🎵 AotW AOTW: Roger Kellaway COME TO THE MEADOW (SP 3618)

[LPJim]

Roger Kellaway Cello Quartet
COME TO THE MEADOW
A&M SP 3618

SIDE ONE
Come to the Meadow 4:07/ Chant D'Amour 3:10/ Ballade 5:29/ Seventide 5:38/ Time 2:17.

SIDE TWO
Arcades II (Stravinsky in Memoriam) 5:51/ Estero Bench Landscape 4:27/ Mostly on A "D" String 5:17/ Jorjana # 7 5:27.

All selections composed by Roger Kellaway & published by Eternity Music Corp., ASCAP

Produced by Stephan Goldman
Recorded at Capitol Studios "A" November 14, 1973/ Engineer John Wilson

Musicians:
Roger Kellaway, piano/ Edgar Lustgarten, cello/ Chuck Domanico, bass/ Emil Richards, percussion/ Bluthner pianos furnished by Kasimoff/ Bluthner Piano Co., Pasadena, California/

Graphics & photography - Tom Wilkes Productions, Inc.

JB

 

[jimac51]

This was the centerpiece to a used LP haul I had the fortune to obtain a few months ago for about 33 cents,near mint. What a glorious find! Fans of Pete Jolly's last A&M recording,SEASONS,would probably enjoy what is going on here. This recording is a pared down followup to the 1970 ROGER KELLAWAY CELLO QUARTET-no orchestra added-but still has its pleasures. As I noted on the earlier post,the title track is still used today as the opening theme to NPR's readings of short stories,"Selected Shorts".
A little web searching shows that Mark Summer,founding cellist of the Turtle Island String Quartet,was deeply influenced by the first Kellaway recording. After hearing Kellaway while wondering what form his musical life would take,he remarked,"Yeah! That is what I want to be doing." After 20+ years,the TISQ is still going strong,with Summer still part of the group,and just won a Grammy for best classical crossover album.
Also,fans of Kellaway's group should note that Kellaway did an album with the Singer's Unlimited in 1977. Here,drummer Joe Porcaro was added to make a quintet. As was usual with any SU recordings,the instrumentation for their albums was recorded in advance of the vocals-these were done at A&M studios in 1977. I'm not sure if that particular SU album,JUST IN TIME, was released on vinyl in the US but it is contained in the CD box set of most of the SU recordings,MAGIC VOICES. This album is a combination of standards("Honeysuckle Rose","My Foolish Heart") with two Kellaway originals(a third would show up in a later album).
Another note of interest is that cellist Lustgarten was a charter member of Arturo Toscanini's NBC Synphony Orchestra in 1937. For many,this group is the premier American synphony orchestra in recorded history.
And,yes,Lustgarten recorded on Herb Alpert's JUST YOU AND ME. Mac

 

[Dave]

A copy of this, as well as a follow-up for another label (with the Aqua-Blue Masks on the cover) can be found languishing at one store near me... ...Good for those "keeping up with his "Jorjuna's"..."


Dave

 

[Captain Bacardi]

This is an example of why I loved A&M albums. Very tasty compositions, well played, yet hardly anything commercial about it. An artistic endeavor if there ever was one. This is worth it just to hear Emil Richards on marimba. Great interplay between Richards and Kellaway on tunes as "Arcades II" and "Mostly On A 'D' String". And yet another "Jorjana" - how many of these are there now? This is one of those albums that I would play in the background while reading the Sunday paper. Very nice work.



Capt. Bacardi