Sunday morning gospel: Christian Friendship Quartet--Whispering Hope

Hope everyone is having a great GMMXIe! (I think I misspelled it last time as "GMMXIE.") I know I am. Helping me toward that end is this excellent LP by the Christian Friendship Quartet, whose members are pictured and credited above. You now know as much about them as I do, unless you can tell me where this group called home, or where Ace Recording is. The jacket doesn't. There isn't even a catalog number.

However, and oddly enough, we do have something nearly always left off of such semi/non-commercial releases--the year: "This record marks the termination of the present quartet," note the notes, "as Larry left a few days after the recording for the mission field in New Guinea (Sept. 1965)." Too bad they don't say from where he left, but at least we've got the date.

Good stuff, and it reminds me of the no-frills, barbershop-style singing of the great Blue Ridge Quartet. I have a theory (more like a guess) that gospel quartet singing, in its basic form, is what we're hearing here. If the black spirituals (and their awkward, written-down dialects) sound out of place in the line-up, keep in mind that close-harmony "barbershop" vocalizing is likely African-American in origin. Gospel songs themselves, on the other hand--no. The media usually reverses the truth, labeling barbershop singing white and gospel black--the latter allegedly (and somehow) starting in the 1920s. Don't believe it.

I love these performances--they're my idea of "real." Everyone needs an idea of real. It might be the closest we ever come to the actual thing.

To the music: Christian Friendship Quartet--Whispering Hope

I WANT THAT KIND OF BLESSING
I'VE BEEN LISTENING
MIGHTY THE LORD
IT'S NOT AN EASY ROAD
WAYSIDE WELLS
GOD IS ALL LOVING
I WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN
AMEN
WHISPERING HOPE
LOOK AWAY TO HEAVEN
WE SHALL SHINE AS THE STARS
HE IS ABLE TO DELIVER
WHERE WILL YOU SPEND ETERNITY


Christian Friendship Quartet--Whispering Hope (Product of Ace Recording)

Lee

Nothing to Do with Religion, Part 17

New Year 2011-Rhapsody (Hartsfeld), a.k.a. Rhapsody in New

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

In music, a rhapsody is defined in part as "a musical composition of irregular form." In that regard, my rhapsody definitely qualifies--to the extent it has form, that form is irregular. As you listen to this, you may wonder whether or not I'm facing the new year with some sense of dread. Well, a little, maybe. If that's what the music conveys, it's not entirely lying.

More and more, I've been recording "live"--i.e., me in real time at the keyboard. This is one of those instances. ("Live" exceptions: two sections of overdubbed parts.) And, except for four written-down measures, this is an ad-libbed piece, spliced together from successful sections. Getting the notes correct wasn't always easy, since there's not much time to practice something as you're writing it, and because some of the jumps and stretches were tricky. Such as, alternating chords and melody in the right hand and making it all sound legato. Look at me, Ma--one hand!

If the piano sounds extra-thick, it's not just my playing--I'm (mostly) using my Casio WK-3800's "octave piano" patch, which makes for instant Ferrante and Teicher. One-punch double-voicing.

Fifty-one people have listened to my last original piece (Midwinter Festival Suite), and I thank you. This piece is like the last one, except the notes and chords are different.

To the rhapsody: New Year 2011--Rhapsody (Hartsfeld, 2010) (5:17)


NEW YEAR 2011--RHAPSODY (Hartsfeld)--Lee Hartsfeld at the Casio WK-3800.


Lee

New Year's Eve at MY(P)WHAE--Chabrier, Shilkret, Keller Sisters and Lynch

So, I was looking at Google's logo for today and thinking, "GMMXIE?" Then I realized it's Roman numerals for "2011," enclosed by G and E (the first and last letters of GOOGLE). Two things that astound me: 1) Someone bothered to come up with that, and 2) the person or persons got paid for doing so.

So, some very recently-ripped 78s to celebrate both the coming year and the one on its way out. And that's not even the weirdest sentence I've ever typed at this blog.

Chabrier's Dance Slave is not to be confused with Marche Slave, which I did. "This isn't Tchaikovsky," I said to myself as I listened to the Chabrier number. Then I looked more closely at the label.

Hittin' the Ceiling, a 1929 Nat Shilkret gem, is probably the most New Year's of the selections in this short playlist. The two Chabrier pieces are celebratory, too--the first is downright joyeuse, in fact. The two 1915 street piano recordings? I included them because I just ripped them and they're incredibly cool. For New Year's, Old Year's, or any time of Year.

Note that the "street piano" in question was a mechanical instrument hand-cranked by an operator (as "book music" activated the keys), and not the modern "street piano," which is a real piano set up near--not, I'm assuming, in--a street. The sound on this 1915 performance is like multi-track harpist Bobby Maxwell's MGM recordings, only more than 35 years earlier. (I'm trying to picture a 1915 bachelor den.)

I'm including the 1926 Jean Goldkette side because 1) it's good, and 2) I love typing "Keller Sisters and Lynch."

To the sounds, all from my own 78s: New Year's Eve 2010


MARCH JOYEUSE (Chabrier)--Victor Symphony O., Dir. by Rosario Bourdon, 1929.
DANCE SLAVE (Chabrier)--Same.
SUNDAY--Jean Goldkette and His O.; vocal: Keller Sisters and Lynch, 1926.
HITTIN' THE CEILING--Nat Shilkret O.; vocal: Burt Lorin, 1929.
IT'S TULIP TIME IN HOLLAND--Signor "Grinderino," Street Piano, 1915.
THE GEORGIA GRIND (Dabney)--Same.


Lee