For fans of the legendary composer Henry Mancini, these really are the days of wine and roses.  The soundtrack specialists at Intrada have just announced the CD release of Mancini's score to the 1974 adventure film The White Dawn for the very first time in a deluxe edition with bonus material.  And the U.K.-based Vocalion label is looking to the same decade with the reissue of two of Mancini's never-before-on-CD RCA albums plus another pair from piano duo Arthur Ferrante and Lou Teicher.

Ferrante (1921-2009) and Teicher (1924-2008) met while studying at New York’s famed Juilliard School.  By 1947, they had begun performing in nightclubs and then in classical-oriented venues, and by the early 1950s, their recording career had begun.  Ferrante and Teicher had remarkable longevity, not retiring until 1989.  Over the course of those four decades, the duo recorded for labels including Columbia, MGM, ABC, and most notably, United Artists Records.  At UA, they occupied a spot on the roster from 1960 to 1979, expanding their musical horizons from Broadway favorites by Leonard Bernstein and Lerner and Loewe to film scores by John Williams (Star Wars, Superman) and even disco (1979’s Classical Disco).

Vocalion brings together on one CD Ferrante and Teicher’s 1973 album Killing Me Softly and 1974’s In a Soulful Mood.  As the titles would indicate, both albums featured the stylistically-eclectic piano pair – backed by orchestra – on a variety of then-contemporary pop songs.   On the former album (included second on the new CD), Ferrante and Teicher tackled songs from a variety of sources: Broadway (Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields’ title song from Seesaw), Hollywood (Gato Barbieri’s theme to Last Tango in Paris, Walter Scharf and Don Black’s title song from Ben, Sammy Cahn and Garry Sherman’s “Don’t Ask Me Why” from The Heartbreak Kid, Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Living Together, Growing Together” from Lost Horizon) and the Top 40 (“Killing Me Softly”).  Vocalist Lois Winter joined them for a rendition of Michel Legrand’s love theme from Lady Sings the Blues, and they supplied two originals with “Night Sounds” and “The Summer is Coming.”

On In a Soulful Mood, Ferrante and Teicher placed even more of a pronounced emphasis on hit songs.  The Thom Bell/Stylistics songbook yielded four selections: “Break Up to Make Up,” “You Are Everything,” “I’m Stone in Love with You” and “Betcha By Golly Wow,” all with lyrics by Linda Creed.  Motown wasn’t ignored, either, with piano takes on the anthemic “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and romantic “My Cherie Amour.”  Even Barry White got the Ferrante and Teicher treatment with the album’s opening “Love’s Theme.”  Two more F&T compositions rounded out the LP, “Hong Kong Soul Brother” and “Early Morning.”

David Ades supplies new liner notes, and both albums have been remastered by Michael Dutton from the original analogue masters. After the jump: Let's rediscover The White Dawn, and take a look at The Mancini Generation and Hangin’ Out with Henry Mancini!  Plus: track listings and order links for all three CDs!

Much of Henry Mancini’s RCA album catalogue was reissued on CD by the label’s Spanish arm, but some of the LPs missed in that extensive reissue program have recently been addressed by Vocalion.  2010 saw the pairing of Mancini’s Angels (1977) with The Theme Scene (1978), and now Vocalion has turned its attention to two earlier sets, The Mancini Generation (1972) and Hangin’ Out with Henry Mancini (1974).

Both albums are notable for the composer-arranger-conductor’s prominent and distinctive use of the Arp synthesizer, which he had been incorporating into his film scores of the same era.  The Mancini Generation was titled after his television program of the same name and the tie-in LP featured a return, albeit in modified form, to the big band sound he had utilized in the decade prior.  Typical for a Mancini session, the crème de la crème of the West Coast jazz scene showed up, including Jimmy Rowles  on keyboards, Dick Nash on trombone, Victor Feldman on vibes, Jerome Richardson on woodwinds and Oscar Brashear on trumpet.  The diverse selections included Tom Parker’s rearrangement of Bach’s “Joy,” and Mancini’s own charts for “Amazing Grace,” Herbie Mann’s “Memphis Underground,” Stan Kenton’s “Eager Beaver,”  Benny Golson’s jazz standard “Killer Joe,” and even the baroque-flavored theme to Masterpiece Theatre.  Naturally, a handful of Mancini’s own compositions appeared.  In this category came an update of his classic theme to Charade plus the funky “A Bluish Bag” and the theme tune to The Mancini Generation.

Hangin’ Out with Henry Mancini, from two years later, was another eclectic offering.  Mancini headed up the core band on piano alongside Dick Nash, Ralph Grierson on keyboards, Dominic Fero on clarinet and Shelly Manne on drums, and added strings to the orchestral palette.  As on The Mancini Generation, the generous conductor allowed plenty of room for solos from his distinguished personnel.  The album’s biggest treats were the four compositions from recent Mancini-scored films, among them “The Girl from Petrovka” and “The White Dawn” from the 1974 movies of those names, “Hangin’ Out” from 99 and 44/100% Dead (also 1974) and “The Thief Who Came to Dinner” from that 1973 motion picture.  “Hangin’ Out” was a particular treat, performed by the Dixieland group “Hank Mancini and the Mouldy Seven” for this occasion only!  [To date, The White Dawn and The Girl from Petrovka have never had full soundtrack releases, so Hangin' Out is particularly indispensable for Mancini score collectors.  99 and 44/100% Dead didn't receive its complete soundtrack premiere until 2010.]  Mancini doffed his hat to Marvin Hamlisch via his own version of Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” which Hamlisch had revived to Oscar-winning effect for The Sting, and feted another film composer with a recording of Francis Lai’s “The Sex Symbol” from the fictionalized Marilyn Monroe television biopic.  Touching on the sound of the pop charts, Mancini opened the album with a medley of “Love’s Theme” (yup, again!) and Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff’s “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia).”  Both of these new-to-CD titles are examined in detail in Oliver Lomax’s extensive liner notes, and both albums have been remastered by Michael J. Dutton from the original analogue tapes.

Last but certainly not least, Intrada follows its world premiere of Mancini's Days of Wine and Roses score with another first-time soundtrack release.  Director Philip Kaufman's 1974 drama The White Dawn starred Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms and Louis Gossett, Jr. in the story of three whalers stranded in the Canadian Arctic in the 1890s.  The film explored the uneasy relationship between the European way of life and that of the native Eskimos, and to that end, Mancini supplied a sympathetic, sensitive score.  Intrada describes his work as follows: "Mancini melds two diverse ideas - simple, fluid melody for Inuit people and involved orchestral statements for full orchestra and percussion - resulting in [a] rich, diverse yet incredibly coherent musical experience. Woodwinds (particularly family of flutes) often get spotlight for numerous melodic ideas.  Dynamic percussion also have their say, as do terse brass chords in select dramatic moments."

The label and producer Lukas Kendall of Film Score Monthly have teamed with Mancini's personal archives as well as Paramount Pictures to present the entire original score.  "Orchestral cues, many layers of quasi-improvisational solos, vocal chants and percussion tracks were only mixed and vaulted in mono," reveals Intrada.  "Every precious tidbit is included but myriad elements exhibit considerable degree of hiss, even after restoration efforts. That said, careful preservation and presentation of [this] masterful score yields [an] important CD for seventies soundtrack fans and Henry Mancini collectors alike!"  Who can argue with that?  John Takis provides new liner notes, and three bonus tracks have been included.  The White Dawn is available for order now at the link below!

Ferrante and Teicher, In a Soulful Mood/Killing Me Softly (Vocalion CDLK 4491, 2013) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. Love’s Theme
2. Break Up to Make Up
3. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
4. You Are Everything
5. Cristo Redentor
6. Hong Kong Soul Brother
7. I’m Stone in Love with You
8. My Cherie Amour
9. Betcha by Golly Wow
10. Lady Love
11. Midnight Train to Georgia
12. Early Morning
13. Also Sprach Zarathustra
14. Send in the Clowns
15. Killing Me Softly with His Song
16. Ben
17. Last Tango in Paris
18. Love Theme from ‘Lady Sings the Blues’
19. Seesaw
20. Try Again
21. Night Sounds
22. Living Together, Growing Together
23. Don’t Ask Me Why

Tracks 1-12 from In a Soulful Mood, United Artists LP UALA227-G, 1974
Tracks 13-23 from Killing Me Softly, United Artists LP UALA118-F, 1973

Henry Mancini, The Mancini Generation/Hangin’ Out with Henry Mancini (Vocalion CDSML 8499, 2013) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. The Mancini Generation
2. Joy
3. The Swingin’ Shepherd Blues
4. The Masterpiece
5. Charade
6. Memphis Underground
7. Killer Joe
8. Amazing Grace
9. A Bluish Bag
10. Eager Beaver
11. The Mancini Generation (Reprise)
12. Love’s Theme/T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia)
13. The Girl from Petrovka
14. The White Dawn
15. The Entertainer
16. Song for Anna
17. The Sex Symbol
18. Hangin’ Out
19. Dolce
20. The Thief Who Came to Dinner
21. The Stripper

Tracks 1-11 from The Mancini Generation, RCA Victor LP SF 8307, 1972
Tracks 12-21 from Hangin’ Out with Henry Mancini, RCA Victor LP CPL1 0672, 1974

Henry Mancini, The White Dawn: Music From the Motion Picture (Intrada Special Collection Volume 253, 2013)

1. Arctic Whale Hunt
2. Main Title/Your Father’s Ice Floe
3. Tricky Shaman Pts. 1 & 2
4. Seal Scope and Little Indian Boy
5. The Lesson and Little Indian Boy
6. Trek to Warm Buns/A Goose for Daggett
7. Eskimo Pie
8. The Wooly Booger Hornpipe
9. The Stone Path
10. The Escape and Home Boys Home
11. Return to Paradise Pts. 1 & 2
12. Snow Buns and Native Song and Little Indian Boy
13. New Bedford Igloo
14. Tricky Shaman – Act II/Shaman Gets His Rocks Off
15. Eskimo Wool
16. Bye Bye Sarkak
17. Panic Run
18. Dead Daggett
19. Old Woman’s Song (Vocals by Akshooyooliak and Lou Gossett, Jr.)
20. Main Title (Film Version)
21. The Escape and Home Boys Home (Film Version) (Vocals by Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms and Lou Gossett, Jr.)
22. Return to Paradise Pts. 1 & 2 (Vocals by Akshooyooliak and Lou Gossett, Jr.)

Tracks 20-22 are bonus tracks
All tracks previously unreleased