Dateline Rome

by Greg AdamsThe arrangements on Music, Martinis, and Memories are really very simple: massed violins play the melody while Bobby Hackett's trumpet flits around the edges, or sometimes Hackett takes the lead over a bed of swelling strings. The music sets a romantic mood, but compared to the arrangements of Percy Faith or Les Baxter, Gleason is plain vanilla. Many of the orchestral pop leaders made a point of boiling down their music to its essentials without fancy flourishes, and their success proves the mainstream appeal of such an approach. But if you're looking for depth, you won't find much of it here. Music, Martinis, and Memories is fine dinner music, and Hackett's technique is superb, but the album fails to hold the listener's attention when brought to the foreground.