ACKER BILK, HIS CLARINET & STRINGS – CLOSE TO YOU

 

ACKER BILK, HIS CLARINET & STRINGS – CLOSE TO YOU

Acker Bilk, the most famous clarinettist in Easy Listening world, passed away in November 2014. Fans will like this superb tribute published in The Guardian newspaper in the UK (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/03/acker-bilk). I am posting this page as my belated tribute to an instrumentalist with a good sense of arranging and playing for an analogue audience with an appreciation for a sense of scale balanced with musical intimacy.

Located where I am in Southeast Asia, the sound of a clarinet surrounded by what sounded like a full symphonic orchestra was a staple on the playlists of so many light music radio stations in the 1970s. There was something about the clarinet that was especially soothing in the half hour before sunrise, as well as into the hour after the sun rose. Almost a loud human whistle, and even more imitative of a modified, sweetly tuned human voice, the instrument was distinctive, and addictive. I recall visiting coffee houses – airconditioned ones in the tropical heat – where Bilk’s sound went with cakes and coffee/tea, or the accompaniment to any form of light snack moment as a reward for a long office day. Dim the lights for evening dining service, and Bilk’s crooning like renditions set the table for romance.

Acker Bilk was everywhere, and perhaps taken for granted that it was the sound of the gentler parts of anyone’s day. His cassettes, LPs, and later CDs, did not seem to fare as well as the ones by Mantovani, Aldrich, Clayderman, Mauriat or James Last. Probably, it was because his sound was ubiquitous.

Now that I have fully restored vintage amplifiers matched with the best cables and speakers one can afford, the Acker Bilk sound deserves new level of respect.

To me, the ultimate collection has to be the 4CD compilation by PULSE Records UK from 1991, for which I list the tunes from Discs One and Two for a sample.

Tracklist

1-1		Stranger On The Shore	3:19
1-2		Don't Cry For Me Argentina	3:44
1-3		Bridge Over Troubled Water	4:34
1-4		Nature Boy	5:58
1-5		Amazing Grace	2:53
1-6		You've Lost That Loving Feelin'	3:33
1-7		What A Wonderful World	2:38
1-8		Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head	2:42
1-9		If You Go Away	3:49
1-10		The Guy's In Love With You	3:04
1-11		Here There And Everywhere	3:08
1-12		Close To You	3:11
1-13		Going Home	2:45
1-14		Makin' Whoopee	2:21
1-15		Misty	4:11
1-16		She	2:50
1-17		Aria	3:33
1-18		Auf Wiedersehen	2:56
2-1		Here's That Rainy Day	4:34
2-2		Nancy With The Laughing Face	4:08
2-3		Hush-A-Bye Mountain	2:55
2-4		Ebony And Ivory	3:27
2-5		Theme From Swan Lake	2:16
2-6		When I Need You	3:10
2-7		Together We Are Beautiful	3:36
2-8		When	2:40
2-9		Someone To Watch Over Me	3:39
2-10		The Way We Were	3:59
2-11		Without You	4:40
2-12		The Promise Of Your Eyes	2:53
2-13		She's Leaving Home	3:05
2-14		Moonlight In Vermont	3:49
2-15		Summer Flower	2:57
2-16		We're All Alone	2:48
2-17		Woman	3:30
2-18		What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life	2:48

……

It was entrancing the way that Bilk arranged his music such that it enveloped the listener even without Quadraphonic and Surround Sound formulae in some of the LPs in the 1970s. Of course, if you had a Quadraphonic set up, Acker Bilk’s Band and the Leon Young String Chorale will be reproduced right in your living room. To me, you do not need Quad sound amplification, just any good restored 1960s-70s analogue amplifier. Bilk had his sound engineers place the microphones, or mixed the tracks in such a way, that it captured a three-dimensional performance every time. Listening to the tracks like ‘What a Wonderful World’, ‘Misty’, ‘She’s Leaving Home’, ‘This Guy’s in Love’, one feels every emotion conveyed instrumentally straight to the heart from all around your personal listening space. Of course, the unforgettable ‘Stranger on the Shore’ – re-recorded by Bilk in the 1970s – is featured here in pristine quality and takes you to a very special, restful place on a hectic day. My particular discovery on this set is the Bacharach/Dionne Warwick/Carpenters hit ‘Close to You’. This arrangement marries Mr Bilk’s so-called traditional jazz roots – a sound also associated with the New Orleans jazz signatures – with an opulent harmony and notes that could be played into either upper or lower registers with great effect. You are, in Bilk’s arrangement, invited ‘Close’ to a parade of love and other celebratory moods. I bet this can be the soundtrack to weddings and wedding anniversaries…as well as a host of other happy occasions!

One of Bilk’s favourite LPs, MOOD FOR LOVE (1966), has been skillfully remastered by Dutton Vocalion as a paired offering with 1971’s HORN OF PLENTY:

Mood for Love
THE ORIGINAL LP (1966) STEREO
With the Leon Young String Chorale

I'm in the Mood for Love (McHugh; Fields)
Sonia (Roy; Tuvey)
La Playa (van Wetter)
Confessin' (That I Love You) (Neiburg; Daugherty; Reynolds)
Paradise (Brown; Clifford)
When Lights are Low (Williams; Carter)
It Had to be You (Kahn; Jones)
Theme from Madame X' (Wildman)
Night Lights (Shaw)
When You are There (Adam)
If I Could be with You (One Hour Tonight) (Creamer; Johnson)
When Your Lover Has Gone (Swan)

Acker Bilk is at his best playing a formidable mix of both familiar (by 60s standards) and unfamiliar tunes for the smooching hour. What joins them together is pure melody and a simple tug at the heart. Also, on full display to one’s ears is Bilk’s ‘breathy’ tone to his clarinet – something one does not quite pick up from listening to classical music performances through the same instrument. If your Hi Fi set up can convey this X-quality, then you truly know Bilk’s special sound!

Following Bilk into the 1980s and 1990s, one becomes aware that he ditched the string orchestra formula in favour of working with the synthesizer wizardry of Keff McCulloch. One either loves it as the Acker Bilk sound updated for a newer audience familiar with the pop vibes of heavy bass and rock guitar riffs, or one can regard the Acker Bilk sound as shifting into jazz fusion of the lighter variety. In fact, Bilk reinterpreted ‘Close to You’ on the HEARTBEATS album of 1991 with a slick electronic sound played against a synth-pop backing that fits perhaps a movie soundtrack like TOP GUN (1985) and FLASHDANCE (1982) than weddings and parties. Still on the same album, you’ll find a wacky version of Bacharach’s ‘Walk on By’ and a flirtation with a tender soul sound on ‘When I’m Back on my Feet Again’, ‘Get Here’ and ‘Unchained Melody’. Traditional Acker Bilk fans will find familiar ground nonetheless with ‘Somerset Skies’ and ‘Rio Nights’, even on Gloria Estefan’s hit ‘Here We Are’. And on 1989’s THE LOVE ALBUM on the Pickwick label, Acker’s interpretation of the Streisand hit ‘Till I Loved You’ and Tiffany’s ‘Could’ve Been’ shows he had lost none of his 60s and 70s magic. 

But if you ask me, I’d prefer to remember Mr Bilk’s voluminous 1970s analogue output that is still widely available on both Vinyl and CD, and digital downloads. Yes, they are still ubiquitous, and found on so many budget record label compilations, but these are stylishly engineered to be evergreens!

ALAN

May 2021