Search - ANITA ORCHESTRA & SINGERS KERR :: Five Classic Warner Brothers Albums 1966-1968

Having made an enormous contribution to the establishment of the Nashville Sound and the modernisation of country music, Anita Kerr felt the need to expand her artistic horizons and in 1965, made the move from Nashville to Hollywood. She wanted to work with different people, to get her own songs recorded, to play jazz, to conduct an orchestra, to take on more ambitious and more varied projects musically, and to form a vocal group which, rather than be confined to studio sessions, might also appear in club and concert settings. Her arrival on the West Coast was well timed. She had just fought off The Beatles to win a Grammy for the album We Dig Mancini and she was quickly able to assemble a stellar Anita Kerr Singers (B. J Baker: alto, Gene Merlino: tenor; Bob Tebow: bass, with Anita herself as soprano and soloist) and secure a contract more tailored to her needs with Warner Brothers. The result over the next two years, were these five superbly fashioned albums. One of the great pop music arrangers, Anita compliments her interpretations of the compositions of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Tony Hatch, Lennon & McCartney, Bacharach-David, Bert Kaempfert and Goffin & King with imaginative selections like Nico Fidenco's joyful Con Te Sulla Spiaggia, with Holiday, the then recent Robin and Barry Gibb hit which had heralded the arrival of the Bee Gees in the northern hemisphere, and four Addrisi Brothers compositions that are sublime examples of sunshine pop; Never My Love (a huge North American hit in 1967 for the Association), Autumn Afternoon, I Would Love You and the anthemic Happiness (Is). All are considered from a refreshing new perspective, as is the jazzier material, which finds the likes of Mood Indigo and Swinging on a Star revisited with sensuality and humour.