Search - Ray Noble, Al Bowlly :: Rarities & Us Recordings 10

THE END OF A MAGNIFICENT SONG CYCLE

Barry McCanna | Normandy, France | 01/23/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the tenth CD in a series entitled "The Ray Noble Orchestra featuring Al Bowlly: The HMV Sessions". Anyone who's read through my reviews of the preceding volumes will have gleaned that this reissue was based on an earlier boxed set of fourteen LPs. Most of the content was accommodated within nine CDs, leaving just 8 tracks outstanding from the fourteenth LP, which had been titled "The Rarities".



They comprised three songs Al recorded for HMV in 1930, sung in Afrikaans, for issue in South Africa, an unissued take of "Sweet And Lovely" with the Savoy Hotel Orpheans, Al's only vocal with Billy Cotton, a selection from the film Wonder Bar, and a 1956 recording of Ray Noble reminiscing about Al Bowlly, all of which are of great interest to Bowlly collectors. In order to facilitate their reissue Vocalion added fourteen tracks which Noble recorded with his American orchestra in 1935/36. The liner notes include contributions by Lew Stone's widow Joyce, pianist Wally Ridley, trombonist Lew Davis and bass player Tiny Winters, and the result is a fitting culmination to this legendary partnership."