Sunday, January 24, 2010
Stardusted Music
Bobby Hackett was the front man (& much more) for the famous early Jackie Gleason albums, enough to fill a four CD set. A facile cornet/trumpet player with a great tone, he could probably play ballad standards in his sleep, & most certainly played them while inebriated. This part of the easy listening "lounge" genre ain't my thing, & I have no regrets passing on the orchestral stuff, high or (mostly) low quality, during the great flea market & garage sale record collection sell-offs of the '80s & '90s. The bottom feeders of lounge have almost no musical acumen. It's all good to them. They're completetists or mesmerized by sexy album jackets, Their value is that by digging up everything they occasionally dig up a gem for everyone else, often without recognizing its true value. As a free form radio DJ of no specialized musical expertise, I have to trust my ears & tastes. This is special.
When Bobby Hackett was prohibited by his contract with Capitol from recording lush orchestral albums for any other label, he went into the studio for Columbia & made two LPs - Dream Awhile (1960) & The Most Beautiful Horn in the World (1961) - with a small combo including piano, bass, guitar, & Wurlitzer theater organ played on the first LP by a guy named Johnny Seng. Seng provided the "strings." The result was a strangely ethereal imitation of Jackie Gleason. You're not sure at first what you're hearing. Listening to this music is like watching star-crossed lovers dancing at 3 am in a large, empty ballroom. Cheesy in its way, yet almost unbearably sad, but for the beautiful horn effortlessly sailing over it all.
The two Hackett/Seng LPs were packaged together & briefly released on a CD titled, "Music 'til Dawn."
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
When Bobby Hackett was prohibited by his contract with Capitol from recording lush orchestral albums for any other label, he went into the studio for Columbia & made two LPs - Dream Awhile (1960) & The Most Beautiful Horn in the World (1961) - with a small combo including piano, bass, guitar, & Wurlitzer theater organ played on the first LP by a guy named Johnny Seng. Seng provided the "strings." The result was a strangely ethereal imitation of Jackie Gleason. You're not sure at first what you're hearing. Listening to this music is like watching star-crossed lovers dancing at 3 am in a large, empty ballroom. Cheesy in its way, yet almost unbearably sad, but for the beautiful horn effortlessly sailing over it all.
The two Hackett/Seng LPs were packaged together & briefly released on a CD titled, "Music 'til Dawn."
Labels: music
