Vamos
Latin, Lush And Lovely
Morton Gould and His Orchestra
Arrangements by Morton Gould
Produced by Joseph Habig
Recording Engineer: Lewis Layton
STEREO LSC-2752
1964
From the back cover: Music is a constant adventure for both performer and listener. At least, it should be. This album was very deliberately undertaken by Morton Gould as an adventure. It is, for him, a jwliay from the concert repertory on which he usually concentrates.
"I wanted to play things that I had never done before," he explained. "I was curious to see what would happen when I interpreted these Latin pieces in my own personal way."
He chose a program based on relatively new but familiar tunes – tunes from films, Caribbean folk material, a couple of older selections – a pari of tuens that would be new to almost every listener (Vamos and Encantado) and, as a signature, one Morton Gould composition, Tropical.
With a full orchestra of strings, winds, brass and percussion, Gould has approached these compositions in a manner that is both typical (that is, natural) for him and, at the same time, a distinct departure.
The departure is in the style of his arrangements.
"My intent was to give color and character to music that is basically simple," he declared. "So I've tried to keep the approach simple. The arrangements are lineal. They're very open and transparent instead of being in the saturation style, with masses of chords and sounds, that used to be the common way of doing material of this sort. This enables a big orchestra to play popular material and to give it a contemporary approach through a feeling of clarity and sparseness."
The one selection on which Gould has used the more traditional blocking style of arranging instead of a lineal approach is hi sown Tropical, which he wrote several years ago and which was originally orchestrated in the blocking style. He has adapted that original arrangement for this recording, but he has kept remnants of the big block effects because the movement of the piece is strong enough to carry them.
The aspect of Gould that is thoroughly typical of him in his treatment of these selection is that he approaches them completely on his own terms as a musician.
"Many of these pieces are basically jazz material," he pointed out, "and they're associated with small groups and in improvisational approach that a large group can't duplicate. Personally, I don't hear these pieces in terms of jazz sounds, although I'm aware of this sound and I appreciate it. I simply use them as a jumping-off-place for orchestral settings. I work in terms of a large array of orchestral forces – a large group of strings and a large group of winds."
Some of these tunes – Never On Sunday and Adiós – Gould has visualized as serenades. To stimulate this idea, he has used pizzicato strings in the way that a guitar might be used as accompaniment.
Jamaica Farewell, Yellow Bird and Anna he has treated in a kind of classical way yet with rhythmic subtlety and flexibility that are typically popular in feeling ("It's a new-classical jazz treatment that I've been doing for years." Gould added, "starting with some of my early compositions").
On Adiós, Anna, Vamos and Encantado, he used two complete string orchestras place in the studio so as to achieve a simple antiphonal effect.
"The purpose of this," he explained, "is to get an additional sense of color. We get different colors by using different instruments, but in this case I am getting what amounts to subtle variation in shade from the same color,"
Even the rhythm, which is one of the most distinctive features of these Latin-based tunes, carries a typically Gouldian touch.
"A rhythmic percussion section is the least important of my concerns," he asserted. "I use my rhythm more in terms of ornamentation than as a steady pulsating beat."
As a result, the rhythmic load is frequently carried by pizzicato strings which establish a kind of rhythm that is autonomous to itself and does not depend on the relentless beat of a drummer.
So, while these tunes are Latin and they are lush and they are lovely, they are also distinctively Gould – pure Gould.
One Note Samba
More (Theme from "Mondo Cane")
Yellow Bird
Anna (El Negro Zumbon)
Adiós (Madriguera)
Tropical
Jamaica Farewell
Vamos (Daexar de Conversa)
Encantado
Never On Sunday
Amor
Desafinado
