The theme of this morning's playlist is... music. All are examples of music.
Recorded music, that is. (It's always good to have a playlist theme, I think.)
We begin with two entertaining sides by Russo and Fiorito's Oriole Orchestra. The second number is especially advanced for 1923, Leethinks:
Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble (Spencer Williams), Oriole Orchestra, 1923. From Brunswick 78.
Ritzi Mitzi (Johnson-Conrad-Bibo), Oriole Orchestra, 1923. Flip of above.
Next, Al Cernik with the Buddy Kaye Quintet, from 1948. Al Cernik, we'll recall, was the real name of Fifties pop singer Guy Mitchell:
The Love Nest, Buddy Kaye Quintet with Al Cernik, 1948. From MGM 78.
The flip side features a melody taken from Haydn's so-called Surprise Symphony, as sung by former Glenn Miller vocalist and future rock and roll cover artist (Bell, Waldorf Music Hall), Artie Malvin.
A Pair of Wooden Shoes, Buddy Kaye Quintet with Artie Malvin, 1948. Flip of above.
We follow our two smooth crooners with the decidedly unsmooth vocalizing of the Leake County Revelers, from 1928. Lots of "oops" moments with the counting:
My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, Leake County Revelers, 1928. From Columbia 78.
And here's Art Lund with an excellent version of Birmingham Bounce and a performance of Maple Leaf Rag featuring lyrics by Jule Styne and Bob Russell! As you listen to the second number, please keep in mind that ragtime wasn't reintroduced to the public until the 1970s and The Sting. Which makes the second track just one of many that can't possibly (and therefore do not) exist:
Birmingham Bounce (Gunter), Art Lund with LeRoy Holmes, 1950. From MGM 78.
Maple Leaf Rag (Joplin-Russell-Styne), Art Lund with LeRoy Holmes, 1950. Flip of above.
We close this morning's playlist with Gene Rodemich and His Orchestra performing Irving Berlin and Harry Akst's Home Again Blues. Note that the song's verse is in twelve-bar blues form, while the chorus is not. So, if anyone ever insists that Berlin never wrote an actual blues song, he or she would only be half-correct:
Home Again Blues (Berlin-Akst), Gene Rodemich's Orchestra, 1921. From Brunswick 78.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Friday, September 15, 2006
"Four Indian Love Lyrics"--Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble, 1925
We've already heard Amy Woodforde-Finden's 1902 classic Till I Wake (and not, as I mistyped it, Till I Die) from Four Indian Love Lyrics. Now, thanks to eBay, we're going to hear all four titles (woo-hoo!), as performed, once again, by Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble. When I won these two discs on eBay, I was really looking forward to owning a better, non-trashed copy of Kashmiri Song.
But, while the "new" copy is better, I can't call it non-trashed. Less trashed, maybe, but still a mess. I poured on the filtering and did the best an audio surgeon could do. The other three titles, however, sound terrific. As well as I can tell with an allergy-stuffed head, anyway. I'm not sure exactly how they'll sound to fully functioning ears.
After hearing all four Lyrics, I'm convinced that composer Woodforde-Finden was the Carole King of the early 1900s. The same solid sense of construction, the same harmonic minimalism, the same ability to concoct apparently simple sounds that get in your head and stay there. And which maybe aren't that simple, after all. The first two numbers are really bare-bones--and, thus, the perfect lead-ins to the lush and lovely Kashmiri Song and the marvelously moody Till I Wake.
Did I just type "marvelously moody"? Tell me I didn't. (Looks back.) I guess I did. Oh, well....
Oh, and the matrix #'s tell me that these were recorded in 1925, in spite of their release year of 1926. That would make these sounds eighty-one years old. Yet, they don't sound a day over eighty:
The Temple Bells (Amy Woodforde-Finden), Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble, 1925. From Columbia (U.K.) 78.
Less Than the Dust, Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble, 1925.
Kashmiri Song, Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble, 1925.* (*Lousy Sound Alert.)
Till I Wake, Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble, 1925.
I found my piano folio of the Lyrics, and I discovered that the triplet-sounding figures in that last title are, in fact, eighth notes in 6/8. 6/8, of course, has a pulse of two beats per measure, though modern ears tend to count the measures in pairs, as in "1, 2/3, 4," vice "1, 2/1,2." I don't know why. Maybe we're so conditioned to four beats per measure that we hear four beats as a measure.
The Crank Musicology Police are coming for me. Which isn't fair, because my analysis made perfect sense. (Er, it did, didn't it?)
I hear sirens. Time to hide. Oh, and as an added bonus, here's Andre Kostelanetz' 1954 recording of Kashmiri Song.
Kashmiri Song, Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, from Columbia EP Lure of the Tropics, 1954.
And now the Redundancy Police are coming, too ("added bonus"). This hasn't been my day. I mean, night.
Lee
But, while the "new" copy is better, I can't call it non-trashed. Less trashed, maybe, but still a mess. I poured on the filtering and did the best an audio surgeon could do. The other three titles, however, sound terrific. As well as I can tell with an allergy-stuffed head, anyway. I'm not sure exactly how they'll sound to fully functioning ears.
After hearing all four Lyrics, I'm convinced that composer Woodforde-Finden was the Carole King of the early 1900s. The same solid sense of construction, the same harmonic minimalism, the same ability to concoct apparently simple sounds that get in your head and stay there. And which maybe aren't that simple, after all. The first two numbers are really bare-bones--and, thus, the perfect lead-ins to the lush and lovely Kashmiri Song and the marvelously moody Till I Wake.
Did I just type "marvelously moody"? Tell me I didn't. (Looks back.) I guess I did. Oh, well....
Oh, and the matrix #'s tell me that these were recorded in 1925, in spite of their release year of 1926. That would make these sounds eighty-one years old. Yet, they don't sound a day over eighty:
The Temple Bells (Amy Woodforde-Finden), Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble, 1925. From Columbia (U.K.) 78.
Less Than the Dust, Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble, 1925.
Kashmiri Song, Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble, 1925.* (*Lousy Sound Alert.)
Till I Wake, Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble, 1925.
I found my piano folio of the Lyrics, and I discovered that the triplet-sounding figures in that last title are, in fact, eighth notes in 6/8. 6/8, of course, has a pulse of two beats per measure, though modern ears tend to count the measures in pairs, as in "1, 2/3, 4," vice "1, 2/1,2." I don't know why. Maybe we're so conditioned to four beats per measure that we hear four beats as a measure.
The Crank Musicology Police are coming for me. Which isn't fair, because my analysis made perfect sense. (Er, it did, didn't it?)
I hear sirens. Time to hide. Oh, and as an added bonus, here's Andre Kostelanetz' 1954 recording of Kashmiri Song.
Kashmiri Song, Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, from Columbia EP Lure of the Tropics, 1954.
And now the Redundancy Police are coming, too ("added bonus"). This hasn't been my day. I mean, night.
Lee
Friendship; Chattanooga Choo Choo
Only a guess, and nothing more, but I'm betting the Hollywood Hillbillies were The Pied Pipers in disguise. This, in spite of the fact that there was an actual Hollywood Hillibillies--i.e., a group by the same name that played genuine old-time country instead of the faux kind. (Lost yet? Me, too.) Anyway, the 1947 78 we're about to hear features said Hillbillies and, on the flip side, The Tommy Dorsey Family (Mountain Branch) performing Cole Porter's Friendship in Ma-and-Pa-Kettle mode. It's possible that Tommy Dorsey was making fun of Red Ingle making fun of old time country music. I don't know.
(Sinus meds? Yes, I'm on 10 mg of Loratadine. Why do you ask?)
So, a parody of old time country by members of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and an outfit called The Hollywood Hillbillies, whom I suspect of being The Pied Pipers.
(D'oh! Thanks, Grayforester, for reminding me that the Pied Pipers, in 1947, had long since moved to the Capitol label. So, if Stafford and the Pipers are on these sides ((rather unlikely)), both would have been sneaking out their Capitol contracts. And with a bandleader who had fired them, no less.)
Just the sort of post you expect to encounter at Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else:
Friendship (Cole Porter), Tommy Dorsey Family (Mountain Branch), 1947. From RCA Victor 78.
The scary thing is, those were (mostly) the actual words!
This next one is a document of how mountain music sounded to many "professional" musicians--unswinging, uneven in meter, excessively nasal, and rhythmically stodgy. All of which it could be, except for stodgy. In real life, even the least hip traditional country had a vitality that eluded many studio-trained ears.
Still, this is funny as all get-out. I'd swear that the Minnie-Pearl-style voice was Jo Stafford's, though she'd have to have been violating her Capitol contract:
Chattanooga Choo Choo, The Hollywood Hillbillies, 1947. Same 78.
As ever, clicking on the links will take you right to the mp3s, whereas right-clicking will enable you to download (by choosing "Save target as...").
Lee
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Morton Gould, Bomba, Lucky Wright, Erich von Daniken
Wow--it's been four days since I posted something here. I've been doing a lot of ripping and burning and file-tweaking--which is to say, a lot of stuff is nearly ready to go. A lot.
Of stuff.
Some first-rate vintage mood music, for example--Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble, Morton Gould, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philip Green, and The Hollywood Hillbillies.
No, just kidding about Morton Gould.
While we're waiting impatiently for all of these cool sounds, let's turn to page 108 of Roy Rockwood's 1935 adventure novel, By Space Ship to Saturn. See if any of this sounds familiar. It's a dialogue between Earthlings Lucky Wright and Phil Baker, who have just arrived on Saturn:
"There are fighting people on this planet," continued young Wright. "Maybe I'd better call them 'beings,' until we see what sort of creatures they are. But they know Latin. It must be their language."
"I suppose in a minute you'll be telling me you believe that old legend we heard in school."
"What's that?"
"Long before the dawn of civilization on our earth, there were other worlds with very intelligent people," explained Phil. "Some of them invented a strange chariot which took them through the sky to our planet. They became gods and did not mingle with the earth-dwellers."
"I remember now," said Lucky. "They spoke Latin, and gave that language to our world, so the story goes."
Wow. I knew that the ancient-astronaut concept predated Erich von Daniken, but 1935? Cool!
"Roy Rockwood" was a house/pen name that was also used for the Bomba series.
Of course, nowadays we know that Saturn people don't speak Latin. Or any other language. They communicate telepathically.
Lee
Of stuff.
Some first-rate vintage mood music, for example--Jacques Jacobs' Ensemble, Morton Gould, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philip Green, and The Hollywood Hillbillies.
No, just kidding about Morton Gould.
While we're waiting impatiently for all of these cool sounds, let's turn to page 108 of Roy Rockwood's 1935 adventure novel, By Space Ship to Saturn. See if any of this sounds familiar. It's a dialogue between Earthlings Lucky Wright and Phil Baker, who have just arrived on Saturn:
"There are fighting people on this planet," continued young Wright. "Maybe I'd better call them 'beings,' until we see what sort of creatures they are. But they know Latin. It must be their language."
"I suppose in a minute you'll be telling me you believe that old legend we heard in school."
"What's that?"
"Long before the dawn of civilization on our earth, there were other worlds with very intelligent people," explained Phil. "Some of them invented a strange chariot which took them through the sky to our planet. They became gods and did not mingle with the earth-dwellers."
"I remember now," said Lucky. "They spoke Latin, and gave that language to our world, so the story goes."
Wow. I knew that the ancient-astronaut concept predated Erich von Daniken, but 1935? Cool!
"Roy Rockwood" was a house/pen name that was also used for the Bomba series.
Of course, nowadays we know that Saturn people don't speak Latin. Or any other language. They communicate telepathically.
Lee
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Invasion of the strings
Massed strings, and lots of them! (Redundant? You think?) There's no escaping the string section of Andre Kostelanetz, the Russian-born conductor whose "and His Orchestra" consisted of an ever-changing cast of first-rate studio musicians.
And somewhere there's a site listing Kosty titles and their arrangers--Kostelanetz donated his collection to a university. I must re-find that site. Why in tarnation didn't I bookmark it?
Ah-ha! Found it. The collection is at the Library of Congress, not a university. My bad (memory).
O.K.--looks like Nathan Van Cleave arranged the beautiful 1940 medley we're about to hear:
Highlights from Porgy and Bess, Part 1, Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, Arr: Nathan Van Cleave, 1940. From 12" Columbia Masterworks 78 7362-M.
a) Summertime (D. Heyward, George Gershwin)
b) I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' (Heyward, George and Ira Gershwin)
c) Bess, You Is My Woman Now (Heyward, George and Ira Gershwin)
Highlights from Porgy and Bess, Part 2, Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, Arr: Nathan Van Cleave, 1940. From 12" Columbia Masterworks 78 7362-M.
And, from 1944, another brilliant Van-Cleave-arranged medley. Elevator music at its height:
Oklahoma! Medley, Part 1 (Hammerstein II-Rodgers), Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, Arr: Nathan Van Cleave, 1944. From 12" Columbia Masterworks 78 7417-M.
a) People Will Say We're in Love
b) Out of My Dreams
c) Surrey with the Fringe on Top
Oklahoma! Medley, Part 2 (Hammerstein II-Rodgers), Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, Arr: Nathan Van Cleave, 1944. From 12" Columbia Masterworks 78 7417-M.
a) Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'
b) Oklahoma!
You know, I keep coming back to the same old conclusion--that Andre Kostelanetz (and his arrangers) were responsible for the best easy listening fare ever recorded. Or that ever will be recorded.
I'm back to that conclusion, as we type.
And it turns out I bookmarked the LOC site, after all. I just didn't recognize the link. Duh!
Lee
And somewhere there's a site listing Kosty titles and their arrangers--Kostelanetz donated his collection to a university. I must re-find that site. Why in tarnation didn't I bookmark it?
Ah-ha! Found it. The collection is at the Library of Congress, not a university. My bad (memory).
O.K.--looks like Nathan Van Cleave arranged the beautiful 1940 medley we're about to hear:
Highlights from Porgy and Bess, Part 1, Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, Arr: Nathan Van Cleave, 1940. From 12" Columbia Masterworks 78 7362-M.
a) Summertime (D. Heyward, George Gershwin)
b) I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' (Heyward, George and Ira Gershwin)
c) Bess, You Is My Woman Now (Heyward, George and Ira Gershwin)
Highlights from Porgy and Bess, Part 2, Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, Arr: Nathan Van Cleave, 1940. From 12" Columbia Masterworks 78 7362-M.
And, from 1944, another brilliant Van-Cleave-arranged medley. Elevator music at its height:
Oklahoma! Medley, Part 1 (Hammerstein II-Rodgers), Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, Arr: Nathan Van Cleave, 1944. From 12" Columbia Masterworks 78 7417-M.
a) People Will Say We're in Love
b) Out of My Dreams
c) Surrey with the Fringe on Top
Oklahoma! Medley, Part 2 (Hammerstein II-Rodgers), Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, Arr: Nathan Van Cleave, 1944. From 12" Columbia Masterworks 78 7417-M.
a) Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'
b) Oklahoma!
You know, I keep coming back to the same old conclusion--that Andre Kostelanetz (and his arrangers) were responsible for the best easy listening fare ever recorded. Or that ever will be recorded.
I'm back to that conclusion, as we type.
And it turns out I bookmarked the LOC site, after all. I just didn't recognize the link. Duh!
Lee
The future, as it looked in 1936
I wonder if any of the readers of Mechanics and Handicrafts built a house car for $90?
The passenger rocket must have cost at least twice that....
Lee
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