Little Jewels of Perfection 5: Dancing in the Dark by Diana Krall

This track from Canadian singer/pianist Diana Krall is pretty much a theme tune for Agent Triple P and his particular friend S from Vancouver.  Whenever he goes to stay in S's luxurious penthouse apartment overlooking the harbour she always makes sure that this is playing. 

So just listening to it transports us across the planet to the sight of sparkling lights over water as the sun sets, the taste of Laurent Perrier rose brut, the smell of Chanel No 5 and the sound of rustling La Perla.

S's apartment is just visible in this picture!

Given this, any critical response to this track, and indeed the rest of the album from which it comes is somewhat difficult!  

This, her sixth album, was Krall's crossover success and, as is often the case when an artist breaks out of their niche to popular acclaim, the critics laid into her.  They derided her record company's attempt to make her look like a sex symbol on the album cover.  They sneered at the lush orchestral accompaniment (by the London Symphony Orchestra).  It's not jazz, it's background music, thy said.  Yes, but very superior background music indeed!

It sold in huge numbers; 1.6 million copies in the US alone and 700,000 copies in her native Canada (she is from Vancouver!)  It also won a Grammy for Best engineered album, non-classical in 2001. Billboard ranked it as the number 5 jazz album of the decade.

In Dancing in the Dark Christian McBride's bass kicks things off as Claus Ogerman's orchestration starts with flutes before bringing in the strings.  Just before halfway Krall contibutes a delicate piano solo that is so laid back that it is almost horizontal.  For the last one minute and fifty of the track Krall doesn't sing at all.  The bossa nova rhythm section drives along whilst the strings do magical things over the top.  Utter brilliance and the stand out track on an excellent and slinkily romantic album.

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse dance to Dancing in the dark in The Bandwagon (1953)

The song Dancing in the Dark was written for the 1931 musical revue The Band Wagon.  It was composed by Arthur Schwartz with lyrics by Howard Dietz.  The show was already in rehearsal when the producers reckoned they needed another darker number.  The song was written in just one day. In the 1953 film version Conrad Salinger orchestrated a lush version for a dance between Fred Astaire (who had danced in the original 1931 revue) and Cyd Charisse.  Many artists have recorded it over the years; notably Artie Shaw and Bing Crosby who both had hits with their versions. More recently Jane Monheit's recording was nominated for a Grammy in 2004.

Lyrics (Diana Krall version)

Dancing in the dark 'til the tune ends

We're dancing in the dark and it soon ends
We're waltzing in the wonder of why we're here
Time hurries by, we're here and we're gone

Looking for the light of a new love
To brighten up the night, I have you love
And we can face the music together
Dancing in the dark

Looking for the light of a new love
To brighten up the night, I have you love
And we can face the music together
Dancing in the dark, dancing in the dark.

Now, when's the next flight to Vancouver?

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Little Jewels of Perfection 4: Sea of Dreams by Nelson Riddle

So, imagine that you are Agent Triple P for a moment. You have just arrived in a city after a long flight from London or Vancouver or Toronto or any of the other places we fly to other places from. You are somewhat weary but you realise that you need to stay awake another few hours to help adjust to the different time zone. You have met up with your companion for the visit and are exploring your suite overlooking the sea. Possibly you are in the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica (although you are some way from the sea in a suite) or the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach. You have had a companionable shower or bath and are drinking a glass of Champagne or possibly even a cocktail which you have ordered on room service or have brilliantly assembled from the minibar. As you gaze out over the moonlit sea and contemplate whether to go downstairs for dinner or order room service you need some truly sensuous and relaxing music to unwind to whilst you watch your companion dress for dinner...

...and what music goes better with a palm tree framed moonlit sea view in the background, the rustle of silk lingerie in the foreground and the gentle fizz from your glass of Laurent Perrier Rose Brut? There can be only one answer: the sublime Sea of Dreams (1958) by Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra. This record is the quintessence of lush orchestral music. Warm, sensual and utterly hypnotic it is like pouring Yemeni Sidr honey over Eva Green's tummy and getting Scarlett Johansson to lick it off. The third track Tanga Tahiti is one of the most romantic pieces of music ever recorded; full of an erotic longing unmatched by almost any other piece of music we know. Two minutes and thirty-one seconds of utter brilliance.

Nelson Riddle was the greatest arranger in American popular music with an extraordinary ability to let the music breathe, especially when showcasing one of the singers he worked with such as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitgerald. His five album recording of Ella Fitgerald sings the Gershwin Songbook (1959), made a year after Sea of Dreams, included But Not for Me which won Fitzgerald the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Female. It also contains another of Triple P's favourite arrangements How High the Moon.

Riddle was born in Oradell, New Jersey in 1921. He studied piano as a child but switched to trombone and following his war service in the merchant marine he got a job as a trombonist in the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. He studied arranging and conducting under film composer Victor Young and Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco; most famous these days for his guitar concerto.

He started to work with Nat King Cole and by the fifties had his own orchestra recording with Capitol Records. Capitol encouraged Frank Sinatra, whose career had stalled somewhat, to work with Riddle and their first track together was I’ve Got the World on a String. This led to a partnership which continued for twenty years. For many the sound of Sinatra and the sound of Riddle are synonymous.

Late in his life, Riddle had something of a renaissance, working on three albums with Linda Ronstadt. Nelson Riddle died in 1985 at the age of 64. We are forever grateful to him for the wonderful sounds in Sea of Dreams, which has been the incidental music to many of our most enjoyable evenings.

One final bonus is that the cover of the album features the lovely Margaret Empey, Playboy's Playmate of the Month for both May 1955 and February 1956.

Track listing:

1. Out Of The Night
2. My Isle Of Golden Dreams
3. Tangi Tahiti
4. Dream
5. There's No You
6. Drifting And Dreaming
7. Easter Isle
8. Let's Fall In Love
9. Polka Dots And Moonbeams
10. Put Your Dreams Away (For Another Day)
11. Autumn Leaves
12. Sea Of Dreams

You can buy Sea of Dreams with the very nearly as good Love Tide (1961) in a double album set. And you should!

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Little Jewels of Perfection 3: How to Murder Your Wife: Soundtrack 2

A few months ago we noted that B had very kindly sent me the MGM Soundtrack Treasury box set because it contained one of my favourite scores: Neal Hefti's sublime How to Murder your Wife (1965) (which is also one of my favourite films!).

Well, on our recent visit to Warsaw we met up with B and she presented us with what looked like a single cd of the soundtrack. Very kind but she had already given it to me. We were somewhat puzzled. However, on closer inspection, it proved to be much more than a duplicate.

A record company, Kritzerland, who specialise in rare soundtracks planned to issue a single cd version of the score rather than the very expensive box set. The original album, as issued on vinyl in 1965 and on cd in the boxed set, as was very common at the time, was a re-recording with some added lyrics put to some of the music in a way that Henry Mancini had done with some of his scores. The original soundtrack master had been lost. The record company wanted to get hold of the original album master for thier new release but, much to their surprise they accidentally re-discovered the original soundtrack master. All 55 minutes and 22 tracks of the original soundtrack score which were believed lost. This is the limited edition (1000 copies ) CD that B gave me last week (it was only released on September 2nd). If you want one you can still get them on the internet but they are selling our very fast indeed. Even Kritzerland don't have any any more.

To say we were delighted is an understatement by some degree. This is, in our opinion, the best comedy soundtrack score composed and one of the most enjoyable scores ever. The opening six minutes of the score are backed by no less than six of Hefti's hopelessly catchy melodies as well as showcasing the most desirable home ever seen in cinema!

Opening of How to Murder your Wife

We showed the film to Agent DVD and HMS but they weren't impressed. Films, especially comedies, are a very personal thing. For Triple P the charm of the film is actually rooted in the peripherals. Stanley Ford's (Jack Lemmon) town house being one. The interiors were designed by Richard Sylbert with wonderful sixties set decoration by William Kiernan. The exteriors were actually an amalgamation of two buildings. The exterior onto the street is 174 1/2 East 75th Street New York (you can look at it via Google Maps Street view) and the roof exterior is a now demolished building near the New York Hilton (which can be glimpsed in the background of a few of the scenes).

Cartoonist Mel Keefer supplied the wonderful cartoon strips supposedly drawn by Stanley Ford

As someone who has been known to do the odd bit of drawing a studio like Stanley Ford's with a cast iron spiral staircase would be splendid!

Secondly, of course Neal Hefti's music which perfectly captures a moment in time and place; an urbane New York in the pre-Vietnam mid sixties when America still had the confidence to enjoy its new consumer society without guilt and a world where pop music had yet to conquer all.

Thirdly, Terry-Thomas in his greatest film role as butler Charles; a few facial movements transmitting a myriad of scheming thoughts in a few seconds. It was Thomas' most enjoyable film to make, he later said, and he picked up his biggest pay cheque of £200,000 for it.

Finally, an incandescently beautiful Virna Lisi proving herself to be a wonderful comedienne and making one of the greatest entrances in motion picture history; rising like Venus from a cake, dressed only in a whipped cream bikini.

She should have been a bigger star but was hampered by a violently jealous husband who terrified the rest of the cast and crew during filming.

So, we are most grateful to B once again and have the soundtrack playing as we dress for dinner in Old Montreal!

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Little jewels of perfection 2: Star Wars Soundtrack.

John Williams' score for Star Wars (1977) single-handedly rejuvenated the orchestral film score; that had not been dominant since the 1930s and 1940s, and is, without doubt, the most influential soundtrack in film history. In the 1970s pop and jazz scores predominated and it was a bold move on the part of George Lucas to insist on a full orchestral score in the style of Korngold, Waxman, Steiner and Newman for his much derided (before its release) science fiction epic. John Williams, at the time, was much better regarded in Hollywood than Lucas, coming off his Oscar for best musical score for Jaws (1975).

Star Wars: the main theme

Adopting a Wagnerian leitmotiv approach (not heard since Steiner's work) and heavily influenced by Russian composers (particularly Rimsky-Korsakov and Stravinsky) of the early Twentieth Century Williams' score redefined film music for decades to come. The apotheosis of film scores, Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, simply could not have existed without Williams masterpiece. It is arguable that his second score for Lucas, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) actually is melodically and thematically stronger (the Imperial March is, quite simply, one of the best marches ever composed) but Star Wars is, in a way, a unique achievement; thematically seperate from his other Star Wars scores and the stronger for it.

In a short period Williams' scores for Star Wars (1977), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Superman (1978), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) changed the way that Hollywood thought about film music and Star Wars would go on to become the most popular film soundtrack of all time.

Quite rightly, Williams picked up the Oscar for best musical score in 1978 for his Star Wars soundtrack. Willliams is, jointly with Alfred Newman, the most Oscar nominated person (an almost unbelievable 45 times) in history. He has won five times and, in 2005, his scores for Star Wars (1977), Jaws (1975), and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) (possibly his finest achievement) were respectively ranked number 1, 6, and 14 on the American Film Institute's list of the Top 25 Film Scores in the past 100 years

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Little jewels of perfection 1: Let there be love

Released in 1961 Nat King Cole's Let there be Love was one of the first records that Agent Triple P owned; inherited from his aunt's collection in about, we reckon, 1969.

Written by Lionel Rand (music) and Ian Grant (lyrics) in 1939 and first performed that year by Van Alexander and his Orchestra it was also recorded by the Andrews sisters and Tony Bennett in 1957. A later hit for Cole (1919-1965) from his album Nat King Cole sings/George Shearing plays. Cole, backed by the George Shearing (born 1919) Quintet and Ralph Carmichael (born 1927) and the String Choir deliver a silky smooth performance which is as light as a souffle. Shearing's piano solo is a masterpiece in relaxed minimalism and Cole takes it softly and in a lower register than usual until the final verse.

Let there be you,
Let there be me.
Let there be oysters
Under the sea.

Let there be wind,
An occassional rain.
Chile con carne,
Sparkling champagne

Let there be birds
To sing in the trees,
Someone to bless me
Whenever I sneeze.

Let there be cuckoos,
A lark and a dove,
But first of all, please
Let there be love

Everyone should have this in their collection and it appears on Agent Triple P's notorious "cocktail" playlist on his iPod. Or the "slinky music to get girls out of their clothes" playlist, as our particular friend S calls it. Whatever, it seems to work and a large part of that success is down to Mr Cole and Mr Shearing (or rather Sir George as we should call him as he became the first US citizen -naturalised-(he was born in Battersea) to be knighted).

Perfection.

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