Morty Craft And The Singing Strings In Percussion

My Mammy

Morty Craft And The Singing Strings In Percussion
Warwick W5004/W500ST
1961

Percussion fake-out.

Warwick apparently pressed a number of sets that featured brief, pre-recorded percussion intros that their engineers tacked on to each song (as heard in the sample). Warwick also created interesting, but misleading album graphics to help attract buyers who were into the period "percussion" sound.

From Billboard - April 10, 1961: Morty Craft's Warwick Records has unveiled a new "Sight and Sound" 5000 series of audio albums with the accent on percussion. Three of the initial seven sets contain a large string complement in center stage abetted by a vast array of percussion. In another case, there is a Ralph Burns big band set, again with the spotlight on percussion.

In other sets we find "The Soul Of Jazz Percussion," "Concertos In Percussion" and "Glenn Miller Meets The Dorsey Brothers." again in the inevitable percussion. All of these have been obviously well engineered and there is a great attempt to show movement of instrumentation, as though back and forth across a stage. Sound buffs will find a loth of what they like, and there is much that is danceable, including such wide-ranging items as "Concertos"  by the Warwick Symphony and an all modern jazz presentation.

What strikes a reviewer here is the actual value of the use of the overworked word percussion, when in fact a bank of percussion may serve only to introduce an arrangement in the first 10 seconds or so, with the scoring then proceeding along more conventional lines. This appears a tendency today in many areas and a firm might be better off taking a less obvious merchandising approach.

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