Acrobat's 4-CD set "The Ray Conniff Collection 1938-62" (ACQCD7086) was very positively reviewed in In Tune magazine recently by Brian Belton, himself a respected compiler of nostalgia material. If you enjoy music from what editor Gerry Stonestreet calls "The Golden Age of Popular Music", and you don't have a subscription to In Tune, you really should. E-mail them at intuneinternational@talktalk.net.

 The Ray Conniff is one of products in the series of collections devoted to the great conductor/arrangers of the post-war era, with anthologies devoted to Billy May, Nelson Riddle, Hugo Winterhalter, Neil Hefti and most recently Paul Weston. You can find details for all of them elsewhere  on this site. 

Meanwhile. here's what In Tune said about the Ray Conniff set:

A track listing appeared in In Tune in April and it ha staken me some time to absorb this excellent 4 CD set. I compiled and produced a CD for Jasmine records in 2001 which concentrated on Ray’s big band arrangements. Some of that material appears on this Acrobat production but with the added benefit of a 4 disc package, a very extensive coverage of Conniff’s many recordings, primarily for Columbia, is possible.

 As a form of celebration of the 1950s pop music sound the collection has considerable appeal. Columbia had some of the best singers of the era under contract and as staff conductor and arranger Ray Conniff was at the heart of the action. His big band pedigree gave him a thorough skill to fashion orchestrations for a range of vocalists, some of whom were just appropriate for the culture of sound at the time, but others, like Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Guy Mitchell and Rosemary Clooney were real class and Conniff was often part of the Success of excellent music such as “Chances Are” (Johnny Mathis), “Without A Song” (Tony Bennett) and “Moonlight Gambler” (Frankie Laine).

Throughout this comprehensive collection of recordings Ray Conniff turns his great professionalism and dedication to the task in hand. It is fascinating to trace the development of what was to b3come the internationally acclaimed “Conniff sound”. When that distinctive brand and style emerged in the mid-1950s and gave Ray an individual identity it was a status richly deserved. The collection closes with examples of that special sound.

 A worthy salute to a fine musician comprising a total of 113 tracks in excellent sound and including a substantial set of notes in booklet form.