This is a wonderful album. Pepe Jaramillo was a fantastic pianist and the arrangements of these popular film themes are lovely. In an era when all of these songs appeared on countless instrumental albums, it seems impossible to create a new and unique arrangement for each and yet Ken Thome, the musical director of this album, did just that. If you can picture Ferrante and Teicher mixed with Xavier Cugat's orchestra, you can imagine how Pepe Jaramillo's music sounds like... but don't take my word for it, listen to it yourself. The link is down below.
The album begins with the exciting theme from Charade which is infused with a Latin touch, followed by the lush The Singer Not the Song. This was the theme to one of Britain's few western productions. A Certain Smile is one of the best songs on this album. It's a slow rather melancholy love song as performed by Johnny Mathis in the film of the same name, but Pepe turns it into a lively Latin jungle-sounding dance tune. The album closes with the lovely Moon River.
Pepe at the Movies was released in 1965 by Parlaphone records, a British label. The Mexican-born Jaramillo didn't have much success in the United States but he found a large audience in the UK so most of his albums from the 1960s were British labels.
Listen to the full album here on Youtube.
Track List
Side One:
Charade
The Singer Not the Song
A Certain Smile
I Will Wait for You
Gigi
Forget Domani
Side Two:
Lawrence Of Arabia
Days Of Wine & Roses
Call Me Irresponsible
Exodus
The Green Leaves of Summer
Moon River
Top Picks: Charade, The Singer Not the Song, A Certain Smile, Gigi, Forget Domani
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