CD REVIEWS
– 'This
England' Magazine range
‘This
England’ Magazine has
produced an extensive and
attractive range of CDs.
The following
examples will be of particular
interest to Light Music
enthusiasts :-
Classic Swing,
Yesterdays Music C157. Music
changes and so do listeners’
tastes. For some, however,
altering well-known musical
pieces and giving them an
up-tempo beat is anathema but to
others it shows a healthy regard
for a fine original tune. Such is
the case with this compilation
where several musicians have
altered the tempi of various
popular classical favourites to
give them a new dimension. Bach
Goes to Town – Benny
Goodman, Moonlight Sonata
– Glenn Miller, Entrance
of the Little Fauns –
Jack Payne, Bach Up to Me
– Fats Waller, March of
the Toys – Geraldo, Who
is Sylvia? - Maxine Sullivan
with John Kirby, Humoresque
– Glenn Miller, Can-Can
Polka – Billy Cotton, Pathetique
– Stephane Grappelli &
Django Reinhardt, Skaters
Waltz – Bob Crosby, Song
of India – Tommy Dorsey,
Liebestraum – Sammy
Kaye, Heykens’ Serenade
–Sydney Kyte, No Other
Love – Jo Stafford, On
the Road to Mandalay –
Bon Bon, Blow Blow Thou Winter
Wind - Al Bowlly, Hungarian
Dance No. 5 – Claude
Thornhill, Blue Danube
– Les Brown, Prelude in
C-Sharp Minor – Nat King
Cole Trio, Double Violin
Concerto in D-Minor –
Eddie South, Stephane Grappelli
& Django Reinhardt, It Was
a Lover and His Lass –
Al Bowlly, Flight of the
Bumble Bee – Harry
James, Galloping Comedians
– Geraldo, Anvil Chorus
– Glenn Miller, Humoresque
– John Kirby, Swinging
Bizet at the Met – Les
Brown.
https://www.thisengland.co.uk/swing-the-classics-cd.html
Mood Music,
Yesterday’s Music C158. Mood
Music first emerged when
classical pieces began to be
named but the early days of radio
and television spawned commercial
music libraries with pieces for
specific purposes. Most were less
than three minutes in length,
many much shorter and some only a
few seconds. Amongst the more
famous companies were Francis Day
and Hunter (FDH), Boosey and
Hawkes, Paxton, Synchro, Harmonic
(Charles Brull), Weinberger,
Bosworth, Conroy, Keith Prowse
Music (KPM), and De Wolfe. The
biggest and most prolific,
however, was Chappell which
recorded hundreds of tunes by the
Queen’s Hall Light
Orchestra, their major in-house
ensemble conducted post-war by
Charles Williams, Sidney Torch
and Robert Farnon. Some of the
following have never been heard
on CD before, including Baby
Jumbo, the play out tune to
The Clitheroe Kid and
Tyrolean Sketches by former
BBC producer, Trevor
Hill.Devil’s Galop,
Barwick Green, Coronation
Scot, Top Dog, Golliwog’s
Serenade, Theatreland, Midnight
Express, Penguin Parade,
Ten Days Leave, Here They
Are, Eighth Army March,
Merry as a Grig, Fun Polka, Jokers
Wild, Baby Jumbo,
Pedestrian Crossing, In
the Saddle, Brush Off,
Toytown Parade, Waiata Poi,
Bent for Glory, Piccadilly
Spree, They’re Racing,
Motorway, All the Fun
of the Fair, The Odstock
Curse, Tyrolean Sketches.
https://www.thisengland.co.uk/library-and-mood-music-cd.html
Strictly Come
Dancing, Yesterday’s Music
C159. At the turn of the 21st
century it was estimated as many
as 75% of retired married couples
had met on the dance floor. This
is not surprising because
immediate post-war society
offered little in the way of
mixed live entertainment and the
obvious place for fraternisation
was he local palais or village
hall. Here are 27 different
dances. Fred Astaire Medley
(Quickstep), Black Bottom,
Spanish Gypsy Dance (Paso Doble) Edmundo
Ros, Tea for Two (Cha
Cha) Tommy Dorsey, The
Breakaway Jack Hylton, The
Cokey-Cokey (aka
Hokey-Cokey) Billy Cotton, Wedding
Samba Joe Loss, Poor
Little Angeline (Palais
Glide)Victor Silvester, Lambeth
Walk Ronnie Munr0, Shake,
Rattle ‘n’ Roll (Rock
‘n’ Roll) Bill
Haley, Ocean Dreams (Bossa
Nova), Sailors Hornpipe Jack
Byfield, I’ll Get By
(Foxtrot) Joe Loss, Millionaire’s
Hoedown, Loveliest Night
of the Year (Waltz) Victor
Silvester, Peanut Vendor (Rumba)
Jack Payne, Choo Choo Boogie
Louis Jordan, Conga Victor
Silvester, Brown Sugar (Charleston),
I am a Courtier, Grave and
Serious (Gavotte from The
Gondoliers) Sidney Thompson, Hear
My Song, Violetta (Tango)
Victor Silvester, Mambo Jambo Lester
Lanin, Jive at Five Count
Basie, Bluebell Polka
Jimmy Shand, Gay 20s
(Two-Step) Harry Davidson, The
Continental Lew Stone, Minuet
(theme tune to The Ladykillers
film).
https://www.thisengland.co.uk/books-cds-dvds/cds/come-dancing-cd.html
Sing Something
Simple, Yesterday’s Music
C160. The brains behind this
long-running programme was Cliff
Adams, and for most of its 42
year existence - the longest
continuous running music show
ever - it was the Cliff Adams
Singers who serenaded us, firstly
on the Light Programme and later
on Radio 2. The debut broadcast
in 1959 was billed by the Radio
Times as “Songs simply
sung for song-lovers”. Rock
and roll had already made its
mark and in theory it should have
attracted mainly older people.
However, perhaps surprisingly, it
quickly attracted a much wider
age range, which it continued to
do for the next four decades.
There are 27 medleys on this CD,
topped and tailed with the theme:
Sing something simple, As
cares go by, Sing something
simple, Just you and I.
https://www.thisengland.co.uk/books-cds-dvds/cds/sing-something-simple.html
Ray Martin,
Yesterday’s Music C161. One
of the biggest names in British
popular music, especially during
the 1950s, Ray Martin conducted
his own orchestra on radio and
television. Jewish-born,
he had a narrow escape from
Austria, but his brother did not
survive a concentration camp. Ray
never talked about it and always
had a smile on his face.
According to two musical experts
who knew him well, this CD is
spectacular and includes all his
best-known tunes. “If he was
still alive then Ray would have
been delighted”. Marching
Strings, Blue Tango, Lady of
Spain, Petticoats of Portugal,
Tango of the Bells, Diamonds are
a Girl’s Best Friend, The
Tender Trap, Waltz of Paree,
Veradero, Begorrah, Belle of the
Ball, Around the World, Ecstasy,
Lazy Cowboy, Colonel Bogey,
Serenade to Eileen, Carousel
Waltz, Woodpecker’s Waltz,
Davy Crockett, The High and
Mighty, In Old Lisbon, Moonlight
and Roses, Waltzing Bugle Boy,
Love is a Many Splendoured Thing,
The Waltzing Cat, True Love,
Three Coins in the Fountain, High
Noon, Bavarian Wedding March.
https://www.thisengland.co.uk/books-cds-dvds/cds/ray-martin-s-marching-strings-cd.html
The Churchill
Music, Yesterday’s Music,
CMM. When Churchill died in
1965, composer Norman Harvey
Rutherlyn decided to write a
substantial piece of music about
him. It took eight years to
complete but the result was a
memorable 72-minute 11-movement
epic tracing Churchill’s
life history from his nursery at
Blenheim Palace; school days at
Harrow; Sandhurst; the Boer War;
engagement to Clementine Hozier;
Spithead review as Lord of the
Admiralty; the First and Second
World Wars; and finally a suite
about his country home at
Chartwell in Kent. The melodic
work was premiered on the 50th
anniversary of VE Day and now, in
memory of its late patriotic
composer, it has now been
re-released enhanced by
contemporary sound effects,.
Good modern music can be
hard to find but this is a good
example of what it sounds like.
https://www.thisengland.co.uk/books-cds-dvds/cds/the-churchill-music.html
These, and the
whole range, may be obtained from
:-
This England
(Sales)
PO Box 814
Haywards Heath
Sussex
RH16 9LQ
Telephone
0800 074 0188 (Free from UK
landlines)
Email orders : sales@thisengland.co.uk
Website : www.thisengland.co.uk
Edmund
Whitehouse - April 2016
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