Ha'penny Breeze.

[Geoff Wooff]

Watching  the  1950  film    Ha'penny Breeze  yesterday  I  was    pleasantly  surprised to  hear  some  very  fine  concertina  playing  on the soundtrack . Though  I  have  so  far  not  been able  to  ascertain    who  the player  was,    but it  certainly  sounds  like  Alf Edwards.

 

Seen on  Talking Pictures TV  ( in the UK).   They'll probably  repeat it.

 

Any  thoughts ?

 

Edited June 18, 2021 by Geoff Wooff

[LesJessop]

Having watched the film last night, I was going to make a post on the music, but you've beat me to it. The film isn't great but the music is very fine, orchestral with concertina as a lead instrument. Looking at the little information there is on the internet, the composer was an accordion player, and (given the whole thing was made on a shoestring budget) I wondered if he played the concertina too ?? Or, as you suggest, it could have been Alf Edwards.

 

For those unfortunate people who don't have the joys of Talking Pictures TV, I see that there are DVDs of the film available on the internet.

 

 

 

 

 

[Peter Laban]

IMDb usually knows these things but at a quick glance doesn't list music credits: Ha'penny Breeze IMDb

[Irene S.]

You'll find your answer in these comments by Cyril Tawney 🙂 It was indeed Alf Edwards
https://mainlynorfolk.info/cyril.tawney/songs/theballadofsammysbar.html

 

[Irene S.]

More information - the music was written by Philip Green, a well know TV and film producer, and he used local tunes etc in the composition for the film
https://ipswichmaritimetrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Newsletter-28-Jan-2015.pdf

[Irene S.]

 

[Geoff Wooff]

1 hour ago, Irene S. said:

You'll find your answer in these comments by Cyril Tawney 🙂 It was indeed Alf Edwards
https://mainlynorfolk.info/cyril.tawney/songs/theballadofsammysbar.html

 

Ah Ha!  My  ears  did  not  deceive me.  There is  a particular  tone  quality  that  Alf Edwards  produces, perhaps  it  is  the  particular  concertina  he  recorded  with  in the  early  post war period.  Stephen Chambers  might enlighten us  further  about Alf's  concertina.

Many  thanks  Irene,  you are  a mine of  information!!

[LesJessop]

Very well done in finding Cyril Tawney's comments: I'd trawled the internet last night and was stumped about the musician. Finally I had some notion that they ran out of money so Philip Green played on the soundtrack himself ... I'm not sad to be proved wrong ! 

[Jody Kruskal]

Silly arrangement, but splendid  playing.