Details
Track Listing
1. Poor People of Paris, The (Jean's Song)
2. Medic Theme, The (Blue Star)
3. I Concentrate on You
4. Ruby
5. Unchained Melody
6. Calcutta
7. Because of You
8. April in Portugal
9. All the Things You Are
10. Blue Tango
11. Wake the Town and Tell the People
12. Shrike, The
13. Never on Sunday
14. I Love Paris
15. Quiet Village
16. High and the Mighty, The
| Details | | Producer: | Brad Benedict (Reissue) | | Distributor: | EMI Music Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Digitally remastered by Bob Norberg (Capitol Recording Studios).
Post-war prosperity combined with the emergence of stereophonic sound helped germinate new trends in music. Escapism, a theme buoyed by a newly peaceful world, found home in the exotic sounds of Les Baxter and helped distinguished him from his more-grounded contemporaries. His space-age orchestrations of European melodies like "The Poor People of Paris" take the listener out of the fall-out shelter and back to the Old World on a fleet of strings and bells.
Using a bewildering battery of instrumental devices to entertain the listener (and quell any post-war nerves), Baxter's efforts resulted in otherworldly evocations. Ethereal vocal choirs in "Calcutta," harps and theremins spectrally quivering in "The Shrike," and "Quiet Village," his first major hit, relied on sultry tempos and exotic percussion. Baxter's skills as an arranger are impressive, with definite jazz and classical influences, setting his work above the commercial arena it was intended for.
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
All rights reserved.
