‘A SUMMER PLACE’
FEATURING
AMY DICKSON, Saxophone
RELEASE AUGUST 25TH , 2014
The Essential Sounds of Summer!
www.amydickson.com
‘A Summer Place’ is the eagerly anticipated new release by Classic Brit Award-winning saxophonist, Amy Dickson – released AUGUST 25TH , 2014 on Sony Classical
Born in Australia and now based in London, Amy Dickson presents here the very essence of summer with her elegant and sophisticated take on some wonderful, evergreen themes from the late 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.
The unforgettable melodies on ‘A Summer Place’ evoke the unique sound of those glorious, languid summer days, all presented with style and panache by this talented young artist. Arrangements are by five time Grammy-nominated composer/arranger/conductor, Chris Walden and the producer is twice Grammy-nominated record producer and trumpeter, James McMillan. . (This is Amy’s fourth album on Sony Classical).
The album’s title track ‘A Summer Place’ is the famous theme from Max Steiner’s score to the successful 1959 romantic film of the same name, starring Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue. Recorded by Percy Faith in 1960, it remains the longest-running number one instrumental in the history of the chart and reached number two in the UK.
‘The Windmills of Your Mind’ – written by legendary French composer Michel Legrand with English lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman – was famously recorded by Noel Harrison and was the much-loved theme for the iconic 1968 film ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’. It won an Academy Award for Best Original song in 1968.
The theme from ‘The Apartment’ – the popular, sparkling film from 1960 starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine – is up next. Produced and directed by the great Billy Wilder with a score by Adolph Deutsch, it was a huge hit both critically and commercially and won five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. The Apartment theme ‘Jealous Lover’ was written by British composer/conductor, Charles Williams.
Paul Desmond’s ‘Take Five’ needs no introduction, being one of the most famous jazz tunes ever written. Performed by the Dave Brubeck Quartet on their 1959 album ‘Time Out’, it became a huge success and the best-selling jazz single of all time. It takes its name from the unusual 5/4 time signature and was inspired by Brubeck having encountered traditional musicians in Turkey playing in 9/8 time which encouraged him in his own experimentations. Apart from being a memorable tune that captures the spirit of the time perfectly, it is also famous for having achieved mainstream significance outside the narrower confines of the jazz community.
‘The World We Knew (Over and Over)’ was recorded in 1967 by Frank Sinatra and appeared on his album of the same name. It is based on a tune by German musician and light music composer, Bert Kampfert and reached No. 1 on the Easy Listening Chart that same year.
The much-loved ‘Moon River’ was composed by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It received an Academy Award for Best Original Song for its first performance by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 cult movie ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’. It also won Mancini the 1962 Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Mercer the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. It became a popular theme song for Andy Williams, who first recorded it in 1961 and who was thereafter always associated with the song.
Irrepressible trumpeter, Louis Armstrong, is closely associated with ‘We Have All the Time in the World’. This 1969 theme for the James Bond film ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ was written by John Barry with lyrics by Hal David. Barry would later claim that it was one of his all time favourite Bond themes as the finest piece of music he had written for a Bond movie and because of the pleasure of working alongside Louis Armstrong. It enjoyed additional success in 1994 when used in a beer commercial. In 2005, a BBC survey showed it to be the third-most-popular love song played at weddings.
The seminal 1966 romantic comedy-drama, ‘Alfie’, gave rise to the wistful ‘What’s All About, Alfie?’ Directed by Lewis Gilbert and with a star-studded cast including Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Millicent Martin, Eleanor Bron and Jane Asher, the film tells the story of a young womaniser, Alfie (Caine), who leads a self-centred life of enjoyment and excess until he is faced with the consequences of his callous behaviour. The title song was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and was a hit for Cilla Black (who is believed to have sung on the original British soundtrack). Not only did Bacharach arrange it for her but he played on the track and conducted the orchestra. It was recorded in 1965 at Abbey Rd’s iconic Studio One with George Martin producing and reached No. 9 in the UK Top 50.
Summer of ’42 is a 1971 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Robert Mulligan. based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman Raucher. The film’s soundtrack consists almost entirely of compositions by the incomparable French composer, Michel Legrand.
‘The Sound of Silence’ is written by peerless singer-songwriter duo Simon & Garfunkel. Written in February 1964 by Paul Simon in the aftermath of the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, the song propelled the duo to mainstream popularity. It reached number one on New Year’s Day 1966 and was included on their 1966 album ‘Sounds of Silence’.