The FUTURA is now - rants & raves - craigslist (2024)

Bernie Green and His Orchestra

"Futura"

https://youtu.be/LhmmcQJuT9A

https://youtu.be/bo2-eYwEQVs

Bernie Green, an orchestra leader who became endeared
to millions when he conducted the unusual music for Henry
Morgan's weekly radio show not too long ago, is a musician
who could well belong to the generation that will walk the
earth in 1970. His ideas and techniques, particularly his
tonal color achievements and his unabashed sense of musical
humor, have placed him in the classification, "Ahead of
His Time."
FUTURA was conceived by Bernie Green a full two years
before Stereo Action made its debut. The arrangements were
written with an eye to the future. They literally cried for
performance in Stereo Action. Now that time has caught up
with Mr. Green, and his musical ideas have become practical
due to the development of Stereo Action equipment by RCA
Victor engineers, this album appears to be headed for a
classification as unique as that into which its creator has
been placed: "Most Exciting Album Yet."
Some of the electronic techniques used in FUTURA are
pretty far out. In the program notes overleaf Mr. Green will
describe them as closely as words can. They have opened an
entirely new field of work in the popular music area. Many
of the orchestral devices and techniques used for color and
texture are Mr. Green's own, and come from a mind in
constant creative ferment.
-- FERRIS BENDA

GUIDE TO LISTENING- -

SIDE 1

FUTURA The title song of our album points the
way to the dance band of the '70s, its rhythm, color
and harmonic qualities.
The introductory rhythmic figure played by bass,
guitar and xylophone moves from right to left.
Listen for the movement of the soloists as they enter.
Each time the flute, sax and trumpet carry the melody,
they move across from side to side. Watch for
the trombones coming at you... then around you
at the close! (ASCAP 1:48)
I LOVE PARIS - One of the results of rural electrification
was to make the amplified guitar the most
popular musical instrument in the U.S.A. By 1970
there will be enough fine virtuosi of this instrument
so that this arrangement for six electric guitars and
percussion is a safe bet to be "voguey."
An eerie steel guitar floats across your speakers from
the right with the melody at the start. A bass guitar
solos in the second chorus and takes a walk while
doing it. The steel guitar returns for another stroll
toward the end. (ASCAP 2:04)
PING PONG - Stereo will have such a profound effect
on composers that they will write especially for the
medium. Ping Pong is such a composition. It is a
duet for vibraphones in which the melody is batted
from one speaker to the other by the two soloists.
There are four vibes strung across the space between
your speakers. Try to determine where the Stereo
Action electronic movement begins and Bernie
Green's arrangement for the vibes quartet leaves off.
Or does it? (ASCAP 3:01)
KISS OF FIRE - The things done with magnetic
recording tape will amaze us all. This is the first
example available to the public of a new process
called "Animated Tape." The notes of the solo part
were recorded separately, measured and cut to
proper length, then spliced together. Each bar of
music required precisely twenty-eight inches of
recording tape. Quarter-notes were seven inches
long, eighth-notes three and one-half inches, and
sixteenth-notes one and three-quarter inches. There
were 778 splices in the complete solo track. The
original trumpet notes were played by Tony Greenwald
and each one was a real sound. Remember,
you heard it here first!
Our patchwork phantom soloist bounces back and
forth from speaker to speaker at the start, then pro-
ceeds to float, somewhat jaggedly, between the
speakers as he moves from side to side. The bass
guitar and piano in deep registers set off the work
of the soloist. Listen for a couple of flashes of the
world's weirdest piano about halfway through.
(BMI 2:23)
THE MUSIC BOX WALTZ - Just as the guitar vogue
is a product of rural electrification, the vibraphone is
a product of urban electrification. Just as the electric
guitar is a favorite "country" instrument, the
vibraphone is a favorite in the city jazz spots. If in
1970 we have guitar orchestras, we assuredly will
also have vibraphone orchestras such as the one that
plays The Music Box Waltz.
The solo vibraphone at the start moves airily from
the left over a shimmering background. The middle
soloist also moves, but he takes the rhythm section
with him. (ASCAP 2:37)
OUT OF THIS WORLD - Somehow the title seems to
fit this album and we believe the arrangement does,
too. After an introduction by bongos, piano and
flute, there is a high, floating bass clarinet solo.
This is an instrumental color not heard now. Shortly
there follows a dazzling obbligato on the solo violin.
We predict that these two colors will find places for
themselves in the big band palette of 1970.
Everything's in a hurry at the start. The bongos
rush from right to left, the piano rushes from left to
right, and the flute races from right to left and back
again. Listen for the bass clarinet's entrance from
the right. The bass clarinet and the flute cross
against each other, with the flute's figure setting up
the violin figure to follow. The violin crosses from
the right behind the bass clarinet, alto sax, and then
the soprano sax. There's movement galore, und
much of it threatens to go out of this world, like
those trumpets at the end. (ASCAP 3:43)

SIDE 2

UNDER PARIS SKIES (Sous le ciel de Paris) - We
unveil an interesting new electronic device called.
the Tonalyzer. Musical tones piped through the
Tonalyzer may be sent shimmering upward or
cascading downward in startling fashion. At the
moment the Tonalyzer is in a very hush-hush stage, but
we predict that one day it will be an important part
of every well-equipped recording studio.
Watching the opening movement here is like being
at a tennis match. The Tonalyzer sound opens
from the left, then from the right, and so on until
your neck hurts. Clue: keep your eyes and ears on
the trumpet. And listen for more of the "Animated
Tape." (ASCAP 2:10)
(All of a Sudden) MY HEART SINGS - In the future
this will be an "old standard," popular among the
guitar orchestras of the period. It might be given a
nostalgic rock-'n'-roll treatment as it is here. Some
touches of "Animated Tape" are used in this
arrangement.
The "Animated Tape" is heard from the left at the
start just before the finger-popping begins, and
again before the guitars dig into the melody. Listen
for the movement of the various guitars as they
cross, criss-cross, and wander about. (ASCAP 2:08)
PENTAGON - It has been said that a pentagon is a
five-sided square. That definition, not being a musical
one, does not apply here. The first half of this
number is in 5/4 time and there's nothing square
about it at all. It is for a dance called "The Pentagon."
In 1970 this dance may be as much a part of
American culture as the Square Dance is today.
The score of this work, with the Stereo Action movement
marked in red, looks a lot more frightening and
complex than The Pentagon in Washington, D. C.
The trombones enter from the right, setting the
rhythm. Listen for the wandering solo trumpet to
come in from the left. Note how the sound seems to
burst open with each sweep of the xylophone.
(ASCAP 2:38)
STEEL BONES - There is an association from "dry
bones" to the xylophone to the vibraphone to Steel
Bones. This composition (based on Dry Bones) is
played by The First Vibraphone Quartet. We sin-
cerely believe it will not be the last vibraphone
quartet.
There's movement here right from the opening fig-
ure. And whenever that figure appears through the
piece, there's more movement. The sound is that
familiar light and airy blend of the vibes ensemble.
(ASCAP 3:27)
I'LL REMEMBER APRIL - In 1970 this will be called
an old-fashioned fox trot... but the country club set
I will still like this kind of music and dance to it,
Note how the vibes and the bass each float from right
to left in the introduction. Later on, there's some
reed section movement, and some surprises. Talk
about your walking bass... (ASCAP 2:15)
FUTURA (Reprise) - This treatment of Futura combines
"Animated Tape" loops as a rhythmic pattern
with the orchestra of guitars. Possibly by 1970 the
"Animated Tape" machine will be a part of the
rhythm section of every dance orchestra.
The "Animated Tape" and bass clarinet do most of
the movement at the start. You figure out what
you're hearing at the end! (ASCAP 1:55)
-- Program notes: BERNIE GREEN

-----

Bernie Green

Born 14 September 1908, New York City, New York
Died 8 August 1975, Westport, Connecticut

Bernie Green's career embodies the contradictions of space age pop. On the one hand, here is a typical worker on the assembly line of studio music, taking on whatever job comes next: musical director for "The Garry Moore Show," leading the pit orchestra for years of Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, or conducting the a marching band for an RCA album (a task Henry Mancini and Ray Martin also took on to pay the rent). On the other hand, you have some of the most innovative and memorable recordings of the genre: More Than You Can Stand in Hi-Fi; Musically MAD; and Futura, perhaps the best of the consistently exceptional RCA Stereo Action series. It's a little like trying to resolve Mr. Stevens, the vice president of the Hartford Insurance Company with Wallace Stevens, the abstract impressionist poet.

Unlike Wallace Stevens, though, little record remains of Bernie Green's career. He studied music at New York University's College of Fine Arts, graduating in 1932. Green quickly slipped a foot in the door of radio, which was just entering its heyday, and he spent much of the next two decades working on various network shows. His radio career culminated with the job of musical director for the Henry Morgan Show, on which Green was given a regular three-minute spot each show. Green wrote both original pieces and adaptations for these spots. Several of these pieces would later appear on his More Than You Can Stand in Hi-Fi album.

He moved over to the television business in the early 1950s, again working as musical director for several very successful (Wally Cox's "Mr. Peepers" and "The Garry Moore Show") and several very unsuccessful ("Cool McCool" and "Zotz!") shows. He scored two films that compiled comedy bits from silent and early talking pictures: "30 Years of Fun" and "MGM's Big Parade of Comedy."

Although his own recordings are few, they are well worth seeking out. More Than You Can Stand in Hi-Fi is something of a parody of the craze among hi-fi buffs for unusual instrumentation and striking arrangements. Green took this approach beyond the limits of common sense, offering such items as Brahm's "Hungarian Rhapsody #2" as a solo piece for kettle drum and the "Minute Waltz" played by a sax quartet. As might be expected, Musically MAD, with Alfred E. Neumann grinning prominently on the cover, appeals to the eternally adolescent sense of humor with "Concerto for Two Hands," in which the melody is rendered through the old trick of squeezing your palms together to make farting noises. And Futura anticipates the work of Perrey and Kingsley with its use of "animated tape" and "tonalyzers." Green's striking interpretation of standards like "Under Paris Skies" led Hi Fi Magazine to comment, "The electronic music and musique concrete boys had better watch out: surely they've never appealed so provocatively or to so wide an audience as do the present sugar-coated experiments in and divertissem*nts on the sound of the future." -- https://www.spaceagepop.com/green.htm

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https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/rnr/d/as-time-goes-by/7753921937.html

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... ... ... ...

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