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Blue Tango & Sleigh Ride
A Leroy Anderson Centennial Celebration (vols. 1-2)
5/80 Theatre Pipe Organ
Jasper & Marian Sanfilippo Residence
As reviewed by Alan Ashton for Organised Keyboards (ORGAN1st Magazine Issue 30):
Amongst my collection of ageing LP recordings is one on the MGM label titled More Leroy Anderson Favourites E3505, a sequel release to Leroy
Anderson Favourites E3714. Clearly MGM released LPs out of sequence! Played by Richard Ellsasser at an unidentified organ, quite honestly I never play
them because I find them terribly boring, yet I know the tunes should be anything but. Proof of that belief is beyond any doubt with the release of two
CDs by Jelani Eddington playing the magnificent Sanfillppo 80 rank WurliTzer Unit Orchestra.
BLUE TANGO (RJE-1908A) and SLEIGH RIDE (RJE-1908B) have
been recorded and released to coincide with the Leroy Anderson Centennial Celebrations.
Before I go further, I would like to suggest to the American Theatre Organ Society that they seriously consider adding an annual Award, along
the lines of the Oscar and Tony Music Awards for the best theatre organ recording. These two CDs alone would be impossible to beat, and I doubt that
in the remainder of 2006, that I will ever hear any recordings of a theatre organ programme that could surpass them.
Boring? No way! I played both CDs straight through twice over, and that amounts to in excess of five hours of simply the most gorgeous playing
and sounds that I have ever heard provided by one artist seated at one instrument. The combination of Eddington and this particular WurliTzer is well
documented, but add the compositional genius of Leroy Anderson and this becomes unconquerable.
With no fewer than 28 tracks on CD 1 with a running time a few seconds short of 78 mins, and 24 on CD 2 with a near limit of 80 mins running
time, there is no way I can even scratch the surface of the contents. Suffice it to say all the Leroy Anderson favourites are here: WALTZING CAT /
THE TYPEWRITER / TRUMPETER’S LULLABY / SERENATA / PENNY WHISTLE SONG / BELL OF THE BALL / SYNCOPATED CLOCK / BUGLER’S HOLIDAY / JAZZ PIZZICATO /
JAZZ LEGATO / PROMENADE / SANDPAPER BALLET / PLINK, PLANK, PLUNK / FIDDLE FADDLE and FORGOTTEN DREAMS.
But for me, so much of the joy of these recordings was hearing, in many cases for the first time, wonderfully diverse compositions such as the
TICONDEROGA MARCH, a Sousa style composition which has to be a welcome respite from the Stars and Stripes: the six part IRISH SUITE: ARIETTA which was
originally a viola and cello two part work the composer penned for himself and his Daughter Jane: HOME STRETCH and HORSE & BUGGY, and the finale to CD 1
which finds Jelani Eddington giving the world premiere recording of EASTER SONG.
It is also pointless me trying to add anything to this review in respect of the composition backgrounds, because the two accompanying booklets
written by the artist contain copious notes. What I also found quite fascinating is that on a number of the novelty items Jelani has ‘employed’ the
services of additional ‘percussionists’ who provide everything from temple blocks, cow bells, dog bark, cat hiss, sleigh bells, whip crack, horse whinny,
and the sounds of a genuine period Remington office typewriter, the latter operated by two persons! I am tempted to be facetious and ask why all these
items are not installed on the WurliTzer, but in all seriousness when you hear their execution within the context of the tunes, you can understand why
it was deemed only natural to have the authentic sounds.
The sleeve notes indicate that it took 18 months research into the music scores, learning the music, and recording the compositions over the
course of 33 days spread out over many months. Such dedication results in a theatre organ recording of Leroy Anderson music that will never be bettered
anywhere by any other theatre organ artist.
By the aforementioned you will by now have gathered that I like his latest release!
To order these CDs, Click Here!
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