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Category:    Home > Reviews > Music > Instrumental > Standards > Drama > Play > Romance > Billy Vaughn & His Orchestra: Greenfields (Intermusic SA-CD/Super Audio Compact Disc Hybrid/Top Music International)/Picnic (1955/Columbia/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Billy Vaughn & His Orchestra: Greenfields (Intermusic SA-CD/Super Audio Compact Disc Hybrid/Top Music International)/Picnic (1955/Columbia/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B     Blu-ray Sound: B     SA-CD Sound - DSD 2.0 Stereo: B+/PCM 2.0 Stereo: B     Blu-ray Extras: B-     Music/Film: B

 

 

PLEASE NOTE: The Billy Vaughn Super Audio Compact Disc is only available from our friends at Top Music International, has a Compact Disc layer that will play on virtually all CD players and can be ordered at the link below.  The Picnic Blu-ray is limited to 3,000 copies and is available exclusively at the Screen Archives website which can be reached at the link at the end of this review.

 

 

And now for a look at two limited edition releases that show us the best of Classic Hollywood as well as its sense of music.

 

In his time, Billy Vaughn was a very popular conductor and recording artist in the much more popular at one time instrumental music category and also sang for the vocal group The Hilltoppers.  There are tons of CDs of his instrumental years available, but Greenfields is the first release of any of his material in a high definition audio format, a Super Audio CD here with a CD layer that will still play on all CD players.  Credited as Billy Vaughn & His Orchestra, this is a really good compilation of some real classics, many of which you are either a fan of or have heard and did not know what the song was.  The latter will happen often to those who get the disc and listen to the following:

 

1)     Theme From A Summer Place

2)     Tammy (Theme From)

3)     Tracy’s Theme

4)     The Terry Theme from Limelight

5)     The Sound of Music

6)     The Three Penny Opera (Moritat)

7)     O Sole Mio

8)     Never On Sunday

9)     The Green Leaves Of Summer (Theme from John Wayne’s The Alamo)

10)  Look For Star

11)  Mona Lisa

12)  Greenfields

13)  Beyond The Sunset

14)  He’ll Have To Go

15)  La Paloma

16)  Woodchopper’s Ball

17)  Peter Gunn (Theme From)

18)  Oh!

19)  Topsy!!

20)  One O’clock Jump

 

 

Though there are some slight style changes in some cases that might not work for you if you know the songs, I liked most of the renditions here and was very impressed with the sonic quality overall of this presentation.  At this point starting in the later 1950s, Vaughn was using his “twin sax” sound and based on all of his sales and charting, it seems that he actually remains the most successful band conductor in charting and record sales to date.  Once again mastered by Povee Chan, who has an amazing track record for these productions, here are the specifics on the transfer:

 

32Bits/192kHz High Resolution Mastering

SADiE DSD Digital Precision

Mastering Monitor: Almarro M1A

Monitor Amplifier: Octave Jubliee Preamp

Power System: Isoclean Power Conditioning System

Mastered with Black Rhodium Cable

Made in Germany by ADIS

 

Vaughn had this singles on the Top 40 into 1962 and hit albums into the 1970s.  These tracks run from 1956 to 1960 and there is a certain joy and flow to every performance, so this is definitely a man who loved music and I am very glad this SA-CD has arrived.  Serious fans should consider getting it while supplies last.

 

 

Now we move onto a major film from the same period, Joshua Logan’s remarkable, enduring adaptation of William Inge’s Picnic (1955) with William Holden and Kim Novak as a potential couple who meet each other when he arrives in her small town looking for work.  She is set to be married to another man (Cliff Robertson) but this is among the many things challenged by Hal (Holden).  He also gets under the skin of a potential old maid (Rosalind Russell in a thankless, powerful role) and the film was a commercial and critical success for Columbia Pictures and Harry Cohn, further building the once smaller studio into a major.

 

Though some aspects might seem a bit dated, the interaction between the characters rings true, as does the sexual tensions and Novak was reaching her peak at this time, a peak that lasted for many, many years.  Holden could have just been a bimbo here, but he is believable, formidable and they have chemistry we do not see often enough today.  Betty Field, a young Susan Strasberg and Arthur O’Connell also star.

 

The 1080p 2.55 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer is yet another solid effort by Twilight Time that is of Criterion caliber and I say that as Criterion had once issued the film in the older 12” LaserDisc format, but anyone feeling something had been lost on DVD version from Sony, you can put that aside.  This is a solid transfer with great color and definition reproduction, plus you can see how the color is so good that you get a good idea often of how good dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor 35mm prints of this film had to have been.  Legendary Director of Photography James Wong Howe (Hud, Seconds) uses the very widescreen frame to its fullest extent, has his usually fine grasp of color and is one of the early slightly wider CinemaScope releases.  Nice to see more of these early films in the original version of the format hit Blu-ray.

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix may be towards the front speakers, but this was a film originally designed for 4-track magnetic sound with traveling dialogue and sound effects, so that is to be expected and is as nice an upgrade as anyone could have asked for.  This includes a warm, rich feel to the mix, George Duning’s solid score also offered as an extra as an isolated music track and it is nice the original materials held up in the vault and have been looked after as well  as they have been.  Kudos to those who worked on this film to make it look and sound so good.

 

The only other extra is a nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and an essay on the film by Julie Kirgo worth reading after seeing the film.

 

Picnic can be ordered while supplies last at:

 

www.screenarchives.com

 

 

To find out more about ordering the Vaughn SA-CD, start with this link, then go to the HOW TO ORDER tab on the left-hand side column:

 

http://www.topmusic.com/ud-sacd8939.2.htm

 

The direct order link is:

 

http://www.topmusic.com/to-order.htm

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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