Mr. Music Maker - Lawrence Welk
LAWRENCE WELK is "Mr. Music Maker" for two reasons: no one else has ever made as much music as Lawrence Welk, and no one else has been so warmly acclaimed by so great an audience. Every week an estimated 55 million people see and hear his Dodge and Plymouth television shows and another 90 million hear his transcribed radio programs. The nation's disc jockeys play his music all through the day, and no artist sells more single records and albums than he does. Only one conclusion is possible: Lawrence Welk could probably be elected the next president of the United States.
But Mr. Welk is a man of less lofty ambitions. "I just try to please our audience...the kind of folks that have been my friends and neighbors all my life."
As a professional music maker, Lawrence Welk has spent his life toiling in the vineyards (in the music business they are called ballrooms) till in the last few years he has achieved the eminent national status that justifies his title, the title of this album.
Lawrence Welk's orchestra is not a group that performs solely in radio, television, and recording studios. Although it is by virtue of these media that he and his orchstra have achieved such an incredibly great and far-flung audience, the Champagne Music Makers are very much a meet-the-people aggregation. For eight years now they have played nightly at the Aragon Ballroom in Pacific Ocean Park, California. This has not only given them the all-time record for a ballroom band but has enabled them to keep "one foot ont he dance floor."
"I never want my music to lose its ballroom feeling," says Mr. Welk. And if his audience isn't actually dancing, as for example during a television broadcast from a studio, then he still wants "to see people tapping their feet when they listen to us."
The Music Maker's music never does lose its "ballroom feeling." Be it champagne music, polkas, Viennese waltzes, or Swing (and they're all in this album) it's all music for dancing. This album is, in effect, a recorded version of an evening at the Aragon - a Lawrence Welk dancing party featuring extened medleys of the music he has found to be most popular among his many, many dancing fans.
SIDE ONE :
CHAMPAGNE MEDLEY TIME...This opening medley features fox trots in "champagne" style - the particular kind of music for which Lawrence welk is most famous. There are technical explanations for the "champagne" style - staccato brass, muted violins, lots of dotted eighths and sisteenth notes from the reeds - but the fact is that "champagne music" is simply what its name implies: light, bubbly, and thoroughly exhilarating.
WALTZ MEDLEY TIME...Just as Irving Berlin (who wrote all the songs in this medley) has built a notable writing career on taste, sentiment, simplicity, and a love of pure melody, so, too has Lawrence Welk emphasized these qualities in his orchestra arrangements. And in this medley the two are combined in a pure and lyrical treatment of all-time waltz-time favorites.
POLKA MEDLEY TIME...Lawrence Welk has probably done more to give the polka nation-wide popularity than any other American dance orchestra. And with him it's a case of "doin' what comes natcher'lly." Among the earliest sounds he ever heard were the accordion that his father played and the old-fashioned, foot-pedaled parlor organ the whole family played. The music was polkas, German waltzes, schottisches, square dances, and hymns, the beginnings of Lawrence Welk's musical education and still the music dearest to his heart. It was the music he was called upon to play when, while still a boy, he began working dance jobs in the vicinity of the family's North Dakota farm. During his growing years as an orchestra leader, his growing years as an orchestra leader, when he was famous throughout the Midwest but relatively unknown around the rest of the country, these basic, old-world dances were an important part of his repertoire. And they still are. Melodically, rhythmically, and nostalgically, they fulfill all the musical dmands of both the Music Maker and his listeners.
SIDE TWO :
CHAMPAGNE MEDLEY TIME..."it's a heart thing," says Lawrence Welk, explaining his champagne style. "It's not a technique thing. Our music is simple; we try for a melody that everybody can pick out, and we try to have an easy-to-follow rhythm. Of course we want a nice pleasant harmony and a volume that's not to loud." An important man in the music business once said it even more tersely: "Welk has top musicians playing simple arrangements, and they make a good musical sound." But it was critc John Crosby who, more interested in results than in explanations, came up with the briefest comment, a classic understatement. "People," he said, "seem to like Welk's style."
VIENNESE WALTZ TIME...On some occasions Lawrence Welk uses various smaller combinations of musicians, but this Viennese waltz medley employs the whole band. Here they sweep into a trio of songs that are in the richest and most popular of waltz traditions. Again, this is ballroom dancing, designed not for the postage-stamp dance floors of the smart supper clubs, but for the wide open spaces of a ballroom. Or a living room with the furniture moved safely back against the walls.
DANCE TIME...While Lawrence Welk has never considered competing with such jazz bands as Benny Goodman's or Les Brown's, he still is able to swing out with a solid dance beat and the kind of high-quality musician-ship that pervades all his music. Lawrence Welk's jaz is ballroom jazz, designed not for audiences that stand and watch, but for those who love to dance.
SIDE ONE :
01 CHAMPAGNE MEDLEY TIME - PART I
THE GLORY OF LOVE
SIDE BY SIDE
SOMEBODY ELSE IS TAKING MY PLACE
DANCE WITH A DOLLY
WAY DOWN YONDER IN NEW ORLEANS
02 WALTZ MEDLEY TIME
ALWAYS
ALL ALONE
THE SONG IS ENDED
03 POLKA MEDLEY TIME
LA SORELLA
SILVER POLKA
JOLLY POLKA
SIDE TWO :
01 CHAMPAGNE MEDLEY TIME - PART II
A LITTLE BIT INDEPENDENT
I'LL NEVER SAY "NEVER AGAIN" AGAIN
MAKIN' WHOOPEE!
SCATTERBRAIN
02 VIENNESE WALTZ TIME
BLUE DANUBE
SKATER'S WALTZ
ESTUDIANTINA
03 DANCE TIME
I CAN'T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE
WHO'S SORRY NOW
THE SHEIK OR ARABY
WHEN YOU'RE SMILING
The Champagne Music Makers who have recorded this medley of medleys are the same aggregation that for the past four years have been voted the outstanding dance orchestra in the country by the National Ballroom Operators of America. And they are not alone. There are the millions of Living Room Operators of America, the folks who roll back the rugs and dance, or just like to sit around and tap their feet. They all think Lawrence Welk is the finest, too. And this album will surely keep them thinking that way. Here, at his very best, is their "Mr. Music Maker."
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