PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA: The Compact Disc
Remasters of 2007 from Sony Epic/CBS Japan – JEALOUSY and VIVA...THE MUSIC OF
MEXICO
2007 marks
almost the centennial of maestro Percy Faith’s birth. Fittingly, the good
people at SONY/CBS Japan have remastered the original LPs for the occasion and designed
the packages as ‘mini-LP’ replicas. To the best of my knowledge, the entire
range of seven mini-LPs were sold out within months of their release. I managed
recently to acquire two unsold pieces from an out of the way record shop in Kyoto:
JEALOUSY (from the original LP, 1960) and VIVA…THE MUSIC OF MEXICO (from the original
LP, 1958).
The album
JEALOUSY is not an album of tangos, despite its title. It has much more in
common with the rich, lush, opulent melodies of the late 1950s – think Nat King
Cole, Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis coming onto the hit parade, and of course
Dean Martin and Sinatra. Percy Faith captures this mood very tastefully by
arranging for a large symphonic orchestra. I can’t tell from the miniscule
print on the reproduced back covers if Faith did indeed record this album in a
concert hall. But the coordination and layering of strings, brass and piano
contributed to the blissful illusion that Faith was indeed ‘moviemaking’ these
standard popular songs into his own style. Take ‘Sophisticated Lady’ and ‘Begin
the Beguine’ for instance. Faith expands the horizons of both compositions by
stretching out each note in a dramatic arrangement using brass or strings. And
there are plenty of ‘bridging’ introductions and in-between passages that Faith
inserted just to add some pizzazz. On the only tango in the set, ‘Jealousy’,
and on ‘More than You Know’, the tinkling piano in the mid-verse sections
recall the elegant movement of party dames and gentlemen moving up the stairway
to the upper decks of luxury liner or the upper floors of a grand mansion.
There is plenty of movement on this album – which is probably what Faith
intended – and this is probably what renders them mesmerizing from start to
finish. Before Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops cornered the symphonic market
for easy listening, Percy Faith had gotten there first! The remastering through
DSD technology (playable on all CD & DVD players) has taken the years away.
The sound quality is remarkable considering that 1958-60 represented the early
days of stereo. It is so clean and lively, and the sonic positioning of the
instruments so precise that you might mistake it for having been recorded in
the 2000s – live in a music hall. Hear it on a classic vintage amplifier of the
likes of Luxman, Heathkit, Technics or a Sansui and you’ll fully appreciate the
analogue glory of Faith’s conceptualization of this album.
TRACK LISTING:
JEALOUSY
TEMPTATION
MORE THAN YOU KNOW
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD
TIA JUANA
SOPHISTICATED LADY
BEGIN THE BEGUINE
THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC
RIGHT AS THE RAIN
DANCING ON THE CEILING
WHERE OR WHEN
I'VE TOLD EVERY LITTLE STAR
VIVA…THE MUSIC OF MEXICO evokes by contrast the romantic side of popular Mexican song. The cover art however remains a mystery to me. I wonder what the drowsy man in the sombrero is supposed to symbolize – musical dreams perhaps?
|
GRANADA
|
|
LA GOLONDRINA(THE SWALLOW)
|
|
LA CUCARACHA (THE MEXICAN COCKROACH SONG)
|
|
CHIAPANECAS (THE MEXICAN HAND-CLAPPING SONG)
|
|
ESTRELLITA (MY LITTLE STAR)
|
|
EL RANCHO GRANDE (MY RANCH)
|
|
LA PALOMA (THE DOVE)
|
|
BE MINE TONIGHT (NOCHE DE RONDA)
|
|
MEXICAN HAT DANCE (JARABE TAPATIO)
|
|
GUADALAJARA
|
|
ZANDUNGA (THE DANCING DONKEY)
|
|
CUANTO LE GUSTA
|
|
SOLAMENTE UNA VEZ (YOU BELONG TO MY HEART)
|
This album hews more closely to a symphonic treatment
of Mexican music than the styles of Edmundo Ros, Xavier Cugat or Manuel. Faith
employs a large dose of sweeping strings to evoke ‘amor’ under the moonlight.
The passages are still full of surprises, as if the musical passages are meant
to accompany a soundtrack where the lover and his damsel flit from avenue to
alleyway, to the shimmering seaside reflecting a half moon, before ending up in
each other’s arms. As with JEALOUSY, Faith does a stellar job of sonic
invocation of beautiful sensations and romantic dreamscapes. Two gems worth the
price of the entire album alone are Faith’s grand treatment of ‘La Cucaracha’
as a novelty dance employing woodwinds and piano along with maracas and
castanets, and ‘Be Mine Tonight (Noche de Ronda)’ where he breathes new life
into this ‘quiet’ romantic song by arranging for the strings to ‘sing’ the lead
notes.
Above all, these two remasters are a string lover’s
delight. If you do acquire them, listen out for the featured solo violins that
make their furtive appearance everywhere, briefly, just to draw you into the
music, thereafter you float with the tides of musical grandeur…Percy Faith’s
music is timeless perfection.
ALAN
December 2018
