If you are a musical theatre lover – as I am – you may often be disappointed when you get the soundtrack or studio version of your favourite show. Often you don’t get the full piece, and rarely the big orchestrations the composer intended.
Enter John Yap, of Jay Records, who featured some months ago in Scene. His unique DigiMIX system comes up with the goods 100%. Basically it mixes and balances from two tracks masters. It can make badly or inadequately mixed and balanced old recordings sound great, fresh and spectacular in new masters. I sampled his new versions of classics The King and I and South Pacific, and they are both filled with wow-making moments.
From the first chords of its stirring overture, you know this King and I is going to be dramatic. It has a rich, lush sound and it’s a big sound. Valerie Masterson is perfectly prim and precise, with fabulous diction and a high clear soaring voice as Anna. Horror movie star Christopher Lee (who was also an accomplished opera singer) is dark, fruity and mellifluous as the troubled and troublesome King.
I can’t list all its tracks, but one hallmark of Jay Records is that you get all the incidental music, covering scene changes, crowd scenes etc and they are symphonic in quality. Whistle A Happy Tune is bright, breezy but with Valerie’s overlaid operatic quality.
Hello Young Lovers is elegiac, in waltz time, and Valerie pulls the tempo about to suit the emotion of the song. The March of the Siamese Children is exciting as its single theme builds with drama and breadth. A Puzzlement shows how strong a vocalist Lee was, but adding lots of light and shade. It’s at times almost a patter song, but crystal clear in its speediness. Valerie rises above the normal sugar sweetness to give a powerful, endearing Getting To Know You.
Shall I Tell You What I Think Of You is sung speech, like a Prof Higgins diatribe, but with great rhymes. Mme Thiang’s Something Wonderful, sung by Sally Burgess, has touching emotion, starting in monotones but developing into a marvellous love song, again woth a great operatic overlay.
Of course the brightest jewel in this crown of a recording is the polka Shall We Dance?. We get the cut-glass Anna pitched equally against the oafish tyrant of a ruler, building to a hugely energetic finale.
Robert Russell Bennett’s orchestrations are the chief delight of Jay’s recording of South Pacific and The King and I. They are symphonic and full-bodied. It also reminds you how many great songs there are in these Rodgers and Hammerstein classics. A Cockeyed Optimist is bright, breezy and much lighter than I expected, thanks to Paige O’Hara’s clear high tones.
The twin soliloquies of Wonder How I Feel and This Is What I Know are an operatic, clever juxtaposition, starting tenderly and with hesitation, then gathering momentum for emotional intensity. Justino Diaz places Some Enchanted Evening in a lyrical place, but full of emotion in its placidity. His voice as French planter Emile is super rich.
The male ensemble’s Bloody Mary is full-bodied as you’d expect but we get all the incidental dance music too which is a delight to hear. And There Is Nothing Like A Dame seemed to me to have extra notes that I don’t recall in any other recording.
Pat Suzuki, as Bloody Mary, gives an understated Bali Ha’i, but she draws you into its mystery, gently, sweetly, hypnotically and it’s not its usual caricature. John Yap’s insistence in full scores allows us to hear something labelled Company Street, which has great lush jazz overtones – I’m not sure what it covers in the stage show. I’m Gonna Wash That Man gives Paige the chance to be bright and breezy again against the big brassy sound of the female ensemble and orchestra. A Wonderful Guy has an intro I’d not heard before, and there’s a great deal going on in the orchestra, with a cheeky, triumphant and joyful feel to it.
Sean McDermott, as love interest Lieut Cable, gives us a heart-warmingly beautiful rendition of Younger Than Springtime. It has an unexpected delicacy to it. In contrast, his Carefully Taught is dark, cynical and anti-racist – which makes it stand out against traditional show tunes which abound in this show. This Nearly Was Mine is the best song of the lot, with its light operatic tone, and waltz feel, it has Some Enchanted Evening snatches in its underscoring.
The second half of the show is largely made up of reprises, but they cleverly build on the original and develop the context of the story.
Altogether, these two recordings are five-star versions that anyone would want in their collection. Further details of John Yap’s marvellous recordings HERE
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