Information/Write-up
This offbeat collaboration by two Canadian entertainers and a reclusive poet was borne out of the CBC radio show Words And Music hosted by actor Bruno Gerussi in the early 1970's. The weekly show featured interviews, music and monologues done before a live audience in a small theater. Tommy Ambrose was a regular singing guest. "We had an instinct for each other's work" Gerussi said. "I would read a monologue and Tommy would come up with a song to follow it that fit perfectly into the mood we established." The monologues were written by Gary Dunford, a former Toronto newspaperman who became a recluse by choice in the Toronto wilderness. His pieces covered a wide range of emotions but all of them offered wit, immediacy, and a sense of slightly crazy, slightly surreal truth.
When Gigi saw Noodles on the album cover she defecated all over the studio.
The album followed the same formula as the radio show: a mix of music and spoken monologues. Toronto musicians Doug Riley and Rick Wilkens wrote the arrangements and filled the studio with talented local backup players. Unfortunately most of the songs intending to showcase Tommy Ambrose's singing chops are uninspired covers of James Taylor, George Harrison and the like. Only two of the songs on the album were original compositions written for Ambrose, and they are like awful ballads from a bad broadway musical. Click here if you don't believe me.
The five monologues on the album include topics such as what a dog ponders when it's raining outside and what it's like to be a tree in the middle of a city's concrete sterility. You might find these enjoyable if you're into spoken-word stuff that uses dated 60's lingo, or if you're from Winnipeg (click here if you meet those criteria). In my opinion the monologues would be more palatable if they had been set to music, as was the case with the delightfully whimsical "Morning High", where Duford's poetry, Gerussi's delivery, and Wilken's musical arrangement all come together perfectly.
Bruno Gerussi: words
Tommy Ambrose: music
Bill Richards: violins
Albert Pratz: violins
Gerard Kantarjan: violins
Maurice Solway: violins
Hyman Goodman: violins
Sam Hersenhoren: violins
John Dembeck: violins
Josephine Toth: violins
Pat Adams: violins
Vick Polley: violins
Jack Neilsen: violas
Walter Babiak: violas
Cornelius Ysselstyn: cello
Marcel Ray: cello
Peter Schenkman: cello
Norm Amadi: piano
Doug Riley: piano
Gary Binstead: bass
Bob Price: bass
Don Thompson: bass
Ales Lazaroff: drums
Terry Clarke: drums
Ed Bickert: guitar
Bob Edwards: guitar
Eugene Amaro: flute, saxophone
Mary Barrow: french horn
All words by Gary Dunford
Musical arrangements by Doug Riley and Rick Wilkins
Produced by Dave Bird and The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, February-March, 1971
Engineered by Ian Jacobson
Sound effects by Bill Robinson
Sheep dog courtesy Ed Weiss
Photography by Neil Newton
Special thanks to Diana Filer
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