Well, dear readers, as I write these here notes I am listening to an absolutely wonderful CD – actually two LPs on one CD – Robert Farnon and his orchestra play the songs of Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis. This gorgeous two-fer is the very definition of what is grand about easy listening music. While it’s easy to look down one’s nose at easy listening music – actually, I just tried looking down my nose and not only is it not easy, it’s impossible – when easy listening is done well there is nothing more soothing and wonderful to listen to – great instrumentals of great tunes. And I cannot be called an old fogey for loving this stuff, because I’ve loved it ever since I was a young fogey. While others were listening only to that new-fangled thing called rock-and-roll, I was not only listening to that, but to soundtracks, shows, jazz, classical, and easy listening. I would buy any interesting-looking easy listening LP, especially cover versions of Broadway and films. Percy Faith was the king of those, and one of the best. I’ve never met a Percy Faith album I didn’t like – ditto for Don Costa and Andre Kostelanetz. I loved all the Mantovani movie theme albums, as well as his occasional forays into Broadway (a lovely Oliver and Stop the World combo). I loved Felix Slatkin and his strings – great movie theme albums. I loved George Greeley’s many piano albums, Peter Nero, Bobby Hackett’s velvety-smooth trumpet, Jackie Gleason’s stunning Capitol albums, Billy May’s swinging Capitol albums, Melachrino, Frank Chacksfield, and on and on. Frankly, I couldn’t get enough of them. And I would buy any easy listening album if it had even one favorite song – I probably owned thirty albums that had That’s All. I used to sit in my bedroom listening to these wonderful albums every night with the lights out, letting the music take me to all sorts of wonderful places. I knew that when I fell in love I wanted it to be accompanied by Bobby Hackett’s trumpet playing something beautiful. There was a real market for that kind of music all throughout the 1950s and 1960s, then all the smart-ass young kids deemed that sort of thing muzak or elevator music – totally for the unhip and uncool. Well, color me unhip and uncool because my love for them never diminished. And still hasn’t, as I’ve been sitting in my kitchen, lights out, letting the soothing sounds of Robert Farnon and a bunch of classic songs work their magic on me. Superbly played and produced and beautifully mastered on a Dutton Vocalion CD. While some of the more outré stuff had a bit of a comeback under the “hip” name of lounge music, easy listening hasn’t quite had that comeback, but it deserves to. It is exactly as described: Easy Listening – music that’s easy on the ears and brain.
Has anyone noticed that this is the final day of March? How did that happen? Yes, tomorrow is April, a new month, and it is my fervent hope and prayer that April will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.
Yesterday was quite an okay day. I slept late and got close to nine hours of great sleep. I got up, did some work on the computer, then went and had some bacon and eggs and toast. Then I picked up the package that should have been there the previous day and an important envelope, did some banking, listened to some music, did some errands and whatnot, and then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I finished watching the marvelously marvelous new Blu and Ray of A Night to Remember from Criterion. It’s a wonderful movie that kind of eschews having fleshed out characters in lieu of just telling the very dramatic story of the Titanic. It was exactly the right approach, I think, and despite not investing in any of the characters emotionally, the story itself is so emotional that one ends up quite moved anyway. The direction of Roy Ward Baker is terrific, the model work is great, and the large cast are all wonderful, especially Kenneth More. The transfer is excellent.
After that, I moseyed on over to The Federal, our new Kritzerland venue. The set-up of the room is okay – it’s definitely going to take me a little time to figure out how to play this room. It’s got a little stage and a mutant digital grand piano and that’s going to take some getting used to, as well. The lighting is much nicer than either the Gardenia or Vitello’s, so that’s a plus. I wasn’t thrilled with the sound tests, but I said what I had to say and we’ll see how we do at the sound check. If it’s similar to what I heard last night, then I’ll just keep badgering away until it’s to my liking. Obviously there are always kinks to work out and we are the guinea pig show – I’m hoping it all goes smoothly. After that, I came back home and watched the rest of the first Mad Men episode of the new season. I think taking two years off was a terrible error of judgment. As you may remember, I was at the fifty-minute mark when the power went out, so I thought I’d just be watching another ten minutes, but no, it was a two-hour premiere. No January Jones, no interesting plotting, no fun, lousy dialogue, and everything that seemed easy and unforced the first season seems belabored and effortful now. Even though seasons two through four were extremely uneven, each episode had at least a few things to love. I’d say about three minutes of the premiere episode held my interest. I can’t imagine anyone watching this while it’s actually airing, what with commercials seemingly every seven minutes or so – over four minutes of them – it is disruptive, stupid, and so irritating that if one couldn’t TIVO this stuff or watch the ultimate Blu-ray release, it would be unbearable. You know when you know it’s over for a TV series? When its star is made a producer. That’s when you know it’s over. That’s when I knew Alias was over and that’s when I knew this was over.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep, which should be easy since I’m, as they say, in a zone thanks to this delicious easy listening music of Robert Farnon currently playing the songs made famous by Johnny Mathis.
Has anyone noticed the rather astonishing fact that this is the final day of March? We have marched through March at quite a clip, I must say. Today, I shall definitely do a jog of some sort, then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I may stop by Mystery and Imagination to set the date for the April signing, and then we have our stumble-through sans our guest star. After that it looks like I’ll be having a lovely supper out.
Tomorrow is sound check and show, so send lots of excellent vibes and xylophones for smooth sailing. Next week I have to finish up everything with these STAGE releases and I am way behind. This is going to be a race to the finish, that’s all I can tell you and an extremely busy week. We also have to start having two Melody rehearsals every week until her show in late April, and I also have to figure out the May Kritzerland show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do some sort of jog, set a date, hopefully pick up packages, have a stumble-through, and sup. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Johnny Mathis songs? And your favorite Easy Listening albums? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, with hope and a fervent prayer that April be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.