This seemed the most appropriate place to post this. Having just now picked up a copy of the original 1966 movie "Alfie" from my local St Sprees for the unbelievably generous price of £5, I decided on a bit of searching around the net to clear up several details previously unclear in my mind.
Of course it is well known that Sonny Rollins composed most of the themes that were used hanging around in Ronnie's after-hours, after everyone had gone home to bed, absorbing the vibes from the innumerable gigs which he felt resonating from its walls. The resulting skeletal ideas were more or less improvised into the episodes which atmospherically underline the unfolding plot, using, among others, Stan Tracey, bassist Rick Laird (later to be John McLaughlin's bass guitarist in the Mahavishnu Orchestra, of course), the legendary drummer Phil Seamen, Ronnie Scott himself, and, I think I read somewhere, the Jamaican-born guitarist Ernest Ranglin. Presumably others were in that line-up, though I have not been able to source details - suffice to say that, much as I love the version of these themes which Rollins committe3d to vinyl a year later, on returning to America, I don't think he managed to recapture the extraordinary feel of his playing with the British guys in that impromptu studio session.
Among a number of things about the latter that I hadn't realised were that, 1) Stan himself provided the plaintive "Little Malcolm Loves his Dad" theme (C, Eb, Bb, Bb, Ab, Eb, G - assuming the key of Ab, which may not actually be the case), but this was not acknowledged in the credits; and 2) that on most reissues of the "original" it is the American release we see, which has Cher singing the Bacharach/David "Alfie" theme, not Cilla Black, who was on the British release, and who of course made the hit with her subsequent recording of the tune.
Next, people will recall a trad band fronted by a female singer in the pub brawl scene. I had long wondered who the singer was, because it obviously wasn't Ottilie Patterson, Beryl Bryden or Julie London; and it turns out to have been one Queenie Watts, (1923-1980) born under the name of Mary Spenton and a genuine diamond cockney lady who landladied a number of pubs in the East End with hubby "Slim" Watts, about whom there is little information to be found, where she also sang fronting her own 8-piece. There is a moment in the film where she is hit on the side of her face by a flying bit of broken furniture, yet carries on singing, spiritedly ignoring the blow! It further turns out that she featured in a "Portrait of Queenie" a year or two before the making of "Alfie": a film made by the BFI, in which she sang standards and originals accompanied by Stan Tracey with his band. I never knew any of this! An album of these songs was made and released on British Columbia in 1966. Of this I have no details (I wonder if anyone else does), but the opening moments of "Portrait of Queenie" are linked below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FjDmucYKvU.
This (and other clips and links to some wonderful reminiscent footage of the Isle of Dogs as I remember it as a kid (this is true - an uncle who had a small business once walked me right round the perimeter road showing me the docks in what is now Canary Wharf - though I don't expect anyone to believe me!)) are to be found by scrolling down the associated links on this page.
This is all incredibly nostalgic stuff for me. There are other clips of Queenie, the best of which has her self-accompanying singing "Waterloo Sunset" in a version which far outdoes the Kinks original in terms of capturing its raucous pub honky-tonk spirit. The hilarious clip linked below must be from some TV drama, set in a care home, though it doesn't say what:
https:///www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ2SdBavLqk
Of course it is well known that Sonny Rollins composed most of the themes that were used hanging around in Ronnie's after-hours, after everyone had gone home to bed, absorbing the vibes from the innumerable gigs which he felt resonating from its walls. The resulting skeletal ideas were more or less improvised into the episodes which atmospherically underline the unfolding plot, using, among others, Stan Tracey, bassist Rick Laird (later to be John McLaughlin's bass guitarist in the Mahavishnu Orchestra, of course), the legendary drummer Phil Seamen, Ronnie Scott himself, and, I think I read somewhere, the Jamaican-born guitarist Ernest Ranglin. Presumably others were in that line-up, though I have not been able to source details - suffice to say that, much as I love the version of these themes which Rollins committe3d to vinyl a year later, on returning to America, I don't think he managed to recapture the extraordinary feel of his playing with the British guys in that impromptu studio session.
Among a number of things about the latter that I hadn't realised were that, 1) Stan himself provided the plaintive "Little Malcolm Loves his Dad" theme (C, Eb, Bb, Bb, Ab, Eb, G - assuming the key of Ab, which may not actually be the case), but this was not acknowledged in the credits; and 2) that on most reissues of the "original" it is the American release we see, which has Cher singing the Bacharach/David "Alfie" theme, not Cilla Black, who was on the British release, and who of course made the hit with her subsequent recording of the tune.
Next, people will recall a trad band fronted by a female singer in the pub brawl scene. I had long wondered who the singer was, because it obviously wasn't Ottilie Patterson, Beryl Bryden or Julie London; and it turns out to have been one Queenie Watts, (1923-1980) born under the name of Mary Spenton and a genuine diamond cockney lady who landladied a number of pubs in the East End with hubby "Slim" Watts, about whom there is little information to be found, where she also sang fronting her own 8-piece. There is a moment in the film where she is hit on the side of her face by a flying bit of broken furniture, yet carries on singing, spiritedly ignoring the blow! It further turns out that she featured in a "Portrait of Queenie" a year or two before the making of "Alfie": a film made by the BFI, in which she sang standards and originals accompanied by Stan Tracey with his band. I never knew any of this! An album of these songs was made and released on British Columbia in 1966. Of this I have no details (I wonder if anyone else does), but the opening moments of "Portrait of Queenie" are linked below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FjDmucYKvU.
This (and other clips and links to some wonderful reminiscent footage of the Isle of Dogs as I remember it as a kid (this is true - an uncle who had a small business once walked me right round the perimeter road showing me the docks in what is now Canary Wharf - though I don't expect anyone to believe me!)) are to be found by scrolling down the associated links on this page.
This is all incredibly nostalgic stuff for me. There are other clips of Queenie, the best of which has her self-accompanying singing "Waterloo Sunset" in a version which far outdoes the Kinks original in terms of capturing its raucous pub honky-tonk spirit. The hilarious clip linked below must be from some TV drama, set in a care home, though it doesn't say what:
https:///www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ2SdBavLqk
:self-kicking emoticon:
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