Sentimental 1970s Done
Instrumentally…
The Popular
Music of the 1970s produced exceptionally sentimental tunes – including some
outstanding heartbreak songs – by many composers who claimed their best work in
that decade. Of course, there are some who might disagree and insist instead
that the best output of that era came in the areas of Funk, Soul, Disco and
Rock. It is all a matter of opinion. But in Easy Listening world, no less
brilliant were the instrumentalists who interpreted the compositions of many
songwriters, and made signature versions out of the sung versions. So, this
entry inaugurates another series of reviews that celebrate the achievements of
the great instrumental albums of that decade.
The opening
picture above makes a suitable statement. Ronnie Aldrich and his Two Pianos,
backed for the most part by the London Festival Orchestra, were already
tremendously popular before 1970. In 1976, he released an album titled
REFLECTIONS, showcasing in sepia tones a lady sitting languidly in a long dress
surrounded by cushions sporting brown and white floral motifs set against a
country manor background. This album cover evoked timelessness as one might
expect of a slightly faded photograph. It still does, looking at it again in
2020. Aldrich covered 11 numbers in a mix of hit parade ballads and evergreens
from the 1960s and even one – Tomaso Albinoni’s ‘Adagio’ – from the Baroque era
several centuries before. Why? Aldrich cleverly keeps his listeners guessing at
the start, but not for long! Reflections begin with the almost mournful flute
and harp solos at the start of ‘Summer’s End’, continuing with this
introspection into a mixture of regret and yearning with Eric Carmen’s ‘Never
Gonna Fall in Love Again’ and Paul Anka’s ‘Times of Your Life’. The latter two
tracks alone captured the contrasting shades of romantic disappointment and
warm nostalgia so widely threaded in the 1970s pop charts. ‘Times of Your Life’
is interpreted with Aldrich’s devastating legatos hanging in the air
accompanied by the choral group, The Ladybirds, providing a wordless operatic
touch to lift the tune into a different universe altogether. ‘Spanish Eyes’ is
an uptempo number that takes wistfulness into a mid-tempo waltz, while on ‘On
Days Like These’ (a Manuel and the Music of the Mountains signature too) and
‘All by Myself’, the raw emotion of the end of summer returns through superb
musicianship wielded by Aldrich’s piano playing and masterly slow arrangements.
Literally, the majority of these tunes adhere to the spirit of the classical
music world’s ‘Adagio’, meaning play slowly. The only discordant arrangement is
‘Love is a Many Splendoured Thing’ from a decade earlier that Aldrich adapted
into a disco tune – why? One might never know. Was ‘amour’ found also on a head
throbbing disco floor, under the ever-spinning crystal ball? I’ll leave this
subject for the next blog on 70s music! And then I’ll provide my review of
Aldrich’s WITH LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING LP from a year later.
Another
tremendously gifted pianist and arranger who captures the sentimentality of the
1970s is none other than Peter Nero, a legend still based in Philadelphia USA.
Sadly, many of his albums were not widely promoted in Asia during the decade
under review. It was only earlier this year that I got my hands on the million
selling 1971 LP SUMMER OF 42 remastered on CD by Oldies.com, along with the
1969 LP, I’VE GOTTA BE ME. Much like Aldrich in REFLECTIONS, Nero is a master
of the adagio style with his finely honed, restrained piano stylings. Listening
to Nero on these two albums, one is reminded of epic love stories instead of a
collection of assorted love songs pulled conveniently from the charts at the
time. My focus is on SUMMER OF 42 since it was released squarely in the 1970s.
The ‘Summer of 42’ is a scorching and poetic opener to an LP conceived with tunes that tell something of the screenplay emotions of the Francis Lai scored film of 1970, simply titled LOVE STORY. Nero’s piano takes on a mystical tone with its carefully conveyed touches on the ivories. One hears the deliberateness in every pressed key on the piano, much in the way some emotions spill forth spontaneously while others – regret, conflict, relived pain and the yearning of an ideal that can never be – cannot be conveyed with maximum pressure on the ivories. ‘Love’ by John Lennon is one such sensitive rendition, with the Carpenters classic ‘Close to You’ following in the same mode and ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?’. If someone produced another biopic of Karen Carpenter, Nero’s rendition ought to feature for sheer prescience! The happiness and sorrow were intuitively rolled into ‘Close to You’. The more hopeful ‘You’ve Got a Friend’, ‘Make it with You’ and ‘For All We Know’ are surprisingly not arranged in an uptempo manner – the use of strings to gently weave a steadily rising melody in many lush passages sets Nero’s piano up for a spectacular, heart-warming story telling role. Not for a moment will the listener think these were just pop songs that put up the reputations of Carole King, James Taylor, Bread or the Carpenters. Nero wrote almost all the arrangements on this album and the LP’s carefully designed collage of impromptu sketches in light pastel hints at the inspiration of something on the order of the soundtrack of SOMEWHERE IN TIME which was incidentally produced much later by movie maestro John Barry.
Finally, I need to dwell on Nero’s treatment of one of the truly greatest love
songs of the decade: ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’. A solo flute opens the song
gently and alluringly up to a symphonic spectacular in an all embracing even
tempo rendition. Nero’s piano scores the suppressed happiness of starting a
romance (or a marriage) with unimaginable subtle tones. Where the piano needs
to take on the bridging parts in the melody [‘sharing horizons that are new to us…’],
it soars but never grates in trying to imitate the Carpenters’ famous ‘soft
rock’ arrangements for that bridging segment. Unsurprisingly, Francis Lai’s
‘Theme from Love Story’ gets a slight Baroque treatment with harpsichord and
violin quartet in the background as Nero’s piano rides the wave of stringed
feelings. A love story told the Nero way.
While I am on
the subject of ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’, another truly unforgettable rendition
produced around the same time is one provided by Art Farmer, a trumpeter better
associated with jazz. But in that decade, there was great music – period. No
one cared if instrumental music were categorically jazz or easy listening.
Farmer’s 1972 LP, aptly titled GENTLE EYES, provided an equally lush and
breath-taking reading of the Carpenters’ hit. Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu_Uw6xYdLo. If this link does not work search ‘Art Farmer We’ve Only Just
Begun’ on YouTube. There are multiple uploads in there. Close your eyes, and
just hear the beauty of the melody led along a magical forest path by a muted
yet airy trumpet carried on a wall-to-wall string arrangement…
Slipping into a
velvety string-tinged mood is Frank Chacksfield and his Orchestra whose 1970s
releases deserve a more glowing appraisal in the light of the wonders of
digital remastering. Digital remastering has not artificially altered
Chacksfield’s brilliance in arranging for a large, almost symphonic orchestra.
In fact, it has revealed textures to his 1970s output that are exceptional in
their own right. He scores primarily for a film like, melodic, soft hued sound,
as opposed to perhaps a Paul Mauriat or a Caravelli who will add dynamic
bridges and riffs to well-known pop hits of the decade.
Chacksfield in the 1970s embodies a different sound characterized by plentiful use of brass, especially trumpet, clarinet, bassoon, and light touches of Fender Rhodes keyboard sounds. The result is actually quite sublime and brings out the deeply romantic side of 70s sentimental pop. Think of a trumpet solo, set against empathetic string arrangements that evoke spaciousness of sound – a wide lounge area perhaps – and the broad extensity of emotion. This is how the 1970s Chacksfield sound appeals. This is evident on ‘Bluer than Blue’, ‘Sometimes When We Touch’, ‘After the Lovin’, ‘Almost Like a Song’, ‘How Deep is Your Love’, ‘Looks Like We Made It’, ‘Just the Way You Are’, and ‘Torn Between Two Lovers’.
In closing my first review of the instrumental 70s, allow me to draw your attention to another under-appreciated artiste – Ray Conniff, his orchestra and singers. Conniff is perhaps the ultimate genre-bender! The idea of organizing a chorus to sing 1970s hits, or swing them in the fashion popular two decades earlier, might not instantly appeal to many fans of Beautiful Music universally. But Knight Records UK have put together an intriguing collection of Conniff’s 70s output saluting everyone on the hit parade from Perry Como, Roberta Flack, Harold Melvin, Bread, Carole King, Isaac Hayes, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Neil Diamond, the Bee Gees, and the Carpenters.
Give it a listen, you will be surprised how Conniff’s arrangements and choruses accentuate the harmony in the prolific songwriting in the sentimental 70s. Listen to ‘It’s Too Late’ and ‘Where is the Love’ and you’ll want to listen to the rest…but I was somewhat disappointed with the excessively swinging version of ‘Close to You’ which worked well enough for ‘Clair’. But who knows, with a little ageing, Conniff’s swinging sound might be back in vogue in the next appraisal of the transition from the 1960s into the 1970s in the world of easy listening!
ALAN
November 2020
