15 NOVEMBER 1957, Page 20

Hot and Sweet

FOLLOWING up the success of their Encyclopwdia of Jazz and Midnight series, Brunswick have produced another winning idea for a twelve- inch LP series under the title of Music for the Boy-/Girl-friend.

The first five (first of many, I hope) are in the ratio of three for the boy 4nd two for the girl. He digs Rock 'n' Roll features Bill Haley and his Comets, Gloria Mann, Mel Williams, the Barons and the Mellotones. The last named make some truly horrible vocal noises and let down the standard considerably, but due to the variety of their styles the others succeed in sounding more pleasant and more palatable than they would be undiluted.

He really digs Jazz is a great disappointment. If your boy-friend really digs jazz, don't give him this record. In fact, he would be most offended that you should imagine that he could dig such phoney, wishy-washy jazz as that pro- duced by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven, Woody Herman's Woodchoppers and the John Graas Ensemble. John Graas's French horn puts me in mind of a water-buffalo in intense pain. Is this jazz? Two boy-friends who might perhaps suitably dig this jazz are those two professional 'diggers' whose digging disturbed poor Yorick.

The Feminine Touch, on the other hand, is very pleasing. Six of the most satin-voiced song- stresses in show business take part, and I wager That Ulysses would have needed more than hopes and a mast to save him from this sextet of Sirens— Peggy Lee, Carmen McKae, Jeri Southern, Joanne Gilbert, Pat Kirby and Gloria de Haven.

She Loves the Movies is one of two for the girl-friend. The performers are Alfred Newman and Victor Young with their orchestras, and that excellent singing team, the Four Aces.

The last of the quintet, for the girl-friend again, is called Did Someone say a Party? Artie Shaw and his orchestra swing rhythmically and romantically through twelve of the most popular and melodic dance tunes ever written. This or- chestra doesn't quite recapture the 'Begin the Beguine' fame, but this is an excellent record.

Finally, may I ask why only the EMI Company has adopted the two admirable but obvious prac- tices of, first, naming the backs of their LP sleeves so that you can read the title of the record when 'it is stacked on a shelf and, secondly, of strengthening the inner, amorphous Cellophane sleeve with a layer of paper?

ROBIN DOUGLAS-HOME