But cream always rises to the top. Some twenty years after his passing, his work – finally – goes global. (1)We've already heard much very appealing music written, co-written or produced by René Costy (1917-1997), the son of a clarinetist and the grandson of a trumpeter, (2) himself a classically trained violinist. He fell in love with jazz during the war and proceeded to produce a number of library music albums of the highest quality which seem to stand the test of time.
Among these gems, the groove and funk numbers are probably the icing on the cake. Without further ado:
- Right On The Nose (recorded 1970s) was included on the recent double album Expectancy: Collected Library Gems From The 70's (released 2017).
- Strange Dream written by René Costy and Janko Nilovic (b. 1941) appeared on the album A special radio-tv record No. 3 - The Strings Orchestra (1970s). The album features arrangements by Frank Engelen and Janko Nilovic.
- NSS One written by Burt Random (pseudonym of Etienne Verschueren (1928-1995) is part of the album Chappell Mood Music Vol. 25 (1972) with The New String Sound ("NSS") Orchestra directed by Costy.
- Scrabble written by Peter Shell (pseudonym of Gus Decock (b. 1921) and Rony (a pseudonym for René Costy) comes from the album Chappell Mood Music Vol. 26 with arrangements by Willy Albimoor (1924-2004).
My father absolutely adored crossword puzzles; his study was lined with dictionaries. When he discovered Scrabble, he was instantly hooked. He simply loved this playing around with letters. Just as much as he loved playing around with notes and music. - Michel Costy (3)This is probably Costy's most popular work. The instrumental has been used by other artists, a.o. by hip-hop artist J Dilla (1974-2006) in one of his best-known songs on an issue that is not resolved to this day: Fuck the Police. We hear both.
- Delerium (also Delirium) comes from the album René Costy And His Music - small group sounds (1974).
Also in the 1970s René Costy formed a duo 'The Rapture' with Willy Albimoor and recorded the No. 12 album in a series titled New Times produced by the label Orly. The album is full of jazz-funk and easy listening numbers with with sections moving between tutti and solos in an amazing array of sounds. Here are four of the numbers:
- The Longuest Night with great wah-wah sounds and Secret Mixture both written by Costy and Albimoor.
- The Devil's Ride written by Lydia Altmann and René Costy.
- Pop in Three written by Willy Albimoor. There's a lot of fun in this fast number.
This concludes my survey of René Costy's life and works, a musician who thrived on the local Belgian music scene all his life and is now making a name on the world stage with his irresistibly "good" music. (4)
___________________________________________
(1)"Expectancy: Collected Library Gems From The 70's." Double CD/album introduction, Forced Exposure mailorder website, release 03/10/2017. (http://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/costy-rene-expectancy-collected-library-gems-from-the-70-s-2cd/SDBAN.005CD.html (12/11/2017))
(2) Laurent Hoebrechts, "René Costy - "Expectancy" - RÉÉDITION. DISTRIBUÉ PAR SDBAN (NEWS). ****," album review in Nos albums de la semaine (#10): Hurray For The Riff Raff, Sun Kil Moon, Valerie June... (Our albums of the week (#10): Hurray For The Riff Raff, Sun Kil Moon, Valerie June... , Le Vif Focus website, 03/13/2017. (http://focus.levif.be/culture/musique/nos-albums-de-la-semaine-10-hurray-for-the-riff-raff-sun-kil-moon-valerie-june/article-review-626437.html (12/12/2017))
(3)"Rene Costy - Expectancy." 2CD album introduction, Drift Records website, release 03/17/2017. (https://driftrecords.com/products/rene-costy-expectancy (12/12/2017))
(4) In this interview René Costy's son explains that his father didn't care about the divides of musical genres, declaring: 'There is one kind of music: "the good kind" and then there is the "bad" kind.'