Anita Ker, Rod McKuen & The San Sebastia — The Sea, The Sky, The Earth
The release comes in the form of a three disc cd set. Each album has it’s own colour card slip sleeve, which takes in reproduction's of the vinyl releases original back & front covers. You also get an inlay booklet, taking in original linear notes, and lyrics. And the whole thing is packaged in a flip-lid card box.
The three albums were the brain child of American Singer-songwriter, musician, poet Rodney Marvin "Rod" McKuen, and Singer-songwriter, arranger Anita Kerr. The pair met in the late 60’s, and decided to bring together McKuen's poetry with Kerr arrangements- to create this series of classic easy-listening Americana. Each of the three albums feels like a wonderful time capsule of a certainly period & mindset in America, not really having much of the 60’s free-ness/ hippie culture, but focusing more back to the 40’s/50’s, with a slight edge of beatnik hip-ness here & there too.
The first album in set is The Sea, and this original appeared in 1967-as it’s title suggests all of the poetry here is themed around the sea ( though at times quite loosely). The album features fourteen tracks in all, and each of these has a fairly short runtime of just over a minute , to nearing five. For this album the narration is done by 1960’s US TV & film actor Jesse Pearson( who had appeared on the likes of Bonanza, The Andy Griffith Show,The Great Adventure and The Beverly Hillbillies). He has a soothing & clear though manly sounding voice( at times he sounding quite George Clooney like), which is added subtle on top of the instrumental backing which moves from: lulling ‘n’ moody blend of swooning strings & tinkling piano. Onto slight more misty yet building smooth jazz & cool big-band blends. Though to slight melancholic & moody light classical risers that moves cool vibe led jazz flute work-outs. And beyond. You also get the subtle addition of the sound of the sea here & there too. It’s a nicely varied release, with a good blend of memorable melodies, nice arrangements, soothing moods, and pleasing/ charming narration from Pearson.
The second album comes in the form of The Earth, and was also from 1967. For this one narration is done by Rod McKuen himself, and he has quite a tight sorting whispering diction( which is not unlike Tobin Bell, who will of course be known to many as Jigsaw in torture porn film series Saw). Instrumentally this album is a little more up-beat, dramatic, and less smooth- sure you’d still say this was easy-listening but at the more pacey end. The album takes in another 13 tracks, and these run between two & just under five minutes. Again it’s another worthy chapter in the series with the melodies & arrangements, though I must say I not sure if McKuen narration works- though that’s maybe down to the Tobin Bell sounding voice, & I keep expecting him to suddenly say “Do you want to play a game?".
Last up we of course in the trilogy we have The Sky, and this was originally released in 1968. For album the narration is done by Gene Merlino, who was a US singer/ spoken word artists/ Actor who was known for doing quite a lot song-poem like work. His voice is much more palatable to my ears than McKuen’s, and he has quite a cool, yet clear & distinctively dramatic diction. Instrumentally this album is mostly more up-beat again, with often quite a jazzy/ finger-snapping coolness about it. Also the arrangements have quite a nice darting feeling about them, as a tracks will dart-off down some surprising turns. The album takes in 14 tracks, and these have a running time between one & nearing five minutes.
All in all this is a very welcome reissue of this classic easy listening series from the late 60’s. I’d say in order of favourites I’d go The Sea, The Sky & The Earth- but the whole set is a enjoyable varied, well executed, and prime for either lulling Sunday afternoons, or just general relaxation.