine rock and roll, samba and ‘bubble gum’ pop from the early 60s treated Mauriat style!? Incredible! I came across this exquisite collection of early Mauriat gems on eBay early this year (2016) and thought it deserved a separate review as an annexe to my review of Paul Mauriat’s musical output in the 1960s.
To appreciate this review sample these tracks on YouTube as you read this:

Laisse Tomber les Filles (‘Leave the Girls Alone’) by a French singer named France Gall (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWRCJhsz5t4) recorded in 1964

Tous les garçons et les filles (‘Happy are the boys and girls who go together’ – a loose translation) by another French singer Françoise Hardy, recorded in 1962 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aLoezucIzk)

And from Mauriat’s 1960 LP TU VIENS DANSER featuring a leggy dancer dressed in cabaret attire on the cover, try these via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9naweGDbyw:

Si je pouvais ne plus t'aimer

Tete de Bois

Les Marrons Chauds

And my all-time favourite from this anthology – Amor Amor Amor – found on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S63fc5DUMO8.

The pop sounds of 1960-9 in France had imbibed the waves coming out from the US and Britain of the likes of the Beatles, Paul Anka, Cliff Richard, Connie Francis, and Dionne Warwick amongst others. Paul Mauriat was not immune to these trends and clearly tried his hand at arranging to meet the needs of the young audiences of the time who wanted groove and party music.

Mauriat’s early album TU VIENS DANSER released on Bel Air Records (France) is remastered for CD for the first time. Although the original was not recorded in stereo, the remastering has been better than expected. Listen to this through a vintage amplifier like a Marantz, Sansui or Luxman from the 60s or 70s, and you’ll be overwhelmingly surprised how gloriously rich these recordings were – even in mono. Of course, the remastering process has tuned the recordings to the point where one does not feel the jarring distinctions between mono and stereo sounds. The last 8-9 tracks of each disc are definitely recorded in stereo in the original and their quality is helpfully retained in the CD versions.

TU VIENS DANSER brings back the youthful exuberance and dance rhythms of the era. Even for those of us who were born way after TU VIENS DANSER was released, this is music that fits the soundtrack of any happier time. When you listen to the Beatles and feel inspired to dig the other artistes of their time, put on Mauriat’s interpretations of 1957-63. The tracks sampled above demonstrate how expertly Mauriat both captured and advanced the ‘hipness’ of the pop music of that era. Make sure you give yourself the space to move around while you listen! This is not music to sit by, and recline and fall asleep…it evokes far too many, many happy rhythms. The familiar favourites like Garde Moi La Dernière Danse (Save the Last Dance for Me) and Les Marrons Chauds (One Way Ticket), Amor Amor Amor, Ay-Ay-Ay, Love in Portofino, along with the classic French ballad Milord will be sure to get you up and about. It is no wonder that Mauriat once recorded under the chic name ‘Eduardo Ruo et ses Cha Cha Boys’!
 

What was it about the energy and movement of 1960s pop that makes it so memorable? Mauriat captures it here magically, along with collaborations with Raymond Lefevre on a few tracks like Perpetual Percussion. I’ll let his music do the rest of the ‘talking’ instead of my words. And be sure to put on these discs as a prelude to the gems that the maestro were rolling out album after album from 1965-6 onwards. Enjoy!

Another compilation that ‘critically’ collects some of Mauriat’s best works and some not-so-famous, but artistically brilliant, arrangements is the Japanese PHILIPS compilation titled REFLECTIONS issued by Nippon Phonogram in 1994, released for sale in 1996 and re-released with a different cover in 1997-8. Disc One contains some tracks that some Mauriat fans might be surprised at. ‘Love is Blue’, ‘Penelope’, ‘Toccata’, ‘El Bimbo’, ‘La Reine de Saba’ and ‘La Chanson pour Anna’ are all selected from the maestro’s own 1988 reinterpretations of his hits in the French release RETROSPECTIVE, featuring the Eiffel Tower in an iconic rear view mirror frame. That seems to be precisely the intention of the compilers. Mauriat’s rediscovery of a new bass heavy sound has been set alongside some of his late 60s arrangements of European pop hits such as ‘Le Dernier Valse’ and ‘Un Tout Petit Pantin’ and ‘L’Orage’, and the unforgettable ‘Le Ciel, Le Soleil et La Mer’. What you hear in this set is Mauriat the popular music genius with the ‘ear’ for arrangements to capture the latest and trendiest sound in instrumental form. The remastering is five star quality and on a good vintage amplifier, you can hear the maestro ‘speaking musically’ to his audience across time.
His arrangements capture the beat of the song’s era, and simultaneously communicate its meaning in forward sounding arrangements spiced with clean bass lines and the ever enchanting harpsichord and trumpet combinations. Another huge draw for this collection is of course the massive number of selections from his 1970-4 catalogue featuring pop standards of the likes of ‘Yesterday Once More’, ‘Emannuelle’, ‘The Way we Were’, ‘A Flower’s All You Need’, ‘We Shall Dance’, and ‘You Are the Sunshine of my Life’. Mauriat captures so memorably the signatures of Demis Roussos, the Carpenters, Stevie Wonder and Barbra Streisand. And even more European pop composers – including Salvatore Adamo, Serge Gainsbourg, J. Revaux and Francis Lai – have been celebrated in this set in the Mauriat way. Pop music captured instrumentally is often the best way to rekindle one’s childhood memories – and there is no better way than to remember each tune melodically, and inserting only words or pictures that one chooses for that listening ‘moment’! Maestro Mauriat is at his peak in REFLECTIONS and the true connoisseur of pop instrumentals cannot put this set aside and claim that this is just another ‘greatest hits’ compilation. Enjoy this set too – if you haven’t chanced upon it already!     

ALAN CHONG
December 2016