rd’s of his pianistic and satirical talents. rom ' DOWS Worth getting mainly for the first side. rwjuJàui RecWs I beat n th THE MOST HAPPY FELLA The Most Happy Fella (Columbia CROSBY-SINATRA-ARMSTRONG three 12" LPs, 03L-240) is Columbia’s The one High Society (Capitol 12" LP W750) second original-cast home run this is a good-humored, alternately romantic season (the first, of course, having been sue. and flip sound track set with Bing, My Fair Lady.) Frank Loesser’s extra­ liior and only Frank, Louis, and brief appearances ordinary adaptation of Sidney How­ aed b Celeste Holm and Princess Grimaldi ard’s They Knew What They Wanted nnie (she duets tentatively with Bing in has not been termed by him an opera z ne True Love). High points are the so as not to scare prospective seat­ sound track brash Crosby-Sinatra duet in Well, Did rot holders, but it certainly rates as music You Evah; Louis and Bing’s graphic drama of serious intent and largely an- lecture, Now You Has Jazz, and the album... , al- successfull accomplishment. have ballad singing by Sinatra and Crosby. The music is heady, rich, and passion­ Music and lyrics are by Cole Porter ate with an earthiness of singing mel­ g‘-nt with orchestrations by Conrad Salinger, ody that is unique in Broadway shows. lohn Nelson Riddle, and Skip Martin. John­ The cast, particularly the powerful * his ny Green and Saul Chaplin supervised. feeling Robert Weede, is excellent with long An attractive memento. especial notices due Susan Johnson, ‘fute Jo Sullivan, Shorty Long, and Art that Lund. Several songs like The Most BILL DOGGETT Happy Fella and Standing on the Cor­ can’t Moondust (King 12" LP 395-502) is irgu- ner are well known to you, but the a pleasant, restful mood set with organ­ best and most stirring numbers are ist Doggett, the big-toned tenor of lusic those like the shouting fertility cele­ Percy France, guitarist Billy Butler, bration, Abbondanza; the touchingly am and drummer Shep Shepherd. The pro­ mist, bumbling Happy to Make Your Ac­ gram consists of such standards as quaintance and the deeply moving, ng a The Nearness of You, My Reverie, tated love-full How Beautiful the Days and t 16 Tara’s Theme, and Street Scene. Dog­ My Heart Is So Full of You. There’s gett doesn’t abuse the instrument or also one 12" LP of highlights, but if i own soak it in tears as so many organists that you can, get the whole harvest. made do on ballads, and his colleagues display j the equal close-to-the-melody taste. 1, I’ll PETER LIND HAYES and MARY HEALY his) FRANCES FAYE Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy (Kapp 12" LP KL-1021) is divided Relaxin With Frances Faye (Bethle­ lay it into Songs and Snappy Patter and hem 12" LP BCP-62) is another husky Radio and TV Tidbits (taken from vould lieder recital by the hip, rockingly un­ first broadcasts and telecasts). The impreg- sentimental Miss Faye—a performer nably cute and sentimental material aids, unique unto her punching self. Not a aying used by this husband-and-wife team BING AND FRANK jazz singer but jazz-flavored, she makes for a recital that may well ap­ ig is doesn't have a particularly wide range times peal to housewives as postludes to either of voice or imagination, but together for the o ad- Arthur Godfrey and soap operas but within her life-is-just-a-bowl-of-kicks should have little interest for most does first time...with when province, she’s fun to hear and has a readers of this magazine. Sample titles good beat. are Gee, I’m Glad I Married You; The com- Frank Hunter has scored a series of Pussy Cat Song; I Never Harmed an GRACE KELLY, too aptly brassy and warm arrangements, rs of Onion (So Why Should They Make Me irseli, excellently played with verve and skill Cry). Why indeed? ... plus trying by Leon Cohen, Herbie Mann, Allen finds Eager, Hy Mandell, Nick Travis, Ber­ LOUIS ARMSTRONG rticle. nie Glow, Al Derisi, Don Leight, Harry THE SWAN ast if Di Vito, Phil Giacobbe, Donn Trenner, Johnny Green conducts the MGM and his Band! ie has Sal Salvador, Oscar Pettiford, and studio orchestra in music recorded from speed Shadow Wilson. There are brief solos the sound track of the Kelly-Guinness- > with by some of the hornmen. This is a Jourdain film, The Swan. The score is It’s COLE PORTER’S mood music album, all right, but it’s by Bronislau Kaper. A college of the kind of mood that generally comes waltzes, languorous love themes, and first new film score aering after three or four jiggers. ; does general courtly froth, the music is gen­ 29/711 tie, innocuous and fine for reading by. in ten years... azz is STAN FREEMAN Although she’s not inside, this is apt music for daydreaming her if you are s 2/4. Stan Freeman (Epic 12" LP LN thus inclined. and all recorded langes 3224) devotes its first side to Free­ ng is. man’s sharply satirical, several-faceted in thrilling to cre- night club act in a performance appar­ DAVID WHITEHALL ing to ently recorded at the Blue Angel. Disc ’ as a jockeys are advised to audition this side Portraits of Italy (Camden 12' LP HIGH FIDELITY! sen an first, for a couple of moments are apt CAL 298) is a superior programmatic mood music collection. The song-rich nenter to bring notes from the FCC if played. Album 750 st. Or Freeman’s self-wrought act material portraits are by Domenico Savino and s from is sophistication of an imaginative or­ are beautifully performed by Whitehall ianies? der and is well complemented by pia­ conducting the Symphony Orchestra of Exclusively on .mount nistic foils. The second side has four Rome. The tone poems cover such di­ r. Me- tracks of Freeman heading a quartet versely colored subjects as The Lakes, lechan- and four with an orchestra led by Venetian Lagoon, Rome at Dawn, Sun­ ised to Dave Terry. These numbers present set on the Adriatic, Sorrento Folk unable the polished, fluent, “smart” piano of Dance, The Mediterranean. For light ’t any- Freeman (Sunny Side Up, for one ex­ semiclassical music, played with brio in the ample) ; his romantic style (Intermezzo and taste, this collection has had few and Speak Low); and four vocals that if any peer this year. Firstrate sound - Shaw are not up to the professional sheen engineering. n Be«« August 22, 1956.