Ferde Grofe's Birthday, Part 3--Valley of the Sun Suite (1952)

And now I reuse my June 18, 2009 essay post for this LP:

(From the liner notes): Ferde Grofe, composer of such well known works as the GRAND CANYON SUITE, MISSISSIPPI SUITE and the HUDSON RIVER SUITE, produced VALLEY OF THE SUN SUITE at the request of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Honorable Howard Pyle, former Governor of Arizona, for the celebration of Reclamation's Golden Jubilee in 1952.

VALLEY OF THE SUN SUITE is the first and only musical story of the miracle of reclamation, and is basically the story of the SALT RIVER PROJECT, the nation's first multi-purpose reclamation project, which coupled the generation of electricity with a vast water storage system to provide a firm foundation for the burgeoning metropolis the Salt River Valley supports today.

More than a half century ago drought-ridden Salt Valley farmers banded together to organized the Project under the authorization of the National Reclamation Act which the late Theodore Roosevelt signed into law in 1902. Hydro electric power generated at Roosevelt Dam was sold to the Gila County copper mines and to power users in the Valley with the resultant revenue being used to assure the Valley of a constant water supply.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the 1952 premiere of the Valley of the Sun Suite, as conducted by Grofe and performed by the Arizona State College (Tempe) Symphonic Orchestra. The work opens in a beautifully moody manner with Valley of Ditches, employs themes from the composer's then-recent Rocketship X-M (1950) soundtrack in The Dam Builders, provides delightful dance music for the Masque of the Yellow Moon, and closes with the gorgeous Reclamation's Golden Jubilee (this blogger's favorite movement).

Today's offering is about as won't-hear-anyplace-else as it gets. To the suite: Valley of the Sun Suite (1952).

PLAYLIST

VALLEY OF THE SUN SUITE (Ferde Grofe)

1. VALLEY OF DITCHES
2. THE DAM BUILDERS
3. MASQUE OF THE YELLOW MOON
4. RECLAMATION'S GOLDEN JUBILEE

Arizona State College (Tempe) Symphonic Orchestra Conducted by Ferde Grofe.
Recorded by Arizona Recoding Productions, Phoenix.

(Canyon ARP-249)


Lee

Ferde Grofe's Birthday, Part 2--Three Shades of Blue (1928)

A fresh rip of this 1928 mini-masterpiece. And I have a Whiteman Victor sleeve to go with it. Enjoy! Link: THREE SHADES OF BLUE--Paul Whiteman and His Concert Orch., 1927.



Three Shades of Blue--Part 1: Indigo (Ferdie Grofe)--Paul Whiteman and His Concert Orch., 1928.
Three Shades of Blue--Part 2: Alice Blue; Heliotrope (Ferdie Grofe)--Same, 1928.



Lee

Happy Birthday, Ferde Grofe!

No kiddin'--the American composer Ferde Grofe is 118 today. The man who orchestrated Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (1924), and who later hit the big time in his own right with the Grand Canyon Suite (1931), got his start as a pianist, arranger, and songwriter, enjoying his first big break with dance band pioneer Art Hickman (so Grofe reported in a 1938 interview). This was followed by the even bigger break of chief-arranger duty with Paul Whiteman, starting circa 1920 and lasting ten years or so. 1932 is offered as the usual cut-off date, but I believe it may have been a little earlier than that. I need to look that up.

Meanwhile, we need to hear some classic Grofe from the 1920s, including such little-known Grofe pop song collaborations as Queen of Egypt, Steppin' Around, and Suez. We also have two versions of the better-known Nuthin' (a.k.a. Nothing) But, though not a single performance of the Whiteman/Grofe tune, Wonderful One (with lyrics by Dorothy Terriss), because I've always been under the mistaken impression that Terriss wrote the tune, with Grofe and Whiteman arranging it. Specifically, I was under that impression until about five minutes ago, when the Internet came to my rescue. I'll be darned.

So, um, we won't be hearing Grofe's biggest pop song hit of all (bigger, even, than Daybreak), but one can always hear Wonderful One. Or could, at least, until the past forty or fifty years arrived.

And... two great Grofe arrangements--of Rube Bloom's charming Soliloquy and the pop standard When Day Is Done, which Grofe turns into the roots of Mantovani. I love Mantovani, by the way.

Lots of links. These were all ripped from 78 copies belonging to me, save for Steppin' Around. Our celebration of the pre-Grand Canyon career of Grofe starts with:

QUEEN OF EGYPT (Grofe-DeRose)--Abe Lyman's California Ambassador Hotel Orch., 1923: Queen of Egypt, 1923.

STEPPIN' AROUND (Grofe-Reser-?)--Jan Garber and His Orch., 1926: Steppin' Around, 1926.

NUTHIN' (a.k.a. NOTHING) BUT (Busse-Ward-Grofe)--Paul Whiteman Orch., 1923; The Georgians, 1922: Nuthin' (Nothing) But, 1923 and 1922.

SUEZ (Grofe-DeRose)--Clyde Doerr and His Orch., 1922; Mike Markels' Orch., 1922: Suez, 1922.

STOP YOUR KIDDING (a.k.a. KIDDIN') (Mills-Grofe-McHugh)--Frank Westphal's Orch., 1922; The Original Memphis Five, 1922: Stop Your Kidding, 1922.

MISSISSIPPI SUITE (Grofe)--Huckleberry Finn, Old Creole Days; Mardi Gras--Paul Whiteman and His Concert Orch., 1927: Mississippi Suite, 1927.

And two brilliant Grofe arrangements:

SOLILOQUY (Rube Bloom, Arr. Grofe)--Paul Whiteman and His Concert Orch., 1927: Soliloquy, 1927.

WHEN DAY IS DONE (Robert Katscher, Arr. Grofe)--Flip side of above: When Day Is Done, 1927.

More to come!


Lee

When patient and doc disagree

I have the classic symptoms--minus a fever--of an upper respiratory infection. However, it's no-go without the temperature--no temp, no infection, according to the office. I am, in fact, a degree over normal (normal, for me, being 97.0), but 98.0 doesn't scream "fever," so my doctor is skeptical that I have an infection.

However, as I noted, my symptoms are right down the line, except for the no-temperature part. I'll be seeing another doctor in the same practice tomorrow, and maybe he'll judge my wheezing, severe congestion, etc. to be proof of infection. I hope so, since I'm running on fumes at this point.

Which is better than fuming at runs. (Sound of bat hitting ball): "Dang it, they got another run! This can't be happening!!"

Ferde Grofe's Birthday is Saturday, and my plan is to have stuff ready for a Grofe Birthday Bash. But I may end up posting less than I'd hoped.

It seems to me that a list of standard symptoms is nothing more than a generalization across a population, i.e. the average signs of something but not mandatory indications. Especially in a case like mine, in which the indications are 90 percent on target. Is that something to gamble with? Lee thinks not. But Lee is not the doctor.

On the other hand, my doc's general resistance (no pun intended) to antibiotics is a good thing. And it may even SEEM like one once this thing is over and my breath completely returns.