The Music Of Lecuona - Stanley Black

Siboney

The Music Of Lecuona
Stanley Black and His Orchestra
Featuring Stanley Black on Piano
London PS 153
1956

From the back cover: Stanley Black was born in London on June 14th, 1913. His musical education began at the Matthay School of Music, where he studied the pianoforte. After this opening skirmish he went on to work, as pianist and arranger, with various dance-bands and light orchestras, gaining invaluable experience and knowledge both of what kind of music pleased the public taste and of how the public liked it served: hot, strong, sweet, or subtle-flavored. In 1938 (as an example of his thoroughness) he paid a visit to South America to obtain first-hand knowledge of Latin-American music. A year later he enlisted in the R.A.F. In April, 1943, he stepped unobtrusively but firmly into the limelight by taking over the conductor's baton of the B.B.C. Dance Orchestra, and during the following years he averaged the astounding total of six programs a week, a physical and mental strain which many dance-band conductors would not care to endure. His orchestra, with his arrangements, (a tremendously important ingredient in the success of a variety show) supplied the music to such top-line programs as the "Much Binding" sagas, "Ray's A Laugh," and scores of others. In 1947 he married vocalist, Edna Kaye.

His "official" broadcasting work reaches a very large volume indeed when measured by the mere statistics of broadcasting-hours and audience-appeal, but is immeasurable in its value as a means of setting consistently high standards for light broadcast music and arrangements. In addition to all this, Stanley Black has also found time to fit in one or town other small achievements which might well have passed for a complete career for an artist less energetic – his work for London, for example, as house conductor and arranger, and composing and directing the musical scores for at least nine British films. All this hard work, far from deadening or stifling his personality, has developed it. The more he does, the better he gets, because he has the invaluable gift of enjoying his work, and what is more he communicates that enjoyment to the listening public. In other word, he entertains.

From Billboard - August 11, 1956: BBC band leader Black should pull extensive deejay coverage here with this lush, string-laden collection of Lecuona's pop-appeal compositions – "Siboney," "Malaguena," "Andalucia," etc. The exotic Latin instrumentals are highly melodic and handled with sufficient respect arrangement-wise so that the album can be moved in the semi-classical market as well as pop. Several of the sides have been released before as part of other Black packages.

Malaguena
Always In My Heart
Andalucia
La Comparsa
High In Sierra
Siboney
Danza Lucumi
Jungle Drums
Gitanarias
Maria, My Own