Sunday, July 26, 2015

Sunday (shortly after) morning gospel for 7/26!




Six selections for our Sunday just-after-morning, all played by me on my Casio WK-3800 and multi-tracked and mixed on/with my Sonar X2 program, with audio effects added on my MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab MX and I think I'm missing a few commas here but what the heck it's cyberspace.  That's me, above, matted in front of some church (the photo was titled "pretty church").  Now you know.

These selections will make you feel all gospel-y.  Charles Gabriel's Thou Mighty to Save is my favorite, even if my Casio orchestration makes it sound like a Ferris wheel accompaniment.  I also love Ira Sankey's Go and Work! tune, a totally new one on me.  It does the once-standard routine of having the verse in 3/4 and the chorus in 4/4.  That was cutting-edge back in the day (late 19th and early 20th centuries).  1868's Christian, Dost Thou See Them? is a gorgeous tune which I'm playing a little too fast here. It's by the great John B. Dykes, best known for the music to Holy, Holy, Holy! and the magnificent Eternal Father Strong to Save, which I've always placed second on my Greatest Hymns list, after Martin Luther's A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (a.k.a. the Davey and Goliath theme).

The other three are church standards, but only at this blog can you hear me playing them in seven or eight combined tracks--hence, they don't betray the name of my blog.  That is, you (possibly) won't hear them anyplace else, unless the tracks are swiped, a la my SoundCloud tracks, and featured in various free-mp3 playlists--in which case, my blog title is a lie, and I'm a fraud, and Limon isn't really the secret of Sprite.

To the hymns:

Sunday morning gospel for 7/26

Thou Mighty To Save (Chas. H. Gabriel, 1917)
Go and Work (Ira Sankey, 1907?)
Spirit of the Living God (Trad., arr. Ralph Vaughn Williams, 1906)
Christian, Dost Thou See Them (John B. Dykes, 1868)
St. Thomas (Aaron Williams, 1770)
O, Master Let Me Walk with Thee (H. Percy Smith, 1874)

Played by Lee Hartsfeld on his Casio WK-3800.


Lee


Monday, July 20, 2015

Paul Whiteman and His Orch., 1926-1928




Bet you can't tell that I used a desk lamp to light this 78 sleeve.  (There's only the blatant right-hand glare to give it away.)  Song of India doesn't appear in the playlist--it just happened to be the Whiteman disc at hand when I took this shot.  It was an instance of grabbing the nearest Paul Whiteman 78.  Just another day in the Media Room.

Now that we've cleared all of that up, below are links to eleven sides by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, all ripped by moi, that date from 1926 to 1928.  And all of which feature arrangements by Ferde Grofe.  Grofe is not liked by the jazz critics who write about Paul Whiteman, and ask me if I care.  ("Do you care?")  No, I do not.  To those critics: Pfffffthhht!  Grofe was a brilliant arranger.  The proof is in the 78s.

PLAYLIST

Collette, 1927.
Broadway, 1927.
Manhattan Mary, 1927.
When I'm in Your Arms, 1926.
I Always Knew, 1926.
Precious, 1926.
Moonlight on the Ganges, 1926.
Shanghai Dream Man, 1927.
The Japanese Sandman, 1928.
Lonely Eyes, 1926.
Ma Belle, 1928.

Lee