Frances Faye Sings Folk Songs

Frances Faye Sings Folk Songs
Recorded February and March, 1957 in Hollywood, California
Cover Painting of Frances Faye by C. V. Calderwood
Micro Cosmic Sound
Bethlehem Records BCP-6017

Personnel:

Frances Faye - Vocals

Russ Garcia conducting various combinations of the following musicians (and string section):

Trumpet: Don Fagerquist, Maynard Ferguson, Jimmy Salko
Trombone: Herbie Harper, Frank Rosolino, Lloyd Ulyate, Milt Bernhart
Guitar: Robert Howard
Bass: Max Bennett
Drums: Mel Lewis

Available form online vendors so I will not be posting a sample. Presented here to share back jacket notes excerpts.

From the back cover: "Frances Faye singing folk songs?" you will ask; and that question like the appearance of this album is going to stir a big controversy. This is a pioneering and distinctly exciting event in vocal recording. Until this album's appearance, folk songs have always been left to the lyrical folk singer. Miss Faye is, as everyone in the music world knows, a jazz expressionist – a better, a unique artist who leans into songs like a painter who sees the familiar ocean and share but closed his eyes and decides to paint not only what his eyes have seen but what his inner eye feels.

That is exactly what Miss Faye has done here. She and Bethlehem A & R man Red Clyde have taken a selection of the most beloved family songs which have existed through the centuries and Miss Faye has leaned into them with her own passion and pain and loneliness and joy and sadness. There were times, during the days of recording these songs, when the traditional music made Frances pause, push back from the microphone and cry out a note. At these moments everyone involved in the recording date felt the electric current of emotion force its reverberations through the sound-proof studio.

For example, the first recording session was on a wet and rainy California night. Frances was to record the story-telling, dramatic blues favorites, "Frankie And Johnny," "St. James Infirmary" and the steel-driving Negro ballad, "John Henry." Arranged by Russ Garcia (a major factor in Bethlehem's production of "Porgy And Bess"), who also was conducting, had scored the songs for power and story-telling impact, Red Cylde had hired a large group of the best brass, strings and percussion studio musicians he could find in Hollywood. Frances had just stepped off a Florida plane and the thunder of the engines and that extra-sharp sensory feeling that comes from flight was in her ears. The result was an exciting, wailing, story-telling, sad and loud swinging session that was punctuated with wonderful highs and lows in mood and musicianship.

The time was late and the studio was crowded and noisy. But suddenly Garcia was conducting the musicians through "Lonesome Road" and the dramatic sadness of his arrangement startled the room. Suddenly, Frances – eyes closed – bent towards the microphone and started to sing "Look Down, Look Down, Look Down, That Lonesome Road, Before You Travel On." And then her sadness built into a joy and a triumphant shout and she and the band swung joyfully for all they were worth.

The second recording session the next day, included a different group of instruments with the exception of the guitar, which Garcia used through all the songs as an elusive shadow behind and in front of Frances' voice. The guitar – traditional accompanying instrument of folk songs – is featured in the customary manner here. For the mining ballad, popular since the Reconstruction period, "Clementine," for the promenading', foot-stompin' "Skip To My Lou," and the sad and lonesome "Go 'Way From My Window" Garcia used a straight set of four powerful trombones to handle melody lines plus a rhythm section and a lone trumpet (Don Fagerquist).

In the same fresh and thrilling manner, the trombones back Frances as she sang a medley of Negro Spirituals, "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen," "Deep River" and "Goin' Home." In my opinion, Frances Faye put her whole philosophy of living into these ballads; her city living in depression days, the hunger, the loneliness of small towns, the glitter of success and the beauty and strength of her own soul. All this she sang, and listening to this medley is hearing much more than what is in the words. Here is Miss Faye singing with simplicity, sincerity and humility. Here is Miss Faye Goin' Home...

The final session recorded the ballads of sheer beauty which have been handed down from family through generations of time. "Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier," the American Revolutionary ballad about a maiden who sits atop Buttermilk Hill crying for her soldier. The version here recorded from a Hudson Valley family which passed it down from a grandaunt in 1785. "The Three Ravens" is an ancient English song first appearing in 1611 in Ravenscroft's "Melismata." "Greensleeves" first was heard in 1580 in London, England and became the most popular ballad of its time. Shakespeare made mention of it in his plays, and a hundred years later later John Gay used the tune in "The Beggars Opera."

"Oif'n Pripichik," beloved Hebrew folk ballad, is the story of a Hebrew mother telling his young students of the beauty of the Hebrew faith. It is known the world over in Jewish communities. "Oif'n Pripchik" is part of a serene medley which includes the Irish lullaby "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral" and Miss Faye's own nightclub version of the Italian song "Come Back To Sorrento."

For this last group of ballads, Garcia scored for a string quartet (violas, cello and violin), four voices and Howard Robert's guitar. No bass, drums or piano were needed to enhance the beautiful melodies whose classical backgrounds were emphasized so that Miss Faye's style would have the freedom to express itself in a dramatic contrast.

This album is going to be controversial; Bethlehem Records is sure of that. But of its acceptance and success there is little question. The startling arrangements and the powerful honesty Miss Faye has learned into these ballads is a rich and unusual experience in recorded music. – Robert Ellis

From Billboard - June 3, 1957: A really off-beat item that could create a sensation! The unique Faye voice gives an attractive freshness to the traditional folk material. Highlights are a fabulous interpretation of "Frankie And Johnnie," a medley of Negro spirituals and an unusual "John Henry." Excellent orking from Russ Garcia varies from solo guitar to full ork and chorus. If the word is spread, the set can be a big one. Cover is an intriguing portrait of Miss Faye.

Frankie And Johnny
Greensleeves
Skip To My Lou
Lonesome Road
Medley: Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen, Deep River, Goin' Home
Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier
St. James Infirmary
Go 'Way From My Window
The Three Ravens
Clementine
Medley: Oif'n Pripitchik, Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo, Come Back To Sorrento
John Henry