Rome At Midnight - Carmen Cavallaro

 

Desiderio

Rome At Midnight

Carmen Cavallaro

Piano Solos with Orchestra Directed by Domenico Savino

Decca Records DL 8359

1957

From the back cover: About Carmen Cavallaro

Although born in New York, Carmen Cavallaro became familiar with the music of Italy, the homeland of his parents. While very young, he evidenced exceptional musical ability by playing on his toy piano the airs of familiar Italian operas which he heard on the family phonograph. At five he started taking piano lessons and soon displayed such unusual skill that he was called upon to give classical concerts in New York and nearby cities.

It was while he was a student at De Witt Clinton High School in New York City and a member of its school orchestra, that he made the transition from the classics to dance music. He developed a unique and individual piano style, which was a forerunner of his famous brilliant keyboard agility and underlying rhythm, and after playing with various dance bands in the New York area he soon joined the orchestra of Rudy Valley as featured pianist.

Carmen Cavallaro began recording for Decca Records, and with the release of the now-famous album, "Dancing In The Dark," his popularity zoomed. The continued demand of his fans for more Cavallaro brought about the making of a number of single records in addition to the album, "Getting Sentimental Over You," "I'll See You In My Dreams," "Strauss Waltzes," "Serenade," "Music At Midnight," and "The Eddy Duchin Story."

In 1939 Carmen formed his own orchestra and opened at the Riviera in New York. So brilliant was his piano artistry that his popularity skyrocketed, and he made numerous successful appearances in hotels and night clubs across the country and in South America. In 1950 Carmen Cavallaro disbanded his orchestra to perform as a soloist, then added a rhythm section, thrilling his listeners with a jazz technique which is startlingly dramatic.

The choice of Carmen Cavallaro as the pianist to perform the score for "The Eddy Duchin Story" was inevitable, for the disctinctive Cavallaro style is brilliantly melodic – as was Duchin's.

Carmen Cavallaro is known as "The Poet Of The Piano," for whether performing a simple love song in his subtly caressing manner, or the intricacies of a scintillating Latin-American rhumba, or a famous concerto, his poetic mastery of the keyboard is unique.

About Maestro Domenico Savino

Domenico Savino was born in Souther Italy, and began composing when he was nine years old. One of the pieces written at this early age is part of an album, "Portraits Of Italy," to be released this year, fifty years after its composition. Shortly after his arrival in America in his early twenties, he became a writer of popular songs under the name of Onivas – Savino spelled backwards – including such hits as "Indianola," "Burning Sand," etc. Later he became affiliated with the Robbins Music Corporation, where he was not only chief editor but a compiler of a catalog of motion picture music. More than eighty of these pieces were written by Savino himself. A member of ASCAP, he is accredited with some nine hundred original compositions of all types.

In recent years Savino has devoted himself to serious compositions, symphonies, concerti, and symphonic poems, which have been produced by the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Rome under Savino's direction. Nevertheless, he has never lost interest in the lighter side of music – a side with is richly illustrated in the present album. This collection consists of recent Italian melodies, arranged and orchestrated by Savino in his highly characteristic style.

Anema E Core (With All My Heart And Soul)

Addormentarmi Cosi

La Gondola Va

Sciummo (The River)

Non Dimenticar (Don't Forget)

Abbracciame

Desiderio (Desire)

Te Voyo Bien (Do I Love You?)

Lassame Sunna

Te Sto Aspettando (Only Forever)

Mala Busciarda

Quannto Staje Cu Mme'!