Escapade In Sound
Escaped In Sound
Al Nevins And His Orchestra
Al Nevins And His Orchestra
Photo: Mitchell Bliss
RCA LPM 1166
1956
From the back cover: Maybe it takes a fancy cook and a prize-winning architect to concoct something as creative as this. Maybe that is the least likely combination that you would look for in a musician who is both imaginative and terrifically alive, but Al Nevins is that kind of a person. He has about him an irrepressible touch of Lewis Carroll, Peter Pan, Oscar of the Waldorf, and Frank Lloyd Wright. What is most important at this moment is that he has built an album of music that is colorful, spirited, delicious and unique.
The colorful versatility of Nevins' talent is reflected in his music, and it sounds fine. Once upon a time, to begin the story with a truly historic phrase, Nevins studied architecture. He did it so well that he won prizes. Today that reservoir of talent is expressed generally in interior decorating for his friends and what's more – when they ask him what to do about dressing up the living room, they are probably devouring a meal that he has cooked on his own stove in his own fabulous place in his own palatable way. The guy is a whiz with Lobster Bisque.
But more than that he is a whiz with music. These are no idle words tossed blithely to the four winds. They are backed by something as snow- capped as Mount Washington. That something is this album. Escapade in Sound is all that its name implies, and a great deal more too. It will tickle your tweeter and wow your woofer, for the fi is as hi as an elephant's eye (Oscar Hammerstein will just have to forgive me for that one). Here is sound in cascades, not sound in calisthenics or sound from the bottom and top of the leaning Tower of Pisa. But sound that is true and kaleidoscopic and wonderfully right. Nor is it sound for effect. This is sound with a preconceived continuity of purpose, sound with the deft, Hemingway touch of striking simplicity.
All too often an album is little more than a collection of songs, banded together with no rhyme or reason, and all seemingly pulled from the same ball of yarn. When Al Nevins-he started out in Washington in classical music and has hence learned to play every stringed instrument well put aside his guitar and his famous role as one of the original members of The Three Suns to turn producer and musical director for this stunning album, he thought immediately in terms of an over-all production. Escapade in Sound was to be no rambling trip down the cobblestones of Tin Pan Alley. This initial big enterprise was to have a theme – it was to tell a story in music. So it does. Here is a night of romance and high adventure. Here the fellow dudes up in top hat, white tie and tails, and she in a gorgeous gown of icy blue, to sip cocktails for two in the moonlight; to watch and wonder as that old devil moon plays its incomparable tricks; to be mad about the boy and to admit that she's driving him crazy; to get away from it all and rub elbows with the low-brows of the evening who cry "love for sale"; to wander into that certain chillness, stillness of the dawn's early light where anything goes; and finally, home and tired, to find two dreamy people turning out the lights to go to sleep.
These superb songs, composed by such distinguished gentlemen as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Noel Coward, somehow blend together into a marvelous whole, and to each listener it will tell the same story in a different, exciting way. That is something upon which Al Nevins holds no patent, but you must agree that he has a remarkable affinity for music- making with taste and discretion. The tonal effects are those of a true artist and it is Al Nevins who is the painter, for this masterpiece is entirely his creation: it is his idea, his continuity, his music, and it is yours to enjoy over and over again. – FRED REYNOLDS Music Editor, Hi-Fi Music at Home Magazine
Top Hat, White Tie And Tails
Moonlight Cocktail
Cocktails From Two
Old Devil Moon
Mad About The Boy
Let's Get Away From It All
Love For Sale
Escapade
You're Driving Me Crazy
In The Still Of The Night
Anything Goes
Let's Put On The Lights
RCA LPM 1166
1956
From the back cover: Maybe it takes a fancy cook and a prize-winning architect to concoct something as creative as this. Maybe that is the least likely combination that you would look for in a musician who is both imaginative and terrifically alive, but Al Nevins is that kind of a person. He has about him an irrepressible touch of Lewis Carroll, Peter Pan, Oscar of the Waldorf, and Frank Lloyd Wright. What is most important at this moment is that he has built an album of music that is colorful, spirited, delicious and unique.
The colorful versatility of Nevins' talent is reflected in his music, and it sounds fine. Once upon a time, to begin the story with a truly historic phrase, Nevins studied architecture. He did it so well that he won prizes. Today that reservoir of talent is expressed generally in interior decorating for his friends and what's more – when they ask him what to do about dressing up the living room, they are probably devouring a meal that he has cooked on his own stove in his own fabulous place in his own palatable way. The guy is a whiz with Lobster Bisque.
But more than that he is a whiz with music. These are no idle words tossed blithely to the four winds. They are backed by something as snow- capped as Mount Washington. That something is this album. Escapade in Sound is all that its name implies, and a great deal more too. It will tickle your tweeter and wow your woofer, for the fi is as hi as an elephant's eye (Oscar Hammerstein will just have to forgive me for that one). Here is sound in cascades, not sound in calisthenics or sound from the bottom and top of the leaning Tower of Pisa. But sound that is true and kaleidoscopic and wonderfully right. Nor is it sound for effect. This is sound with a preconceived continuity of purpose, sound with the deft, Hemingway touch of striking simplicity.
All too often an album is little more than a collection of songs, banded together with no rhyme or reason, and all seemingly pulled from the same ball of yarn. When Al Nevins-he started out in Washington in classical music and has hence learned to play every stringed instrument well put aside his guitar and his famous role as one of the original members of The Three Suns to turn producer and musical director for this stunning album, he thought immediately in terms of an over-all production. Escapade in Sound was to be no rambling trip down the cobblestones of Tin Pan Alley. This initial big enterprise was to have a theme – it was to tell a story in music. So it does. Here is a night of romance and high adventure. Here the fellow dudes up in top hat, white tie and tails, and she in a gorgeous gown of icy blue, to sip cocktails for two in the moonlight; to watch and wonder as that old devil moon plays its incomparable tricks; to be mad about the boy and to admit that she's driving him crazy; to get away from it all and rub elbows with the low-brows of the evening who cry "love for sale"; to wander into that certain chillness, stillness of the dawn's early light where anything goes; and finally, home and tired, to find two dreamy people turning out the lights to go to sleep.
These superb songs, composed by such distinguished gentlemen as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Noel Coward, somehow blend together into a marvelous whole, and to each listener it will tell the same story in a different, exciting way. That is something upon which Al Nevins holds no patent, but you must agree that he has a remarkable affinity for music- making with taste and discretion. The tonal effects are those of a true artist and it is Al Nevins who is the painter, for this masterpiece is entirely his creation: it is his idea, his continuity, his music, and it is yours to enjoy over and over again. – FRED REYNOLDS Music Editor, Hi-Fi Music at Home Magazine
Top Hat, White Tie And Tails
Moonlight Cocktail
Cocktails From Two
Old Devil Moon
Mad About The Boy
Let's Get Away From It All
Love For Sale
Escapade
You're Driving Me Crazy
In The Still Of The Night
Anything Goes
Let's Put On The Lights
Boy! You really need to share the entire LP. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWhat you kind!Whole song!Thank you, I better a complete album I will listen
ReplyDelete