The Robert De Cormier Folk Singers

 

Bye 'N' Bye

The Robert De Cormier Folk Singers

Originated and Produced by Enoch Light

Associate Producer: Julie Klages

Recording Chief: Robert Fine

Mastering: George Piros

Designed by Charles E. Murphy

Command Records STEREO RS853SD

1963 Grand Award Records

From the inside cover: Some of the special and unique qualities that the De Cormier Singers have can be traced to two prime influences on De Cormier's work as a choral conductor. One is the breathtaking brilliance and excitement created by the large, colorful folk singing groups to be found in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The other influences come from his experience in organizing and directing the Belafonte Folk Singers, an association in which he caught the dramatic impact that Harry Belafonte brings to his performances.

De Cormier had known Belafonte long before he became an internationally famous star. They first met at Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop when Belafonte's goal was a career as an actor rather than as a singer. During the years when Belafonte was establishing himself as a new and highly theatrical type of folk singer (drawing on that Dramatic Workshop background), De Cormier was teaching music in New York, conducting choruses and writing arrangements. Belafonte's first major record success was an album of Calypsos. When it was decided to follow this with another calypso collection, Belafonte asked De Cormier to write and conduct the album for him. 

From tis recording developed the Belafonte Folk Singers, a group of twelve men who backed up Belafonte and did one or two numbers on their own at Belafonte's concerts. After two years, the Singers made a concert tory of their own, made a record album of their own and, under De Cormier's leadership, developed an identity of their own. But maintaining a group of this size was not completely practical in financial terms and, in 1961, Belafonte decided to disband the group.

No sooner was this done, however, than Columbia Artists Management asked De Cormier to form a group of his own. This time he included women in his ensemble along with four instrumentalists. An introduction tour was lined up for the Robert De Cormier Folk Singers in the winter of 1963 but first they made an phenomenal debut in New York City.

Like everything about the De Cormier Singers, this debut was phenomenal not in the usual sense (a packed concert hall, glowing reviews in the newspapers) but in an unusual sense. It occurred in a tiny Greenwich Village coffee house, the Bitter End, where the group was booked for a three-week engagement. De Cormier look on this as an opportunity to get his ensemble fully prepared for its concert tour and to serve as a showcase for arousing interest in the Singers.

When the eight men, five women and four instrumentalists crowded onto the small coffee house stage, it scarcely seemed that there would be any room left for an audience. But there was. And it was an audience that was quickly swept up by the excitement and fervor that the De Cormier Folk Singers generated. Yet, for all the audience response, most New Yorkers did not know that anything remarkable was happening at the Bitter End because this occurred in the midst of the strike that shut down New York's newspapers for four months.

Word spread through the entertainment grapevine, however. Command Record's Enoch Light, constantly searching for exciting and important new talent, was one of the first to realize the full potential of the De Cormier Singers. He recognized not only their amazing musical potential but the possibilities  this colorful group of voices provided for unusual and brilliant recording in the world-famous Command tradition of superb engineering craftsmanship.

From Billboard - September 21, 1963: Robert De Cormier is well known as the man who organized the Belafonte Singers. More recently he put together a sizable choral group of his own, which bowed at New York's Bitter End folk club. Enoch Light found them there and later cut them with the benefit of the great Light touch for sound. The arrangements here are standouts and the singer is rich and full-bodied. Could all get much play.

Dance, Boatman Dance

Where Have All The Flowers Gone

Hallelujah

Bye 'N' Bye

Bella Bimba (Italian Folk)

Kissin' No Sin

Go Tell Aunt Rhody (folk)

Amen

The Hammer Song

Igra Kolo (folk)

Rainbow

The Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy

Walk Together Chidden