Pipeorgan Presentations - The Song Is Ended

The Song Is Ended
John Seng

Available on CD

CD $17

UK Customers Only (PPD): CD 12 GBP

A digitally re-mastered compilation of selections from John Seng's albums Johnny Seng: Vol 1 and An American In Paris, featuring his brilliant medleys of music from Porgy and Bess and An American In Paris.

Porgy And Bess Medley
1 Overture
2 Summertime
3 A Woman Is A Sometime Thing
4 My Man’s Gone Now
5 I Got Plenty Of Nothin’
6 Bess, You Is My Woman
7 It Ain’t Necessarily So
8 What You Want With Bess
9 I Loves You , Porgy
10 There’s a Boat Leaving For New York
11 On My Way

John Seng’s musical talents encompassed many areas of the modern keyboard. His musical authority was equally assertive on a pipe organ, an electronic organ or a complex synthesizer. Billboard Magazine described Seng’s talent as “a refreshing modern approach to a traditional instrument.”

After a three-year stint as staff organist for the NBC studios in Chicago, Seng spent eleven years concertizing and consulting for two major organ manufacturers in the USA and logged more than two million air miles in the process. During this period, he also arranged and edited approximately one hundred music albums that dealt with the organ.

Starting in the late sixties, Seng became involved in the writing and production of radio and TV commercials. His numerous credits in this area included national themes for MacDonald’s and United Airlines. His Columbia record album Dream Awhile was used as theme music on the Today Show for seven years and has received more air play than any organ record. Beyond the Blue Horizon, Introduction to the Mighty Wurlitzer and Johnny Seng, Vol. 1 and 2 and An American in Paris are other recordings that feature the Seng talent.

Seng appeared as guest performer on the Today Show, the Tonight Show, the Breakfast Club and as guest soloist at Chicago’s orchestral Hall. In February of 1972 he became the second organist to ever play a solo theatre organ concert at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Some years later his development work on the world’s first polyphonic synthesizer, the Yamaha GX-1 won him international acclaim from the entire music industry as well as his fellow musicians. Kojak, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Magnum PI, Nero Wolf, Alien, Superman, The Empire Strikes Back and The Chosen are numbered among the television and film keyboard credits of this musician.

Seng’s obituary in Theatre Organ Magazine occupied more pages that that of any other organist, including that of the great George Wright. His performances at the Cap’n’s Galley Pizza and Pipes in Redwood City were legendary and it was usual to see the front tables occupied by professional organists with mouths agape at Seng’s talent.

We know of no other organist who could top that magnificent performance of An American in Paris no matter how many “takes” they had. All that stunning finger work and those rapid registration changes are taking place in real time, just as you hear them, this is a LIVE in-concert performance, from memory, and there is no fancy editing to enhance the artist’s ability.

Following are Seng’s own comments at the time on just a few of the items on this recording:
Much of what you are about to hear is from a collection of materials I’ve performed “ live “ in concert over the years. There is great disparity between a one-time musical event and the almost clinical control of a recording session where getting the perfect take, experimenting for proper balance and eliminating extraneous noises are the order of the day. Consequently, there were some hard decisions to ponder while assembling the selections and I’d like to personally thank the guy who coughed through some soft passages of An American in Paris. I wonder if he knows that he’s been immortalized on disk! Some interesting inferences can be drawn between Cuban Cutie and Flapperette. Cuban Cutie, written in 1936 by the unlikely team of Billy Taylor and Ethel Smith, reflects a sophisticated rhythmic and harmonic mood while the latter, a Jesse Greer composition of a decade earlier, is all fun and no meat. Although I’m certain that musicologists would frown at the description, Flight of the Bumble Bee by Rimsky-Korsakoff might be considered a classic/romantic novelty…you know the tune even if you can’t whistle it! And now you ask, “Why on earth did Seng include Honky Tonk Train on this disk?” Long before this composition became reduced, simplified and made into a “train wreck” at various pizza establishments around the country, it was a respected big band/piano number made famous by pianist Meade (Lux) Lewis who was also its composer.

We at Pipe Organ Presentations decided to end this CD with a piece that is very appropriate in the circumstances - “The Song Is Ended, but the Melody Lingers On.” Our sincere thanks go to Bill Johnson of Concert Recording for his kind permission to re-release all the tracks through “Promenade,” which appeared on his original release CR 57.