Henry Mancini - The Vesatile Henry Mancini [El/Cherry Red - 2008]This is a reissue of the first album by legendary soundtrack composer and arranger Henry Mancini who went on to write most famously the theme’s for the Pink Panther films, Moon river and many other soundtracks. This was originally released back in 1957 under the name of Driftwood and Dreams & is a wonderful collection of softly focused and mellow yet cool exotica/ easy listening. The disk offers up all 12 original album tracks in there original mono form and then again in an stereo form with three extra tracks added been: a version of Mancini’s What’s It Gonna Be performed by respected big band meets open jazz harmony male vocal quartet The Four Freshmen’s and two early examples of Mancini’s soundtrack work;all three tracks are nice bonus but they do rather take away from the mellow, soothing and cool vibe of the original album tracks. And so on to the meat of the release the original 12 tracks which were released under the title of Driftwood and Dreams. All 12 tracks are wonderful smooth, languishing and melodic; with the whole album having a very cool tropical late hours vibe meets the odd hints of romantic Persian air. Through-out the album a fairly subdued yet beautiful played sonic pallet is utilizied, takining in: organ, accordion, guitar and bass that are all topped off with the other worldly vocalising of female soprano Loulie “lulu” Jean Norman who later went on to add her vocal soars to the original Star Trek TV Series theme. A mellow, cool and relaxing slice of exotica/ easy listening – of interest to those who enjoyed the late 50’s & early 60s albums by the likes of Martin Denny & Les Baxter; but with Mancini cetainly adding a cooler and laid back feel to the proceedings    Roger Batty
| 
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2025. Twenty four years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=com
