I am always wary of lps which state, as this one does, 'Living Presence Sound' and 'Stereo Enhanced'.
In other words, it means that the sound is not very good even allowing for the fact that the music was taken from 78 rpm discs and is around 60 years old. So, be warned.
With that warning, what about the music?
The sides are by the Dankworth Seven recorded between 1950 and 1952, Cleo Laine sings on some tracks. Strings are added on others. There are band vocals in places. The choice of material is questionable. 'The Wedding of the Painted Doll' and 'The Belle Of The Ball' for goodness sake.
I wonder what was going through Dankworth's mind when he decided to record some of these tracks? In places it sounds like a second rate, end of the pier ageing dance band and there are perhaps 5 tracks from the 16 here which are worth listening to.
Why bother posting this? Well, BritJazz likes to post the bad with the good so that you can decide for yourself. Am I being too harsh here?
John Dankworth - leader, alto
Jimmy Deuchar - trumpet
Eddie Blair - trumpet
Eddie Harvey - trombone
Don Rendell - tenor
Henry Mackenzie - clarinet
Bill Le Sage - piano
Steve Race - piano
B Litter - harp
Eric Dawson - bass
Tony Kinsey - drums
Eddie Taylor - drums
J Hitchenor - violin
S Margo - violin
E Horwitz - violin
D Bellman - viola
A Pini - cello
Cleo Laine - vocals
01 Leon Bismarck (Dankworth) (3:29)
02 Mr and Mississippi (Gordon) (3:38)
03 Get Happy (Arlen, Koehler) (3:38)
04 Someone to Watch Over Me (Gershwin) (3:19)
05 Marching Through Georgia (Work) (3:00)
06 Lush Life (Strayhorn) (3:25)
07 The Wedding of the Painted Doll (Brown, Freed) (2:43)
08 Lament and Wild Dance (Dankworth) (3:04)
09 Cherokee (Noble) (2:38)
10 The Very Thought of You (Noble) (3:30)
11 Seven Not Out (Dankworth) (2:56)
12 The Theme from the Haunted Ballroom (Toye) (3:19)
13 Stompin' at the Savoy (Sampson, Goodman, Webb) (3:11)
14 Sin (Shull, Hoven) (2:52)
15 Strictly Confidential (Powell, Fuller) (3:10)
16 The Belle of the Ball (Anderson) (3:36)
Label: Esquire lp Esq 317
Recorded: 1950, 1951, 1952
Lineage: LP>FLAC
Bluebird
ReplyDeleteI am also learning about the British Jazz with the bad posts. The Wedding of the Painted Doll is realy bad.
Thank You.
George
thanks!!
ReplyDeleteMy introduction to JD - unfortunately only when he passed away - really sent me on such a different 'tangent' of Jazz
ReplyDeleteListening up to that point. Being relatively new to Jazz it tended to be the american route (Miles, Coltrane, Mingus eventually veering to West Coast and then it starts to open up nicely to other discoveries)
But JD has allowed me to discover other Brits - Tubby, Ronnie Ross et all - and prob led me to this site in some strange way (think
it was RR that did that)
JD was a Brit treasure - and I must listen to either Zodiac Variations (my fave) or What the Dickens at least once
a fortnight
So these early posts are joyous to discover
Many thanks for all you do here at BritJazz!
bluebird, It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It).
ReplyDelete5th time lucky! Thanks so much. One can never have enough Dankworth!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks bluebird. I used to live in Hastings and remember hearing the sound of many a second rate ageing dance band echoing from the end of the pier...LOL
ReplyDeleteIt's always interesting to hear the lesser items as well as the stellar ones, so many thanks for this.
ReplyDeletehttps://cjoint.net/?4327nn6sbf
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