Search - Temistocle Popa :: Songs Of The South/Songs Of The Sea

Wonderful!

B. Tupper | Ramona, CA United States | 07/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For those who know this music from the LP days, it is enough to say that the remastering and transcription to CD are very well done. If anything, the sound is better than on the original LP releases.



For those to whom the music might be unfamiliar, a bit of description is in order.



These are rearrangements of old songs--both traditional and composed--including several well-known Stephen Foster numbers and some ancient traditional ballads and sea shanties. The Norman Luboff choir stands somewhat apart from the tradition of the great choirs of recording history, in that the arrangements are weighted very strongly toward the male voices. In many of the songs the female voices are completely absent, leaving a mens' choir. In others the female voices play a very minor role, serving only as understated accents to the overall harmonic structure. The result is a very smooth, liquid sound, even in the livelier numbers. Apart from that, the Luboff stuff is very much in the tradition of the Fred Waring chorale, the La Sierra Collegians under John T. Hamilton, and other masters of the choral art, although he makes frequent use of folk-type instruments in accompaniment, such as the harmonica. accordian and acoustic guitar--all of them presented with elegant simplicity. Luboffs harmonic structures are frequently more modern, sometimes even a little bit dissonant, without ever becoming unpleasant. Some of the chord progressions are quite unique and interesting in the context of traditional and folk music.



This release is a complete transcription of the two original LP releases of 1956 under the same titles. For those of us who owned, wore completely out, those recordings, this is a very welcome replacement. Of the various albums recorded by Luboff in that period, I liked Songs of the Sea least. Not that it is less well done. It is technically fully the equal of all the others. I just didn't like the songs as well. My favorite, I think the best work Luboff ever did, is Songs of the West. I enthusiastically concur with the other reviewers that that album MUST be re-issued. I hope the delay is in the spirit of seeking perfection in the remastering. The music deserves the very best that modern technology can offer.



In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to report that Luboff rehearsed his group on the campus of the White Memorial Hospital in East Los Angeles, where my wife was a student nurse and my sister worked in the medical records department. It was a wonderful privilege to be able to stick one's nose into the rehearsal room and watch the great musicianship of Norman Luboff as he coaxed such wonderful sounds out of his singers."