Gays

As we speak, gay-rights activists are protesting across the nation. Gays are angry. They're demanding to be heard.

Seem them hold up their signs. Hear their demands.

See them march, see them stand together. They're done with the status quo, and they're loudly and boldly saying so.

It's about time. We wish them Godspeed.

Saturday morning Pops concert--J.H. Squire, Whittemore and Lowe, Hans Barth, Cole McElroy

Seven gems of light music ripped from shellac. (That almost sounds violent.) One--Hans Barth's Narcissus--is an improved rip of a recording recently uploaded.

The two J.H. Squire selections were composed by Squire himself. They're nice sides, though I had higher hopes for them--they're a bit bland. (What do you mean, "Of course--they're light music"?) On the plus side, they're beautifully engineered and blessed with quiet shellac surfaces. By the way, that is Abide with Me being quoted in the second selection, right?

Anyway, mood music is nothing new, as we hear here. (I love typing "hear here.")

Next, Whittemore and Lowe playing Ferrante-and-Teicher-style prepared piano, only prior to F&T's first recordings of same. I hadn't heard, or heard of, these two amazing numbers until Ernie shared files from his 45 rpm copy (which I featured here). I recently landed this 78 rpm copy, and--as is often the case--it features a wider dynamic range. I wonder if these were home recordings by W&L--note the awkward edits and the moments of wow (as in wow and flutter). Tape manipulation? Double-tracking? I hear suggestions of both.

Hans Barth's performance of Christian Sinding's Rustle of Spring is masterful, in contast to the vocal refrain on My Co-Ed by Cole McElroy's Spanish Ball Room Band. I include the latter because it's the flip side of the same orchestra's terrific recording of Destiny Waltz, and because the sound quality is so vivid, especially for 1927. Hard to believe we're hearing something that took place 81 years ago....

Click here to reach zip file: Saturday morning Pops concert.

POPSLIST

EVENING LULLABY (Squire)--J.H. Squire Celeste Octet, 1928.
EVENINGSONG AT TWILIGHT (Squire)--J.H. Squire Celeste Octet, 1928.
THIRD STREET RHUMBA--Whittemore and Lowe (Two pianos alone), 1951.
BEGIN THE BEGUINE--Same
RUSTLE OF SPRING (Sinding)--Hans Barth, piano solo, 1926.
NARCISSUS (Nevin)--Hans Barth, piano solo, 1926.
MY CO-ED--Cole McElroy's Spanish Ball Room Band, 1927.


Lee

Over at For Better or Werts...

...Diane Werts is already blogging about--of all things--Christmas TV!

Yule want to read all about it at Yule Tube HQ .

Still, it's not as if Christmas is only six weeks away. (Wait a minute....) Oh, it is six weeks away. Sorry about that. Says so, right at the start of the piece. My eyes must be rebelling on me.

Good grief--six weeks. Then it'll be five. Then four. Then five again (after the every-hundred-year time-fall-back shift predicted by Nostradamus in 5012, when he briefly visited the future).

Just kidding--Nostradamus' every-five-hundred-year time-fall-back-shift prediction doesn't happen until next Christmas.














Lee

Experts: Paranoia May Be More Common Than Thought

What? People are more liable to be paranoid than to think? (Wait a minute....)

Oh, never mind. I see what that means.

Here's the piece: Experts: Paranoia May Be More Common Than Thought.

What I want to know is, who put them up to this? What is their goal? First, they write a study claiming that huge numbers of people are paranoid. Next thing you know, they start rounding up those people, using the study as an excuse. Right, right. We know how that works.

We're on to their little game.

Arthur Pryor, J. Bodewald Lampe, jazz pioneers

So, I'm always on the lookout for pre-1917 rags and/or marches that have the sound of early jazz. "The sound of early jazz" is hard to explain, but if you've listened to the Earl Fuller, Wilbur Sweatman, and W.C. Handy sides I've offered at this site, you'll have some idea what I mean. I'm a firm believer that jazz, in its original form, was a mutation of (from?) ragtime, and few things make me happier than finding another ragtime-to-jazz example.

Nothing I can think of, anyway. Maybe there are, and I've forgotten what they are.

Arthur Pryor's Band, a jazz outfit? Is that what I'm claiming? No. But there's no reason to think that ragtime-to-jazz examples would be restricted to recordings by jazz outfits, especially since "jazz outift," in the pre-Original-Dixieland-Jazz-Band sense, is a pretty vague and abstract concept.

Traditionally, jazz is regarded as a an improvisation-based form, but improvisation can't happen unless it has a solid and dependable platform. Unlike everyone else I know, I think of "jazz" as the foundation for collective improvisation, not as the product of same. Or maybe it's just that, unlike everyone else I know, I assign great importance to the issue. In fact, the last person with whom I discussed this topic said, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

My theories, obviously, are ahead of their time. Otherwise, people would know what I'm talking about.

Happy Heine--I see. Well, I'm assuming Heine is slang for a German person--say, someone with the last name of Hartsfeld. A "happy Heine," therefore, is a happy German. And, as I've pointed out, this Heine is happiest when he finds a record like Happy Heine.

Anyway, here's the recording. If you don't hear all the things I'm hearing, don't feel bad, because I'm probably over-hearing.

CLICK HERE TO HEAR HAPPY HEINE: Happy Heine.

Credits: Arthur Pryor's Band, 1905. Composer: Jens Bodewalt Lampe. File ripped by Lee Hartsfeld.



Lee

Veterans Day, 2008--Vets Day music, Part 2

More Vets Day music, with seven 78s freshly ripped for this post, including Ernestine Schumann-Heink's 1918 recording of George F. Root's magnificent and moving Just Before the Battle, Mother, a Civil War hit.

Click here to reach the zip file: Veterans' Day, 2008--Part 2.

PLAYLIST

OVER THERE FANTASIE (Grofe)--United States Army Band, 1976.
PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION--The Merry Macs, 1942. (From 78)
WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME--Glenn Miller Orch. (Arr: Bill Finegan), 1942.
THE MARINES' HYMN--Dick Powell, w. Norsemen Quartet, 1940. (From 78)
THE ARMY AIR CORPS--Dick Powell, w. Norsemen Quartet, 1940. (From 78)
P.T. 109--Jimmy Dean, 1962.
GOODBYE, DOLLY GRAY--The Columbia Quartette, 1901. (From 78)
KOREA (FIGHTING IN THE FOREIGN LAND)--The Gospel Pilgrims, 1951.
THIS IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR--Jimmy Dorsey O., Voc: Bob Eberly, 1942. (From 78)
JUST BEFORE THE BATTLE, MOTHER (Root)--Ernestine Schumann-Heink, 1918. (From 78)
WE'RE GOING OVER--MEDLEY--Pietro, Piano accordion solo, 1917. (From 78)
GOODBYE, BROADWAY, HELLO FRANCE--Same.


Lee

Veterans Day, 2008--Vets Day music, Part 1

The USS Merrill (DD-976), my second ship (where I spent the remaining ten months of my second enlistment), was home-based in San Diego. And it was the testing platform for the Tomahawk cruise missile. According to Wikipedia, the Merrill is no more--"sunk as target NE of Hawaii in 2003." Yikes!

My first ship, the USS Lockwood (FF-1064), was recycled, says Wiki. Well, that's good. Very green. I approve.

The Lockwood is pictured in the previous post, along with me on it. Save for the photo showing me on deck--that's aboard the now-sunken Merrill.

Anyway, to the Vets' Day music....

Click here to reach zip file: Veterans' Day 2008, Part 1

PLAYLIST

BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS--Floyd Cramer BUGLE CALL RAG--Victor Military Band, 1916. (From 78) DEFEND AMERICA--MARCH--Prince's Orch., 1917. (From 78) GALLANT MEN--Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen, 1968. I DON'T KNOW WHERE I'M GOING--Peerless Quartet, 1917. (From 78) OUR COUNTRY'S IN IT NOW--Orpheus Quartet, 1918. (From 78) REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR (Reid-Kaye)--Sammy Kaye O., 1941. RODGER YOUNG (Loesser)--Merv Griffin, 1963. SEMPER FIDELIS--Ferrante and Teicher, 1952. TAPS--Female Trio, Bugle THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF PAUL REVERE--Budd McCoy, 1959. THIS IS THE ARMY, MR. JONES--Hal McIntyre, 1942. U.S. AIR FORCE BLUE--Mixed Voices WE MUST BE VIGILANT--Chico Marx Orch., Voc: Ziggy Lane, 1942. (From 78)


Lee

Veterans Day 2008--Your blogger in the Navy (1977-1985)

John Arthur Seaton (1937-2007)

Today marks the first anniversary of my foster dad's passing. I wrote about it here last year:

My foster dad.

We'll be visiting his final resting site today--in our woods, where we scattered his ashes. It's cold, rainy, and overcast, as if the elements knew the significance of today....



Lee

My God....

I opened the Sunday Columbus Dispatch to behold this. I still can't believe what I'm seeing. Can you?
















It's wasn't enough for the paper to relentlessly shill for the Ohio GOP by giving nonstop space to its base charges of voter fraud? It wasn't enough for their alleged cartoonist Jeff Stahler to mock voter concern for a fair election in one cartoon and, in another, to depict a dog wearing an "I Voted" sticker?

Now they have to cater to the racists who would like to see Obama bumped off. And, on a milder note, to those who (like McCain) insist that Obama is unequal to the task of cleaning up the economic mess that occurred on Bush's watch. A president, we should note, whom they endorsed twice.

There's low, and then there's too low.

Sunday morning gospel--various artists (Jordan, Leach, McClain Families, Rhythm Masters, Country Gospel Boys!)

Some fabulous music today, all originally featured last year but unavailable for many months. It doesn't seem right to let any of this remain unavailable.

Sorry for the delay in posting--this is more like Sunday afternoon gospel. But our sudden shift to collllld weather has me in slow motion. Slower than usual, even.

And, yes, not just cold, but collllllld. I guess our fake summer is over.

Click here to reach playlist: Sunday morning gospel--V.A.


PLAYLIST

IF YOU DON'T LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR--Jordan Family
LET THE LIGHT SHINE DOWN ON ME--McClain Family
PALMS OF VICTORY--The Rhythm Masters
I'LL HAVE A NEW LIFE--Leach Family
CRY FROM THE CROSS--Jordan Family
I'M GOING UP--Leach Family
ARE YOU WASHED IN THE BLOOD--Jordan Family
HIGHER GROUND (Oatman-Gabriel)--Jordan Family
GOD WALKS THE DARK HILLS--Leach Family
WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN--Country Gospel Boys
WHAT KIND OF MAN--Jordan Family


Lee