Bert Kaempfert Unchained Melody

German conductor, arranger, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer, whose hits included the chart-topper "Wonderland by Night." Stars like Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Bassey, Caterina Valente, Engelbert, Dean Martin, Nat "King" Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Duke Ellington and Count Basie were successful with Kaempfert's compositions. Bert Kaempfert had almost too much talent, ability, and good luck rolled into one career to be fully appreciated, even by his own chosen audience, the lovers of fine orchestral pop music. He was one of the most successful conductors, arrangers, and recording artists in the latter field, but was also a major producer and played a key (if indirect) role in the roots of the British beat boom of the early '60s, which evolved into the British Invasion of America in 1964.

There are as many flavours of jazz as there are pebbles on a beach, but the majority combine rhythmic invention with instrumental virtuosity to create a sound that can transport the listener to a different plane. Whether your ear is caught by the saxophone of Earl Bostic or Eddie Harris, the flute of Herbie Mann, Ray Charles’ effervescent keyboards (he played sax too) or the music of Cuban-born ‘King of the Mambo’ Perez Prado, whose 1958 US chart-topper ‘Patricia’ is familiar from countless movies and television ads,one thing is certain – the jazz instrumental still reigns supreme.