Twilight Time - Eddie Barclay

 

I'll Keep Coming Back For More

Twilight Time

Eddie Barclay and His Orchestra

Mercury Records Hi-Fi Stereo SR 60167

1960

From the back cover: With over 25,000 Long Play albums available to the record buyers of the U.S., and an additional 5,000 new packages produced yearly, this album of Firsts is truly remarkable!

Remarkable because of the union of the mood music magic of French maestro Eddie Barclay and the famed-for-his-jazz-arrangements Quincy Jones, Seattle-born ex-Basie sideman. That the melding of these two talents was sensationally successful is apparent after a minute of listening to any band in this album.

For the dynamic duo have taken all manner of instrumentation, massed strings, muted sound. New particularly in that unlike most mood music, this "swings," not ala Benny Goodman or Duke Ellington, but ever so lightly. Swings to provoke a desire to dance!

Sound-wise, ever since Neal Hefti's first mating of instruments with voices in 1955, there's been a sameness, but Barclay-Jones Inc. have so cleverly and subtly joined voices with horns that most of the times, it's difficult to tell the difference between a horn, a stringed instrument or a voice. Therein lies the new sound! Especially in Twilight Time and Moonlight Serenade is it difficult to differentiate.

And it's to the credit not only of the two internationally-noted musicians, but important praise belongs to the French audio engineers and the musicians on the date. Since the invention of the modern instrument,  man's goal has been to make the instrument as human in performance as possible.

Any you'll find a wonderful pacing program-wise. Barclay and Jones skip the gamut with all manner of fox-trot tempo, waltzes and even a bolero treatment of Dans Mon Ile.

While a large number of the instruments are originals from the pens of Barclay or Jones, a first hearing, I'm sure, will bring the feeling that "I've heard that song before." Such quasi-nostalgia indicates the true appeal of the melodic patterns. In fact, don't be surprised if such a stellar melody as Fragile Eyes pops up in the future as hit material, complete with an English lyric.

From Billboard - November 21, 1960 (Album Cover Of The Week): Alluring cover shot of the lovely lady provides for prime display material. Colors are warm shades of brown and bright green.

For The First Time (Come Prima)

Moonlight Serenade

Dans Mon Ile

Adios

Coeur D'Artichaut

Mon P'Tit Pote

Twilight Time

Smoke Rings

I'll Keep Coming Back For More (Fragile Eyes)

Sous Le Vieux Pont Des Souliers

Valse Des Lilacs

Je Voudrais