Archives for February 2013

Eubie Blake made himself even more famous well into his 90s when he said, “If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” He died on February 12, 1983 at the age of 100 years and five days. More famous? Yes, he had been widely known for decades as a pianist, bandleader and composer. Blake’s “Memories of You,” “I’m Just Wild About Harry” and “Charleston Rag” were among a string his of hits that began with an early one for Sophie Tucker, “It’s All Your Fault.”

When ragtime made a comeback in the 1950s, so did Eubie, and the comeback lasted until he died. Here he is in Berlin in 1972 when he was a mere 89 year old, charming an audience with a medley of his best-known songs.

Taking the birthday tribute a step further, let’s hear one of best of the dozens of versions of Blake’s “Memories of You,” by Clifford Brown with strings.

Thank you for Eubie Blake.

Robert Farnon

By Jeff Sultanof

Robert Farnon composed several film scores, of which the best known is the music for Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951). The trombonist, composer and arranger J.J. Johnson told me that a theme from the film, “Lady Barbara” was one of his favorites. Johnson eventually recorded it with Farnon. We hear a bit of the theme in this scene from the motion picture with Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo.

Farnon recorded a long-running series of albums for U.K. Decca, released in the U.S. on the London label. Quincy Jones later produced Farnon albums for Phillips. Over his long career, Bob arranged and conducted for Frank Sinatra, Joe Williams, George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Jerry Lewis, Sarah Vaughan, and Tony Bennett.

I first heard of Farnon when I was 18 years old. I didn’t know anything about him, and couldn’t find his albums. I discovered that the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center had them, and when I heard them I was astounded. I wanted to study the scores, but soon learned that there had been a disastrous fire at Chappell’s offices in 1964, and most of them seemed lost. Chappell published several of his compositions in orchestral editions, but the only scores were piano-conductor guides, and all of those publications were long out of print and unavailable. In some cases, no copies of some of his best-known compositions were to be found in the United States. How could a case be made for a composer whose work was all but invisible, at least in this country?

I corresponded with him, and met him at a Farnon Society meeting. On that occasion, I offered to create new scores of his music; the music that was published for sale had numerous errors. Eventually, I edited 45 compositions and arrangements. Farnon approved them. Publishing them is a tricky proposition because the rights scattered when Chappell sold off its music library. Let’s just say it’s complicated, but it was wonderful to bathe in this glorious music and to work with Bob.

Farnon was a very gracious individual, proud of the fact that many professional arrangers respected and loved his music. But privately he expressed to me regret and, sometimes, anger. Decca lavished more promotion and ad space on other artists. He felt that the company never properly promoted him and he felt the same way about Chappell. Those of us who know his many compositions feel that with regard to orchestral performance, his music should be as popular as Leroy Anderson’s, but that simply has not happened. Despite accolades from such arranger/conductors as Andre Previn and John Williams, to my knowledge neither has performed his music. They could give it a much-needed push, exposing it to other conductors and encouraging them to program it.

For many years, copies of Farnon’s London albums were hard to find; arrangers learned not to lend them out, because they would probably not be returned. That changed when Dutton Vocalion issued them as two-fers on CD some years ago, and today it is very easy to get MP3s of classic Farnon recordings. All of them are worth hearing, but The Emerald Isle, From the Highlands, and Sunny Side Up are indispensable. The albums he made with Bennett were poorly promoted, but they are among the finest of this artist’s long discography. The album with Sinatra was recorded when Frank was in poor voice from touring, but “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” is exquisite.

It was wonderful to know Robert Farnon. It is encouraging to realize that new generations of arrangers manage to find him and be inspired by him. His legacy continues. That’s the most that an artist can hope for.

As always, the Rifftides staff is grateful to Jeff Sultanof for sharing his expertise and insight.

As Jeff Sultanof makes clear in the first segment of his two-part essay for Rifftides, the most accomplished composers and arrangers looked up to Robert Farnon (1917-2005). To the left, we see him between two of his admirers, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Carter. Early in his career, both offered him encouragement and advice and, later, became fans. The sheer skill of Farnon’s craftsmanship would have been reason enough for envy, but he combined mastery of technique with a creative imagination that gave him range from the most subtle harmonic magic accompanying singers to the surging power of epic seaborne motion picture battles.

Mr. Sultanof is treasured by professional musicians for his analysis and editing of scores and for his writing and teaching about composers and composing. He has also written for Rifftides about Pete Rugolo, Gerry Mulligan and Russell Garcia.

Robert Farnon

By Jeff Sultanof

In today’s colleges and universities around the world, students and teachers continue to explore the world of big band and orchestral arrangements, analyzing them in classrooms, writing them, or both. It is a fascinating journey to see and hear how many different kinds of sounds and structures can be created using the same instrumentation that has been formulating and evolving over many, many years.

Somewhere along the line, anyone familiar with Nelson Riddle, Billy May and the many other legends of arranging in the popular music idiom, eventually finds the name of a man who never became very well known, at least in the United States. It’s a different story in Europe because his BBC broadcasts were heard there. Professionals everywhere, however, regard Robert Farnon as the best of them all.

I will deal only with the basics of his career. You are invited to explore the Robert Farnon Society website, the internet home of the organization that celebrates and promotes Farnon’s work as well as that of other composer/arrangers.

Farnon was born in Canada on July 24, 1917 (coincidentally, I was born on the same day in 1954, something Bob and I used to joke about). He came from a musical family. His brothers Brian and Dennis also became world-class musicians. Bob was a trumpet player and joined the CBC Orchestra as lead trumpet for broadcasts under the direction of Percy Faith. When Faith left the CBC, Farnon took his place, and his arrangements were heard all over Canada. Farnon also composed two well regarded symphonies, one of them played by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Considering them juvenilia, he later withdrew them, although some of the themes in those works were recycled for other compositions.

During WWII, he became a Captain in the Canadian army, and was commissioned to assemble an Allied Expeditionary Force orchestra from Canada to be sent overseas to entertain the troops. His was the equivalent of Glenn Miller’s American AEF ensemble and George Melachrino’s English band. The three men were great friends, and would meet at Miller’s office, which was a room at the Mt. Royal Hotel in London. The British music world recognized Farnon’s talents, and he often moonlighted as arranger for such leaders as Ted Heath and Geraldo.

During and after the war, Farnon’s ensemble broadcast regularly. Some of those recorded programs were found many years later. Farnon was not exactly thrilled at their rediscovery and availability on CD, as he had been forced to arrange the newest songs by transcribing them over short-wave radio broadcasts, and the lyrics and music were sometimes incorrect. This makes his work all the more remarkable; some arrangements, including “Laura,” are from that period, although commercially recorded several years later. “Laura” is considered one of his masterpieces. He continued to perform for it many years.

Once he was discharged, Farnon faced a major decision: stay in England, return to Canada, or perhaps go to the United States (Miller had encouraged him to come to the U.S.—it is tempting to think of Miller and Farnon working together). He decided that it would be better to stay in England. In 1946, he was invited to write for Chappell’s music library service. For such libraries, composers wrote music for possible use in radio, motion pictures and later television, music ranging from full-scale compositions that could be used as themes, or short segments to be used as transitions. This turned out to be the break of his life. Over the years, he wrote hundreds of hours of music for the library, and many of the compositions such as “Portrait of a Flirt” and “Journey Into Music” were heard all over the world. The David Susskind Show, a talk program emanating from New York, used Farnon’s “Gateway to the West” as its theme. In Europe, Farnon became known as a ‘light’ music composer. John Wilson conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in one of those exquisitely written pieces.

In his second installment, Jeff will discuss Farnon’s music for motion pictures and his work with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Oscar Peterson and George Shearing, among many others.

Following up the Butch Morris post two items below, this announcement just arrived: