Ken Griffin – Frozen In Time (2021)

CD Duration: 75.14 / Year: 2021

November 2021 release containing classic tracks at the Hammond Organ. On the Sounds of Yester Year label.

Rememb’ring
American Patrol
Cruising Down The River
April In Portugal
When You Wore A Tulip
No Other Love
Moonlight On The Colorado
Green Eyes
Are You Lonesome Tonight
Sleepy Time Gal
‘O’ (Oh!)
Whispering
When I Lost You
La Golondrina
Elmer’s Tune
’Till We Two Are One
Valencia
My Heart Cries For You
Oh, Baby Mine
Dreamer Of Dreams
Half As Much
Wonderful One
I Need You Now
The Waltz You Saved For Me
Black Orchid
My Best To You
All Alone
You Can’t Be True Dear
Aloha Oe (Farewell To Thee)
Now Is The Hour

SLEEVE NOTES

Frozen in time maybe, but well worth thawing as you’ll surely agree and Ken’s warm character could have helped! A good friend to anyone who liked music, he had a nice sense of humour. After His restaurant stint he’d wander around to hear a Colleague and try to relax. One night he took a copy of an unknown number with him. The crowd demanded to hear him play so he gave a copy to his friend saying “See what you think of this, I’ve just recorded it”. His friend wasn’t too enthusiastic, but a while later Ken banked a cheque for $108,000 for that few minutes work! The record, You Can’t Be True Dear, and you can enjoy the CBS version of it right here. Again we have a selection of works of such luminaries as: Rodgers and Hammerstein, Percy Faith, Irving Berlin and Paul Whiteman, and while were graced by royalty in Aloha Oe written by one time Queen of Hawaii delightful Liliukulani. Then There’s Cruising Down The River composed by two musical Ladies For a £1000 Competition set by the BBC to find a new popular song in 1945.

Finally Are You Lonesome Tonight which was an old number when Ken cut it. A couple of years later I first heard of Elvis Presley, so did he copy Ken’s successful record of it or did I miss something, for Ken immensely disliked covering hits of others.

Apart from Elmers Tune everything on this CD is played on a Hammond organ, but that one exception and it’s the only example throughout all ten of the projected CDs in this collection, is very interesting. Ken started with CBS in April 1950 and some of his first waxings used, he told me, a Connsonata a rare picture of which can be seen on the back insert of this CD. From my experience of organs it looks like it was built to impress the average member of the public. Conn’s debut into organ manufacture was in 1946, they had previously manufactured Brass instruments, saxophones etc, and the Connsonata which Ken played was manufactured in 1950 about the same time that Ken started playing it. It is clearly not blessed with a huge specification, a spinet console would have sufficed, but it had two sixty one note manuals and a full thirty two note pedal board. It did however sound good. Have fun.

Tony Nobbs. 2021.