Before Gershon Kingsley teamed up with Jean-Jacques Perrey in 1965 to splice tapes and mess around with Moog synthesizers, he worked as a staff arranger at Vanguard Records. But even then he did not always stay in the background. In 1964 he released a collaboration with Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester on Vanguard, called Mozart After Hours. Since the Moog was not invented at the time, he had to make do with a harpsichord, the Vienna Academy Choir, members of the Vienna State Opera, and an unspecified "Jazz Rhythm Group". This album has never been released on CD, and according to Maureen Forrester nobody ever got paid for it. In keeping with tradition, we bring it to you in the form of 12 MP3 files, totally free of charge:
Samba Papageno | Minuet in 4 | Swing a la Turca | Lullaby for Wolfgang | G-Minor Chacha | Figaro Flip | Overture | Hold My Hand, Giovanni | Rockin' Don | A Little Night Jazz - Allegro | A Little Night Jazz - Romanze | A Little Night Jazz - Minuet and Rondo
I think this is an underappreciated gem in the underappreciated genre of wacky classics with harpsichord-driven arrangements, but that's just my opinion...
Holy my good. This one was a gem, no doubt about that. I have always loved Kingsleys work and never heard about this one. Are there more from his Vanguard years?
Posted by: NXP | May 22, 2007 at 04:26 AM