Prom 57: Ultra Lounge – Henry Mancini and Beyond

Music by Henry Mancini, Harold Arlen, Quincy Jones, Juan García Esquivel, Les Baxter, Burt Bacharach, Nicholas Roubanis, Laurie Johnson, Morton Stevens, Julius Wechter, Bobby Scott/Ric Marlow, Michel Legrand, Sid Ramin and Les Reed/Gordon Mills, including tributes to Herb Alpert and his Tiajuana Brass

BBC Concert Orchestra
Edwin Outwater
conductor

Mel Giedroyc presenter

Monica Mancini guest vocalist

Rachel John vocalist

Oliver Tompsett vocalist

Freddie Benedict, Kevin Fox, Johanna Marshall, Liz Swain backing vocals

If you thought that the Bank Holiday Proms – bringing back Doctor Who to the Royal Albert Hall after a gap of 11 years – were the only time travelling concerts this season, think again. The BBC Concert Orchestra under conductor Edwin Outwater and (surprise) compere Mel Giedroyc last night turned the clock back in the hall some 60 years, in their centenary tribute to Henry Mancini and other composers that typified that laid-back lounge music era. And the space theme returned too, with space-age lounge music that became a craze after the launch of Sputnik in 1957, imagining what the future of music would be in zero gravity.

This Prom (broadcast on television on Friday 6 September) was an infectious joy from start to finish, with 30 numbers on the set list, of which only three had been heard at the Proms before. Six Mancini standards opened the concert, many composed for director Blake Edwards with whom Mancini collaborated 30 times, displaying both his trademark percussion lead rhythms and swooning strings in Charade and Peter Gunn themes, and the fleet-footed elephantine toe-tapping hit from otherwise forgettable Hatari! in Baby Elephant Walk. After Days of Wine and Roses, Mancini’s daughter Monica sang Moon River and then we were visited by the Pink Panther (that’s why Giedroyc was wearing pink…). Quincy Jones’ version of Blues in the Night led us into a Latin section, again with much work for the percussion department to do, first in Mancini’s Rain Drops in Rio and, featuring the unusual instrument, the lujon, which gave the title to Mancini’s next track.  Jones’ Soul Bossa Nova and Juan García Esquivel’s Mucha Muchacha led to the jungle soundtrack to Les Baxter’s curious Quiet Village. Back to blighty for Burt Bacharach’s Alfie sung by Rachel John (aping Cilla Black) and the Greek-inspired Misirlou by Nicholas Roubanis, though it too had its jungle vibe and frenetic percussion.

The second half opened with 60s television staples: The Avengers (in Laurie Johnson’s original dance The Shake, which was adopted as The Avengers’ theme tune when Diana Rigg joined in 1965) and Hawaii Five-O, with Morton Stevens’ thumping theme. The crime stoppers’ theme continued with two Burt Bacharach numbers from (albeit) spoof Bond caper Casino Royale, with Rachel John taking Dusty Springfield’s place in The Look of Love and the mighty trumpet section of the BBC Concert Orchestra riding high in the main theme, in honour of Herb Alpert, continued in Julius Wechter’s Spanish Flea (later used on the US version of Blind Date, called The Dating Game) and, perhaps most extraordinary given the nature of the original play from which it came, Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey, a cover of Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow’s melody which Herb Albert made in 1963, winning a Grammy.  The backing group of four singers took Noel Harrison’s vocal line in Michel Legrand’s The Windmills of Your Mind from the original Thomas Crown Affair, before baritone Oliver Tompsett channelled his inner Andy Williams for that anthem of lounge music, Sid Ramin’s Music to Watch Girls By. 

Our last Mancini paired celebrated Peter Sellars in both Party Poop (from Edwards’ The Party) and Hong Kong Fireworks (from The Revenge of the Pink Panther), with virtuoso nimble xylophone playing by Stephen Whibley. The space-age lounge music section with Les Baxter’s Shooting Star and Saturday Night on Saturn flanking Rachel John singing Bacharach and Herb Alpert’s This Guy’s in Love With You. Then came Esquivel’s Whatchamcallit, notable for an early synthesiser created in 1939 by Georges Jenny, called an ondioline, which crackled and buzzed by way of introduction and then carry the main tune, courtesy of Jeff Leach.

Finally, two songs originally recorded (even if he needed some persuasion) by Tom Jones: Bacharach’s What’s New Pussycat and Les Reed/Gordon Mills’ It’s Not Unusual.  But that was not the end, as an encore Outwater (with not a hair out of place) conducted Laurie Johson’s Las Vegas which is best known to British audiences as the theme music of Johnny Morris’ Animal Magic (and W1A) though the middle section seems almost to veer into Singin’ in the Rain.

Brilliantly conceived and performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra on the top of their game – especially the brass and percussion, with a masterclass of compering by Giedroyc, veering off-piste from the autocue with aplomb, taking in especially two gents in the front row of the Prommers (you know who you are).  An absolute treat!