CARAVELLI AND HIS GRAND ORCHESTRA IN THE 1980S: INSTRUMENTAL POP SUPERSTAR, PART TWO

 

SONY-CBS and their Epic subsidiary in Japan consistently made a splash with a series of Caravelli compact disc releases throughout the 1980s including a few Caravelli album length CDs that were remastered faithfully from the LPs. While my Part One review started with releases around 1985 and later, let’s refocus on the years from 1982 to 1985. One of the first mass produced single volume CDs must surely be ‘THE BEST OF CARAVELLI’ featuring tracks from 1981-2 and the 1970s:

1		Begin The Beguine (Volver A Empezar)
2		Love Is Blue
3		Holidays
4		Theme From "Love Story"
5		Ou Est Passee Ma Boheme? (Quiereme Mucho)
6		El Bimbo
7		Let Me Try Again
8		Jet Stream
9		Dolannes Melodie
10		Penelope
11		Prelude A L'Amour
12		Pauvres Diables (Pobre Diablo)
13		Love Theme From "Romeo And Juliet"
14		Mr. Lonely

The contrast in musical styles across the years was simply quite stark: his versions of ‘El Bimbo’, ‘Love is Blue’ and ‘Holidays’ tracked closely the a-go-go pop styles of the 1960s and early 1970s, even while Mauriat was moving away from it already; meanwhile ‘Begin the Beguine’, ‘Pauvres Diables’ and ‘Prelude A L ámour’ signalled the maestro’s transition into a hippier 80s sound with lots of drum rhythms that tracked the pop charts.

A far better attempt to bridge Caravelli’s contrasts in styles was made in 1985’s four disc anthology grandly titled ‘ALL ABOUT CARAVELLI ET SON GRAND ORCHESTRE’. The cover design was even more elegant than the first ‘BEST OF’ on CD – this one featured the abstract sketch art of Lillies in pink outlines with dreamy watercolour streaks of green dispersed in every direction. The information booklet claims: ‘cover illustration by Hiroyuki Ishikura and design by Yutaka Musha’. With the exception of ‘Love is Blue’, ‘Penelope’, ‘El Bimbo’, ‘Begin the Beguine’, and ‘Love’s Theme’ from his 1975 ROCKIN’STRINGS LP, all the other tunes are slower reflective tunes or simply ballads. On the movie set, ‘Reality’ features an unusual female soprano singing a solo wordless chorus during parts of the song, adding to the ambience of the original romantic movie. The same technique also makes Caravelli’s interpretation of ‘Sandy’ from GREASE the musical memorable – in a typically French chanson way. ‘13 Jours en France’ is of course distinctive for its accordion led introductory solo – bringing back all that you want to cherish about romantic France. And one true gem is the pure string and piano interpretation of Irene Cara’s 1983 hit ‘Out Here on My Own’ that transforms the original in the tradition of a classic like ‘Les Feuilles Mortes’ (Autumn Leaves). Other rare poignant ballads include ‘Sister Carrie’ and ‘Sur Une Balancoire’ with their long flowing passages and discreet female choruses. It is simply amazing how Caravelli made do in this compilation with mostly strings, trumpet, saxophone and drums with minimal synthesizer use.

Disc ONE    ALL ABOUT LOVE SONGS

1.    Toccata

2.    Aranjuez Mon Amour

3.    La Reine de Saba

4.    Love is Blue

5.    Dolannes Melodie

6.    Penelope

7.    Rain and Tears

8.    El Bimbo

9.    Adoro

10. Jet Stream

11.  Aria

12. Music Box Dancer

13. La Lecon a Deux

14. Sister Carrie

15. Mr Lonely

Disc TWO   ALL ABOUT SCREEN THEMES

1.    Chariots de Feu

2.    Ragtime

3.    Theme from “Love Story”

4.    Jeux Interdits

5.    Reality

6.    Melody Fair

7.    Sandy

8.    13 Jours en France

9.    The Entertainer

10.  Theme from “ET”

11. Love Theme from “Romeo and Juliet”

12. Love Theme from “The Godfather”

13. Sound of Silence

14.  Plein Soleil

15.  Le Professionel

Disc THREE   ALL ABOUT YESTERDAY’S HITS

1.    Hymne A L ’amour

2.    Les Feuilles Mortes

3.    Tombe la Neige

4.    Begin the Beguine

5.    El Condor Pasa

6.    Dansez Maintenant

7.    J’attendrai

8.    Sans Toi Mamie

9.    Out Here on my Own

10. Nathalie

11.  Besame Mucho

12.  Io Che Non Vivo Senza Te

13.  Qui Saura

14.  Ou Est Passee ma Boheme?

15.  Last Waltz

Disc FOUR  ALL ABOUT WORLD HITS

1.    Memory

2.    Midnight Blue (Beethoven)

3.    Casablanca

4.    Feelings

5.    Holidays

6.    Ma Jeunesse Fout le Camp

7.    Sur Une Balancoire

8.    Love’s Theme

9.    Honesty

10. Tonight I celebrate my Love

11.  Love is Blind

12.  Mes Trente-Trois Ans

13.  Yesterday

14. Killing Me Softly with his Song

15. To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before

The 1983 LP and CD album that featured ‘SUR UNE BALANCOIRE’(On a Swing) [SONY Epic 35 8P-12] as the title track repeated the same formula of emphasizing consistency between 1970s and 1980s Caravelli. As the album cover suggests, this a music to accompany a holiday in the wide open spaces of the countryside. This album is not completely laid back however, it tantalizes your imagination with lightly disco songs and touches of soulful tunes from Broadway and Film:

Tracklist 

1		Sur Une Balancoire	2:48
2		Pressure	3:25
3		Pour Le Plaisir	3:37
4		Can't Take My Eyes Off You	4:05
5		Just an illusion	4:22
6		Flash Bach	5:47
7		Chariots Of Fire	3:33
8		Theme from ‘The Professional’	3:27
9		Ragtime	2:59
10		Sister Carrie	4:20
11		Memory	3:25
12		The House Of This Summer	3:13
13		Infernal Tempo
14		Nathalie

 

This album epitomizes for me the showbusiness sensibilities of Caravelli – he gives his listeners an intriguing mix of familiar and less familiar tunes and leaves a deep impression on you that he has made them his own. One rare, standout track, apart from the standards like ‘Can’t Take My Eyes…’, ‘Memory’, ‘Chariots of Fire’, the title track and ‘Nathalie’, is the disco pop tune ‘Just an Illusion’. While keeping a smooth jaunty tempo throughout, the female chorus and funky string and guitar leads tug your listening consciousness in an alternately shuffling and syncopated motion. Such is Caravelli’s creativity with pop!

Two other 1983 CD albums follow in this creative trajectory of building a memorable experience with strings, trumpet, piano, saxophone and drums with minimal synthesizer: MIDNIGHT BLUE and CARAVELLI PLAYS SEIKO. MIDNIGHT BLUE actually selects tracks from the 1981 LP ‘Ma Musique’, 1982’s ‘GRAND SUCCES’ and 1982’s ‘DEDICADO A AMERICA’, 1983’s ‘COMME TOI’ plus ‘Love’s Theme’ from 1975’s ‘ROCKIN’STRINGS’ LP. ‘MIDNIGHT BLUE’ is anything but a sleepy time collection – it showcases Caravelli’s skill in producing sweeping string passages that blend pop, classical and soul sounds.

The tribute to Japanese 1970s pop superstar Seiko Matsuda is a slight shift in gear towards a 100% mid-1980s style tempo with funkier bass, guitar and a string arrangement that dances around the melody rather than take centre stage in blending pop into classical. Indeed Seiko’s songs are very much like that – melodic with a beat, and amazingly her song titles translated nicely into chanson-like themes:

1. Jolie Petite Fleur
2. Un Cadeau
3. Parasol Blanc
4. Balcon Sur La Plage
5. Au Gre Du Vent
6. Les Amants En Plein Hiver
7. Au Petit Matin Transparent
8. L' Ile Bleue A Deux
9. Etude Pour Une Rose Sauvage
10. Jardin Secret
11. Demain Je Serai
12. La Chanson De Seiko

Once again, Caravelli interprets Seiko in a 1980s fashion with hardly any synthesizer – it is beautiful melody laid upon melody marked by pure percussion, strings and trumpet playing that respects the original songs by Seiko.

Caravelli shared a great deal of his creative genius with his fans by also reinventing standards from the world of French chanson for the 1980s – try ‘DOUCE FRANCE’ from 1985 on either the French and US releases or the SONY/Epic version from Japan featuring an enigmatic cover illustrated by perfume bottle and transparent floral scarf set against musical sheets and a fountain pen.

You can guess, this is a salute as much to chanson, and Edith Piaf, Charles Trenet, Gilbert Becaud etc, as much as it is about Caravelli showcasing his range of fusing elements of big band, Broadway musical grandeur, sentimentality and 80s pop. DOUCE FRANCE is indeed sweet from start to finish. ‘La Valses de Lilas’ opens up with a flourish of hard rock guitars, heavy pop beat, and saxophone solo before the strings subtly breeze into consciousness. This tune is of course better known in English as Michel Legrand’s composition ‘Once Upon a Summertime’ – and what a summertime it is, done up for the 1980s. The other mind-blowing rendition is of ‘Et Maintenant’ (‘What Now my Love’) which is given a refreshing insistent pop beat that puts drums front and centre of the arrangement before the brass, trumpet solo, strings take turns singing the main melody. This evokes a pop music ‘heartbeat’ that can sit alongside 80s ballads of the likes of Madonna’s ‘Crazy for You’, any ballad by Phil Collins, and certainly anything balladic by Dionne Warwick and Whitney Houston. In tune with the new sounds, Caravelli reworks ‘La Mer’, ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’, ‘Hymne a L’ amour’ and ‘Que Rest-T-il de Nos Amours’ into mid-tempo string laden songs more at ease with an evening on the verandah where you sip champagne looking over the city lights. ‘C’est si Bon’ turns up an even bigger surprise with a big band sound that evokes a loud fashion parade or the entrée into a stadium sized concert. And one unforgettable tune is ‘Roses des Picardie’ where Caravelli conjures up the slow-motion beauty of ballet in the arrangement – beckoning the listener to be still in a fast-moving world, and just admire beauty.

A rare French/US market compilation titled ‘UNE HEURE AVEC CARAVELLI’ in 1987 tried to also capture Caravelli’s 1980s sound by joining tracks from the 1982-5 LPs ‘Grand Succes’, ‘Comme Toi’, ‘Sur Une Balancoire’ and ‘L’amour En Heritage’, with 4 tunes remastered to a very high standard from the fourth LP I mentioned. Although this might be considered arm-chair mood music judging by the CD cover, it is way more than that. I especially like the intriguing inclusion of three Latin tunes – ‘Melissa’, ‘La Colegiala’ and ‘Il Tape Sur des Bambous’ which reveals the maestro’s Latin colours – melodic, authentic, flavourful in a musical way. This satisfying collection is rounded off with a healthy sampling of tunes from the pop parade, musicals, and cinema.

Finally, the best of Caravelli’s other 1980s pop renditions are featured in a rare Japanese compilation from 2007 titled ‘CARAVELLI PLAYS ‘70s and ‘80s HITS’, released exclusively in the CDClub mail order sales catalogue:

1. Honesty

2. Can't Take My Eyes Off You

3. Love's Theme

4. Careless Whisper

5. Woman

6. Words

7. Lettre a France

8. The Never Ending Story

9. The Stranger

10. More Than This

11. L'amour en heritage (only love)

12. Flashdance...What A Feeling

13. Kiss And Say Goodbye

14. Comme Toi

15. I Will Survive

16. Do You Relly Want To Hurt Me?

18. Sweet Dreams

19. The Logical Song

20. La Leson A Deux 

 This collection was assembled from tracks taken off virtually all of Caravelli’s LPs from the late 1970s till 1985. As the title suggests, the scope of this CD unabashedly celebrates the pop music hit parade of the two decades. His rendition of ‘Careless Whisper’ cleverly follows Wham’s original arrangement while adding several soulful leads on the trademark saxophone solos and slowing down the tempo just a tad that makes this a Caravelli ballad. What is breath-taking is the way the maestro arranges the strings to play large passages without betraying the pop music ambience of the piece. The same pizzazz goes into his interpretation of the Eurythmics’ all-time world hit ‘Sweet Dreams’: the synthesizer is brought in only to provide the bass and rhythm, the strings, trumpet and saxophone ‘sing’ everything else. And the part where Annie Lennox goes into a wordless chorus in the original to simulate a dream-like state of mind, the saxophone blows hard and soulful in just the right measure to keep the listener rivetted. ‘Do You Really Want to Hurt Me’ is surreal in Caravelli’s hands with the use of oboe to substitute for the original vocal lead by Boy George. ‘Woman’ and ‘Words’ are given very elegant trumpet passages in Caravelli’s remake to make them unforgettably instrumental. And I can go on with Caravelli’s take on Roxy Music’s 1982 hit ‘More than This’ as a dream song… Caravelli – the orchestral pop wizard – should be as famous as Mauriat for remaking 1980s pop music from here on!

ALAN

December 2021

CARAVELLI and his Grand Orchestra in the 1980s: Instrumental Pop Superstar, Part One

‘Caravelli et son Grand Orchestre’ is a musical act with a holistic attitude. Although it began as a contemporary of Franck Pourcel, Paul Mauriat and Raymond Lefevre, its 1980s reinvention fused the sound of strings with bass guitar, electric guitar, extensive saxophone leads and pop drumming. This orchestra’s attitude spells pop music and makes no apologies for it. In fact, I heard of Caravelli only with the arrival of the Compact Disc remasters and his series of 1980s albums released mostly on CBS-Sony and Epic Sony Japan. What stayed in my musical senses was his distinctive feel for making pop music with little pretence of trying to sound classical at all.

The first entrée was Caravelli’s tribute to Spanish singer Julio Iglesias. This is easily one of the all-time gold standard productions by Maestro Caravelli. While it contains many hits exclusively popularized by Iglesias featured in Caravelli’s assorted LPs from the 1970s and early 1980s, putting them all together breathes new life to the romantic genius of Iglesias’ song choices and the arrangements made for him. Truly, this is Mediterranean romance bottled and shared with wonderful moments for a worldwide audience through Caravelli’s gift for lush melodic arrangements. Amazingly, Caravelli makes extensive use of trumpet, saxophone, piano and strings with minimal synthesizer effects except on the introduction to ‘Pauvres Diables’ and ‘When I Fall in Love’. His pop sound restores a connection to the 1960s and 1970s when popular orchestras used synthesizers sparingly. “Begin the Beguine” is as much a hit for Caravelli in this version as it was for Iglesias worldwide in 1981 featuring a semi-disco ‘Love Boat’ style tempo. Then there follows the cascade of romantic passages that flow from his saxophone and string version of ‘When I Fall in Love’, ‘Mes Trente Trois…’, ‘Pauvres Diables’, ‘Fidele’, ‘All of You’ (the best EZ listening version out there), ‘Island in the Sun’, ‘Abrazame’, ‘Hey’, ‘Manuela’, ‘Le Monde Est Beau…’ right to the end. ‘Je N'ai Pas Change’ is a surprise on this album with its wordless female soprano delicately opening the masterpiece with a tone that comes closest to an imaginary caress of one’s hands by one’s lover. Every tune is delicately dressed in the fresh enticing colours of a Mediterranean sunset!

Next up: Caravelli et son Grand Orchestre: Only You. Made and released in Japan by EPIC SONY Japan in 1987 under catalogue number 32 8P-204.

This was probably the second of some five original albums from the 1985-9 period when Maestro Caravelli was experimenting with a creative reinvention of classics of popular song from the world music charts and from Broadway, Latin catalogues and the Jazz Age. This album sparkles because Caravelli treated every song with a mood evocative of an uptown restaurant and wine bar where only the most sophisticated socialites mingled…But then again, these are all very melodic rearrangements of pop standards from the 1960s and early 1970s while sounding in vogue with the saxophone led and strong bass sound that characterized the era when Madonna, Whitney Houston, Wham and Starship ruled the airwaves. So, Caravelli brings huge dollops of lush romance back into the pop sound of the 80s by arranging ‘Moon River’ with a slower tempo punctuated with a breathtaking harmonica solo that ‘walks’ the melody through the moonlit promenade instead of singing it straight through like the orchestras of the 1960s did in keeping closely to the original Mancini. Then there is the GREASE-inspired take on ‘Down Town’ with a distinctive 80s sound, and the blend of Reggae and Pop-rock rhythms on ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’. ‘Only You’ originally by the Platters, is given an unusual flavour of the Big Band era with basslines and percussion from the 80s, while ‘Cuando Calienta...’ brings you down memory lane with a Waltz like tempo. More slow waltzing follows on ‘Everybody Loves Somebody’ – that definitive hit from Dean Martin. Finally, Caravelli manages to refresh ‘You are the Sunshine…’ and ‘Strangers in the Night’ with smooth saxophone solos throughout each piece while accentuating the beauty of each tune with contemporary basslines. Overall, this whole album is like vintage 1960s-70s, finely aged wine, uncorked in time for a new audience in the 80s to rediscover.

TRACK LISTING:

1.    Red Roses for a Blue Lady

2.    Moon River

3.    Save the Last Dance for Me

4.    Down Town

5.    Strangers in the Night

6.    Classic & Sequencer

7.    Only You

8.    You are the Sunshine of My Life

9.    Cuando Calienta el Sol

10. Yesterday

11. Can’t Help Falling in Love

12.  Everybody Loves Somebody

Released almost about the same time is Caravelli’s RAINBOW LP and CD. This album is even more of a mind blowing experience than the other two. Literally, this is a walk into the rainbow colours of what Maestro Caravelli is capable of. With ‘Laura’, and ‘Green Leaves of Summer’, Caraveli ushers the listener gently into the 1980s with a warm trumpet and flute solos surrounded with synth-bass vibes with the strings coming into consciousness much later. By the time one reaches ‘Temptation’, Caravelli tests the listener with funky rhythms. Indeed, a temptation is opened up to sway and jive with the heavy bass lines that transform the horns’ rendition of the main melody into a postmodern operatic melody. Curiously, if you listen to this version of Temptation right after the vocal version of Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ or Phil Collins’ ‘Against All Odds’, there is no culture shock. Dig further into ‘Windmills of Your Mind’ with its pulsating rhythms and the rock and roll version of ‘Blue Moon’ with mesmerizing electric guitar and synthesizer piano, you’ll make the association with the hits of Sting and Huey Lewis and the News from that decade. Cleverly, Caravelli lets the listener back gently into string ballad territory with the closing ‘Autumn Flower’ like a zestful traditional lemonade after several heady concoctions.

Finally, let’s take a trip to Blue Rondo! Caravelli et son Grand Orchestre. Blue Rondo. Made and released in Japan by EPIC SONY Records Japan in 1989 under catalogue number ESCA 5124. 

This was probably the fourth of some five original albums from the 1985-9 period when Maestro Caravelli was experimenting with a creative reinvention of classics of popular song from the world music charts and from Broadway, Latin catalogues and the Jazz Age. This album sparkles because Caravelli treated every song with tremendous imagination with the help – according to the liner notes – of Serge Planchon, Gil Gambus and Patrick Vasori. Patrick is of course the son of Claude Vasori – Mr Caravelli himself. The title of this album evokes the jazz tunes of the 30s, 50s and early 60s. ‘Blue Rondo’ might be jarring initially to listeners unaccustomed to jazz but this is Caravelli taking you on a bold musical departure, teasing the listener with the less familiar, but staying close to the melodic core of the tune with plenty of lush string sound. Then there is ‘Take Five’ – another tribute to Dave Brubeck’s Quartet – ‘Louise’, ‘Syracuse’ and the ever hummable ‘Mack the Knife’. The orchestra is still extremely melodious and pop instrumental in its soul. For that reason alone, Caravelli’s fans will adore this musical adventure. This trip to jazz land is balanced with a few brilliant arrangements of pop and Broadway standards like ‘Charmaine’, ‘Tea for Two’, ‘Singing in the Rain’, ‘New York, New York’ and the nod to Bossa nova paradise – ‘Desafinado’. Caravelli keeps to his 80s styling so fans enamoured with his tribute album to Julio Iglesias, the ONLY YOU album and RAINBOW will find this album a treasure to be added to one’s collection. ‘Charmaine’ is one of my personal favourites as he takes the song far away from its trademark Mantovani arrangement towards something more intimately ‘sung’ with flute, bassoon, guitar and wall to wall strings to keep that ‘swooning’ magic. ‘Mack the Knife’, ‘Syracuse’ and ‘Desafinado’ are arranged for dancers with their fusion of neo-polka and jazz ballet rhythms, upgraded for the 80s. There is enough familiarity within these classic songs to avoid alienating Caravelli fans from the 60s and 70s.  Like Caravelli’s companion 1988 album TENDERLY, the maestro sure knows how to wow old fans while attracting news ones from the 1980s!

TRACK LISTING:

1.    Blue Rondo a la Turk (A Bout de Souffle)

2.    My Own True Love (Love theme from ‘Gone with the Wind’)

3.    Singing in the Rain

4.    Charmaine

5.    Tea for Two

6.    Mack the Knife

7.    Prestissimo

8.    Syracuse

9.    Take Five (Ne Boud Pas)

10.  Desafinado

11.  Louise

12.  New York, New York

Released one year earlier in 1988, is another stunning album TENDERLY. The title track spells beauty shimmering on a fashion runway, as much as on a Parisian sidewalk. The synthesizer lead works unbelievable magic in singing out the tenderness in the standard jazz ballad with the strings of the orchestra providing plenty of empathetic support. This delicate introduction to the album gives way quickly to a jazzy disco-esque interpretation of Lerner and Loewe’s international hit from the musical My Fair Lady – ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’. In fact, half of this album is dedicated to the dance form known as jazz ballet, popular in the 1980s: fancy ‘All the Things You Are’, ‘Tico Tico’, ‘Night and Day’ and ‘Delicado’ as soundtracks for energetic movements on a musical stage? Caravelli wows his fans – both old and new – by reinventing these classics for the 1980s. Then there are plenty of torch like inspirational moments in creatively rearranged tunes like ‘Les Parapluies de Cherbourg’, ‘Blue Skies’ and Caravelli’s own composition ‘Pour Elle’. These are all ballads, but in the hands of Caravelli, and according to the liners notes, his son as well, these are no ordinary ballads anymore. And those of you who have listened to this stellar album through and through will never forget the ultimate remake of ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ through its neoclassically played electric guitar introduction, repeated through the midsections as a kind of Caravelli-esque signature mini-chorus. Then the saxaphone takes over the dream sequence by playing the leading notes…Doing it ever so TENDERLY, and with lots of funky bass rhythms, Caravelli has made the 1980s his memorable decade!

[Watch this space for a sequel to the 1980s releases by Caravelli on CD including two spectacular box sets]

ALAN

July 2021