This is the music we'll be hearing today:
People from all around the globe have been asking me, "How about some Saturday Kosty?" And so here is some Saturday Kosty for today (Saturday--coincidence?). Kosty=Kostelanetz, as in Andre. Like Irving Berlin, Kosty was born in Russia. Which has nothing to do with anything, but I like to mention it because I love to rattle off obscure pop music factoids. But only if I know them. And, come to think of it, Kostelanetz being from Russia isn't that obscure a factoid.... Anyway.
Today's Kosty is the usual light classical/Broadway/Tin Pan Alley mix. We start with a brilliant performance of Villa-Lobos' 1930 classic, The Little Train of the Caipira, in superb 1953 sound, followed by a dreamy rendition of Debussy's Clair de Lune., either the 1940 or 1952 recording (I suspect '52). I ripped both great-sounding tracks from the 1955 CL- (mostly a re. of the 1953 ML-) series Columbia LP, Clair de Lune and Popular Favorites, of which I'd planned to make a full-LP rip until I noticed (with my ears) the needle-drop marks throughout. All pretty loud. Curses. But these two selections were more than repairable with MAGIX declicking. Thank you, O Vinyl God.
Gabriel Pierne's Entrance of the Little Fauns (note: no w!), according to a Kosty discography I'm looking at right now, was recorded in 1955. Then, a "medley" I edited together of selections (from three Kosty LPs) by Vincent Youmans, Hugh Martin, and Richard Rodgers. We end with Harold Arlen's Blues in the Night (rec. 1944) and a perfect version of Arthur Schwartz' marvelous You and the Night and the Music (rec. 1950?).
People who pass over the Kosty LPs at Goodwill are only leaving more for us Andre fans to find.
Click here to hear: Saturday Kosty
PLAYLIST
The Little Train of the Caipira (Toccata; Villa-Lobos), 1953
Clair de Lune (Debussy), 1940 or 1952.
Entrance of the Little Fauns (Pierne), 1955.
Youmans-Martin-Rodgers Medley (edited together by me).
Blues in the Night (Arlen), 1944.
You and the Night and the Music (Schwartz), 1950?
Lee
4 comments:
Thanks, Lee - I really enjoyed your last Kosty kompilation.
Glad to hear! I love ripping selections from my K. kollection!
This is great, Lee, thank you. One of my top ten easy listening big band recordings is Kosty's "Night and Day". First heard it on one of the Columbia/Lucky Strikes 'Do You Remember' LPs at my Uncle Eddie's house when I was about 6.
I had that, but I think it slipped out of my collection. I still have Vol. 2, with Rosemary Clooney, Guy Mitchell, et al. (but no Kosty!).
Discogs has the LP release dates: the one with Kosty, 1961; the one with Guy Mitchell, 1962.
Oldies became oldies so much faster in the olden days--kind of the opposite of what we might think. Oldies aren't what they used to be!
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