Laura
Coffee Time
Morton Gould
Cover: China, Silver and Lamp-Courtesy Georg Jensen Inc.
Folding Table and Chairs - Courtesy Samsonitet
RCA Victor LPM-1656
1958
RCA Victor LPM-1656
1958
From the back cover: The affinity between this charming, companionable music and well-prepared, comfortably served coffee will be recognized with pleasure by all who know how well music and coffee can be matched up. For some listeners, the album might be named "Music That Coffee Goes With." For others, "Orchestral Concomitants for the Ab- sorption of Coffee." However casually or profoundly you may characterize the relation between notation and pota- tion, you may agree that there is involved what Mr. Gould suggests is a special mood; and Mr. Gould speaks as an authoritative and experienced connoisseur and brewer of coffee, as well as one of the ablest and most imaginative makers of music. This special mood is the coffee – house mood – even if the coffee is being served at home to a group consisting only of yourself. There is nothing prescribed about time, place or the details of the beverage. The music is richly melodious, delightfully flavored, "going with" (or "concomitant to") your coffee and your thoughts, or both.
The scholarly observer may inquire if there was per- haps some equivalent of this music in the early London coffee-houses. Did Oliver Goldsmith or David Garrick or Samuel Johnson leave his table long enough to put a tuppence in the musick box? This is speculation for other surroundings and possibly another album. What you hear herewith is decidedly, but not arrogantly, music of our own time: music that is handsome in itself, and which is handsomely done by by (both by's seem in order!) Mr. Gould and his orchestra.
There are many tempi and many emphases. The Mexican Hat Dance is brilliant local color, and there are virtuoso handlers of coffee cups who can stomp out the rhythm without spilling any coffee. This, however, is not an exercise recommended to the unpracticed. Serenade in the Night is eloquently expressive. "A sort of espresso in the music as well as in the coffee," is Mr. Gould's comment.
Something enigmatic is indicated in the veiled miste- rioso overtones of Laura, and this attractively trance-like adventure is followed by the sunlit dance of the Hora Staccato. There is something both spicy and sparkling here... and Mr. Gould hopes that you will confirm this finding, but also notes that it is not necessary for anyone to attempt a definite correlation between musical and coffee descriptive adjectives throughout this album. The Man I Love is reflective of how much has been said-and sometimes left unsaid when there was coffee as the confidant of a heartfelt avowal. And Serenata concludes one side of our music in a twilight glamour... for serenades are originally for the evening, and we might imagine in our context that we look in at a window where candle light is echoed in a silver urn.
Our second side begins with the Jamaican Rumba, which is regional music that, like a great deal of good regional music, is universal. Obviously, the Jamaican milieu is nicely appropriate for presentations that have to do with coffee.
The two servings that follow are music for strings, and no one will pretend that this ensemble is a small, intimate group that might circulate among the patrons of a café, presenting informal serenades. Solitude and Bésame Mucho are played in rich settings by what sounds like squadrons of fiddles in their various dimensions. In Solitude, there is a rhapsodic atmosphere; in Bésame Mucho, a romantic essence.
Tropical, composed by Morton Gould, is classified, technically, as a "novelty standard," and the warm but comfortable climate is established in a lightly tropical dance tempo. This tempo is not specified by Mr. Gould, and it may be considered as a kind of private formula or kground for the coffee drinking, with sounds of tropical birds, whose vocal impulses are partly electronic.
Orchids in the Moonlight is shimmering and aromatic... a tango for those who rise from the tables to dance, and, equally, for those who remain for coffee and conversation.
Manhattan Serenade is urban and urbane. It is the song of many, the song of a few, the song of one... depending on where you look in the big city... depending, it may be, on who you are. There is coffee on many tables this evening....
The orchestra combines symphonic and popular ele ments, as the music demands. It is versatile, velvet and volatile, as the scores may wish it to be. It "goes with" the music-as the music "goes with" your coffee. And Morton Gould welcomes you at his table. À votre santé! – ROBERT A. SIMON by Radio Corporation of America, 1958
Mexican Hat Dance
The scholarly observer may inquire if there was per- haps some equivalent of this music in the early London coffee-houses. Did Oliver Goldsmith or David Garrick or Samuel Johnson leave his table long enough to put a tuppence in the musick box? This is speculation for other surroundings and possibly another album. What you hear herewith is decidedly, but not arrogantly, music of our own time: music that is handsome in itself, and which is handsomely done by by (both by's seem in order!) Mr. Gould and his orchestra.
There are many tempi and many emphases. The Mexican Hat Dance is brilliant local color, and there are virtuoso handlers of coffee cups who can stomp out the rhythm without spilling any coffee. This, however, is not an exercise recommended to the unpracticed. Serenade in the Night is eloquently expressive. "A sort of espresso in the music as well as in the coffee," is Mr. Gould's comment.
Something enigmatic is indicated in the veiled miste- rioso overtones of Laura, and this attractively trance-like adventure is followed by the sunlit dance of the Hora Staccato. There is something both spicy and sparkling here... and Mr. Gould hopes that you will confirm this finding, but also notes that it is not necessary for anyone to attempt a definite correlation between musical and coffee descriptive adjectives throughout this album. The Man I Love is reflective of how much has been said-and sometimes left unsaid when there was coffee as the confidant of a heartfelt avowal. And Serenata concludes one side of our music in a twilight glamour... for serenades are originally for the evening, and we might imagine in our context that we look in at a window where candle light is echoed in a silver urn.
Our second side begins with the Jamaican Rumba, which is regional music that, like a great deal of good regional music, is universal. Obviously, the Jamaican milieu is nicely appropriate for presentations that have to do with coffee.
The two servings that follow are music for strings, and no one will pretend that this ensemble is a small, intimate group that might circulate among the patrons of a café, presenting informal serenades. Solitude and Bésame Mucho are played in rich settings by what sounds like squadrons of fiddles in their various dimensions. In Solitude, there is a rhapsodic atmosphere; in Bésame Mucho, a romantic essence.
Tropical, composed by Morton Gould, is classified, technically, as a "novelty standard," and the warm but comfortable climate is established in a lightly tropical dance tempo. This tempo is not specified by Mr. Gould, and it may be considered as a kind of private formula or kground for the coffee drinking, with sounds of tropical birds, whose vocal impulses are partly electronic.
Orchids in the Moonlight is shimmering and aromatic... a tango for those who rise from the tables to dance, and, equally, for those who remain for coffee and conversation.
Manhattan Serenade is urban and urbane. It is the song of many, the song of a few, the song of one... depending on where you look in the big city... depending, it may be, on who you are. There is coffee on many tables this evening....
The orchestra combines symphonic and popular ele ments, as the music demands. It is versatile, velvet and volatile, as the scores may wish it to be. It "goes with" the music-as the music "goes with" your coffee. And Morton Gould welcomes you at his table. À votre santé! – ROBERT A. SIMON by Radio Corporation of America, 1958
Mexican Hat Dance
Serenade In The Night
Laura
Hora Staccato
The Man I Love
Serenata
Jamaican Rhumba
Solitude
Besame Mucho
Tropical
Orchids In The Moonlight
Manhattan Serenade
SO fabulous. When RaymondT was here visiting in NJ he bought a mint copy of this record for DeSoto!
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