CD Review – Enoch Light / 4-Channel Dynamite & Big Band Hits Of The ‘30s
CD Review – Enoch Light / 4-Channel Dynamite & Big Band Hits Of The ‘30s
Vocalion CDLK 4655 [67:53]
Remarkably for us nowadays, three new easy listening releases in almost as few weeks. Firstly, there was Ferrante & Teicher, secondly Iain Sutherland (as I had written about four of his earlier albums the Editor has exerted his right to review this one), and now the exceptional Enoch Light (1907-78): bandleader, producer, A&R man, record entrepreneur and label owner.
On this latest album, remastered from the original analogue tapes by Michael J Dutton, there are two Light produced stereo/quadraphonic LPs from 1972 and 1975. The original sleeve notes for 4 CHANNEL DYNAMITE EXPLOSIVE! rightly claim "Total Sound excitement from the start as definitive musical vitality bursts out all around you".
Described as new arrangements and recording concepts of world-famous hit songs, each of the ten tracks have around ten or more lines of detailed explanation in the booklet. Opening with Simon and Garfunkel's Cecilia, and followed by Prelude to Peace (adapted from one of J S Bach's greatest hits Cantata No.140), The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Put a Little Love in Your Heart, Jambalaya (On the Bayou), the Beatles' Penny Lane, Chicago, Carole King's I Feel the Earth Move, Ray Noble's Cherokee and the popular Santana song, Oye Como Va.
The main arranger is Jeff Hest, with one arrangement each by Dick Lieb and Dick Hyman. As well as the usual big band instruments, also used include military drums, a calliope (steam organ) and octavoice. There are some uncredited vocals.
Also recorded at New York's A & R Studios two years later, BIG BAND HITS OF THE '30s VOLUME 2 is an equally attractive proposition with a dozen tracks that include Stardust, American Patrol, Duke Ellington's Solitude and Caravan, Bugle Call Rag and Little Brown Jug. Among featured musicians are world famous graduates from the bands of Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey et al. Prominent are guitarist Tony Mottola – who along with Jeff Hest assists Light with production – trombonist Urbie Green, trumpeter Mel Davis and clarinettist Phil Bodner, who could also play saxophone and English horn as well as a couple of wind instruments.
In modern parlance, this release is a musical "banger" and, if you are a lover of tuneful big band sound, it will give much pleasure.
© Peter Burt, June 2024