Britain's Guild label offers a wonderful series of discs traversing the largely neglected history of what the English call light music and Americans tend to call easy listening. Part of the value of the series has been its demonstration of how much of the tradition, which certainly reached its commercial peak in North America, was European in origin. Yet much of the American music revived here (and on a companion Vol. 1 disc) has a flavor distinct from that of British bands. It never crosses the line into jazz territory -- and indeed the people who bought music of this kind did so, at last during the early years of the tradition, in order to avoid buying jazz -- but the propulsive rhythms of many pieces nevertheless reflect America's more thoroughly jazz-infused environment. Some of the pieces, such as The Grasshopper (track 6) as conducted by
Camarata (Salvatore "Tutti"
Camarata), reflect the influence of film music, and indeed there was a good deal of professional crossover in the U.S. between this music and the cinematic world. Several of the ensembles represented, such as the
Boston Pops and the orchestras of
Percy Faith,
Andre Kostelanetz, and
Morton Gould, will be familiar to anyone who has ever poked through the record bins at a thrift shop, but groups, such as the Pittsburgh Strings, are much less well known. Also in the obscure category is Acquaviva (Nicholas Acquaviva), whose New York in a Nutshell, a pell-mell, almost Ivesian city portrait, is one of several small gems here. Another is
Meredith Willson's Calico Square Dance, played by an orchestra led by the composer himself, which could have easily fit into The Music Man. Full of energy and color, this disc will be of interest even beyond the circle of those who have been following Guild's series; it would make a great gift for anyone who remembers the music when it came around the first time, and it's essential for any broad collection of American music.