Camelot - Andre Previn

 

The Simple Joys Of Maidenhood

Music From Lerner And Lowe's 

Camelot

Andre Previn and His Trio

Cover Collage: Philip Featheringill

Columbia Special Products CS 8369

1960

From the back cover: There are many sides to the multi-sided Andre Previn, the Leonardo of the modern musical world, than the many thousands of Previn devotees might suspect. In addition to his abilities as a pianist with symphony and jazz combination, arranger, composer, and conductor, Andre also is a funny human being, a delight to sit around with. He is, no one need be told, a strong individualist and a man of enormous integrity.

How Previn manages to be all the things he is and do all the things he does is a source of wonder to all who know him. After finishing a series of concert dates, he checked into Columbia Studios on the west coast on the night of November 15 to cut these tracks. The music was unfamiliar to him. He studied the score briefly, decided to leave the ballads pretty much as they were, but began scribbling new structures for the brisker tunes. Then he and Red Mitchell (bass) and Frank Capp (drums) began to record. They began at 9:00 p.m. and at 1: 00 a.m. they were finished. Thus the spontaneity the listener will notice as soon as he sets the needle to groove.

The first thing that struck me about these tracks was Previn's extraordinary ability to permit his right hand to act as though ti does not know exactly what its mate is doing, yet to have both of them wind up with a cohesive rhythmic and melodic whole, as thought they had established some sort of telepathic communication. In Hong Kong, two tailors work on two halves of the same suit independently, then bring them together – and that is exactly how Andre plays here. He stitches up things that appear to have no previous relationship. If it is possible to compare music to literature, he is reminiscent of E. M. Forester's definition of character in Aspects Of The Novel; a character, says Forster is effect, is a person who behaves in an unpredictable manner, except that after he has behaved that way, the reader nods his head and says "Oh yes, that is exactly the way that character would have behaved."

The morning after the session, Previn was in Billy Wilder's office, discussing the scores he will do for the writer-director's next two films. That afternoon, he was out at Twentieth Century-Fox, talking Nobu the score for a film called Solo. Between times, I imagine, he wrote seventy or eighty songs and composed a symphony for kicks. – Richard Gehman (Mr. Gehman, regular contributor to national magazines, is the author of the recently-published Let My Heart Be Broken.)

From Billboard - December 31, 1960: The score from the new Broadway musical "Camelot" forms the latest vehicle for pianist Previn and his two jazz cohorts Red Mitchell (bass) and Frank Capp (drums). It's a very sensitive affair with Previn gracefully ranging in tempo and mood to match the caprice of the Lerner and Loewe score. Previn's improvisations are thoughtful on ballads ("I Love You Once In Silenc") and he does unique things on "What Do The Simple Folks Do" which is taken as a three-quarter time swinger. Set should score with those who have grown accustomed to the Previn trio jazz touch.

I Wonder What The King Is Doing Tonight

What Do The Simple Folks Do

I Loved You Once In Silence

Then You May Take Me To The Fair

March

If Ever I Would Leave You

The Lusty Month Of May

The Simple Joys Of Maidenhood