GLCD 5163 – The Golden Age of Light Music: The 1930s Revisited – Vol. 3
Various
One of my favorite CD series, The Golden Age of Light Music on the Guild Light Music label, has added its 63rd release. To be placed on the shelf next to “The 1930s” and “In Town Tonight: The 1930s Volume 2,” “The 1930s Revisited” holds yet another treasure chest of instrumental music composed between the late 1920s and 1939.
Taken from an enormous collection of original recordings on LP, this program is comprised mostly of short pieces not very well known in America—except for some Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin melodies—and probably not too familiar to the young British today. Among them are “Forest idyll,” “Dancing tambourine,” “Swamp Fire,” and “Fata morgana.”
One must recall that these are some of the tunes that helped the British get through the Depression Years, when record sales plummeted and people turned to the radio for comfort. As are all the other Guild collections, this is certainly something one will want to play many times.
Memory Lane Summer 2010
Guild released three more CDs from their “The Golden Age of Light Music” shortly after the Spring edition of ML had gone to press. The details are: GLCD 5161 European Tour GLCD 5162 The Hall of Fame – Volume 3
GLCD 5163 The 1930s Revisited Whilst `European Tour’ is not marked as a second series I seem to recall a very similar trip with GLCD 5132 titled “Continental Flavour”. This tour, which features recordings mainly from the 1950s contains some of my favourite pieces of light music including Under Paris Skies, performed here by Monty
Kelly & his Orchestra, and April In Portugal from the Richard Hayman orchestra. In truth, though, there is no weak link in this selection, which gets under way with Charles Williams’ wartime composition, Voice Of London, and ends with the intriguing Spider of Antwerp from Guy Luypaerts. The other two CDs follow the familiar and very successful formula adopted by Guild. Look out for a nice mini-concert from the ever popular George Melachrino as featured conductor in `Hall of Fame’ and several British dance band leaders taking light music in their stride as part of `1930s Revisited’. As always, Guild’s re-mastering and packaging is absolutely first class.
GH