Confetti
GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD5175
Confetti
1 Confetti (Bronislau Kaper)
MGM STUDIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by JOHNNY GREEN
MGM E 3694 1958
2 Champs Elysees Café (Joseph Kuhn)
PARIS THEATRE ORCHESTRA
Somerset SF 2500 1957
3 Manhattan Playboy (Robert Farnon)
LESLIE JONES and his ORCHESTRA OF LONDON
Pye-Nixa NSPL 83009 1959
4 Hora Staccato (Grigori Dinicu; Jascha Heifetz, arr. Morton Gould)
MORTON GOULD AND HIS ORCHESTRA
RCA Victor LSP 1656 1958
5 Musik Klingt Durch Die Nacht (Hartel; Woltmann)
HANS GEORG ARLT AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Ariola 71231 1959
6 In My Memoirs (Jimmy McHugh; Al Dubin, arr. Robert Farnon)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA (LP label credits "Jack Saunders Orchestra")
Everest SDBR 1011 1958
7 Lina (Francis Lopez, arr. Percy Faith)
PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA with MITCH MILLER, oboe and cor anglais
Columbia CL 551 1954
8 I Concentrate On You (from "Broadway Melody of 1940") (Cole Porter, arr. Conrad Salinger)
CONRAD SALINGER ORCHESTRA Conducted by BUDDY BREGMAN
Verve MG VS-6012 1958
9 Pizzicato Rhumba (Salvatore "Tutti" Camarata)
MUSIC BY CAMARATA
Decca DL 5461 1952
10 Nota Per Nota (Guido Viezzoli)
GEORGE MELACHRINO Conducting the Orchestra of the 6th San Remo Festival
HMV SCT 1519 1957
11 Via Amalfi (Joseph Kuhn)
ROBERTO ROSSANI AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Stereo Fidelity SF-4700 1959
12 Getting To Know You (from "The King And I") (Richard Rodgers; Oscar ammerstein, arr. William Hill Bowen)
WILLIAM HILL BOWEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
RCA Camden CAS 461 1958
13 Montevideo Bolero (Joseph Kuhn)
DOLORES VENTURA, Piano and the CARNIVAL ORCHESTRA
Valiant V-4926 1959
14 Bluebell Polka (F. Stanley, arr. Ron Goodwin)
RON GOODWIN AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
Parlophone R 4094 1955
15 Joey"s Song (Joe Reisman)
JOE REISMAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
RCA LPS 1519 1957
16 Twice Around The Island (Joseph J. Leahy; Abe Olman)
DAVID CARROLL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Mercury Wing SRW 12508 1957
17 Bees-A-Buzzin" (Edrich Siebert, real name Stanley Smith-Masters)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Paxton PR 563 1953
18 Mischief (Frederic Curzon)
NEW CENTURY ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH
Francis, Day & Hunter FDH 010 1946
19 Gadabout (Cyril Watters)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Paxton PR 639 1954
20 Utopia Road (Dolf Van Der Linden)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA ("Paul Franklin" on disc label)
Paxton PR 612 1954
21 Violins In Velvet (Leslie Begueley)
BOSWORTH STRING ORCHESTRA Conducted by LOUIS VOSS
Bosworth BC 1232 1949
22 Market Day (Wilfred Josephs)
NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by CEDRIC DUMONT
Boosey & Hawkes O 2305 1958
23 Treble Chance (Peter Dennis, real name Dennis Alfred Berry)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA ("Paul Franklin" on disc label)
Paxton PR 629 1954
24 Parade Of The Champions (George French)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS METROPOLE ORCHESTRA
Paxton PR 585 1954
25 Florella (L.E. DeFrancesco)
GROSVENOR STUDIO ORCHESTRA
Synchro FM 242 1959
26 Who Killed Cock Robin? (Trad, arr. Paul Fenoulhet)
STUTTGART RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by KURT REHFELD ("Crawford Light Orchestra" on disc label)
Josef Weinberger Theme Music JW 152 1958
27 "Dear Miss Phoebe" - Selection (Harry Parr-Davies) Whisper While You Waltz, Spring Will Sing A Song For You, Living A Dream, March Of The Red Coats, I Can"t Resist The Music, All"s Well Tonight, When Will You Marry Me, I Leave My Heart In An English Garden
TOM JENKINS AND HIS PALM COURT ORCHESTRA
HMV B 10047 1951
Stereo: tracks 2-6, 8, 10-13, 15 & 16 : rest in mono
The word "confetti" describes small pieces of paper, of various shapes and colours, often thrown by guests at weddings. In musical terms it can equally apply to an assortment of pieces in different styles, conveying a variety of moods and emotions. In other words, almost a haphazard collection of tunes with no particular theme, except perhaps that they are all a little different. During the compilation of Guild Light Music CDs we sometimes come across enjoyable pieces of music which simply don"t fit in with particular projects. It seems a shame that they should suffer permanent neglect, which is why some previous compilations such as the earlier "Kaleidoscope" trio crop up every so often. Once more it is time to dust off some precious discs patiently awaiting rediscovery. Actually "rediscovery" may not be entirely accurate as many have never previously been available commercially and, for most of the others, this is their first appearance on CD, so it is unlikely that the majority of music-lovers will have heard them before.
New Yorker John Waldo Green, better known in the music business as Johnny Green (1908-1989), enjoys a lasting reputation for his work on MGM Musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, often in collaboration with his friend Conrad Salinger who gave Green the nickname "Beulah". To chronicle all his achievements would take several booklets such as this, since he combined songwriting (his biggest early hit was Body And Soul) with arranging, conducting and piano playing. Green"s contribution to this collection is the opening track Confetti, composed by Bronislau Kaper for the 1956 film "Forever Darling", in which he conducts the legendary MGM Studio Orchestra. Salinger (1901-1961) is featured as arranger of the Cole Porter classic I Concentrate On You.
When stereo discs were launched in the second half of the 1950s, record producers did not hesitate to tempt the public with exotic sounding titles that disguised the fact that they were probably not quite what they may have seemed. It is highly likely that The Cinema Sound Stage Orchestra, The Gaslight Orchestra, The (Rio) Carnival Orchestra, The Paris Theatre Orchestra, Roberto Rossani and his Orchestra and The New World Theatre Orchestra (all featured on various Guild CDs) are basically one and the same. Together with 101 Strings, they were names used by the American Miller International Company on their bargain basement priced Essex, Somerset and Stereo Fidelity labels. The recordings usually employed various European symphony and radio orchestras and were linked by the name of Joseph Francis Kuhn (1924-1962), Miller"s musical director, who composed, arranged, scored or conducted most of the early ones and was well known for his recording work in Hollywood, the US east coast and Germany. Unfortunately his untimely death at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital on 10 March 1962 at the age of 37 from a spinal cord injury meant he never attained the fame he was surely due. Kuhn has already been represented with five compositions on previous Guild Light Music CDs, but such was his prolific output during the early days of stereo that it is felt he deserves to have three more of his works made available once more. Champs Elysees Café and Via Amalfi are tuneful examples of the many pieces he wrote with a European flavour.
The pianist Dolores Ventura was married to British composer and oboe player Ivor Slaney (1921-1998), and it is possible that he was conducting the anonymous "Carnival Orchestra" in Kuhn"s Montevideo Bolero.
Manhattan Playboy was composed as the male counterpart to Portrait Of A Flirt (onGuild GLCD5120), one of the most successful pieces of light music ever, written by the Canadian Robert Farnon (1917-2005). He also excelled as an arranger, and In My Memoirs comes from his album of show tunes associated with Mike Todd.
On the subject of Light Music successes, one of the most played pieces in the last century was Hora Staccato, and the version by Morton Gould (1913-1996) ranks among the very best.
Hans Georg Arlt (b. 1927) started learning the violin at the age of six, and later studied under Professor Max Strub in Berlin. In 1946 he began his distinguished radio career, and when the RIAS Dance Orchestra was formed in 1948 he led the string section for a while. He was the Concert Master of choice for many leading German conductors, such as Werner Müller, Werner Eisbrenner, Heinz Kiessling and Hans Carste. In addition he recorded a vast amount of music for German radio stations with his own large string orchestra, employing the finest arrangers including Willy Hoffmann, Paul Kuhn, Jerry van Rooyen, Gustav Trost, Arno Flor, Günther Gürsch and Helmut Gardens.
For a while Mitch Miller (1911-2010) was Percy Faith"s recording manager at US Columbia. He was also regarded as a world class player on oboe and cor anglais, and Faith (1908-1976) recorded two albums which featured Miller as soloist. The bright melody Lina allows Miller to show off his expertise in a dazzling Faith arrangement.
Salvatore ("Tutti") Camarata(1913-2005) was an accomplished trumpet player, but he found his true musical niche during the 1930s as arranger for top bands such as Charlie Barnet, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Paul Whiteman. For a number of years he was musical director of ABC and Decca Records, and was a co-founder of London Records (the US arm of Britain"s Decca).
The special tribute to George Melachrino (1909-1965) in the Guild CD "The Hall of Fame - Volume 3" (GLCD5162) included a rare track, Aprite le Finestre, which was one of the two Italian entries for the first Eurovision Song Contest back in 1956; it was also the 6th San Remo winner the same year. Melachrino recorded all the entries with the San Remo Festival Orchestra for an HMV "stereosonic" tape which was later released as an LP on their International label. Nota Per Nota is another track from those sessions and is reminiscent of much atmospheric Italian film music of the period.
William Hill Bowen (1918-1964) was George Melachrino"s right-hand man in the years immediately following World War 2, often appearing on piano but, perhaps more importantly, as a brilliant arranger who managed to recreate his master"s famous style to perfection. In later years he fronted his own orchestra on many recordings for RCA and Reader"s Digest.
There was a time, back in the 1950s, where it was almost impossible to escape hearing Bluebell Polka. Happily the passage of time has dulled the memory of some of the many trite versions, leaving the bright Ron Goodwin (1925-2003) arrangement as something far more enjoyable.
Joe Reisman (1924-1987) earned a good living from playing saxophone and arranging for top bands, until he became Patti Page"s conductor on many of her 1950s hits. Thereafter he was in constant demand for recording and television work.
David Carroll (1913-2008) - real name Rodell Walter "Nook" Schreier - was well-known in his native USA as a conductor and arranger. In the mid-1940s he joined the newly formed Mercury Records where he spent the next 15 years. Initially employed as an arranger and conductor, he progressed to being a producer and was later promoted as head of artists and repertoire. He was particularly successful writing TV jingles for advertising, and became familiar to the public through his work with The Smothers Brothers, eventually becoming their General Manager.
It is unusual to find a composition by Frederic Curzon (1899-1973) being published by a company other than Boosey & Hawkes, where he was their Head of Light Music for many years. No doubt rivals Francis, Day & Hunter were happy to accept his jaunty Mischief, which receives a suitably polished performance from Sidney Torch (1908-1990) conducting an orchestra of the top session players on the London scene in the 1940s.
Another musician well represented in this collection is Dolf Van Der Linden (1915-1999), who conducts on five tracks, one of them his own piece Utopia Road. He wrote several works in this style which might be called "industrial" because they lend themselves for so many uses in films, especially documentaries. His real name was David Gysbert van der Linden and he was the leading figure on the light music scene in the Netherlands from the 1940s until the 1980s. It could be said that the famous Metropole Orchestra was his "baby". Shortly after the end of the Second World War, he was approached by the local broadcasting authorities Herrijzend Nederland (Rising Netherlands) and asked to form an orchestra of 40 musicians specialising in light music. The Metropole Orchestra performed their first broadcast on 25 November 1945, and under Dolf's leadership it soon became one of the finest ensembles of its kind in Europe. This was due in no small measure to the fact that Dolf succeeded in happily combining his own enthusiasm and aspirations with the outstanding technical qualities of the Metropole Orchestra and its talented musicians. As well as broadcasting frequently, the Metropole Orchestra made numerous recordings for the background music libraries of major music publishers, notably (but not exclusively) Paxton (from which the tracks on this CD originate), Boosey and Hawkes (under the pseudonym "Nat Nyll") and Charles Brull (as "David Johnson"). Dolf"s commercial recordings (especially for the American market) were often labelled as "Van Lynn" or "Daniel De Carlo".
The other recordings by Dolf van der Linden"s fine orchestra feature works by Edrich Siebert, Cyril Watters, Peter Dennis and George French. Siebert"s real name was Stanley Smith Masters (1903-1984) and his early musical career was as a boy musician in the Cheshire Regiment. When he left the Army in 1946 he concentrated on composing, often for military and brass bands, although his works seemed to adapt well for concert orchestras - Bees-A-Buzzin" being a good example. Peter Dennis hides the true identity of Londoner Dennis Alfred Berry (1921-1994), who also composed (sometimes in collaboration with others) under names such as Frank Sterling, Charles Kenbury and Michael Rodney. For part of the 1950s he ran the Paxton Recorded Music Library, but also contributed titles to other publishers. His Treble Chance has been used extensively in British TV soap commercials in recent times. George French was a British violinist who broadcast frequently on the BBC, often as leader for many well-known conductors in programmes such as "Music While You Work". He clearly had a gift for composing, but his recorded output was not substantial. Parade Of The Champions is his third appearance on a Guild CD.
The other composer heard under Dolf van der Linden"s baton is Henry Cyril Watters (1907-1984). Originally a dance band pianist, Cyril realised that he had a talent to compose when he won a Melody Maker Song Contest in 1929, but throughout the 1930s he had to concentrate on performing because it was a continual struggle trying to get his music published. After serving in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, he became an arranger with several leading publishers, and his own works were soon being accepted by production music companies. One of them, The Willow Waltz, won an Ivor Novello Award in 1960. Although he was accomplished at writing in a variety of different moods, it is perhaps his bright and breezy pieces (such as Gadabout) that were so successful in the mood music libraries. Not content with just creating a strong main melody - always instantly appealing - his works are characterised by attractive middle themes which lift the composition to a higher level.
Leslie Begueley composed Canyon Canter which received much praise when it was included on GLCD5131. Violins In Velvet reveals another side to his composing talents.
The British composer Wilfred Josephs (1927-1997) probably first came to the attention of most music lovers through his work on top television series such as "The Great War" (1964) and "I Claudius" (1976). Newspapers frequently told their readers that he was really a dentist, who also happened to write music, but this trivialised his considerable achievements which included 12 symphonies, 22 concertos and numerous other works from overtures to film scores. His modest contributions to production music include Market Day which brilliantly captures the bustle and diversity of such happenings.
Every now and then one discovers an unusual piece of production music which fails to fit in with the usual recordings on offer. Florella is certainly a case in point: it was published in 1959 and, despite its 1920s style it sounds like it was a contemporary performance with musicians simply having fun.
If you lived in Britain during the middle years of the last century you will have been familiar with the name of Paul Fenoulhet (1906-1979) - even if you were unsure how to spell it! At one time he was conductor of the famous Skyrockets then moved on to work with several of the BBC"s light orchestras. No doubt his appealing arrangement of Who Killed Cock Robin was originally created for one of his numerous broadcasts.
For a while Tom William Jenkins (1910-1957) became a household name in Britain, when in 1948 the BBC asked him to succeed Albert Sandler (1906-1948) as conductor of the Palm Court Orchestra for the popular weekly Sunday evening radio programme "Grand Hotel". He was a brilliant violinist who was already highly regarded from his work in theatre and seaside orchestras. Sadly ill health cut short his career at the early age of 46. The music for the show "Dear Miss Phoebe" was composed by Harry Parr-Davies (1914-1955), who had been responsible for several of Gracie Fields" hits, such as Sing As We Go (played by the BBC Wireless Military Band on Guild GLCD5147). David Ades