"Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus" Gets the Craft "Small Batch" One-Step Treatment
Vince Guaraldi's other classic album
The Brazilian Bossa Nova flower had not yet bloomed in America when in 1959 the movie "Black Orpheus" became the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize Winner. The movie is a re-telling of the Orpheus legend set in Rio de Janeiro with the Mardis Gras as backdrop.
The music was by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luis Bonfa, one of whom, Jobim, would become a household name if not in 1963 when Stan Getz released Jazz Samba, then a year later when Getz/Gilberto exploded well beyond jazz into the adult pop music world even as The Beatles mesmerized the kids.
The story of how Guaraldi came to record a jazz impressions version of the soundtrack—or to be more specific, three songs from the film, one of which "Manha De Carnaval" went on to become a standard both as an instrumental and with lyrics added as "A Day In the Life of a Fool" is almost more interesting than the music. The song was almost tossed from the film but Luis Bonfá convinced director Marcel Camus to include it. In the film it's sung by Orfeu, played by Breno Mello, but overdubbed by a singer named Augosthino Dos Santos, whose grandson is, well you know.
Guaraldi's tune "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" had nothing to do with the movie and was added along with a few other tunes needed to round out the album, including Henry Mancini's "Moon River" and the oft-covered "Since I Fell For You" popularized by Lennie Welch and of course by my friend the great Eddie Brigati on The Young Rascals' Collections album.
The album was released in 1962 with the first single being "Samba de Opheus". "Cast Your Fate to The Wind" was the "B" side. How the album came to be made and released and how the "B" side became a phenomenon, even winning a Grammy for Best Original Jazz Composition in 1963—the whole fascinating story— is told in the insert written by Derek Bang, author of "Vince Guaraldi at the Piano".
Honestly, the story is more fascinating than the music, which is pleasant enough and ranges from cocktail/supper club covers to "Cast Your Fate to the Wind", which remains a hypnotic, dreamy tune. I remember as a kid buying the album when it was renamed Cast Your Fate to the Wind and thinking only the title tune was worth the purchase, though the typo on the label "Cast Your Faith To the Wind" was worth a few chuckles, especially since following my Bar Mitzvah I'd done just that.
Craft has given the album the full "Small Batch" treatment that by now you are all familiar with. It's a snazzy package, well executed. Bernie Grundman cut from the original master tapes, with "One-Step" plating and pressing at RTI on NeoTech VR900 semi-transparent vinyl.
The sound of the One-Step stomps all over my A1 pressing, which was pressed at RCA's Rockaway NJ pressing plant. It's a very fine recording with good piano, bass and drum sound presented in a nice space. Guaraldi paid for the recording himself and as it turned out he and Fantasy got their money's worth.
When I think of the rich Concord assets, I can't figure out why the folks at Craft chose this of all titles in the vaults, to release as a costly "One Step". I could see it as a regular AAA reissue but I wonder how many people will want to spend $109 for it. The Craft folks must know something I don't. Either that or this will indeed sell in a "small batch".
