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| Hobby Forum Index » Music - Reviews » CD Review: Arthur Lyman “Lyman ’66 / The Shadow of... |
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 Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:09 pm |
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Arthur Lyman "Lyman '66 / The Shadow of Your Smile" (Collectors'
Choice)
Hawaii-born Arthur Lyman joined with Martin Denny to invent "exotica"
on the latter's 1957 debut album. Exotica combined the melodic sounds
of the islands with unusual percussion (notably the scratching sound
of the guiro), pop changes, and human-voiced bird calls to create a
soundtrack to the late '50s fascination with all things tiki. As a
vibraphonist, Lyman's jazz background added an element of cool to
Denny's classical training. Splitting after their debut release, Lyman
created a new quartet and recorded dozens of exotica-inflected albums
for the Hi-Fi, Life and Crescendo labels. Collectors' Choice latest
series of reissues gathers eighteen of Lyman's releases from Hi-Fi and
Life, fits them two per CD, includes full-panel reproductions of both
album covers, adds a full-panel back cover and new liner notes from
Scram's Kim Cooper and David Smay.
Lyman kicked off 1966 with his nineteenth original album (a greatest
hits was issued in late 1965), and the song selection followed his
familiar pattern: a few show and film tunes, a few folk and native
melodies, and a few pop hits, mostly arranged this time with exotica
at the edges, and light jazz and blues at the center. Opening the
record is the 1960's folk title "Lemon Tree," with the Brazilian feel
of its original 1930s origin still intact. The group provides a superb
stereo arrangement of the main title from "Fiddler on the Roof," with
deep bass and flute placed stage center and a percussion spread that
gives way to a whirling dervish of piano and vibes. From the world of
film, the Oscar-nominated Henry Mancini title tune "Dear Heart" is
sweet and gentle, while a medley of Sherman and Sherman tunes from
"Mary Poppins" (including "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Chim Chim Cher-ee"
and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious") ranges from Vince Guaraldi
cool to spooky late-night chill to a Disney-manic. The album's pop
hits include "A Taste of Honey," which hit for Herb Alpert in'65, but
dates in the exotica world back to Martin Denny's 1962 waxing; more
interesting is the nostalgic "Only Yesterday," rendered as an island-
toned instrumental that's nearly unrecognizable as the song recorded
in upbeat vocal form by the Four Seasons in 1964.
Island favorites include "The Boy From Laupahoehoe," a song closely
associated with Hawaii Calls regular Bill Kaiwa, and "Waimea Cowboy,"
best known by slack key master Sonny Chillingworth. The former is
picked on ukulele and guitar before Lyman picks up the melody on
vibraphone, the latter is played as swinging jazz, with cascading
piano runs and cymbal accents. Also rendered as jazz is "The (Jungle)
Cat," with a "What'd I Say" bass line supporting go-go bass and vibes.
Mainlanders Frank Metis and Randy Starr provide "Kon Tiki," originally
recorded by the songwriters in 1960 as The Islanders; an ironic group
name given that Starr was from The Bronx. Their melody provides a wide-
eyed search for adventure, ala The Sandals' music for "The Endless
Summer." Also from the continent is Alfred Newman and Ken Darby's
"Ports of Paradise," with a descending melody that seems borrowed from
Hank Williams' "Cold Cold Heart." Lyman's resonant vibraphone gives
the song a terrific tropic drift. Closing the LP is a rare original,
"Bird Train," with Lyman's manic playing shadowed by equally energetic
piano and percussion.
Lyman's second of three albums in 1966 is titled after the oft-covered
Grammy-winning "The Shadow of Your Smile," drawn from the film "The
Sandpiper" (for which it also won an Oscar). Lyman plays it as a
gentle bossa nova, allowing his vibraphone notes to sustain as the
melody floats out. Also drawn from film is the title theme to 1964's
"Zorba the Greek," replete with its trademark tempo-escalating dance
sequence, and a medley of songs from 1965's The Sound of Music." The
pop charts are represented by covers of The Beatles' "Yesterday" and
The McCoys' "Hang On Sloopy," the former schmaltzy, the latter souped
up with drums and piano. Back in the islands, Don Ho's "E Lei Ka Lei
Lei (The Beach Party Song)" includes wordless vocals that provide a
sense of how this sing-a-long revved up the crowds at luaus, "Kamalani
O Keaukaha" is warm and smooth, the martial "Imua Kamehameha" (a
Hawaiian football favorite) provides a chance to rock the chimes, and
"Marobi" gets the full exotica treatment. One of the sets more
bittersweet stories is "I'll Remember You," written in 1966 by Kui
Lee, a Shanghai-born child of Hawaiian entertainers. The song was
quickly covered by Tony Bennett, Andy Williams and others, but Lee
passed away within the year.
Both albums continue Lyman's broad reach for songs, and though neither
album stands out in particular relief from the catalog, they both make
for good listening. The sound on "Lyman '66" is a bit disappointing,
with distortion heard in some of Lyman's vibraphone passages, and an
audible skip at the 1'32 mark of "The Boy From Laupahoehoe." [(c)2008
redtunictroll at hotmail dot com] |
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