... MOVIE-ING WITH TIME Considering that most Top 20 songs these days are instantly forgettable and often indistin guishable or is that old age talking it comes as a delight to discover, through The Glory of the Movie Songs (MCI MPMCD 008) that even the most mediocre film musicals of the forties contained at least one song that resonates, even after 50 years. Take Thrill of Romance, with I Should ...

... Record breaker Les Brown has been a bandleader for more than 60 years, earning himself a place in The Guinness Book of Records, and it all started when he was at Duke University I did all the arranging for the Duke Blue Devils, even those stupid records we made for Decca in 1936. We were probably the only college band at that time who ever recorded for a major label. When I first started ...

... Moving into the fray If you have been to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe over the past few years, it is more than likely that you will have come across Craig McMurdo, whose brand of swing singing, drawing on the repertoire of such jump jive specialists as Louis Prima, has been heard in Fringe venues and during the late- night dance sessions that are a feature of the city during festival time. ...

... Golden Gonella Often called Britain's best trumpeter, Nat Gonella proved that difficult beginnings mean little to those who want to succeed, says John Hannam Saturday. March 7, 1998, is a day I shall never forget. It was Nat Gonella's 90th birthday and he was enjoying a short break with friends on the Isle of Wight. I was invited to join him for morning coffee and took the opportu nity to ...

... Simplistic appeal--but original is best COMPILED BY PETER HEPPLE Almost the bete noire for those of us who attend showcases and talent contests is I Will Always Love You, as sung by those who imitate Whitney Houston's version. But on her CD Making Love (TER CDVIR 8328), Salena Jones sings it more or less as written, proving that it is really a simple and very tender song, moving completely ...

... e: the Anthology (EMI Harvest PUR n For those now entering their thirties Deep Purple will have the same nostalgic appeal as does Sinatra for people in their fifties and sixties. Very much a product of the late sixties. Deep Purple are a link between psychedelia and heavy metal, who towards the end of their seven-year career leaned stronely towards the latter. It is always interest ing to ...

... The Songs and Stars of the Forties (EMI Retrospect EG 26 0293 1) The forties was not the best period for good songs, a point amply demonstrated on this compilation, the artists being more notable than the material. With one or two exceptions, of course, for instance Pedro the Fisherman, surely one of the best story songs ever written and sung here by the almost forgotten Vincent ...

... Loose Tubes (Loose Tubes LTLP (Mil The first album, made, as must be the case nowadays, through their own efforts, by the band which has had every British jazz fan talking for the past year. A 22-piece aggregation whose members have a fierce commitment to the concept, despite the fact that several of them have their own groups. Loose Tubes defies convention in that it is neither just ...

... All shades of the blues Just For You Howard Keel (Telstar j STAC 2318, also on disc) Recently on tour here and peddling these 16 unforgetabte love songs as he went, Howard Keel is in remarkably good voice for a man nearer 70 than 60. And although his somewhat muscular treatments of such songs as To All the Girls I Loved Before, Just the Way You Are, I Just Called to Say I Love You and ...

... Complex and bold shadows ROYAL BALLET Valley of Shadows IN SETTING the sweetness of charmed lives against the blighted victims of a concentration camp, Kenneth MacMilIan's Valley of Shadows is both complex and bold. To understand, it helps to have Giorgio Bassam's novel The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (from which he drew his inspiration) and to know the gackground of this rich Jewish ...

... Royal Ballet Of Flanders SADLER'S WELLS THE ROYAL BALLET of Flanders, in their first nroeramme at Sadler's Wells, prove that the dilemma facing ballet today is not one of good dancers but of inspired choreographers. The company is strong in all departments, with excellent principals in Stefan Schuller. Tom Van Cauwenberg. Vivien Loeber. Patricia Carey and others, a neat, good- looking corps ...

... DISC DATA Just Dance Sydney Upton and his Grosvenor House Orchestra (Decca RFL 22) Sydney Lipton never lea one 01 the fashionable pre-war dance bands, but its abilities are by no means to be discounted. It did not boast the name musicians attracted to the Lew Stone, Roy Fox and Ambrose outfits, yet it did have some highly competent ones, well able to do |ustice to such jazz-tinged ...