Wednesday 3 February 2010

Temptation - The Johnny Keating Orchestra and Singers

One calm spring night, having wined and dined, having wandered to the terrace of his apartment and having found in the air a slight fragrance of Jasmine and a touch of romance, a man closed his eyes and dreamed of Woman. And she came to him twelve times, and each time she was changed, each time she appeared she wore a new face, a new dress, a new personality; but he loved her each time she came to him. He loved her when she appeared personified as "Temptation", with dark eyes flashing and bright red lips bent on passion, committed to sensual provocation, destined to rule by desire and ruin by annulment. He listened when, alone and helpless, she cried the blues in the dark forbidding night. He watched her, fallen and weary, as she walked the streets selling her affection, with no home to return to except a bare, hapless room where she might sit in cold privacy. He winked and looked the other way when once she came by, dressed to the teeth and wearing a look of feline self-satisfaction as she rummaged through her sugar-daddy's monied pockets wistfully and with a touch of regret did he watch Laura as she disappeared in his dream, leaving behind a countenance of grace and beauty he found strangely haunting. Bess came to him out of the hub-bub of Catfish Row, with a tattered dress and bare feet, and with two dark eyes eager and anxious for the big man's love. Out of the city's sounds of violence and struggle, dazzling light and grandeur came the tender, loving Maria, who's life was destined for the joy of love and the outrage of tragedy. He was startled by the lady from St. Louis - a big, basic bird whose stare could kill, but who, down deep, was all woman and cushion soft. And of Chlo-e, what of Chlo-e? Lost, never to be found? What of Chlo-e? Do we weep or do we laugh and turn away? He saw the satin doll pass, sliding by the street lamp, slick and sleek, swift as quicksilver and incredibly beautiful; and man, then Lola showed up, standing there spread-legged, fists on her hips and head thrown back - marvellous Lola dressed in blinding red impertinent Lola commanding with a snap of her fingers, audacious Lola wanting and taking. Finally came Jezebel, the temptress, her beauty matched only by her thirst and passion for evil - and he watched her. And, as with the others, he felt he knew them; they moved him and they tempted him. The man came out of his reverie to put it down on paper, to breathe into the music the character essence of each siren, to make them live in the music as they had lived in his dream.

That's when John Keating created this LP.

Side 1

1. Temptation (Browm-Freed)
2. Blues In The Night (Arlen-Mercer)
3. Love For Sale (Porter)
4. Daddy (Troup)
5. Laura (Raskin-Mercer)
6. Bess, You Is My Woman Now (G. and I. Gershwin; Heywood)

Side 2

1. Maria (Bernstein-Sondheim)
2. St. Louis Blues (Handy)
3. Chlo-e (Kahn-Moret)
4. Satin Doll (Ellington-Alan-Peters)
5. Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets) (Adler-Rose-Plante)
6. Jezebel (Shanklin)

PFS 4020 (c) 1962

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