PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA: The Compact Disc Remasters of 2007 from Sony Epic/CBS Japan – JEALOUSY and VIVA...THE MUSIC OF MEXICO

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