01.I Wanna Be Your Man
02.It Won't Be Long
03.This Boy
04.Don't Bother Me
05.She Loves You
06.Hard Day's Night
07.Love Me Do
08.Please Please Me
09.All My Loving
10.There's a Place
11.Do You Want To Know A Secret?
12.I Saw Her Standing There.
Bob Leaper, who has disappeared from the scene, went into the studio on two occasions, one occasion armed with his interpretations of music made popular by Petula Clarke and this fabulous album. The first album is long lost to the public being held in an archive (PYE) and the rights seemingly unobtainable at the moment; the other has been available for a while from Dutton Vocalion but somehow is ignored by collectors.
The album was originally a Phase4Stereo Spectacular multi-channel extravaganza made to compliment the growing popularity of stereo recordings. Having said that this is not a gimmicky journey through a percussion session, ping ping stereo it is not. This is a JAZZ album!!!!
This is a top London session band, Kenny Clare on Drums; Ronnie Scott on tenor for example. No-one has extracted more music from Beatles songs, no arranger could improve on Leaper's interpretation; listen to the soloists who revel in the exciting opportunities Leaper's imagination presents. This is a gem of a recording.
Thanks for the Bob Leaper Beatles cd Luigi.
ReplyDeleteWow what a band - I had no idea this was so good and passed it by when it was issued on cd. Maybe the Beatles tag put me off.
I have his other big band outing on a Pye lp from 1970.
Don't know what happened to him.