My friend Pete Grendysa confirmed that all four Ferrante and Teicher tracks featured last post had indeed been recorded for Joe Davis' label in 1952. Pete quoted from Bruce Bastin's Never Sell a Copyright (Storyville, 1990):
"On September 8 (1952), (Joe Davis) recorded the piano duet of Arthur Ferrante and Louis Teicher, cutting four selections. The first recorded was Deryck Sampson's 'Boogie Express', given a far smoother treatment, while the originally titled 'St. Louis Boogie' by them was retitled on their contract to 'Mississippi Boogie.' Perhaps Davis wished no conscious riding on the coat-tails of W.C. Handy's 'St. Louis Blues.' 'High High High" and 'African Echoes' completed the session."
From later in the text:
"In 1962 the four titles he had cut by pianists Ferrante and Teicher were leased - United States rights only - to Synthetic Plastics Record Corp. who had offices on New York's 8th Avenue, close to the old Mastertone Studios."
There we have it. Oh, and I just discovered another copy of the LP in my collection. It's on Diplomat, and it sports a cover and label design even less inspiring than Guest Star's.
The 1966 Metro label Roger Williams & Ferrante and Teicher LP features a measly five tracks from Art and Lou's 1952 Piano Playouse LP on MGM, but five are far better than none (given that I don't have the MGM original). Whereas two of the four Joe Davis tracks were played on prepared pianos, none of these were. Just plain, non-prepared (unprepared?) piano(s), the astoshingly well-coordinated playing of Art and Lou, and arragements that manage to be soothing and substantial at the same time, complete with plenty of thick, gorgeous Shearing-style chords. A short but unforgettable playlist by the late, great two-piano team.
Click here to hear: 1952 MGM label F&T
PLAYLIST
SPEAK LOW
BEGIN THE BEGUINE
YESTERDAYS
EMBRACEABLE YOU
TIGER RAG
Roger Williams % Ferrante and Teicher (Metro MS-534)
Lee
5 comments:
"Arthur Treacher and Louis Teicher"? Now there's a combo I'd like to hear! And maybe eat!
Hmmm, 'lease' implies some sort of limited term. I think Synthetic Plastics leases stuff for about a million years or a billion copies, whichever comes first. :)
Oops!
Yeah, that does sound fishy, doesn't it? (Fish 'n' chips--ha, ha, ha.)
I will correct. Thanks!
Looks like the MGM F&T link is no longer a link. I knew I should have downloaded this yesterday when I had the chance. Can you fix this?
That's odd. Unless I flat-out forgot to include the link to begin with--which is possible, since I wrote the post in such a hurry.
I'm about to restore the link, once Blogger recognizes me as me. (Hello, Blogger?)
Sorry 'bout that!
It worked! Thanks so much.
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