Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 352 pages
- Published by: Melrose Book Company January 2005
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1905226195
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1905226191
-
Book Dimensions:
9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
- Weighs: 1.6 pounds
Reader Reviews
A new full-length biography of Annunzio Paulo Mantovani by Colin MacKenzie explains the "strange" dynamics and rubato that set apart Mantovani's music from others, and surprises the reader with facts and figures never before known about this less heralded British musical phenomenon of the twentieth century. The music Mantovani made in the fifties was as strange, exotic, newfangled, unheard of, and unfamiliar as any produced by Elvis in that decade, and Lennon and McCartney in the next. Venetian born, British educated, and classically trained in music, Mantovani and his imaginative new sounds for light orchestra brought instant name recognition and a modest fortune to one man, and inexplicable pleasure to millions who rushed to install newfangled stereo speakers to their record players and flocked by the thousands to glamorous concert halls and stark gymnasiums to enjoy popular and light classical music like it was never played or heard before. Mantovani's "new music" evolved from an upbringing weaned on perfection. His classical musician father, coincidently named "Bismarck" Benedetto, insisted upon excellence, order, and discipline. Discipline would be one of the hallmarks ingrained in his son's approach to music. The "feeling" Annunzio always wanted his music to convey likely came from the warmth and confidence of his mother, Iparia. MacKenzie makes a striking connection between Bismarck's wariness of his son's abilities to meet certain "standards" in his musicianship and the workaholic tendencies that dominated Annunzio's recording and performance standards since his entry on the music scene in glitzy hotels in the 1930's and in Noel Coward's orchestra pit in the 1940's. Accordingly, we see Mantovani as a man always on the move, always willing to attempt something new, something more, and working hard to stay fresh and successful. MacKenzie also connects a fledgling fear that success may be fleeting as driving Mantovani to higher expectations of himself as well as others. The amusing colloquies he includes in this biography between the maestro and his musicians during recording sessions and concert rehearsals not only entertain us, but inform our understanding about his subject's personality, a man with "a British head and an Italian heart." The author meticulously places Mantovani and the sound revolution he instigated in the context of his times. With bountiful details and a wealth of personal recollections, MacKenzie provides enormous insight into the budding recording industry of popular music and the fascinating lives of musicians, arrangers, producers, engineers, "fixers", and yes, even sales distributors, whose energies and individual talents symbiotically seized the "sound" Mantovani had in his head and advanced its creation and promotion in all the world's continents. One such talent deserving long overdue focus was Ronald Binge, whose early collaboration with Mantovani is fully and fairly illuminated here. The author's objective account graciously invites closure on the debate over who should receive "credit" for the unique "layered string sound" that reverberated in the radio airwaves in the early fifties with "Charmaine", "Greensleeves", "Wyoming", and other lilting waltz melodies that launched Mantovani's meteoric rise on the Billboard charts. Thanks to MacKenzie's prolific research, readers will also get to know other unknown or little remembered musicians like trumpeter Stan Newsome, percussionist Charles Botterill, flautist Lionel (Solly) Solomon, accordionist Emile Charlier, violinist (and father of "The Man from Uncle") David McCallum. All of these and others whose brilliant solo performances were wisely featured by Mantovani in his repertoire, enriched the distinctive lush sound of the world's most mesmerizing orchestra. Indeed, this biography is as revealing about one life as it about the lives of those who helped make Mantovani a music legend. Nonetheless, MacKenzie provides compelling evidence that Mantovani's success resulted primarily from his own ability to inspire and impose his will on musicians and business collaborators. Not a mean feat in an industry filled with strong wills and artistic egos. But Mantovani commanded such a high degree of respect for his unwavering commitment to standards of excellence that relatively few with whom he worked became grossly offended or alienated. Besides, who could complain when the popularity of the Mantovani sound and the novel attraction to stereo and the rise of FM radio stations in America fed off each other to produce a lucrative money engine for so many, some of whom including British tax collectors benefiting more than the maestro himself. Few today recall that Mantovani was the first recording artist to sell one million stereo records and whose success as a British musical act in America was incomparable until the Beatles stepped ashore. And who knew Mantovani and the Rolling Stones shared at one point the same record label and recording studio, continuously swapping the amount of echo for their respective sessions. How ironic it is that record company profits from the unprecedented sales of Mantovani recordings fueled the advance of Mick Jagger's career. Colin MacKenzie's startling revelations make this biography provocative and groundbreaking. It shatters myths and misinformation, and sheds new light on a subject who has long been obscured and the target of rappers' razzing, jazzers' jabbing, classical musicians' contempt, and deejays' disdain. That pretty much covers everyone, except those millions who actually listened (and some who still are) and mystifyingly attracted to the way Mantovani's strange music weaves magical memories and sweet dreams out of fervently resilient melodies. For them, the laughter from others is worth every listening moment.
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