Going Places

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Going Places

1 Fantasy On National Airs (Max Saunders) Early One Morning, The Ash Grove, The Campbells Are Coming, Londonderry Air.
BBC TELEVISION ORCHESTRA Conducted by ERIC ROBINSON
2 Going Places (Jackie Brown)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH 
3 Enchanted Isle (Kermit Leslie & Walter Leslie real surnames Levinsky)
KERMIT LESLIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA 
4 Mexican Interlude (David Bee)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA (as ‘VAN LYNN’ on LP label) 
5 Park Avenue Waltz (William Hill-Bowen)
THE MELACHRINO STRINGS Conducted by GEORGE MELACHRINO 
6 Cabaret Time In Paris (Selection) 
NORRIE PARAMOR AND HIS ORCHESTRA 
7 Moon Of Manakoora (Alfred Newman, Frank Loesser)
DAVID ROSE AND HIS ORCHESTRA 
8 El Rancho Grande (My Ranch) (Ramos)
MORTON GOULD AND HIS ORCHESTRA
9 Streets Of New York (Victor Herbert)
WERNER MULLER AND HIS ORCHESTRA 
10 Call Of The Casbah (theme from ITV serial "Destination Downing Street") (Joyce Cochrane, arr. Laurie Johnson) 
LAURIE JOHNSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA 
11 Monte Carlo (Whiting, Harding) 
MONTY KELLY AND HIS ORCHESTRA 
12 Mediterranean Serenade (Alain Romans, Jacques Larue)
LEROY HOLMES AND HIS ORCHESTRA
13 Viennese Lantern Waltz (also known as Lights Of Vienna) (Juan R. Delgado)
RED NICHOLS AND THE AUGMENTED PENNIES 
14 Southwest Territory (Frank De Vol)
FRANK DE VOL AND HIS ORCHESTRA 
15 Scherzo: Avignon (based on ‘Sur Le Pont d’Avignon’) (trad, arr. Ronald Hanmer)
BBC MIDLAND LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by H.G. BURGESS 
16 Adios Mexico (Fred Hartley)
FRED HARTLEY AND HIS ORCHESTRA 
17 Taj Mahal (Robert Farnon)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON 
18 Fiesta Argentina (Oliphant Chuckerbutty)
THE LOUIS VOSS GRAND ORCHESTRA 
19 Mediterranean Cruise (Billy Mayerl)
STUTTGART RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by KURT REHFELD 
20 Cryin’ For The Carolines (Harry Warren, Sam Lewis, Joe Young)
GUY LUYPAERTS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
21 The Poor People of Paris (La Goualante Du Pauvre Jean) (Marguerite Monnot) 
RICHARD HAYMAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA 
22 Irish Fantasy – Songs To Remember No. 4 (arr. Peter Yorke)
PETER YORKE AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA 
23 Persian Nocturne (Robert Stolz)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA 
24 London By Night (Carroll Coates)
RAY MARTIN AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA 
25 Aarhus Tappenstreg (Aarhus Tattoo) (C. C. Moller)
AARHUS CIVIC ORCHESTRA Conducted by THOMAS JENSEN

Guild GLCD 5151

The theme of this collection is very simple: music associated with different parts of the world. Unlike "Globetrotting" (Guild GLCD 5141), no attempt has been made to provide any kind of accurate geographical journey from place to place. But we would like to think that many of the tracks will evoke pleasant memories among seasoned travellers. The only exception is the title track, Going Places which is typical of the kind of ‘holiday’ music you used to hear in the background behind newsreels of the 1940s and 1950s whenever scenes of a happy, carefree nature were being screened.

Our opening piece of music visits the four countries of the British Isles – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - but there is a much more important reason for including it. The final track on "Childhood Memories – Volume 2" (Guild GLCD 5144) was Scherzetto for Children, commissioned by the BBC from composer Fred Hartley to introduce Children’s Television for several years during the 1950s. A number of collectors subsequently contacted us to request that we should issue the ‘grown up’ version from BBC TV in those days – in other words the music that was also specially commissioned to be played before programmes started in the evening (remember this was decades before 24 hour television, when there were often long gaps with only test cards on view).

Once again Guild is grateful to TV memorabilia collector Tony Clayden for supplying us with a recording of Fantasy on National Airs by Max Saunders. As with the Scherzetto, the piece is performed by the BBC Television Orchestra conducted by Eric Robinson and it is believed to have been recorded in 1951. These two works have not previously been available on any commercial recordings, so a unique part of British television history has now been preserved for posterity.

Max Saunders (1903-1983) was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and left his homeland in the 1940s to work with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney, before moving on to London where he composed, arranged and conducted many productions for the BBC, particularly during the 1950s. His total output included incidental music for around 70 radio and television plays and features, as well as several film scores. He seems to have made a speciality of part songs and orchestral works, and among his major compositions are his African Suite, A Cotswold Pastoral for oboe and strings, and various arrangements of traditional Maori chants. He also wrote chamber music and three short operas.

Eric Robinson (1908-1974) was a personality during the formative years of BBC Television. He had played the violin in an orchestra for a television production in 1939, just before the service abruptly closed down upon the outbreak of World War 2. When normal service was resumed he became the conductor of the BBC Television Orchestra, and was soon a household name through his monthly show "Music For You", broadcast on a Wednesday from Studio G at Lime Grove, which won the Television Society’s Silver Medal in 1952. Eric conducted numerous musical shows featuring the BBC’s top stars during the 1950s. According to the reference books he was involved in just one film – "Old Mother Riley’s New Venture" (1947). His elder brother was the famous conductor Stanford Robinson (1904-1984).

Another rarity on this CD is the Scherzo: Avignon by Ronald Hanmer (1917-1994). This is the composer’s own private recording of a performance in 1946, and it seems likely that it was originally written for Charles Shadwell to conduct in the BBC radio programme "ITMA". Usually in a comical vein, another example of Hanmer’s contributions to this long-running series is Ten Green Bottles on Guild GLCD 5102. His career stretched from the 1930s (he was a cinema organist) until the end of his life, and over 700 of his compositions were published in various background music libraries (examples already on Guild include Proud and Free GLCD 5136, The Four Horsemen and Intermission – both onGLCD 5140). Among his film scores were Made in Heaven (1952), Penny Princess (1952) and Top of the Form (1953). He was also in demand as an orchestrator of well-known works for Amateur Societies, and the brass band world was very familiar with his scores – sometimes used as test pieces. In 1975 he emigrated to Australia, where he was delighted to discover that his melody Pastorale was famous throughout the land as the theme for the long-running radio serial Blue Hills. In 1992 he received the Order of Australia for services to music, just before that country abolished the honours system.

A welcome newcomer in this selection is Red Nichols (sometimes known as ‘Nicholls’) - more usually associated with his Five Pennies. He was the inspiration behind the 1959 film "The Five Pennies" starring Danny Kaye, which was very loosely based on his life. He played the trumpet for the movie soundtrack, but didn’t appear on screen. Ernest Loring ‘Red’ Nichols (1905-1965) is regarded by some jazz students as one of the finest cornet players to emerge during the 1920s, working for bandleaders such as Paul Whiteman and Harry Reser. He became one of the busiest record session musicians, and also played in several Broadway shows. His contribution to this collection is taken from an album released in 1957 where strings were added to his usual lineup – presumably to try and gain him a new audience.

Norrie Paramor (1914-1979) tended to be better known by the public for his work with pop stars such as Cliff Richard, but he also made numerous instrumental recordings and wrote several catchy numbers that greatly appealed – one of these was Cornflakes under the pseudonym ‘Sidney Norman’ on Guild GLCD 5130. As Artists and Repertoire Manager at Columbia during the 1950s (part of the time with Ray Martin) he was sometimes obliged to satisfy public demand for popular tunes of the day, and Cabaret Time In Paris is one such example.

Fred Hartley (1905-1980) has already been mentioned in these notes for his Scherzetto for Children. He was a familiar name in British broadcasting for many years, having made his first appearance on the BBC as a solo pianist as early as 1925. He was then employed as an accompanist, and founded his famous Novelty Quintet in 1931. In 1946 he was appointed the BBC’s Head of Light Music. In the 1950s two of his own compositions became popular through their frequent broadcasts; Alpine Festival was included on Guild GLCD 5141, and this time it is the turn of Adios Mexico on the other side of the same Decca single.

American light orchestras are well represented in this musical tour. Kermit Leslie leads the pack with Enchanted Isle co-composed with his brother Walter. This is the sixth time his orchestra has been featured on Guild, and it will not be the last. Next comes David Rose (1910-1990) - although born in Britain he made his successful career in the USA. Moon of Manakoora first appeared in the film "The Hurricane" (1937) starring Dorothy Lamour, and Alfred Newman’s score was nominated for an Academy Award.

The proximity of Mexico to the USA has been a big influence on the popular music scene, and Morton Gould (1913-1996) often conducted his own arrangements of well known tunes such as El Rancho Grande. Gould became one of the most highly respected American composers, and his distinguished career was crowned with a Pulitzer Prize (for his Stringmusic, commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovich for the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington) just a year before his death at the age of 82. Among his best-known works were the ballet Fall River Legend and American Symphonette No. 3,from which the movement called Pavanne (the mis-spelling was deliberate) became very popular. There is a delightful version of this piece by Jay Wilbur’s Serenaders on Guild GLCD 5139. From 1986 to 1994 Gould was President of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

Our American roll call continues with Monty Kelly (1910-1971), a trumpeter, arranger and bandleader who played with the Paul Whiteman and Skinnay Ennis bands before landing a job with NBC in New York. For a while he was a regular in the recording studios, and managed to secure some success with singles such as Tropicana and Three O’Clock In The Morning (both on Guild GLCD 5105). This persuaded Cash Box magazine to name him ‘most promising orchestra’ in 1953, but by then the era of popular instrumentals was starting to wane in the USA. His albums continued to do well, and they are still sought by light music fans. Monte Carlo is his tenth appearance in this Guild series.

Leroy Holmes (born Alvin Holmes, 1913-1986) scored Hollywood films and radio programmes during his early career, before becoming one of the mainstays of MGM’s conducting ‘team’ in the 1950s, also arranging many of their recordings. Eventually he moved on to United Artists where he conducted many of their contract singers and also recorded albums under his own name. His film credits include "The Bridge In The Jungle" (1970) and "Smile" (1975).

In the USA Frank De Vol (1911-1999) is known primarily as the composer for the radio and TV series "The Brady Bunch", but light music fans appreciate that his career has been far more substantial. It was not uncommon to see the credit ‘Music by De Vol’ on many films, and he started playing violin in cinema orchestras just as the silent films era was coming to an end. After touring with the Alvino Rey orchestra, in the 1940s he began a recording career, first as an arranger for vocalists Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Vic Damone and Nat "King" Cole. His arrangement of "Nature Boy" sung by Nat "King" Cole became a number one hit in 1948. That earned him an executive position at Columbia Records, for whom he went on to make a number of successful mood music albums. In the 1950s his own Hollywood orchestra, called "Music of the Century", played frequently at the Hollywood Palladium. His many motion picture scores included the following which were all nominated for Oscars: the Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedy "Pillow Talk" (1959), "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" (1964), "Cat Ballou" (1965), and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967). Frank also appeared as a character actor in several US television series, such as "I Dream of Jeannie", "Bonanza" and "Petticoat Junction". South West Territory reveals his considerable skills as a composer with a tone poem that will strike a chord with many fellow Americans.

As well as being a respected arranger and conductor, Richard Hayman (b. 1920) was also a harmonica virtuoso, and he sometimes adapted his scores of popular melodies so that he could perform on his favourite instrument. This formula brought him two chart successes in the early 1950s, with 78s of Ruby and April In Portugal. He followed Leroy Anderson as an arranger for the Boston Pops Orchestra over a period of more than 30 years, and also served as Music Director of Mercury Records. He was regularly in demand to orchestrate Broadway shows and film soundtracks, and notable among his own compositions are No Strings Attached (on Guild GLCD 5105) and Skipping Along (Guild GLCD 5131). His recent recordings are still being released today by major record companies.

The final track finds Thomas Jensen (1898-1963) conducting the Aarhus Civic Orchestra (later to become Symphony). Aarhus is Denmark’s second city, and in the late 1940s its orchestra was regarded as Jensen’s. He had studied the cello at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where Carl Nielsen taught him harmony. Later he would conduct Nielsen’s symphonies, winning approval from the composer’s daughters.

David Ades

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