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GREAT AMERICAN LIGHT ORCHESTRAS
The Golden Age of Light Music

Fiddle Faddle (Leroy Anderson)
The Bad and the Beautiful – theme from film (David Raksin)
Brazilian Sleigh Bells (Percy Faith)
Anna (Roman, Giordano, Godfrey)
No Strings Attached (Richard Hayman)
Rain (Eugene Ford)
Holiday in Rio (Terig Tucci)
Sophisticated Lady (Duke Ellington, arr. Gould)
Marguerite Waltz (Meredith Willson)
Blue Violins (Ray Martin)
No other Love (Richard Rodgers)
Three o'clock in the Morning (Robledo, Terriiss)
La Mer (Charles Trenet)
If You are but a Dream (Jaffe, Fulton, Bronx – adapted from 'Romance' by Rubinstein)
Satan and the Polar Bear (David Rose)
Carriage Trade (Richard Hayman)
Tradewinds (David Carroll)
Manhattan Serenade (Louis Alter)
The Cavalier's Ball (Nicolas Acquaviva)
Tropicana (Bernie Wayne)
Smoke gets in your Eyes (Jerome Kern)
Andalucia (Ernesto Lecuona, arr. Gould)
Dance of the Violins (Jeanjean)
Tic-Tac-Toe (Lou Singer)
Toyland Waltzfrom "Babes in Toyland" (Victor Herbert)
Manhattan Masquerade (Louis Alter)
Recorded in the USA

GUILD: GLCD5105 [78.04]

 

This is the second disc in Guild's 'Golden Age' series. The compilation is transfers from 78rpm records issued by major recording labels in the 1940s and 50s.

Many of the titles will not be readily known by readers under the age of 45, but in the forties and fifties the original records sold well in America. Herbert's Toyland Waltz and Kern's Smoke gets in Your Eyes are better known and are still played. Other titles, though, are not well known. Rose, Faith and Gould were popular arrangers of the time and are responsible for some of the adaptations that appear here. The majority of pieces were recorded by dance bands and would have been written to accompany hotel and ballroom dances.

Most of the recordings were made at the start of the tape recording era when some companies stuck rigidly to the direct cutting method until tape durability had been fully tested by the mid fifties. Although most of the titles would have been issued as singles, the LP came early to America and so it is likely that some like the pioneering Brunswick records would have been available in a dual format. Vinyl was also used as the pressing medium in these last days of the 78. Not only has Guild's sound restoration and transfer of these 78s by Alan Bunting been excellent, with no background hiss or clicks and wide frequency range, but also the original recordings by Mercury, Columbia, Capitol, MGM and must be admired for their clarity.

For me a lot of the tracks contain recordings of a similar style, with repititious phrases and sections to the number and often lack a good melody line. Listeners of a younger generation may well react differently to those who are familiar with the music.

Raymond J Walker

Great British Light Orchestras

 

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