Sixties Instrumental Au-Go-Go: Les & Larry Elgart, and Orchestra on Vocalion

Sixties Instrumental Au-Go-Go: Les & Larry Elgart, and Orchestra

Here are some unexpected gems from 2013’s releases by Dutton Vocalion. If you’ve wanted instrumental albums that covered the hip, danceable grooves from the mid to late 1960s, you are recommended to acquire this pair! The brothers Elgart produced two sequenced LPs in the first set from 1965 and 1966 in Phase 4 like Stereo even though they weren’t signed by DECCA.  As their cover art implies, this takes the beat to the dance clubs and more – right into the living rooms with phono quality analogue vibes. Think of saxes, trumpets, percussion, drums and the occasional Latin rhythm and you’ve sized up the flavours. The Elgarts can kick up a beat anytime and transform the pop hits of their day into shakers and movers. Their playing is mostly lush and never grating on the ears – and there is always a touch of opulence in their arrangements. What you hear is the amplification of a medium sized brass orchestra sounding many times bigger because of the arrangements. Some hits from the first set include the moody intonation of ‘Meditation’ (an exceptionally slow number) and the sparklingly cherrful ‘Downtown’, ‘King of the Road’, ‘Thunder Shake’, ‘Michelle’, ‘Batman’, ‘Sloop John B’ and ‘California Dreamin’. The second set from 1967 is surprisingly a lot more laid back even though there are plenty of fast movers. It seemed the Elgarts had staged a decisive retreat to the well appointed bar and ordered a couple of Martinis and cocktails after the rounds on the dancefloor, thereafter gently winding up a memorable night out on the town…music that makes the Sixties moment. J

Les & Larry Elgart
Elgart au Go-Go & Sound of the Times (More au Go-Go) CDLK4501

Elgart au Go-Go
The original LP CS 9155 (1965) STEREO

1.Thunder Shake (Abreu)
2.Downtown (Hatch)
3.Meditation (Jobim; Mendonça; Gimbel)  [Larry Elgart (soprano sax)]
4.Come Rain or Come Shine (Arlen; Mercer)
5.King of the Road (Miller)
6.Jerkin’ Around (Abreu)   
7.St James’ Infirmary (Primrose)
8.La Bostella (Pilar) [Viens Danser la Bostella]
9.Willow Weep for Me (Ronell)
10.G’won Train (Bown)
11. I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues (Arlen; Koehler)
12.The First Man’s Theme (Neumann; Manes)

Sound of the Times (More au Go-Go)
The original LP SS 62401 (1966) STEREO

13.I’m Comin’ Home, Cindy (Lopez; Zeller arr Dick Behrke)
14.A Sign of the Times (Hatch arr Bobby Scott)
15.Spanish Flea (J & C Wechter arr Lewis Gluckin)
16.A Taste of Honey (Scott; Marlow arr Bobby Scott)
17.Michelle (Lennon; McCartney arr Bobby Scott)
18. Batman (Hefti arr Bobby Scott) theme from the TV series
19. Going to Grandma’s House (Levine; Gwangwa arr Stewart Levine)
20. Sloop John B (Wilson arr George Williams)
21.California Dreamin’ (J & M Phillips arr Stewart Levine)   
22.Nowhere Man (Lennon; McCartney arr Bobby Scott)   
23. Why Not? (Layne arr Lewis Gluckin)

Les & Larry Elgart & Their Orchestra
Girl Watchers & The Wonderful World of Today's Hits CDLK4488

Girl Watchers
The original LP CS 9433 (1967) STEREO

1.Music to Watch Girls By (Ramin; Velona)
2.Shine On, Harvest Moon (Bayes; Norworth)
3.That's Life (Kay; Gordon)
4.The Spy with a Cold Nose (Ortolani) from the film
5.Night Walk (Macero)
6.Out of Nowhere (Green; Heyman)
7.Girl Watchers (Macero)
8.Look for the Silver Lining (Kern; De Sylva)
9.Girl Talk (Hefti; Troup)
10.Miss You (C & H Tobias)
11.Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella (On a Rainy Day) (Fain; Kahal; Wheeler)

The Wonderful World of Today's Hits
The original LP CS 9580 (1967) STEREO

12.Torino (Garisto)
13. Tara's Theme (Steiner) from Gone With the Wind
14.Camelot (Loewe; Lerner) from the film
15.When I Look in Your Eyes (Bricusse) from Dr Dolittle
16.The Bobo (Lai; Cahn) from the film
17.Ode to Billie Joe (Gentry)
18.Lady (Kaempfert; Rehbein; Kusik; Singleton)
19.To Sir with Love (Black; London) from the film
20.Live for Life (Lai; Gimbel) Vivre pour Vivre from the film
21.What a Wonderful World (Weiss; Douglas)
22.Spanish Eyes (Kaempfert; Singleton; Snyder)

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SOUNDBOXES III: BEL CANTO CD2 – Cool 70s, Retro Wonder!

Officially, Bel Canto’s most radical redesign of its initial CD players is touted as ‘CD2 CD player 24/96 Transport/DAC with Level Control’, but to me, the true beauty of this product can only be appreciated by comparing it with photos of 1970s vintage portable turntable decks. Just GOOGLE ‘70s Record Decks’ or ‘Portable Record Players’ and you will see what I mean!

According to Bel Canto USA’s website (belcantodesign.com), the player weighs 8.2 kilogrammes, and most importantly, for my tight home spaces, this wonderful disc spinner occupies little more than the footprint of the traditional CYRUS CD player/Amplifier/Tuner. At the showroom, the salesperson trumpeted the CD2’s strengths to be its highly accurate Ultra-Clock improving significantly on the precision of reproducing music from the digital bytes, and its 192 kHz/24 Bit digital to analogue conversion rate. Other technical details are appended at the bottom of this review. These technical details will mean little to the serious music fan, unless s/he happens to be a science techie as well! My verdict: a stunning analogue sound that throws a convincing soundstage one might expect of a high-end player. There are no rough edges to the reproduction, only honestly what the original recording meant! As is my habit, I avoided pairing the CD2 with a separate DAC as far as possible to minimize clutter in my modest sized listening room. As with all top loading CD spinners, this one requires placing a magnetic puck on the spindle to clamp the CD down during operation. This stabilizes the disc as well as allowing it maximum freedom of movement without too much direct contact with the rest of the stationary parts. The magnetic clamp is heavy – as heavy as the sort of souvenir paperweights one might purchase on an overseas holiday. The manual also cautions that when pairing the CD2 with non-Bel Canto equipment, the internal volume control ought to be turned up via the remote control to ‘100’, then locked in place by pressing a small button on the back panel of the player. It is recommended that the player be kept ‘on’ permanently so that this volume setting does not revert to the factory setting of ‘50’ when the electricity is first turned on. Of course, if the CD2 is used in tandem with Bel Canto equipment, I understand that a central remote can engage the player’s volume settings directly. This is a small issue that does not detract from the player’s overall brilliant sound.

Bel Canto has opted for a minimalist design – there is no casing to enclose the disc playing compartment and protect it from dust, mites or worse accidental human interventions! The design is 70s retro and definitely not meant to be child-friendly. As the pictures show, the thrill lies in watching the disc spin and reproduce its own kaleidoscopic colour(s) as you listen to your favourite sounds. The orange and black disc is incidentally PAUL MAURIAT’s ‘Blooming Hits’ 1968 album reproduced on PHILIPS/Mercury Japan’s CD reissue series in 1997. When the disc spins, it absolutely looks like a miniature vinyl record in operation. Switch the disc to something with black and reflective steel text like Johnny Pearson’s Japanese edition ‘Super Best’ CD from 1988, and you get a ‘shimmering’ steel grey vinyl like colour. I have captured this on camera below, where you can see a framed photo on a nearby wall reflected off the spinning disc. This feature certainly delivers meaning to that familiar phrase – ‘spinning out the good old memories’. This artistic dimension never occurred to me until the Bel Canto came to be regularly played in my Hi Fi set up. The manual that comes with the player recommends keeping a blank or unwanted disc permanently in place when the player is on standby, or not in use, to keep the dust from accumulating on the exposed laser head hidden partially by the decorative steel arm guiding the positioning of the magnetic puck. The player never really gets fully hot – only warm – probably because the exposed disc spinning motion acts as an incidental cooling fan for the player. This is not in the manual – just my guess!

Now the sound: everything to match its looks! It is a highly involving, fatigue-less, analogue sound that rarely gets bright even on studio recordings from the 1990s and later. I would even say it is Tube-like – smooth in the mid-range and full bodied at the upper registers, and never sounding harsh, unless the recording was sub-optimally done in the original session. Playing back Paul Mauriat’s ‘Blooming Hits’ from 1968, one hears an almost live studio recording: noticeably, he used a distinctly smaller string section than I had previously “heard” on NAD, Roksan and Shanling players, with the rest of the orchestra clearly made up of trumpets, trombones, percussion and harpsichord. ‘A Kind of Hush’, ‘Penny Lane’ and ‘Love is Blue’ particularly boasted the airiness of trumpets and harpsichord while ‘Something Stupid’ revealed layers to the background chorus Mauriat employed to ‘sing’ the main melody in harmony with his strings. The Johnny Pearson disc remastered on Japan’s JVC label instantly demonstrated near perfect sound stage placing the strings in near perfect flanks to the left and right of Pearson’s piano in the centre. Abetted by good room acoustics (no padding or buffering in my room), Johnny Pearson was ‘in concert’. Testing more technically demanding material such as Bela Fleck and the Fleckstones’ ‘Tales from the Acoustic Planet’, and the exclusive Audiophile ‘His and Hers’ compilation from THAT CD Shop in Singapore, the Bel Canto acquitted itself equally admirably. The Fleckstones’ music exhibited masterly switches from classical hues to folk rock grooves to gypsy jazz. The ‘His and Hers’ compilation showcased powerhouse pop-opera crossover vocals of the likes of the tenor duo Pharos (‘Yesterday When I Was Young’) and Patrizio Buanne’s ‘You’re My World’, as well as the torchlike remake of the Iglesias-Nelson duet ‘To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before’ by Russell Watson and Alexander O’Neal. Each voice sounded distinct, present in the room, and the sound decay was uncannily concert quality.

Then again, I have to declare that perhaps the CRYSTAL CABLE Standard interconnects worked some of the magic, or the much vaunted SONUS FABER Musica integrated amplifier employing CRYSTAL CABLE Power Micro ramped up the airiness factor. That said, the Bel Canto CD2 was employing an external power source i.e. the run of the mill laptop-like power pack shown below without insulated cables extending for about a metre in length before I could connect a good, custom made in Hong Kong, shielded power cord for the rest of the electricity’s path from a power distributor. Alternatively, one could also have the built in option of operating the CD2 as a Transport – but that is provided you are willing to put up a separate DAC, or one of those new DAC-equipped integrated amplifiers appearing in the past few years. But I’m happy with my set-up: ‘new classic’ Bel Canto player meeting a vintage amplifier from Italy. Now how much better can this get, with glamourous surfaces to match?

Looking forward to hearing from other users and admirers of the Bel Canto CD2!

Alan

November 2013     

SONUS Faber Musica - Classic Italian Integrated Amplifier

ROMANTIC…FOR LOVERS. A Philips Instrumental Collection from the early 1980s.

If you have ever looked back nostalgically at the hundreds of vinyl easy listening LPs from the late 1960s and 1970s that you wished were updated for digital formats, PHILIPS (Netherlands) tried to satisfy this demand through their ‘romantic instrumentals for lovers’ series. It states on the back cover of each piece of their series that the compilation was done by Fred Stam, and digital remastering by Gert van Hoeyen. This was also part of a pioneering series of easy listening mixed artiste compilations issued by Philips worldwide – in limited quantities – reissued and remastered from their Vinyl archives in Europe – hence the mostly European lineup of artistes.

This is easy listening from the era before the arrival of the CD. It was also a time when many European practitioners of mood music were blending jazz, light orchestral work and popular melodies. Interestingly, PHILIPS’ artistes such as Piet Souer, Wim Overgauuw, Rogier van Otterloo, Piet Noordijk, Tonny Eyk and Clous van Mechelen were little heard outside the Continent. Until, they were packaged in this series.

 The format and tone of this five-instrumental-and-one-vocal CD set is in the fashion of ‘soft lights sweet music’. Perfect music to accompany the end of a hard day in a dimmed down living room, or a quiet cocktail lounge. Better still, imagine mood lighting in a teak wood paneled reading room or private home mini-bar – and you’re set to dig into these mouthwatering sets.

Now here’s a listing of the sets featuring the Piano, Guitar, Saxaphone, Clarinet and Flute. All or most pieces are performed with either a quartet or a full studio orchestra. You might know of the sixth, and missing piece, ROMANTIC POPSONGS FOR LOVERS, but I personally don’t feel it is worth listing here since the songs were the everyday variety you can find in love song compilations around the early 1980s. Incidentally, some of these collections were also released on cassette at the same time – hence the picture on the right – indicating how PHILIPS was reaching out to both ‘old’ and ‘new’ fan bases.

First up, Romantic Piano for Lovers. Made in West Germany and released by PHILIPS Netherlands in 1983. Catalogue no. 814281-2. This is music that takes you places for a romantic holiday and to the most bewitching destinations in Europe: ‘Chanson pour Milan’, ‘La Comparsa’ and ‘Sunrise Serenade’ are evocative of sunny Italy; while ‘Moonglow’, ‘Imaginary Landscapes’ and ‘Meditation’ transport you to the most beautiful art museums of your imagination. ‘Love Story’, ‘Ballade pour Adeline’ and ‘Strangers in the Night’ are also fine gems that stud an already glowing landscape of piano masterpieces. Horst Jankowski delivers an exceptionally haunting and uptempo version of Strangers in the Nights that must be heard to be appreciated; while Jules Corte’s version of Leroy Anderson’s ‘Forgotten Dreams’ must surely be dubbed the serenade for little ballerinas given its light airy fleeting tones!

TRACK LISTING:

1. Ballade Pour Adeline - René Clermont [2:52]
2. Meditation - Antonio Carlos Jobim [3:19]
3. La Comparsa - Hans Van Eick [3:54]
4. Imaginary Landscapes - Laurens Van Rooyen [4:05]
5. Chanson Pour Milan - Tonny Eyk [3:05]
6. Sunrise Serenade - Horst Jankowski [3:04]
7. Just A Simple Love Song - Laurens Van Rooyen [3:30]
8. Desafinado - Antonio Carlos Jobim [2:45]
9. Love Story - René Clermont [3:26]
10. Forgotten Dreams - Jules De Corte [3:29]
11. Moonglow - Pim Jacobs Trio [4:01]
12. Strangers In The Night - Horst Jankowski [3:20]
13. La Chanson Des Vieux Amants - Laurens Van Rooyen [4:34]
14. Corcovado - Antonio Carlos Jobim [2:17]
15. The Windmills of Your Mind - Louis Van Dijk [4:29]
16. The End - Hans Van Eick [3:52]

Next, Romantic Guitar for Lovers – Various Artistes. Released in the Netherlands and worldwide by Philips, marketed by Phonogram International BV Baarn, The Netherlands. Total playing time: 54 minutes, 8 seconds. Reg. no. PHILIPS 814458-2. There is no compilation quite like this. The concept of solo guitar accompanied by very lush orchestral settings on every track, spiced with the occasional gentle samba, pop, and semi-classical touches. Highlights include: Francis Goya’s rare sentimental rendition of ‘Emmanuelle’ and the Latin-flavoured ‘Don’t Cry for me Argentina’; softly swaying rhythms by Wim Overgaauw on ‘I Sing to the Moon’ and Wout Steenhuis’ unforgettable ‘Autumn Leaves’ takes a trip to South America; even the version of that well-read classical Spanish piece ‘Aranjuez’ gets a refreshing guitar and vocal duet treatment by Peter Nieuwerf – the guitarists are backed by orchestras conducted by Roland Shaw, Malando, the famous Dutch arranger Harry van Hoof and Jean Luc-Drion for Francis Goya.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Your Song (3:07) – Piet Souer with Harry van Hoof’s orchestra

2. Alone at last (4:01) – Martin Kershaw with Rogier van Otterloo’s orchestra

3.Emmanuelle (3:04) – Francis Goya with orch. by Jean Luc Drion

4.Once upon a time in the west (4:42) – Piet Souer with Harry van Hoof’s orchestra

5. Aranjuez (4:26) – Peter Nieuwerf on guitar with Letty de Jong on vocals, with orchestra conducted by Ruud Bos

6.Summertime (3:16) – Wout Steenhuis with the Roland Shaw Orchestra

7.If (3:17) – Piet Souer with Harry van Hoof’s orchestra

8.I sing to the moon (3:39) – Wim Overgaauw with Malando and his Orchestra.

9.Body and soul (3:43) – Wout Steenhuis with the Roland Shaw Orchestra

10.Theme from ‘Mahogany’ (3:19) – Piet Souer with Harry van Hoof’s orchestra

11.Here,there and everywhere (2:29) – BLONKER, arranged and conducted by Dieter Geike

12.Don't cry for me Argentina (3:26) – Francis Goya with orch. by Jean Luc Drion

13.Autumn Leaves (3:48) – Wout Steenhuis with the Roland Shaw Orchestra

14.Who can I turn to? (3:06) – Wim Overgaauw with Malando and his Orchestra

15.Sing along Junk (2:23) – Peter Nieuwerf on guitar with Letty de Jong on vocals, with orchestra conducted by Ruud Bos

16.How insensitive (2:18) – Piet Souer with Harry van Hoof’s orchestra

Thirdly, we have Romantic Sax For Lovers. Made in West Germany but marketed by Philips (Netherlands) in 1985. Catalogue No. 816185-2.  The arrangements here are designed to feature the virtuosity of each saxophonist and the strings are always in the background, punctuated with woodwinds and guitar, and some discreet bass playing. Relive the sound of moonlight serenades with this collection…

Track Listing
1. Clous Van Mechelen - Three Times a Lady (tenor sax)
2. Gerry Mulligan - Shadow of Your Smile (baritone sax)
3. Ben Webster - Solitude (tenor sax)
4. George Katsaros - Woman in Love (alto sax)
5. Andre Moss - Are You Lonesome Tonight? (tenor sax)
6. Sil Austin - Broken Promises (tenor sax)
7. Jan Morks - My Man (soprano sax)
8. Gerry Mulligan - Second Time Around (bariton sax)
9. Clous Van Mechelen - Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue (tenor sax)
10. George Katsaros - Abrazame (alto sax)
11. Harry Verbeke - Once I Loved (tenor sax)
12. Peter Schilperoort, with the Roland Shaw orchestra - Yesterdays (soprano sax)
13. Clous Van Mechelen - You Needed Me (tenor sax)
14. Gerry Mulligan - P.S. I Love You (baritone sax)
15. Piet Noordijk - If (alto sax)
16. Sil Austin - Harlem Nocturne (tenor sax)
17. Klaus Doldinger - How Insensitive (soprano sax)
18. Gerry Mulligan - Love Is the Sweetest Thing (baritone sax)
19. Clous van Mechelen - When I Need You (tenor sax)
20. Piet Noordijk - Feelings (alto sax)

Album Notes also list these other supplementary performers:
Personnel: Attila Zoller (guitar); Arranger: Dick Bakker.

In fourth place, we have ROMANTIC CLARINET FOR LOVERS. Made in West Germany but marketed by Philips (Netherlands) in 1984. Catalogue No. 818272-2. The arrangements are designed to feature the virtuosity of each clarinetist and the strings are always in the background, punctuated with woodwinds and gentle percussion, and some discreet bass playing. Relive the sound of Nat King Cole’s ‘L.O.V.E.’, ‘Memories of You’, ‘I Left my Heart in San Francisco’ and ‘Sentimental Journey’ through this collection…That Acker Bilk rendition of ‘I Left my Heart in San Francisco’ featuring an interplay between vibraphone and strings is worth the entire disc alone!

 TRACK LISTING:
1. Acker Bilk – Stranger on the Shore.
2. Jan Morks – Here’s that Rainy Day.
3. Gerry Mulligan – Love Walked In.
4. Archie Semple – Easy Living.
5. Acker Bilk – Sentimental Journey.
6. Peter Schilperooort Quintet – Petite Fleur.
7. Archie Semple – Last Spring.
8. Gerry Mulligan – Night Lights.
9. Jan Morks Quartet – You Don’t Know How Much You Can Suffer.
10. Acker Bilk with Bent Fabric (on piano) – Alley Cat.
11. Archie Semple – That Old Feeling.
12. Albert Nicholas Quintet – Memories of You.
13. Jan Morks – Forbidden Games.
14. Acker Bilk – I Left my Heart in San Francisco.
15. Monty Sunshine Quartet – Lonesome.
16. Jan Morks – L.O.V.E.
17. Gerry Mulligan Quartet – I’ll Walk Alone.
18. Acker Bilk with Bent Fabric (on piano) – Let’s Put Out the Lights.

Finally, we have Romantic Flute for Lovers. Catalogue no. PHILIPS ‎– 816 139-2. Made in W.Germany by Polygram  and released in the Netherlands and worldwide in 1985. This set is themed in the direction of classical music. But the mood is no less romantic – evocative of the opulent royal interiors of Austrian, French and Spanish palaces. A softly hued, decorated drawing room, with space for a harpsichord, flautist, piano and a string quartet would complete the picture. The instrumentalists here perform an excellent musical repertoire that bridges the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries without losing either a sense of the period setting or a contemporary audience. Berdien Stenberg and Gheorghe Zamfir play their wind instruments amidst an empathetic swirl of strings, lightened up with the occasional pop beat to mimic the rhythmic beauty of modern living while preserving the beauty of the original musical notes. Roger Whittaker performs a wind instrument of an ‘exotic kind’ – he whistles ‘Petite Fleur’ – very tenderly with discreet instrumental backing – and what a joy it is to listen to! Finally, the Maastrich Salon Orchestra serves up a Serenade with soft bird calls in the background to introduce a beautiful morning…

	And the Tracklist...

Tracklist

1	Gheorghe Zamfir – Bilitis
2	Berdien Stenberg – Merry We Will Be
3	Altamiro Carrilho – Badinerie
4	Roger Whittaker – Petite Fleur
5	Mamadeus – Manon
6	Gheorghe Zamfir – Winter (from Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’)
7	Uri Shoham – Un Gout De Printemps
8	Nurit Hirsch – Song Of Mimi
9	Altamiro Carrilho – Danca Eslava
10	Gheorghe Zamfir – Adagio
11	Maastrich Salon Orchestra – Serenade
12	Berdien Stenberg – Anitra's Dance
13	Mamadeus With Vocals By Herman van Veen – The Cloud-Kicker
14	Uri Shoham – La Berceuse De L'Aube
15	Bora Dugić – Gypsy Melodies
16	Altamiro Carrilho – Pour Elise
17	Gheorghe Zamfir – L'Arte Del Violino

There you have it! Music from various instrumentalists on the PHILIPS label for romancing, and quiet reflection for all time. A keepsake worth collecting!

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[If you like this posting, do drop me an email to let me know of other artistes you would like featured on my blog. Kind regards, ALAN]

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1980s and 1990s Mood Music Film Orchestras from Japan

When film orchestras adapt themselves for the mood music and easy listening genre, they can either interpret the original scores strictly to reproduce the actual movie moment, or they can go creative by transforming the original into something lush, uptempo, or add the spice of trendiness drawn from the pop music fashions of the day.  It is always more exciting that orchestras do the latter, especially if they are simply dedicating a tribute through the key theme of a movie. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, for example, is remembered mostly for Henry Mancini’s ‘Moon River’, and The Way We Were for the Alan and Marilyn Bergman composition of the same name. What some less internationally well-known Japanese orchestras have done is to take these single memorable themes and reinterpreted them for a frame such as ‘movie moments of the 1960s’, or ‘music for cafes’, or ‘twilight sounds’ etc. There are very many classy Japanese acts that have done this in the 1970s through the 1990s – which I cannot review largely because I do not know they exist due to the lack of publicity in languages other than Japanese (which I cannot read) – so I have chosen two discs here: The Film Symphonic Orchestra, and the Film Studio Orchestra.

As the lead picture above shows, The Film Symphonic Orchestra plays the ‘Music of Love and Prime’. Here’s the track list:

This recording was among the first wave of mood music CDs introduced to the world when the CD revolution was in its infancy in 1982-4 and what struck the listener was its scenic soundscape, one that took the listener travelling from 1960s Paris, and Provence, to 1970s Middle America, to 1950s milk bars, rustic coffee shops in the Mediterranean, and to the occasional disco ball. That last destination was evoked by the disco interpretation of ‘A Summer Place’, which seemed odd at first in this collection, but then again, it was a nice detour after romance all around the world. ‘Treize Jours en France’ [13 Days in France] starts off the journey with an anonymous whistler performing the lead notes while the orchestra takes up the famous bridging melody, keeping to this interplay throughout. What this does is to evoke the romantic tension between the two lovers in the original film but for the non-contextual listener, the effect is to reproduce something approximating magical Paris in the mind’s holiday photo memory. The whistling substitutes for the accordion lead popular in some renditions such as the one by Caravelli and his Orchestra. Now that you get into this mood, the rest of the song line-up takes turns to be romantic, nostalgic and meditative. Listen to ‘Al Di La’ played mostly on strings, with the occasional presence of the accordion; or to ‘La Ragazza di Bube’ for its gypsy like evocation of a Neapolitan countryside; or to the mental image of a lush prairie in ‘Something for Joey’. Finally, I must single out the evergreens, ‘Sound of Silence’ and ‘Melody Fair’, for the Orchestra’s commendable ability to switch into the contemplative mode of the Baroque musical era with the key leads played on harpsichord. Need I write more? This disc is one of a kind in lifting the music of the movies into your own personal treasure chest of memories.

 

 

The second disc under review is titled: MEET THE MEMORY – 60s MOVIE THEMES. Played by the Film Studio Orchestra. Manufactured & distributed by Victor Entertainment Inc., Tokyo, Japan in 1994, catalogue number VICP 18006. Like the previous disc, this is an easy listening grand orchestra recorded in Japan, as far as I can tell, and nowhere else. Given the virtuosity of the arrangements, I would guess that the players assembled could have been members of the Caravelli and Franck Pourcel orchestras. The ‘sound’ of the romantic Sixties captured from the film catalogue of that era would appeal instantly to fans of Caravelli and Pourcel – all the arrangements are lushly recorded with lead notes played either on piano, harpsichord, or brass, always supported by strings playing counterpart. The 1960s was an era of enormously tuneful song easily transcribed for a large orchestra and the Film Studio captures it accurately. The moment you start with ‘A Man and a Woman’ who then go on to declare ‘I Will Wait for You’, you’ll realise straightaway that this is an album to listen to from start to finish at one sitting. What’s more it is released on Japan’s renowned Victor Entertainment label. This CD was marked as ‘Sample’ in the centre of the disc (see picture) hence you can guess that it was given to radio DJs to play ‘on air’!
TRACK LISTING:
1. A Man and a Woman
2. I will wait for you
3. Plein Soleil
4. Theme from ‘Love Story’
5. Love theme from ‘The Godfather’
6. Love theme from ‘Sunflower’
7. La Lecon Particuliere
8. Treize Jours en France
9. Love theme from ‘Romeo and Juliet’
10.  Tonight
11. Edelweiss
12.  Lara’s Theme
13.  Moon River
14.  Charade
15.  Some Enchanted Evening
16.  Love is a Many Splendored Thing

Enjoy, till my next blog post on the music we all love.

AC

SOUNDBOXES II - The Classic Roksan Attessa CD Player

SOUNDBOXES II

ROKSAN ATTESSA

The Most Analogue-Like CD Player . A Classic.

The Roksan Attessa - A fine piece of Hi Fi kit to play your favourite easy instrumentals and vocals on. A quick introduction first – from a dated website:

  Roksan has introduced its Attessa DP3 (US$2,795), a top-loading CD Transport with a centrally housed drive chamber covered by a powered lid. The inner drive chamber is painted matt black to absorb spurious light while a low inertia magnetic centering puck clamps the disk from above. A laser sled drive system is said to give finer resolution than other mechanisms. The actual drive mechanism is isolated via a four-tiered suspension to decouple it from the plinth and the main chassis. The main circuit boards are also further isolated to eliminate the effects of microphony on delicate signals. 10-stage regulation divides servo mechanism and circuit board for optimum performance. A full-function remote control is standard.

Source: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/news/0901/

I acquired this player off eBay (UK) after a local second hand dealer demonstrated a sold unit in his shop using a power and pre-amplifier set-up. The sound was exceptionally refined despite the somewhat less than sleek design of the player. The version that I am commenting on here is the full CD PLAYER version, and not the CD TRANSPORT which requires an outboard Digital-Analogue-Converter (DAC). It was in fact a very bulky disc player that could not have appealed at first sight. It could have been invented in the 1980s when STAR WARS and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA consoles were the rage on the movie screen. According to the instruction manual this player was manufactured in June 1993.

In keeping with the genre on this website, I tested it with tracks from the DECCA Phase 4 instrumental remasters from Duttonvocalion, and a selection from the 1991 EMI ‘Compacts for Pleasure’ two disc collection featuring Franck Pourcel, Geoff Love, Ron Goodwin and Manuel and the Music of the Mountains. The strings were full bodied and sounded as though they were playing in a thickly wood paneled concert hall or studio. You could almost hear the ‘sound of wood’. The slower the piece, the sweeter and more precise the reproduction.

I had also tried out the ‘faster attack’ tempo of smooth jazz tracks, but the player came up slightly short in this regard. The excitement of the studio atmospherics was missing even if every note and bass line was right on cue. Sung Opera did far better, especially of the likes of Lesley Garrett, the Celtic Tenors, Mario Frangoulis, Sarah Brightman and Helmut Lotti. The soundstages were quite expansive and the voices reverberated as one would expect – off the wooded panels of a good recording venue!

For the faster paced EZ instrumentals, such as the album FESTIVAL TROPICAL by Gunter Norris, his Big Band and Orchestra, the satisfaction of listening was also evident – tempo, drums, loud opulent brass – all came across naturally. Maybe it’s because they were all recorded ‘live’ in a studio, instead of having the sounds mixed from separate recording tracks and venues!

As you can see from the pictures, this is a bulky player whose engineering marvel lies in its so-called four-level suspended CD mounting bay. The idea of a top loading system, complete with a magnetic puck, is thus far, an evergreen design imitated even by newer high-end players from Raysonic, Naim, Shanling, and Goldmund.

A final note: I had partnered this player for trial runs with an AUDIO ANALOGUE PRIMO SETTANTA (70W) Integrated Amplifier, then with a SONUS FABER MUSICA (50W) Integrated Amplifier. Both brought out the best in the Attessa. In both runs, the amplifiers were matched with Focus Audio FS78 speakers, equipped with Straightwire interconnects (Symphony II) and Nordost Blue Heaven (Speaker cables)

 Some specifications:

Sampling frequency: 44.1kHz

Analogue Output: 2.0 Vrms

Dynamic Range: 97 dB

Optical pick-up: 3-beam laser

D/A Conversion: Crystal Delta-Sigma

Power consumption: 10W

Weight: 9kg

Email me at orchestraljoy@yahoo.com.sg if you would like to correspond further on this fine player. Alan.

POSTSCRIPT (April 2015): for those of you intending to acquire the Attessa, please be aware that it will NOT play CD-Rs or CD-RWs. All normal 'Red Book' CDs (i.e. bought from record stores online and offline) will paly normally, so will HDCD and DSD-encoded discs. I have not tried SACDs though.