The Shadow Of Your Smile - Phil LaPenna

The Nearness Of You

The Shadow Of Your Smile
Phil LaPenna
Director: K. Warriner
Engineer: G. Starr
A Product of Arc Sound LTD., Toronto, Ontario
ARC AS-734
1968

From the back cover: Phil LaPenna is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding organists in Canada today. Equally at home on pipe or theatre organs, he has performed all over Canada in concert, in nightclubs, and has also played many serious recitals. In addition he was featured regularly on CBC network shows. During the last few years he has concentrated on single concerts with an occasional foray into the nightclub field, and has devoted much of his remaining time to teaching and composing.

The music on this album was specially selected to show off his dynamic technique on the Baldwin Theatre organ. Phil's masterly arrangement of Tico-Tico played at a tremendously fast pace, shows to the full what a brilliant musician can accomplish on a really first class instrument. Making full use of the vast musical vocabulary built into the Baldwin Organ, and with the assistance of Keith Chappell on drums, Phil LaPenna switches from the toe-tapping sounds of "Hoedown Holiday" to the soft and subtle "I'll Close My Eyes" with the greatest of ease, and with the tongue in cheek humor, transports the listener to the cobble-stoned street in a Bavarian Village for a real beer-drinking polka. To round out the program, he swings into a driving up-tempo version of "Meditation" and beautifully performed versions of "The Carioca" and "Moon Over Naples" among other selections.

The Shadow Of Your Smile
Hoedown Holiday
Moon Over Naples
Baron Bonschittenhelm's Bavarian Polka
Meditatio
The Mexican Hof
The Carioca
Lara's Theme
Tico-Tico
I'll Close My Eyes
Brazilian Polka
The Nearness Of You